NEWSBRIEFS

Photo: Close up of drying cocoa beans. CC BY 2.0

African Cocoa Growers Demand Better Prices or No Sale!

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Strike! That’s the sound of the world's top two producers of cocoa who say they are suspending their sales for better prices.

The governments of Ivory Coast and Ghana are trying this time-honored strategy to address the imbalance between farmers’ income and money made by foreign commodity markets who scoop up most of the profit.

If the strategy sounds familiar, it’s the same one described in the Greek play Lysistrata where the women withheld affection from their husbands in order to secure peace and end the Peloponnesian War.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 19 June 2019

Photo: Cameroon opposition leader Maurice Kamto. Credit: journalducameroun.com

Growing Opposition to Cameroon President Paul Biya

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | YAOUNDE (IDN) – Facing a growing pro-democracy movement, Cameroon is resorting to an old formula – namely unleashing government power in the form of threats, arrests and excessive force.

Hundreds of supporters of Maurice Kamto, leader of the opposition Cameroon Resistance Movement, have been filling the streets, demanding his release from detention but were detained themselves by security forces on June 8, 2019. According to his lawyer, Kamto could be charged with: insurrection, hostility against the homeland, criminal association, threats to public order, rebellion, group rebellion, and inciting insurrection.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 June 2019

Photo: Agricultural countryside in Kenya with surrounding hills of Kapsowar with Mt. Kipkinurr in background. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Kenya ‘Hanging at the Edge of a Debt Trap’

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Lending institutions fear that Kenya’s foot may be stuck on the debt pedal with the latest loan of USD 750 million from the World Bank to be paid over 30 years. Several experts and players in the financial sector do not think all is well.

The Central Bank, which is the government’s banker, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the Parliamentary Budget Office (PBO), the Institute of Certified Public Accountants of Kenya (ICPAK) and the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) all say Kenya’s debt position is getting to dangerous levels and the country must engage a lower gear before it is too late.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 June 2019

Photo: A crowd in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with people holding up a sign in support of Étienne Tshisekedi's presidential campaign in November 2011. Source: Wikimedia Commons | CC BY 2.0

Thousands in DR Congo Trek to Opposition Icon’s Reburial

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | KINSHASA (IDN) – The father of Democratic Republic of Congo's President Felix Tshisekedi, opposition icon Etienne Tshisekedi, was laid to rest on June 1 in his homeland more than two years after he died in Belgium during a political stalemate over the country's long-delayed elections.

Thousands took part in the procession which made its way to the outskirts of Kinshasa following several days of tributes to the man who was the face of DR Congo's opposition for decades but died before his political nemesis agreed to step aside and allow a new presidential vote to go forward.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 June 2019

Photo: Kenyan author Binyavanga Wainaina in Nairobi, Kenya, on January 27, 2014. Source: The East African

A Pioneering Voice in African Literature Dies

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Binyavanga Wainaina, one of Africa’s best-known authors and gay rights activist, has died in Nairobi after a short illness. He was 48.

Wainaina won the 2002 Caine prize for African writing. Credited with founding the literary magazine and collective Kwani? and advancing the fight for LGBTQ rights in Africa, he made headlines around the world in 2014, when he responded to a wave of anti-gay laws around the continent by publicly outing himself in a short essay, published to mark his 43rd birthday.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 28 May 2019

Photo: Rejoicing at Ex-President Omar al-Bashir's arrest. Source: Internet

Ex-President of Sudan Faces Formal Charges of Murder

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – From the presidency to prisoner behind bars, former President Omar al-Bashir now faces formal charges of murder in the latest development to spring from a massive turnout of Sudanese people demanding civilian rule.

"Omar al-Bashir and others have been charged for inciting and participating in the killing of demonstrators," the office of Sudan's acting prosecutor general, Al-Waleed Sayyed Ahmed, announced on May 13.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 May 2019

Photo: Poster of Julius Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).

South African National Congress Wins 57.5 Percent of Vote

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Frustrated with the failures of the ruling African National Congress, South Africans gave the ANC its lowest turnout since 2004 when it took a record 69 percent of the vote. The ANC won a sixth straight term but with the worst ever electoral showing for the iconic party. Voter turnout was low. Thousands of youth did not even bother to register.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 14 May 2019

Photo: Landslides due to flooding are a major concern in the Mahate neighbourhood of Pemba after Cyclone Kenneth swept across northern Mozambique. Credit: OCHA/Saviano Abreu

Oil Barons Bid Billions for Energy Giant While Mozambique Fatalities Spike

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The back-to-back cyclones that have ravaged Mozambique are unprecedented in recorded history, according to the UN. As more villages are wiped away, a multi-billion-dollar bidding war is heating up in foreign board rooms among multinationals eager to extract Mozambican oil. Top bid so far by Occidental Petroleum Corp has reached $57 billion.

The fantastic sums changing hands are between Anadarko which owns the wells, Chevron and Occidental, hopeful buyers. Donations for relief and rescue, however, are far below satisfactory, according to foreign charitable organizations like CARE.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 30 April 2019

Photo: Sudanese women preparing songs to celebrate ouster of O. al-Bashir

Sudanese Demands for a Civilian Government Remain Firm

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Protests that began over the skyrocketing price of bread and shortages of food and fuel have accomplished what few people believed was possible in a country ruled by a leader with an iron fist.

A Sudanese people’s movement was born on the streets of Khartoum. Hundreds of thousands of women and men hunkered down and braved attacks by anti-riot police.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 17 April 2019

Photo: Malian women protesting massacre of Fulanis. Credit: Hilltop Monitor

Senior Malian Officers Removed from Posts After Massacre of Fulani Herdsmen

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – Jihadist groups dislodged from Middle East battlegrounds are reportedly regrouping in West Africa, exploiting longstanding grievances between the Dogon farmers and the Puelh-Fulani nomadic herdsmen of Mali over access to limited supplies of land and water.

A militia in Dogon attire entered Ogossagou, a Fulani village and suspected jihadi hideout at about 4 a.m. local time and murdered over 100 men, women and children.