16 May 2022
Mali: Bamako is withdrawing from G5 Sahel – of whom the other four are Mauritania, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad. G5 Sahel was formed in 2017 and should be seen as a dominantly French project.
BBC Africa Live 16 May 2022. 5:07
Rwanda/UK/Migration: The UK-Rwanda Deal has been called “a breach of international law” by the UN. The deal “derogates from the principle of territorial asylum, namely that people have the right to access the national asylum process in the country that they enter.” For the article’s author the biggest problems with the deal are Rwanda’s poor human rights record, Rwanda’s treatment of arriving asylum-seekers and the offloading of responsibility for asylum seekers by the UK onto Rwanda and aid agencies.
https://theconversation.com/the-uks-plans-to-send-asylum-seekers-to-rwanda-raise-four-red-flags-182709
South Africa: The Zondo state capture Commission has reached the end of its four years of work (part 5 of its report is still pending). Unlike journalists, researchers and NGOs, it “followed procedures of formal investigations, leading evidence, interrogating the almost 300 witnesses and allowing for responses by those implicated”, using cross-examination to test the evidence. Whether or not prosecution will follow, “(c)orruption’s devastating effects are now in the open”. Despite it all, Zuma continues to “present himself as the sacrificial political prisoner”. Will this prompt a paradigm shift in the ANC? We’ll have to wait and see.
https://theconversation.com/south-africas-state-capture-commission-nears-its-end-after-four-years-was-it-worth-it-182898
Kenya: Presidential candidate Raila Odinga had picked Martha Karuna as his running mate. The former justice minister and presidential candidate is from the central region of the country. William Ruto, who is considered Raila Odinga’s main rival, picked Rigathi Gachagua as his running mate, a businessman who “is facing trial on charges of corruption and money-laundering worth $65m, which he denies.”
BBC Africa Live 16 May 2022. 10:43
Somalia/USA: President Biden has authorised the (re)deployment of American troops on the ground in Somalia and he has reportedly also “approved a plan to target about a dozen suspected leaders of al-Shabab.”
BBC Africa Live 16 May 2022. 16:00
Guinea-Bissau: Accusing MPs of corruption and citing “persistent and unresolved differences”, President Umaro Sissoco Embaló has dissolved the National People’s Assembly and also dismissed the government – keeping the prime minister and his deputy in place so as to “keep things running” up to the parliamentary elections.
BBC Africa Live 16 May 2022. 15:39
15 May 2022
Netflix: The seven-part series “Young Famous & African subverts the media stereotype of the continent. Featuring private jets, shiny luxury cars and elaborate costumes” – it sounds very much like a long version of all those boring music videos that show exactly that: the luxury of the stars. The article is based on a BBC interview with Peace Hyde, the British-Ghanaian creator of this first African reality TV series.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61308799