17 November 2022
Serbia/Burundi/Tunisia: Having been threatened by a suspension of its own visa waiver by the EU commission, Serbia is now introducing visa for Tunisians and Burundians. In talks with Hungarian and Austrian authorities, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday Wednesday promised “to deploy more police resources along Serbia’s southern border, a major route for undocumented migrants.”
BBC Africa Live 17 November 2022. 5:10
Tigray/Eritrea/Ethiopia: The Eritrean forces are allegedly continuing to commit atrocities in Tigray. The TPLF said “Tigrayan fighters would not lay down their arms until the federal government ensured the withdrawal of Eritrean and other forces from the region.” Addis says that issues with Eritrea will be resolved once federal troops will be “stationed in Tigray’s border areas.”
BBC Africa Live 17 November 2022. 14:55
Ghana: From 1st of January, the daily minimum wage will be increased to 14,88 cedis (1USD) – an increase of 10%, a next to ridiculous increase seen that yearly inflation stands at 40%.
BBC Africa Live 17 November 2022. 13:40
Alaa Abdel Fattah/Egypt: “(T)he best known of Egypt's estimated 60,000 political prisoners” collapsed last Friday in his cell – then awoke with an intravenous drip in his arm, so his fast was broken for him by prison authorities. According to his family, who has been able to see him, he is very frail but well.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-63665790
16 November 2022
Sierra Leone: A new law just passed in Parliament makes sure that a third of MPs and a third of members of local councils will from the next elections on be women. Presently, only 19 of 146 MPs are women.
BBC Africa Live 16 November 2022. 5:43
Egypt/Coral reefs: 40,000 cubic metres of barely treated wastewater from Egypt's Ras Shukeir oil terminal (50% owned by Egypt's state oil company) are being dumped every day into the Red Sea. This has been going on since 1985. It is now feared that this could threaten the Red Sea coral reefs – which have so far proved to be resilient to the effects of climate change (despite Red Sea temperatures rising faster than the global average). “Despite covering only 0.1% of the oceans, coral reefs are home to 30% of marine biodiversity. In the Red Sea, they are a lifeline for endangered species such as hawksbill turtles, as well as supporting fishing, marine agriculture and tourism”.
BBC Africa Live 16 November 2022. 5:08
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-63603861
Woman King: The film is set in what is nowadays called Benin – but it was filmed in South Africa. Such “(c)heating one film location for another is common practice”. But even so, so the article’s author, it shows that “even when telling African stories, Hollywood reimagines the true history and geography of the continent to serve western audiences”. True, the film “presents African women as strong, healthy and independent, Africans as the inheritors of a rich cultural tradition and Africans as majestic purveyors of lost ideals”. But still, the use of Kleinmond (in Western Cape) as one of the locations for the film is problematic because, once again, the real stories of the place with its fights during times of Apartheid to the fights of the present day, are erased. Like all black life being erased from Apartheid time paintings – the state’s favoured painter JH Pierneef painting empty, detailed landscapes.
https://theconversation.com/woman-king-is-set-in-benin-but-filmed-in-south-africa-in-the-process-it-erases-real-peoples-struggles-194276
Uganda’s national symbol threatened by extinction: The crested crane figures on the Ugandan flag and the country’s coat of arms. With more and more swampland – the birds’ nesting and breeding place – being reclaimed for farming, there are only around 20,000 left in the world.
BBC Africa Live 16 November 2022. 9:15
IDPs: The article’s author argues that internally displaced people are generally worse off than refugees – they are less visible, less clearly defined and their home country often tries to hide them. Their displacement often becomes protracted and cyclical.
https://theconversation.com/why-its-important-to-understand-the-unique-plight-of-internally-displaced-people-in-africa-150891