20 January 2022
Gambia: Adama Barrow has been sworn in for his second term in office. The successful property developer had won the 4th December elections with 53% of the votes and the Supreme Court had just “upheld his re-election” a second time.
BBC Africa Live 20 January 2022. 17:32 19 Jan
Mozambique: The leader of a poaching gang active in southern Mozambique and in South Africa’s Kruger National Park has been sentenced to 30 years in prison. “In recent years the judiciary in Mozambique has imposed heavy penalties on poachers and people transporting (…) protected animals.”
BBC Africa Live 20 January 2022. 13:51 19 Jan
Burkina Faso: In the afternoon and evening of 10th of January, mobile internet was shut down country-wide by the authorities. The Facebook shutdown is reported to have continued since. Though government spokesperson Maiga stated that “the authorities did not have to explain themselves on the shutdown”, authorities have now “said they disrupted access to Facebook due to security fears.”
BBC Africa Live 20 January 2022. 9:15
19 January 2022
Burkina Faso: The article tries to evaluate the likelihood of a putsch in the country whose people, in 2015, stood up successfully against a coup attempt. The article errs in stating that there has recently been an attempted coup – while in fact, the authorities only say that they have discovered. Burkina Faso’s past was riddled with coup d’états – until Blaise Compaoré’s in 1987 after which he “insulated” himself from coups by eliminating political rivals by all (not only military) means and instituting a special presidential guard (the RSP). After the end of Compaoré’s reign through a popular uprising, the president and government freely elected in 2015, under fire from terrorists, have let the situation deteriorate. Nowadays, “a frustrated military lacking the basics tools to confront the enemy” (see Inata in November 2021) “and growing popular dissatisfaction with the perceived shortcomings of their elected officials” (see Solhan in June 2021) seems to be “a recipe for a coup d’état”. But it was the people who did not let it happen in 2015…
https://theconversation.com/another-coup-has-been-averted-in-burkina-faso-but-for-how-long-175074
Ghana/GB: The Foreign Ministry has denied media reports that it is considering processing British asylum seekers against payment and said it had neither “engaged with the UK on the matter” nor intended to do so in the future.
BBC Africa Live 19 January 2022. 7:31
South Africa: A zoo’s lions and pumas have been infected by Covid, most likely by the asymptomatic handlers. “(S)cientists at the University of Pretoria (…) warn of the risk of new variants emerging if the virus ‘establishes itself in other animal reservoirs’ and is transmitted back to human beings” and recommend handlers to wear masks and other measures when dealing with the captive animals.
BBC Africa Live 19 January 2022. 5:40
“If life gives you pepper, make a bowl of pepper soup”
BBC Africa Live 19 January 2022. 4:30, proverb of the day. An Igbo proverb from Nigeria sent by Jeffery Oduwa Elaiho