22 February 2023
Somaliland: Fighting between local militias and regional government forces has pushed up to an estimated 80,000 to flee from Las Anod district to neighbouring Dole area of Ethiopia, an area suffering severely from drought. On top of that, people displaced within Somaliland because of the fighting number at least 180,000.
BBC Africa Live 22 February 2023. 7:02
Togo/USA: Important parts of Togo are now off-limits for US embassy personnel as travel warnings have been issued because of possible militant attacks and kidnappings for Dapaong and what lies north of it, Kpendjal, Kpendjal-Ouest, Sokode, Bafilo and Mango.
BBC Africa Live 22 February 2023. 9:13
Nigeria/Environment: To protect the environment and biodiversity, much more needs to be done. The article suggests stepping up environmental education, increasing the share of conservation areas to at least 10% of national territory, discouraging indiscriminate building and urban sprawl, allocating more funds available to environmental protection projects, passing the plastic pollution bill, etc.
https://theconversation.com/nigerias-natural-resources-are-under-threat-urgent-steps-a-new-president-must-take-199488
Eritrea/Libya/GB: Because 95% of asylum claims from their countries have in the past been accepted, asylum seekers from the two African countries (along with those from Yemen, Syria and Afghanistan) will no longer have to undergo face-to-face interviews but instead answer a Home Office questionnaire. While the rest of the procedure remains the same, this fast-tracking is to help reduce the considerable asylum backlog – “45,756 people successfully reached the UK in small boats last year”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64736123
21 February 2023
Kenya: Wildfires have destroyed over 16,000 hectares of forest in the country’s third highest mountain range, the Aberdare Mountains, over the last two weeks. The cause of the fires is not yet known.
BBC Africa Live 21 February 2023. 12:14
Botswana: Rhino poaching has increased tremendously over the last five years. After just 2 of the animals killed in the previous five-year period, 138 rhinos have been killed since 2018 according to the country’s tourism minister. The total number of the animals in Botswana was estimated to be around 400 in 2019.
BBC Africa Live 21 February 2023. 5:15
Chad: The article sets out to explain why terrorism has so far been an imported problem in Chad despite all the conditions for internal support being present (bad governance, corruption, ethnic rivalries, poverty, unemployment). According to the author this is so because for one thing, “Chadians want to live together peacefully” and for another, because Déby father “appeased” those with the strongest leanings towards fundamentalism – relatively well-off merchants – they “were most likely to have benefited economically”. Is that enough of an explanation? The author herself seems to question this when, at the end of the article, she wonders whether Déby son will opt for “democratic structures and fair distribution of resources and wealth so as not to give fundamentalist Islamist groups inside Chad a reason to turn to violence and against the state”.
https://theconversation.com/islamist-terrorism-is-rising-in-the-sahel-but-not-in-chad-whats-different-199628