24 November 2022
Congo-Kinshasa: M23 represents Rwandophones in Congo and is based in Rutshuru territory (5,300km² – a fifth of Rwanda), rich in forest and mineral resources and with “huge traffic of commercial trucks carrying goods from the Kenyan port of Mombasa through Uganda to Goma and Bukavu in the DRC” through Bunagana border town. Kigali feeling isolated in the region after Kinshasa’s moving closer to Uganda and Burundi stepped up its support for M23 recently – the M23 had acted as its proxy ten years back, when it occupied the regional capital Goma. With M23 well-equipped, disciplined, superior to the Congolese army, Kigali has come under increased international pressure to have M23 stop fighting.
https://theconversation.com/m23-four-things-you-should-know-about-the-rebel-groups-campaign-in-rwanda-drc-conflict-195020
South Africa/Small-scale fishery: Everywhere in the world, “resource depletion, geographical isolation, unsafe working conditions, market fluctuations, climate change, lack of access to healthcare and education, and social exclusion” make small-scale fishers vulnerable. South Africa’s Small-Scale Framework, put in place between 2012 and 2016, though allocating fishing rights to the small-scale sector, falls short. Allocation is subject to stringent conditions; fair distribution of allocations is not ensured and nothing to prevent elite capture. The article makes concrete suggestions how to reform the Small-Scale Framework.
https://theconversation.com/south-africas-small-scale-fishers-have-been-marginalised-since-apartheid-what-needs-to-change-194742
Mali: According to a FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) report, summary executions, sexual violence and forced recruitment make life for civilians in Ségou and Mopti regions into a “living hell”. The perpetrators are self-defence groups, jihadists, the Malian army and Russian mercenaries. The report (in French only/84 pages) can be downloaded on https://www.fidh.org/en/region/Africa/mali/in-central-mali-victims-and-persecutors-live-together.
BBC Africa Live 24 November 2022. 12:14
23 November 2022
Media & Violence against Women in South Africa: Media are important because people’s opinions on violence are largely shaped from secondary sources like news media. Media tend to disempower victims by perpetuating gender stereotypes and hardly ever give victims the space to tell their own stories. Also, there is a tendency to victim blaming, though mostly subtly. On top of that, “(t)here is a tendency to focus on the most horrendous crimes to portray violence against women in exceptional terms rather than dealing with its pervasiveness in contexts like South Africa”
https://theconversation.com/16-days-of-activism-how-south-africas-tv-news-gets-it-wrong-193734
Namibia/Windhoek: In 1965, when Namibia was under apartheid South African control, Curt von François – a senior military officer in German South West Africa between 1889 to 1894 – was honoured by means of a statue as the city's founder – which he was not. Following a successful campaign for its removal, the statue, a symbol of colonial oppression, has now been pulled down.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-63728105