24 July 2021
Zambia: Barbra Banda, captain of the country’s women’s soccer team in Tokyo, has today become the first woman ever to score back-to-back hat-tricks at the same Olympic games. She scored 3 of Zambia’s goals in the 4:4 draw with China, having scored all 3 goals in the recent 3:10 loss against the Netherlands.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/africa/57954736
23 July 2021
Brain drain: “A higher salary, access to education, stable political conditions, improved standards of living, increased perceived quality of life, and greater personal safety” cause doctors to leave home and work elsewhere – often in the country that had once colonized theirs. The article’s author and colleagues estimate that deaths that would not have happened if it were not for brain drain cost source countries between US$3.5bn and US$38bn a year – brain drain functions like a tax on poor countries. India, Nigeria, Pakistan and South Africa are the most concerned because they export the biggest numbers of doctors. With the Covid pandemic, doctor-brain drain has intensified.
https://theconversation.com/brain-drain-is-a-hidden-tax-on-the-countries-left-behind-164122
South Africa: The country’s democratic system “survived the assault (of the recent riots). Whether this test strengthens it depends on whether the issues which caused the violence are addressed.” The assault came from the elites, it was by no means a popular uprising of the frustrated poor. The article’s author has some ideas about who was behind the assault. Not only the State has arms. And besides these people under arms, there are local networks that are deep-rooted and have no interest in others fighting corruption. “The violence wreaked its damage because South Africa’s journey to democracy remains incomplete.”
https://theconversation.com/violence-in-south-africa-an-uprising-of-elites-not-of-the-people-164968
Sierra Leone: The country’s parliament has abolished the capital punishment. Though 39 death sentences were handed down in Sierra Leone in 2020, no-one had been executed since 1998. By end 2020, despite many death sentences having been commuted, 94 people were still on death row. Sierra Leone is the 23rd African country to have abolished capital punishment.
BBC Africa Live 23 July 2021. 16:45
Ghana: Ghanaian MPs have submitted a draft bill to the speaker of parliament “which, among other things, proposes a 10-year jail term for people who promote LGBT+ activities through mainstream or social media” and “individuals who engage in non-heterosexual sex could face a fine or a prison term of up to three years.” The bill is likely to be adopted, maybe with amendments.
BBC Africa Live 23 July 2021. 15:42
Congo-Kinshasa: 16 – including 6 women and 1 child – have been killed in Oicha, Nord-Kivu, most probably by members of the Allied Democratic Forces, one of the militias operating there. “The group is accused of having killed hundreds of civilians since the Congolese army launched an operation against them last year.”
BBC Africa Live 23 July 2021. 8:50
Mozambique: Rwandan soldiers recently arrived in Mozambique are reported to have killed at least 30 terrorists at a forest near Palma.
BBC Africa Live 23 July 2021. 6:15