13 April 2021
Congo-Kinshasa: Based on their research in South Kivu province in the country’s east – where artisanal mining is the second most important source of livelihood after agriculture –, the authors demonstrate how small-scale mining is handicapped by the government policy’s prioritisation of large miners/foreign direct investment. “Roughly one quarter of the global gold, tin and tantalum supply is produced by artisanal and small-scale miners. In 2019, there were an estimated 10 million people working in the sector across sub-Saharan Africa.” Yet the most valuable and strategically important deposits are left to the transnational companies, so that only the more marginal and less productive areas are left to the artisanal miners. Still, hundreds of thousands of small miners in South Kivu manage to extract an estimated 4,800 kg of gold every year – worth about USD265 million in 2020. This represents more than 10% of the entire country’s annual gold production estimated at USD2bn.
https://theconversation.com/how-large-miners-and-states-stifle-local-capital-and-innovation-in-dr-congo-157529
Somalia/Climate change/Conflict: There are “multiple pathways through which climate-related change interacts with political, social and environmental stresses to worsen existing vulnerabilities and tensions.” Resulting conflicts can be between herders and agriculturalists or between different Somali communities. Al-Shabaab has often capitalised on resulting insecurity.
The most recent report by the Somali government on climate change is from 2013. The report estimated that temperatures would increase by between 3.2°C and 4.3°C by the end of the 21st century. “In 2019, 53,000 people were forced from their homes due to crop failure and reduced livestock profitability due to drought. They joined an estimated 2.6 million Somalis already displaced by other factors like conflict.” Something thus needs to be done about adapting to climate change…
https://theconversation.com/how-climate-insecurity-could-trigger-more-conflict-in-somalia-157696
Burundi: Lake Tanganyika’s waters have risen to unprecedented levels. A main road in Bujumbura had to be closed and waterfront business has suffered heavily. Apparently – according to a local expert –, the lake’s water level “rises every 50 years or so. The last time it did was in 1964. The expert said the rise was partly down to heavy rains and climate change.”
BBC Africa Live 13 April 2021. 12:01
12 April 2021
Eritrea: A 2002 law forbids all churches except the Orthodox, Catholic and Lutheran denominations and people have been jailed, many for years on the basis of that law. In September 2020, Eritrea started to release prisoners arrested for their faith. 22 have been release at end March, another 35 today. Pentecostal and Evangelical Christians are suspected of being instruments of foreign governments.
BBC Africa Live 12 April 2021. 7:14
Somalia: Poor weather (extreme weather, below average rainfall) and locusts make the nutritional situation of millions of Somalis even worse. “Save the Children says crop and vegetable production is expected to drop by up to 80% this season. Income from livestock sales, a mainstay of the Somali economy, is projected to fall by up to 55%.”
BBC Africa Live 12 April 2021. 5:41
South Africa/GBV at school: A study in an urban high school in underprivileged surroundings in South Africa interviewed 15 to 17 year old students. The article gives an overview of the findings, first of all of the concrete forms of violence that girls experience and reactions to them, then about more general findings, amongst others: “Often intervention strategies in South African schools rely on psychological interventions as if something is inherently wrong with the child. They don’t see violence as rooted in both individual and broader social and economic conditions in which children are located.” Finally the article makes recommendations how to end or reduce gender-based violence (GBV) at school.
https://theconversation.com/why-girls-continue-to-experience-violence-at-south-african-schools-157470
The Age of Happiness: “If you could be one age for the rest of your life, what would it be?” Despite youth being idealised, the most popular answer was 36 – at least amongst middle-class Americans, many of them white. Despite the challenges and all the stress, the rewards of “established adulthood” make this many interviewees’ favourite period in life.
https://theconversation.com/at-what-age-are-people-usually-happiest-new-research-offers-surprising-clues-156906
Somalia: Sadaq Omar Hassan aka Sadaq John, the Mogadishu police commander stopped parliament from holding a session on elections that have been delayed for several months. Immediately afterwards, he was sacked by the country’s police chief General Abdi Hijar.
BBC Africa Live 12 April 2021. 12:04
Somalia: The Lower House of Parliament have extended Mohamed Abdullahi Farmajo’s presidency by two years. The Upper House now also has to approve it. The opposition and some regional state leaders have rejected the bill.
BBC Africa Live 12 April 2021. 17:41
Nigeria: South-eastern Nigeria’s State governors will put in place a joint force “Ebube Agu” (“Incredible Tigers” in Igbo) to fight more effectively against insecurity. This looks like a reaction to the attack on a prison in Owerri in Imo State and the resulting jailbreak of nearly 2.000 inmates plus the death of more than 16 policemen a week ago, an attach thought to be the work of the separatist Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob). On top of that, “(i)n recent weeks, unidentified gunmen have targeted police stations, killing policemen and carting away arms and ammunitions.”
BBC Africa Live 12 April 2021. 15:03
Ghana/Africa’s Twitter HQ: Twitter has announced on Twitter that its Africa headquarters will be in Ghana. According to Twitter’s co-founder Jack Dorsey, “Ghana’s recent appointment to host The Secretariat of the African Continental Free Trade Area ‘aligns with our overarching goal to establish a presence in the region that will support our efforts to improve and tailor our service across Africa.’” So geographics matter in the world of virtuality?
BBC Africa Live 12 April 2021. 16:42