12 February 2021
Nigeria/Sexual and Reproductive Health: Nigerian states with customary and religious laws have significantly worse sexual and reproductive health outcomes compared to states without such laws. This holds for getting antenatal care, use of contraception for married women, births delivered in a health facility, total fertility rate, and median age at first birth.
Plural legal systems (modern + traditional “laws” derived from customs or religion) place women and girls at risk. Nigeria’s obligations from international treaties and its national laws may be undermined where states refuse to adopt national legislation – as it has for example happened with the Child Rights Act that establishes a minimum age for marriage of 18 years – 11 states have failed to domesticate this Child Rights Act.
https://theconversation.com/customary-and-religious-laws-are-impeding-progress-towards-womens-health-in-nigeria-154221
West and Central Africa/Antenatal Care: About 3 in 4 maternal deaths could be prevented if women had adequate access to quality care before, during and after pregnancy. A study looked into this for the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Kinshasa, Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Togo. Not receiving antenatal care and low-quality care are the major factors and they correlate with poverty and low education levels.
https://theconversation.com/whats-in-the-way-of-quality-antenatal-care-for-women-in-west-and-central-africa-153907
Sahara/Electric Power: Transforming the Sahara into a giant solar farm would produce enough electricity for several worlds (4 times present consumption). But what looks like an ideal solution at first glance would have negative secondary effects on the global climate, increasing global temperature and changing global rainfall patterns, e.g. creating droughts for the tropical forests.
https://theconversation.com/solar-panels-in-sahara-could-boost-renewable-energy-but-damage-the-global-climate-heres-why-153992
Nigeria/Shell’s pollution: “The UK's Supreme Court has ruled that more than 50,000 Nigerians living in polluted areas can sue Royal Dutch Shell in the English courts. It says there is a good arguable case that the oil giant is legally responsible for the systemic pollution of the Ogale and Bille communities.”
BBC Africa Live 12 February 2021. 11:51
Also see the BBC article on https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56041189
Central African Republic: With a little help from its Russian and Rwandan allies, the army has recaptured the western border town Beloko, thus opening up the supply route to Cameroon that had been blocked since December.
BBC Africa Live 12 February 2021. 7:14
BBC Africa’s proverb of the day – a Lango proverb from Uganda sent by Martin Okello in the UK:
“A roaring fire bears cold ashes”
BBC Africa Live 12 February 2021
Sudan: A state of emergency has been declared in four states. Authorities blame supporters of al-Bashir for the unrest After weeks of protest against rising food prices and fuel shortages, police has arrested 200 armed young men in Nyala, South Darfur, whom they accuse of wanting to loot a market. A further 100 have been arrested in the state of North Kordofan.
BBC Africa Live 12 February 2021. 16:43
11 February 2021
Uganda/LRA: Dominic Ongwen was abducted at age 12 by Joseph Kony’s LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), was forced to become a child soldier and became important within LRA himself. He has just been convicted of war crimes by the International Criminal Court judges who found him guilty of 61 of 70 charges, ranging from forced conscription of child soldiers to forced pregnancy. Kiell Anderson of Manitoba Univ., author of “Perpetrating Genocide. A Criminological Account” (Routledge 2018) and soon to publish a book about Ongwen, reflects on Ongwen’s life, perpetrators of atrocities, based on 90 interviews with family members, former LRA fighters, people working on his trial, and victims (including his “wives”).
https://theconversation.com/child-victim-soldier-war-criminal-unpacking-dominic-ongwens-journey-154850
Ethiopia: Under international law, states have the primary responsibility to meet the basic needs of their civilians.
Humanitarian organisations have the right to offer humanitarian aid without this being considered as interference in the internal affairs of a state. If a country blocks humanitarian aid, this constitutes an internationally wrongful act. Perpetrators can be tried before national or international courts for violation of international law. International law expert Eugene Bakama interviewed by Moina Spooner from The Conversation Africa.
https://theconversation.com/the-legal-implications-of-humanitarian-aid-blockades-154847
Nature conservation/Zimbabwe: Some governments use a military approach to nature conservation. In South Africa and Zimbabwe, “(d)eployment of soldiers and use of military tactics has increased the number of arrests and poachers killed but has not reduced the number of rhinos and elephants poached”. But the article’s focus is that forest rangers are not only perpetrators of violence, but also suffer violence – to harden them, to instil discipline… And suffering violence makes them more aggressive. There are similar reports from Cameroon, Congo-Kinshasa and Tanzania.
https://theconversation.com/work-can-be-a-violent-experience-for-zimbabwes-forest-rangers-154193
Health/Obesity: From 1975 to 2016, southern Africa saw the world’s highest proportional increase in child and adolescent obesity – 400% per decade. In Africa, nearly 70% of diabetes cases are undiagnosed. Because of low prices, availability and marketing strategies employed by large corporations, ultra-processed foods and sugary drinks are now frequently consumed in low- and middle-income countries and they contribute to rising rates of obesity and diet-related diseases.
