13 August 2021
Food insecurity in Africa: According to the FAO’s State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, 19% of Africans do not have access to sufficient calories – the highest proportion in the world. Climate change and violent conflicts play important roles in this. If you add people suffering from moderate levels of food insecurity (“their food supply is unpredictable, and they may have to reduce caloric intake due to seasonal fluctuations in income or other resources”), about half of Africa’s population is food-insecure. About 75% of all Africans cannot regularly afford a healthy diet (diets heavy in staples like cereals, roots and tubers and lacking fruit and vegetables which are relatively expensive) – which is especially bad for pregnant women and for children. In the latter, it can lead to stunting – “an irreversible condition. Children affected are less likely to develop proper cognitive functions or succeed at school, and are more likely to suffer from nutrition-related health problems, such as diabetes, later in life.” The pandemic is adding to the number of undernourished and food-insecure people (all the data are pre-Covid-19).
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/un-report-on-nutrition-gives-africa-food-for-thought
Kenya: Kenyan women and girls are increasingly being recruited by Al-Shabaab. In previous research, the article’s author had found that “women may participate willingly because the extremist ideology resonates with their religiously inclined cultural values. They may also join due to the financial benefits that come with belonging to or associating with the group. Also, women may be forced or coerced to join through deception or intimidation.” In her new study, she set out “to analyse the diverse motivations of women and girls to join Al-Shabaab in the coastal region of Kenya” and to establish the voluntariness of the decision to join. Some do make autonomous decisions to join, others’ joining reflects subservient attitudes in the patriarchal family and community setting. As for reasons, the author identified four main ones: defending faith/Muslims; responding to a personal crisis (e.g. the death of a husband at the hands of police); views of family/friends/peers rubbing off; indoctrination for women involuntarily recruited.
https://theconversation.com/why-we-did-it-the-kenyan-women-and-girls-who-joined-al-shabaab-151592
For a 13 minute podcast/interview with the article’s author see https://theconversation.com/al-shabaab-why-women-join-the-islamist-militant-group-podcast-165276
Madagascar: Has the coup plot been invented by Rajoelina to distract from Covid-19 and “the country’s dire socio-economic situation”? But “given the military’s history of meddling in politics”, the amateurish coup plot may not be so implausible after all. In any case: a coup is not what Madagascar needs: “(i)ts still shaky political foundations must be consolidated so that the country’s massive socio-economic problems can be tackled with purpose and vigour”
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/madagascar-needs-to-change-the-plot
Libya: An arrest warrant has been issued against Saif al-Islam Gaddafi (Muammar Gaddafi’s son) “over suspected ties to Russian mercenaries”. He’s long been rumoured to be close to Moscow. Seen as the likely successor before his father’s death, imprisoned for six years by a militia, sentenced to death by a court in Tripoli in absentia, later released and still in hiding, he had recently announced that he planned to return to politics.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58191433
Algeria: Journalist Rabah Kareche has been sentenced to one year in prison with four months suspended for “spreading false information liable to damage public order”, having reported “that a minority group had demonstrated over economic and social marginalisation”. Amnesty International had called Rabah Kareche’s jailing “a blow to press freedom in the country” and fellow journalists had protested.
Islamic State/Lake Chad Basin: Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), split from Boko Haram in 2016, is being used by Islamic State (IS) “to further its expansionist agenda”. They were told to get rid of Abubakar Shekau in order to occupy his stronghold Sambisa which IS considers a much better base for extending its influence (instead of the former Lake Chad island). “ISWAP is being restructured into four caliphates – Sambisa Forest, Alagarno Forest (nicknamed Timbuktu), Tumbuma, and the Lake Chad islands, each with its own semi-autonomous leadership”, all in Nigeria’s Borno state. Combatants who had left ISWAP between 2016 and 2018 are now returning, at least 130 have already done so and another 70 or more are expected. According to the article’s author, it is high time to do something against IS/ISWAP – before they take root.
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/islamic-states-determined-expansion-into-lake-chad-basin
12 August 2021
Africa/Environment: The world is getting warmer (because of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities), wetter, sea levels are rising and extreme climate events (e.g. droughts) are projected to increase in both frequency and intensity. As for Africa, average temperatures and hot extremes will rise across the continent which will experience drier conditions with an exception of the Sahara and eastern Africa; the rate of temperature increase for Africa exceeds the global average; the frequency and intensity of heavy rainfall events will increase.
https://theconversation.com/insights-for-african-countries-from-the-latest-climate-change-projections-165944
Angola: The constitution has recently been reviewed: the relationship between parliament and the executive branch has been clarified, the Central Bank has been made independent, etc. According to the article’s author, positive changes have been made – but they don’t go far enough. Most importantly, what has not been addressed are “the extensive powers of the president, the method for his election as well as the fact that (…) the way that local government is formed” has been left intact.
https://theconversation.com/angolas-constitution-is-under-review-but-a-great-deal-has-been-left-undone-165544
Niger: 5 dead after heavy rains in the capital (144 mm Tuesday/Wednesday) take the number of dead in Niger floods this year to 52 so far. 34 have been injured, over 4,000 houses and 200 huts have been destroyed. Last year’s floods killed at least 70 and affected 350,000.
BBC Africa Live 12 August 2021. 11:08
Nigeria: Shell will pay the Ejama-Ebubu community 111 million USD over an oil spill during the 1967-70 Biafran War. The case had been launched in 1991. In a separate case, Shell had earlier this year been told by a Dutch appeals court to pay compensation to Nigerian farmers for damage caused between 2004 and 2007 by leaks in the Niger Delta.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58181836