Africa

Image: Sunrise, Fog, Landscape, Mountains, Mist, Morning, Dawn as in diplomacy. Source: Pixabay.

The Great Game of Vaccination Diplomacy Targets Africa

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) — Russia is committed to helping eradicate the rapidly increasing coronavirus infections in Africa amounting to approximately 3.8 million with its latest developed Sputnik V vaccine. Such a step will enable Russia to reassert its geopolitical influence that involves a keen competition with other foreign players on the continent.

An official media release in mid-February said that the Africa Vaccine Acquisition Task Team — set up by the African Union to acquire additional vaccine doses so that Africa can attain a target immunization of 60% — has received an offer of 300 million Sputnik V vaccines from the Russian Federation.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Africa; 25 February 2021

Photo: Some countries using COVID vaccine to enhance their soft power. Credit: UN Photo/Loey Felipe

Response to COVID-19 Embedded in Global Power and Diplomatic Wrangles

Viewpoint by Michael Jennings*

LONDON (IDN) — The COVID-19 pandemic has given rise to various new, repurposed or newly popular terms. The newest entry to the pandemic lexicon might be “vaccine diplomacy”, with some countries using their jabs to strengthen regional ties and enhance their own power and global status.

In early February, half a million doses of the Chinese Sinopharm COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Pakistan, before soon also reaching 13 other countries including Cambodia, Nepal, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.

: Phil Harris; SUSTAINABILITY; Health & Well Being; 24 February 2021

Photo: Niamey, Niger's capital and economic hub. CC BY-SA 2.0

Heavily US-Armed Niger Faces Electoral Violence

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — The country that drew worldwide attention over a now-debunked U.S. theory linking Saddam Hussein with the purchase of “yellowcake” uranium powder is in the spotlight again.

On February 21, unidentified attackers set off a landmine that exploded under a car full of election commissioners in the Tillaberi region of the landlocked West African nation of Niger, killing seven.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 23 February 2021

Photo credit: USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program.

The Ascendency and Mainstay of Participatory Development

Viewpoint by Dr Yossef Ben-Meir

The writer is President of the High Atlas Foundation, which is an implementer of the USAID Farmer-to-Farmer Program in Morocco.

MARRAKECH (IDN) — Participatory community movements found a contemporary impetus in post-World War II reconstruction of Europe and decolonization, primarily in Africa. The approach of locally managed change, however, was highly distrusted during these initial years, during which the dominant view was that central-level policymakers are in a better position than the people to make highly productive decisions regarding development projects.

: Opinion Editor; OPINION; 23 February 2021

Photo: An artist’s impression of Columbus arriving in America by Wilhem Berrouet. Credit: Salon de la Mappemonde/Flickr/CC)

Europe Slow in Recognising Global Impact of Colonialism

Viewpoint by Michael McEachrane*

LUND (IDN) – Centuries of European colonialism have had a tremendous impact on shaping inequities within and among countries, many of which are yet to be effectively addressed. This may seem like a trivial statement, but it is only recently being recognised by EU countries.

In 2019, the European Parliament passed a resolution on the Fundamental Rights of People of African Descent. It called for a comprehensive perspective on colonialism and slavery, which recognises their historical and contemporary adverse effects on people of African descent.

: Phil Harris; HUMAN RIGHTS; Racism; 23 February 2021

Photo: Scores killed in a stampede at a church crusade in Tanzania. Source: africanquarters.com

Tanzania President Acknowledges the Menace of COVID-19

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — For months, Tanzanian President John Magufuli stuck to a controversial stand that COVID-19 would only be defeated by prayer.

This Sunday (February 21), the President amended his position. He urged citizens to wear masks — only locally made ones — and take other preventive measures against the virus.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 22 February 2021

Image credit: UN Economic Commission for Africa.

Time to Redouble Efforts for Economic Diversification in East Africa

By Devendra Kamarajan

NAIROBI (IDN) — When the COVID-19 pandemic crisis started, most people were extremely pessimistic. They thought that the region would drown in terms of trade declining catastrophically. But a new report reveals that the East Africa Community economies — Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda — have, by global standards, proven to be relatively resilient.

: Devendra Kamarajan; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 February 2021

Photo: Collage of images from the African Union and German agency GIZ.

World's Largest Free Trade Area Opens for Business in Africa

By Kester Kenn Klomegah*

MOSCOW (IDN) — The opening of the world's largest free trade area in Africa on January 1, 2021, is of great interest to Russia. It comes more than one year after the first Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi on the Black Sea. As Russian President Vladimir Putin then said: "The event really opened a new page in relations between Russia and the states of the African continent."

The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) spanning 54 states over the next years has the potential to unite more than 1.3 billion people in a $2.5 trillion economic bloc.

: Kester Kenn Klomegah; THE WORLD; Russia; 19 February 2021

Photo: In this photo from Friday, August 14, 2020, protesters supported by New Orleans Workers Group march in support of African asylum seekers — many of them from Cameroon -- who've been conducting hunger strike at the Pine Prairie ICE Procession Center in Evangeline Parish. (Photo by Jason Kerzinski) Source: Louisiana Illuminator

Deportation of Africans Cancelled After Reports of Torture by the US Immigration Service

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) — A plane carrying Cameroonian, Angolan and Congolese asylum seekers due to take off from Alexandria, Louisiana, was cancelled with minutes to spare after advocacy groups published affidavits by detainees of torture by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.

The affidavits listed a host of violent tactics ICE officials had reportedly used to pressure the detainees to submit to their deportation. ICE agents were accused of choking, beating, and forcing the asylum seekers to agree to expulsion by threatening them placement in Covid-19 wards.

: Global Information Network; SUSTAINABILITY; Decent Work & Economic Growth; 16 February 2021

Photo: Security forces stand outside a polling station in Kampala, Uganda, on January 14, 2021. Source: The African Report.

Ugandan Election Rights Violations Elicit Threat of European Union Sanctions

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | BRUSSELS (IDN) — As Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni bore down on rights groups and the opposition, the European Union (EU) Parliament responded with the threat of sanctions against Ugandan individuals and organizations they hold responsible for abuses during the recent general election.

Museveni apparently sparked the EU backlash when he instructed the Ministry of Finance, in a letter dated January 1, to suspend the activities of the Democratic Governance Facility, a basket fund of European countries that bankroll most Ugandan civil society organizations that work on governance, rights and related themes.