26 May 2021
“A woman who needs to borrow a calabash cannot count on going early to the stream”
BBC Africa Live 26 May 2021. Our proverb of the day. An Igbo proverb sent by Chukwuemeka Ekere and Thank-God Eboh, both from Nigeria.
Burundi: Four grenades have exploded in the country’s former capital Bujumbura, the first one in a bus park. Several people were killed and dozens wounded. “Following the fallout of a failed coup attempt in 2015, Burundi has continued to grapple with sporadic incidents of violence, most of which are ethnic-based or carried out by the youth wing of the ruling party, Imbonerakure.”
BBC Africa Live 26 May 2021. 11:36
South Africa: Jacob Zuma has pleaded not guilty to 16 counts of racketeering, corruption, fraud, tax evasion and money laundering in relation to events that are more than 20 years old. The former president continues to insist that he is the victim of a huge conspiracy.
BBC Africa Live 26 May 2021. 9:40
Somalia: According to the Somali government, federal and regional leaders have made progress in election talks in Mogadishu and should be ready to sign an agreement tomorrow, Thursday.
BBC Africa Live 26 May 2021. 6:13
Nigeria: At least four police officers were killed in a gunmen attack in Enugu State in the country’s south-east. “So far around 20 police officers have been killed in recent weeks in a wave of violence sweeping across the south-eastern region.” On Tuesday, attacks had been reported from three different states.
BBC Africa Live 26 May 2021. 5:46
Nigeria: According to Folahanmi Aina, an expert on Boko Haram and security in the Lake Chad Basin region, the possible death of Abubakar Shekau at the hands of the Islamic State West Africa Province could be the consequence of that Boko Hara! breakaway faction’s increasing dominance and its conquest of the strategically important Sambisa forest. The Islamic State West Africa Province has in 2016 paid allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS). With Islamic State West Africa Province consolidating its dominance in the region, this could imply a more consolidated ISIS presence. “Since ISIS Core was dismantled in the Middle East, its remnants have sought a new haven.” Funding and more sophisticated weaponry could be coming for Islamic State West Africa Province and the war against the Nigerian state could get tougher.
https://theconversation.com/abubakar-shekau-battle-for-supremacy-among-islamist-groups-bodes-ill-for-the-sahel-161456
25 May 2021
Sudan: After “ethnic clashes” in the Red Sea coastal city of Port Sudan causing at least 5 dead and 13 injured, a state of emergency and a night curfew have been declared.
BBC Africa Live 25 May 2021. 5:08
Egypt: Five years ago, Giulio Regeni was tortured and murdered in Cairo. Italian prosecutors now want four members of the Egyptian security forces on trial. As it is extremely unlikely that they will be sent to Italy, they’ll be tried in absentia. The trial will “focus much international attention on what can go on in Egyptian detention centres, where human rights activists say there is the systematic use of torture.”
BBC Africa Live 25 May 2021. 10:58
Mali: The transition Vice-President Colonel Assimi Goita said he has “removed the president and prime minister because they violated the terms of the transition by not consulting him on cabinet changes”.
BBC Africa Live 25 May 2021. 12:06
Zimbabwe: During Africa Day commemorations, the country’s president has unveiled a statue of Charwe Nyakasikana aka Mbuya Nehanda on a footbridge in central Harare, “a spirit medium who mobilised the fight against colonialism before her capture and execution by Cecil John Rhodes’s British South African Company administration in 1898.”
BBC Africa Live 25 May 2021. 13:43