02 June 2021
Mali: The African Union has suspended Mali because of last week’s coup d’état. This follows the country’s suspension by West African regional body Ecowas on Monday. But unlike Ecowas, the African Union did mention the possibility of sanctions: pledging for a civilian government, it said that “it would not hesitate to impose sanctions and other punitive measures unless troops were urgently ordered to return to barracks”. In the meantime, Assimi Goïta, the two times-coup leader and new interim president, has named Choguel Kokalla Maïga prime minister – he is a leader of the 5 June-Rally of Patriotic Forces (M5-RFP) movement. The move had widely been expected.
BBC Africa Live 02 June 2021. 4:32 & 6:04
Tchad: Amnesty International has urged Chad to prosecute “officers involved in the killings during the demonstrations in April and May”, when hundreds were arrested and dozens killed.
BBC Africa Live 02 June 2021. 8:03
Child marriage/Sub-saharan Africa: Analysing data from 16 countries, the article’s author and his two collaborators “found that girls aged 20-24 years who married before they turned 18 were 20% more likely to experience intimate partner violence than those who married as adults”, with the likelihood of violence higher for those married before 18 whether it be physical, emotional or sexual violence. Countries included in the study (because of availability of recent data) were Angola, Cameroon and Chad from Central Africa, Benin, Mali and Nigeria from West Africa, Burundi, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda from East Africa and Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe from Southern Africa.
https://theconversation.com/child-marriage-and-domestic-violence-what-we-found-in-16-african-countries-161600
Congo-Kinshasa: “Mount Nyiragongo is part of the Virunga volcanic chain, and owes its existence to the activity of the African Great Rift.” The eruption of the volcano close to Goma recently caused at least 32 deaths. The volcano’s location “favours quick ascent of magma (molten material) from about 100 km beneath the Earth’s surface, and extreme fluidity of lava”. Both in 2021 and in 2002 seismologists’ warnings were not heeded – in 2021 about 10 days in advance of the eruption. For the future, the best protection would be to relocate Goma, but that’s not feasible.
https://theconversation.com/mount-nyiragongos-volcano-why-its-unique-and-treacherous-161847
Nigeria: “Small-scale fishing operations contribute 80% of locally produced fish and support the livelihoods of 24 million Nigerians. Seventy three percent of those involved in fisheries in Nigeria are women.“ Besides pollution, illegal fishing – first of all by vessels from China, the European Union, and Belize – is a big threat to such small-scale fishing. The article’s two authors have especially researched the effects on women. To improve matters, new regulations are needed. And the Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Department of Nigeria’s Federal Fisheries Department would need to operate properly.
https://theconversation.com/how-illegal-fishing-harms-nigeria-and-what-to-do-about-it-160553
Shell ordered to cut emissions: The company has been ordered by the district court of The Hague “to implement stringent carbon dioxide emission cuts.” This could happen to anyone big enough to matter on earth. “(I)n principle, any future emission of COâ‚‚ attributable to any legal entity (companies or even governments) anywhere in the world that exceeds (the level for keeping global temperatures below a safe limit) can now be considered to constitute a wrongful act against Dutch citizens.” But first of all, appeals will take years. And then it is not clear how such orders would be implemented globally.
What has changed is that “the interpretation of human rights has internationally moved to include climate change. And any government, business or organisation can be held accountable by potential victims for preventing too large a climate change from happening.” That Shell is Dutch is a coincidence – any big company worldwide could be ordered by the district court of The Hague to cut emissions.
https://theconversation.com/shell-ordered-to-cut-its-emissions-why-this-ruling-could-affect-almost-any-major-company-in-the-world-161754
01 June 2021
Mozambique: Despite good prospects at the outset, the last decade has been a big deception with growth fallen sharply and poverty and other indicators of deprivation stubbornly high. The article’s two authors think there are three lessons to be learnt from the failure of the inward foreign investment-based development strategy: “Don’t believe the hype”: foreign investors are generally over-optimistic, sometimes wildly so; “Foreign investment is a means, not an end”: natural resource investment rarely generates development, advantages accrue to a small elite only; and finally: “Don’t forget the poor”: attention needs to be paid to the balancing of regional and rural-urban patterns of development – the north of the country has always been poorer than the south, but the gap has widened.