“A recent report by the organisation Global Health Advocacy Incubator highlights how food and beverage corporations used the COVID-19 pandemic as an opportunity to promote their ultra-processed foods to vulnerable populations around the world.
The report includes over 280 examples from 18 countries of the food industry undermining healthy food policy efforts.”
To act against the “obesity pandemic”, healthy food must become more accessible, also meaning cheaper.
https://theconversation.com/food-systems-need-to-change-to-promote-healthy-choices-and-combat-obesity-150966
Nigeria/Mercenaries. Questions around the hiring of mercenaries against Boko Haram following the Borno state governor’s call for the enlisting mercenaries. It has happened in Nigeria in the past – against Boko Haram and also in the Biafran War. Results are controversial. It is against the UN’s International Convention Against the Recruitment, Use, Financing and Training of Mercenaries, which Nigeria signed in 1990 but never ratified. It is difficult to hold mercenaries to account. Using them may prove demoralising for army personnel. And would it not be better to invest in improvements of the country’s army?
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/soldiers-for-rent-in-the-boko-haram-crisis?utm_source=BenchmarkEmail&utm_campaign=ISS_Weekly_FR&utm_medium=email
Namibia: Air Namibia has suspended all operations, cancelled all of its flights and grounded its aircrafts after a cabinet decision to file for voluntary liquidation. The airline had been having financial and safety problems, Covid-19 giving the death blow.
BBC Africa Live 11 February 2021. 4:53
Congo-Brazzaville: After 36 years in power, Sassou Nguesso is still power hungry. The constitution was changed in 2015 to remove term and age limits. He’ll no doubt win against the seven challengers at the 21 March presidential elections. Other candidates are former finance minister Mathias Dzon; Guy-Brice Parfait Kolelas, son of a former prime minister; Albert Oniangue, former aide-de-camp of Sassou Nguesso; former MP Joseph Kignoumbi Kia Mbougou; customs official Anguios Nganguia Engambe; MP Michel Mboussi Ngouari; 38-year-young Deve Mafoula. The largest opposition group, the Pan-African Union for Social Democracy (UPADS), will boycott the polls.
BBC Africa Live 11 February 2021. 7:34
Madagascar: All political rallies in the capital, Antananarivo, have been banned to prevent protests (“Let's Make Waves Together”) by the opposition around ex-president Marc Ravalomanana.
BBC Africa Live 11 February 2021. 8:55
Ethiopia: Human Rights Watch has accused the Ethiopian military of indiscriminately shelling urban centres during the Tigray conflict in November. According to the HRW report, homes, schools, hospitals and marketplaces were not spared and 83 civilians have been killed. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had earlier claimed that no civilian was killed by federal troops during the conflict
BBC Africa Live 11 February 2021. 10:03
Somalia/Kenya: The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is to hear the two countries between 15 and 19 March concerning their dispute over the ownership of a 100,000 km2 triangle in the Indian Ocean thought to be rich in oil and gas reserves. Kenya had wanted to postpone the hearing once again, but Somalia has refused.
BBC Africa Live 11 February 2021. 12:25
Africa/Covid-19 vaccine: While South Africa has delayed its vaccination campaign after a trial on around 2,000 healthy, young people showed the AstraZeneca jabs offered “minimal protection” against mild and moderate cases of the new variant, John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention/Africa CDC, said that AstraZeneca vaccines should still be used in the six other countries where cases of the South African variant of Covid-19 have been registered so far – Botswana, Comoros, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique and Zambia –, the variant not being dominant in any of them.
BBC Africa Live 11 February 2021. 14:33
Congo-Kinshasa: After the 2 deaths from Ebola in North-Kivu, the province’s health minister said people will be vaccinated against Ebola, starting in Masoya, near Butembo. Several vaccines have been developed in response to the West Africa Ebola epidemic, which killed more than 11,000 people from 2014 to 2016, and these vaccines were first used in DR Congo in 2019.
BBC Africa Live 11 February 2021. 17:13
Angola: Following a change to the penal code, same-sex relationships are no longer criminalised. The new law also recognises the right to different sexual orientations.
BBC Africa Live 11 February 2021. 18:52
Egypt: Nine-time African football champion Al Ahly came third at the Fifa Club World Cup by defeating the South American champion Palmeiras on penalties.
https://www.bbc.com/sport/africa/56033530