26 April 2021
Ethiopia: Endale Haile, the country’s chief ombudsman, said that recent clashes between Amharas and Oromos in northern Amhara region may have caused 200 deaths – significantly more than the 50 reported so far. On top of that, almost 330,000 were displaced. In Ataye, a town 250 km north-east of Addis, half of all houses were burnt down.
BBC Africa Live 26 April 2021. 4:35
Somalia: In the 1960s, Somalia was a paragon of democracy in Africa, with democratic transfers of power in 1964 and 1967. But the chaos of the past 30 years has all but erased that memory.
There was a promising attempt at ending civil war in 2006, when the Union of Islamic Courts, “a home-grown alliance of religious leaders” pacified Mogadishu and surroundings “and were about to set up local administration for the city and the surrounding settlements.” But US-led international community, crying “Islamism” stopped that and put in place a warlord-dominated government – that has since proved incapable of winning against Al-Shabaab. The country’s tribal-based political system provides for segregation “into exclusive genealogical units in all spheres of political and public life” – which makes it hard to transcend tribal boundaries and makes national unity illusory. The result is “a dysfunctional order inept in all of its operations except in looting public resources and alienating Somalis from each other.”
https://theconversation.com/somalias-toxic-political-and-security-order-the-death-knell-of-democracy-159549
Somalia: Following Sunday’s armed clashes, forces supporting the Somali opposition are occupying key parts of Mogadishu, the country’s capital.
BBC Africa Live 26 April 2021. 12:37
South Africa: While there seems to be a constant battle going on between the rich and the poor inside the ANC and also with the Economic Freedom Fighters, “all politics is still, as it was before 1994, insider politics”, while “the majority who try to survive outside the formal economy are talked about, but are never heard”. The article provides some examples for the majority being without voice.
https://theconversation.com/south-africa-remains-a-nation-of-insiders-and-outsiders-27-years-after-democracy-159561
South Africa: It can be said that the post-1994 order “merely perpetuates white privilege. Non-racialism has been dismissed as ‘colour-blindness’ that hinders the correction of race-based inequalities.” But along with Ugandan academic Mahmood Mamdani, the article’s author argues, that changes have been substantial, that enemies have, for example, become adversaries under the new order. But the country’s national project is yet an “incomplete success”.
https://theconversation.com/south-africas-1994-miracle-whats-left-159495
Kenya: UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, has submitted plans for the future of Dadaab and Kakuma refugee camps that the Kenyan government last month threatened to close within 14 days. According to Filippo Grandi, the High Commissioner for Refugees of the United Nations, Kenya will not close the camps, it only wanted a solution.
BBC Africa Live 26 April 2021.
South Africa/UK: The assets of three of the Guptas (Ajay, Atul and Rajesh) and their associate Salim Essa have been frozen and they themselves banned from travelling to Britain. Overall, 22 individuals from six countries are to be prevented from using the UK as a haven for their dirty money under the UK’s new regime dealing with international corruption.
BBC Africa Live 26 April 2021. 17:40
25 April 2021
Somalia: There has been fighting with heavy weapons used and mortar rounds fired today Sunday in the capital Mogadishu between army units supporting and opposing president Farmajo who has just had his term – illegally? – prolonged by two years. “(S)ome former warlords and clan leaders are also involved in the clashes.” It is not known how many dead or wounded there were.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56879935