What’s needed is a vision for the country’s development as a whole – “a coherent set of policies, not projects” – based on “a genuine understanding of the complexities of ‘on-the-ground realities’, including weaknesses in state capacity and political dynamics”.
https://theconversation.com/mozambiques-difficult-decade-three-lessons-to-inform-next-steps-161107
Reparations for enslavement etc.: Unlike the article states, Germany is not paying reparation – it is giving development aid after having recognized that it committed genocide against the Herero and Nama. The article wants to help how to agree on reparations or compensation for enslavement or colonial abuses by providing tips from behavioural science. “The first step then is to rigorously take account of the harms inflicted.” Then comes the question, how much money is needed for compensation. Once that’s decided, how is the compensation to be divided across groups? There are not really any tips how to proceed. And Germany with its development aid money is by no means targeting the Herero and Nama – their representatives were not part of the inter-governmental negotiations, and they unsurprisingly do not accept the deal.
https://theconversation.com/reparations-for-slavery-and-colonial-abuses-how-behavioural-science-can-help-161531
Mali/France: So now it is the French foreign minister’s turn to talk tough: Jean-Yves Le Drian “has called for strict adherence to Mali's transition timetable (…) and reiterated France's condemnation of the coup”. Hiding, as usual, behind ECOWAS, he clearly tried to create the impression of being less gentle than the subregional body, saying that “the adherence to the criteria verified by Ecowas was essential for maintaining international support for Mali.”
BBC Africa Live 01 June 2021. 8:00
FranceAfrique: While Opération Barkhane has rather little to show for its efforts, it cost close to 1bn euros in 2020. If France wants to share the burden with partners, it will need to show UN and African Union support and approval for its operations in faraway-Africa. The three authors’ research in Britain, the US and Germany has “found that approval by the UN or AU (or both) increased US, UK and German public support for contributing to French military operations” significantly.
https://theconversation.com/un-and-african-union-key-to-public-support-for-french-military-operations-in-africa-161590
Uganda: Unknown gunmen riding on a motorcycle have shot and injured Katumba Wamala, Transport Minister and a former army commander. His driver and his daughter were killed, the minister’s injuries are said not to be life-threatening. This was not the first shooting by armed men on motorcycles: Ibrahim Abiriga was killed in June 2018, Andrew Felix Kaweesi, a former police spokesperson was killed in April 2017, and a magistrate and several Muslim clerics were killed in similar ways. “None of the assassinations has ever been successfully investigated or prosecuted.”
BBC Africa Live 01 June 2021. 7:06 & 9:43
Kenya/Somalia: Kenya has said that “it may impose a total ban on flights from Somalia including those on humanitarian missions.” Allegedly, such flights are being misused for “bilateral and political matters”. From now on, all humanitarian flight must seek clearance first and provide a list of goods and passengers transported.
BBC Africa Live 01 June 2021. 4:36
Fishing/West Africa: A report from Greenpeace Africa et al. says processing of fish fit for human consumption should be stopped as “exports of fish meal and fish oil from West Africa are depriving more than 30 million people a year of food.” Such processed fish is mainly used in Europe and Asia for fish farms, pet food and cosmetics.
BBC Africa Live 01 June 2021. 9:53
Nigeria/Women: To get more women into politics and into positions of power, quotas are not enough, you also need to “deal with the underlying barriers women face in conducting successful campaigns and getting elected”. Instead of adding new seats reserved for women to the existing parliament, like Nigeria plans to do (despite high costs), it would be better to introduce a requirement for parties to present a minimum percentage of candidates of each sex for elections.
https://theconversation.com/nigerias-national-assembly-why-adding-seats-for-women-isnt-enough-161514