18 June 2022
Africa’s youth: 90% if not all want out. If that may be true only for the well-educated young in Nigeria, the overall situation is alarming, as the recently published South African Ichikowitz Family Foundation’s “African Youth Survey 2022” found, surveying 4,500 young people in 15 African countries. 95% in Nigeria and 89% in Zambia – the two worst amongst the 15 countries – think their country is heading in the wrong direction. Even in the two best, only 60% in Rwanda and 56% in Ghana think it is going in the right direction.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61795026
Tunisia: Seifeddine Makhlouf, head of the conservative Karama party (allied to the Islamist Ennadha party) and one of the fiercest critics of President Kaïs Saïed, has been sentenced to one year in prison and was banned from practising law for five years because he had insulted a judge. A judiciary at the orders of the President?
BBC Africa Latest Updates 18 June 2022. 8:13
17 June 2022
Forecasts/ISS Data Platform: Forecasts for 14 sectors for all African countries and regions up to 2043, the end of the third ten-year implementation plan of the African Union’s Agenda 2063 long-term vision for Africa. Visit the site at futures.issafrica.org. Seminar/webinar on 22nd of June from 10:00 to 11:30 UT – registration needed.
https://issafrica.org/events/africas-tomorrow-a-platform-of-hope-and-potential
Public health emergencies: The World Health Organisation (WHO) is sceptical with regard to plans to give Africa Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) the power to declare a public health emergency as such declarations can “trigger huge implications on African countries”.
BBC Africa Live 17 June 2022. 7:13
Migration from West Africa: According to the article’s author’s research, climate change, overfishing and COVID are triggering factors for the recent increase in migration to the Canary Islands especially from Senegal, but also from Mauritania, Western Sahara, Morocco and even Côte d’Ivoire. Migration promises social advancement, is attractive especially for youth. Resulting remittances help families back home. 23,023 reached the Canary Islands in 2020, “757% more than the previous year”. They were almost as many in 2021 – 22,316. For 2020, you need to add “about 1,500 (who) stayed on the road and about 600 (who) died through drowning or dehydration.”
https://theconversation.com/how-climate-change-overfishing-and-covid-drove-irregular-migration-from-west-africa-184658
Nigeria: More than 1 in 5 deaths of women because of pregnancy and childbirth complications is Nigerian. The maternal death rate was a staggering 512 per 100,000 live births in 2018 and 39 of 1,000 babies born alive died within the first four weeks of life. The article’s author’s research in tertiary (the highest) level hospitals found the following main factors behind mothers’ and children’s deaths: low education in the mother; lack of antenatal care; referral from another facility; previous Caesarean delivery; non-use of a labour monitoring tool; lack of a companion in labour; failure to give the mother an injection to stop bleeding after birth. Eclampsia (convulsions as a result of high blood pressure) accounted for 20.6% and bleeding after birth for 11.4% of the mothers’ deaths. It is urgent to improve on this – the article makes suggestions how.
https://theconversation.com/nigeria-must-improve-health-services-for-mothers-and-babies-heres-what-can-change-184186
Nigeria: The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation estimates losses by theft to have amounted to 4bn USD in 2022 – 200,000 barrels per day – and to 1.5bn USD so far this year.
BBC Africa Live 17 June 2022. 13:36
Makerere/Uganda: The halls of residence of renowned Makerere University in Kampala nurture different cultures and traditions – some (e.g., Lumumba Hall) being known as sociable and activist, others (e.g., Livingstone Hall) as academically minded and respectful. This is the case despite assignment of students to halls being random. By means of interviews with 3,000 present-day and 1,000 ex-students (since 1970), research tried to find how the university halls pass on their culture and also how long-lasting the effect is (it wanes over time).
https://theconversation.com/what-the-100-year-old-makerere-university-in-uganda-reveals-about-culture-183649
Rwanda: The government’s spokesperson has called criticism of Kigali’s plan to accept UK asylum seekers “insulting” for a country that has made “tremendous progress”, as if living in Africa was punishment.
BBC Africa Live 17 June 2022. 7:49
Congo Basin/Peatlands: A giant slab of peat believed to be larger than England stores around 30 billion tonnes of carbon and is thus of immense importance for climate change. The peat must not dry out, or it’ll be destroyed. Threats come from deforestation, climate change (longer dry seasons) and oil exploitation: Congo-Kinshasa has recently “announced an auction of land that is to be developed for oil production” and Congo-Brazzaville has “begun parcelling out blocks of land and looking for potential investors”.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61708452
Mozambique: A graphite mining project in southern Cabo Delgado province run by Triton Minerals Ltd., an Australian firm, was attacked on 8th of June and two of its staff were killed. The Islamic State says it was behind the attack. The south of Cabo Delgado province has only recently been targeted by terrorist attacks.
BBC Africa Live 17 June 2022. 17:34<