18 July 2022
Nigeria: The country suffers from insecurity/banditry/terrorism – the article shortly presents five articles that have dealt with the problem in the past and provides the links. The five articles try to answer the following questions: Where did it all start? Are they unknown gunmen? Who is at risk? Why have government strategies failed? Is reintegration working?
https://theconversation.com/nigerias-spiralling-insecurity-five-essential-reads-186696
Nigeria: The uncle of Afrobeats star Davido won elections in Osun and will thus be governor of the south-western state. This was the last electoral test before the 2023 presidential elections and the opposition won. Davido had actively participated in the campaign.
BBC Africa Live 18 July 2022. 6:46
Ghana: Before the background of effects of Covid and the Ukraine war and reckless management of public finances, Accra is asking the IMF for assistance – for the 2nd time in three years and for the 17th time overall. Successive governments have lacked fiscal discipline and there is over-reliance on foreign financing (40.2% of total public debt in March 2022). Underneath it, Ghana needs to “fix the structural problems – such as its over-reliance on primary commodity exports – and live within its means”. The article makes recommendations what is to be done to fundamentally change the economy.
https://theconversation.com/ghanas-return-to-the-imf-within-three-years-underscores-its-deeper-economic-problems-187041
Ghana: In what is only the second outbreak in West Africa ever (after 1 case in Guinea last year), 2 people have died of the Marburg virus in the southern Ashanti region and almost 100 were placed in isolation. Marburg is similar to Ebola, highly infectious.
BBC Africa Live 18 July 2022. 5:08
Kenya: With prices soaring and the rains unreliable, the economy is at the heart of upcoming elections. All candidates have made unrealistic promises, “promis(ing) to create economic opportunities and lessen the suffering of ordinary Kenyans”. The article urges realism and makes concrete suggestions what needs to be done.
https://theconversation.com/kenyas-election-promises-an-economists-perspective-186480
UK/Rwanda: The British government has been criticized by a parliamentary committee according to which there is “no evidence that sending migrants to Rwanda would deter people from crossing the Channel in small boats.”
BBC Africa Live 18 July 2022. 10:21
Niger/EU: Brussels has announced 25m euros for Niamey “to help Niger's armed forces fight terrorism and defend its territorial integrity”. The money will, amongst others, serve to build an operating base “to reduce the vulnerability of the Nigerien army in the Tillaberi region” in the country’s south-west bordering Mali and Burkina Faso.
BBC Africa Live 18 July 2022. 15:45
South Sudan: The Opposition Movements Alliance, a “coalition of South Sudan's opposition parties and rebel groups still fighting the government” as to whose representativity or importance the article gives no indication, is calling for new talks. In their eyes, the country has become ungovernable, is “at the brink of disintegrating”. Only a week ago, “the US announced it was ending its assistance for monitoring the peace process due to the country's failure to meet specified milestones.”
BBC Africa Live 18 July 2022. 14:08
Mozambique: 98 have been arrested and charged in Maputo and its suburb Matola for “acts of disorder and vandalism” at protests against high costs of living last Thursday.
BBC Africa Live 18 July 2022. 17:17
17 July 2022
South Africa: Jessie Duarte, “a long-serving member of the (…) African National Congress” has died at the age of 68. She had suffered from cancer. She had “served as Nelson Mandela’s personal assistant from 1990-1994”. She was the ANC’s deputy secretary general. She had been the object of criticism for standing by Jacob Zuma all through his presidency.
BBC Africa Live 17 July 2022. 7:59