9 April 2021
Egyptian Pompeii: A more than 3,400-year-old city has been discovered in the desert near Luxor. Surprisingly well-preserved, items of everyday life, rings and coloured pottery, a bakery and evidence of food preparation for many people, signs of industrial activity have been found.
BBC Africa Live 09 April 2021. 7:14
Sacred forests as biodiversity niches: “The historically dense forest ecosystem in West Africa has been reduced by over 80% since 1900.” Remaining sacred forests contain more biodiversity than surrounding lands. Furthermore, they improve agricultural output. And they are important carbon sinks. Based on her research in northern Togo, the article’s author writes: “I found that it is specifically organic matter – dead leaves and remains of trees – which has been on and in the soil for a long time and decomposing that makes the difference both to soil fertility and to carbon storage.”
https://theconversation.com/sacred-forests-in-west-africa-capture-carbon-and-keep-soil-healthy-158325
Global warming & marine ecosystems: Many species now find the tropical oceans too warm and have moved to cooler waters. This has happened before, 125,000 years ago and also 252 million years ago. In the latter case, 90% of all marine species were killed. With today’s global warming, “there could be mass extinctions in the near future as species move into the subtropics, where they might struggle to compete and adapt.” Plankton – a keystone species in the foodweb – has decreased around the equator...
https://theconversation.com/marine-life-is-fleeing-the-equator-to-cooler-waters-history-tells-us-this-could-trigger-a-mass-extinction-event-158424
Copper & the environment: A copper boom is imminent - copper being needed for solar panels, wind turbines, electric vehicles and battery storage. With prices rising, new copper mines will open. “Unless mining is done differently, rushing to bring these projects into production could unleash unacceptable, catastrophic impacts onto local people and environments.” Future mines will be in remoter places, thus more difficult to reach, and they are likely to be lower grade and deeper, thus more difficult to exploit and sure to “generate more waste rock, more tailings, and hazardous elements such as arsenic”. New mines are also likely to be in ecologically sensitive areas where the mines compete for water with local communities. Higher copper prices provide companies with the means for sustainability improvements – but they are unlikely to invest in that unless forced to.
https://theconversation.com/clean-energy-the-worlds-demand-for-copper-could-be-catastrophic-for-communities-and-environments-157872
Tanzania: Recently deceased president Magufuli revived the national airline and called it a success – the truth is, it made losses of USD65m in the past five years. The auditor-general revealed “challenges” such as the absence of directors who had any airline management experience or the fact that, with aircraft being grounded due to Covid, the airline “continued paying rental fees to a government agency that owns them.” Debts “inherited” from the past were also a heavy burden.
BBC Africa Live 09 April 2021. 4:45
Nigeria: In Konshisha area of Benue State, 11 army personnel including a commander have been killed by unknown gunmen. Reports that troops in response “fired indiscriminately killing a number of civilians” have been denied by the Nigerian military.
BBC Africa Live 09 April 2021. 11:00
8 April 2021
Nigeria: Insecurity is rife in the Niger Delta. While media focus Islamic terrorism, organised armed banditry of Fulani herdsmen, farmer-herder conflicts, kidnapping and armed robbery, there is also cultism, piracy, land struggles, election violence and gangs. “In Nigeria, political elites are often officially or unofficially protected by state security agents. Those who suffer the consequences of insecurity are ordinary people who don’t have protection.” To address the problem of insecurity in the Niger Delta, a comprehensive approach is necessary, addressing the lack of economic opportunities for young people, drug abuse, the absence of the rule of law, corruption in public office, unfair electoral processes, weak institutions, poor security governance environmental pollution.
The article is a résumé of a book that the article’s author has co-edited: Tarila M. Ebiede, Celstine O. Bassey, Judith B. Asuni (ed.), Insecurity in the Niger Delta. A Report on Emerging Threats in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Edo and Rivers States, London (Adonis & Abbey Publishers) 2021, available on http://cornwestafrica.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Insecurity-in-the-Niger-Delta-Final-Book-13-February-2021.pdf.
https://theconversation.com/how-insecurity-affects-the-lives-of-everyone-in-the-niger-delta-158182
Egypt: The article tells the story of the making of the Suez Canal and provides an overview of its consequences – economic, ecological…
https://theconversation.com/the-toll-and-toil-it-took-to-cleave-the-suez-canal-through-the-egyptian-desert-158240
Domestic abuse and (black) churches in the UK: The article’s author “spent five years with the Black Church Domestic Abuse Forum (BCDAF) and helped create a programme to train church leaders on the most vital issues in the hope it will address domestic abuse in those communities”. She gives an overview of the problem and analyses the reasons, starting from the fact that most church leaders are men (in the UK: 76%). Belonging to a faith group can even worsen abused women’s situation, for example if they shy back from accessing help or support from secular organisations which they perceive as anti-marriage. Women may fear “secular support agencies will not understand their religious practices and avoid them. This means they stay in abusive relationships for longer.”
https://theconversation.com/why-domestic-abuse-is-such-a-difficult-subject-for-churches-157799
Western Sahara: The police chief of the Polisario Front has been killed in Polisario-controlled territory, allegedly in a Moroccan drone attack.
BBC Africa Live 08 April 2021. 6:13
Tanzania: The lifting of a media ban announced by the country’s new president on 6th of April apparently only concerns online television and no other media. Disappointing.
BBC Africa Live 08 April 2021. 4:31
Nigeria: Kidnappings are in fashion. Recently, the focus was on schools in the country’s north-west, but it happens elsewhere also. From 2016 to 2020, the number of kidnapping victims increased, they stood at a record 3,500 in 2020. And it is going to be more this year. According to SB Morgen, $18.34m were paid in ransom between June 2011 and March 2020. “The low-risk, high-reward model that usually drives kidnapping economies means that higher net-worth individuals should be primary targets.” But since 2018, less-targeted mass kidnappings have been on the increase, especially in the north, implying an increased victimisation of low-income, already vulnerable individuals. The government has reputedly paid at least $73,000 for the release of 344 boys abducted from Kankara’s Government Science Secondary School.
The strategy of some northern states to give bandits handouts in an attempt at dialogue and demobilisation could backfire by incentivising perpetrators. Instead of the federal government’s over-militarised approach, a comprehensive strategy is needed that must involve the communities and motivate them to report, through reporting hotlines, for example. Public awareness campaigns need to inform citizens about the existence of such hotlines.
Last but not least, underlying causes like unemployment, poverty and low social protection need to be addressed.
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/nigerias-kidnapping-crisis-unites-the-north-and-south
Benin: The country’s image as West Africa’s beacon of democracy is tarnished. A 2019 electoral code with “an endorsement requirement that resulted in the exclusion of the main opposition parties from the presidential run” and “the detention of five opposition figures by the Court for the Suppression of Economic Crimes and Terrorism on alleged terrorism and political sabotage charges” all point to the fact that the strategy of political exclusion is being used excessively and abusively. This will undermine the elected president’s – no doubt Talon’s – legitimacy. Another outbreak of violence, like after the legislative elections of 2019, cannot be excluded.
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/a-third-election-without-main-opposition-parties-in-benin
Sudan/West Darfur: The number of people known to have died over several days of clashes between Masalit and Arabs is now thought to be 132 according to West Darfur’s governor.
BBC Africa Live 08 April 2021. 15:16