Africa

Photo: Jean-Luc Stalon, UNDP Country Director in Senegal (in September 2012). Credit: UNDP

Ending Persistent Inequality in Africa a Top Priority

Viewpoint by Jean-Luc Stalon

Jean-Luc Stalon is UNDP Country Director in Senegal. This article first appeared on January 31, 2018 on Africa Review. – The Editor.

DAKAR (IDN-INPS) – The defeat of Keynesianism in the 1980s witnessed an increase in income and social inequalities associated with the domination and monopoly of neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism advocates a free market that would promote growth through public spending cuts, deregulation of the economy, lower taxes on business, reduction of restrictions capital movement and global open markets.

Consequently, it seemed to have conquered the world through the transfer of power from the public to private sector.

: UN Bureau; OPINION; 25 February 2018

Photo credit: Transparency International

Beware of Branding Africa as the World's Most Corrupt Region

By Jutta Wolf

This is the first in a series of reports highlighting salient aspects of Transparency International's latest analysis on challenges posed by corruption around the world as well as successes and failures of efforts targeting a scourge that eats into the vitals of human rights. – The Editor.

BERLIN (IDN) – Though Africa is widely regarded as the world's most corrupt region, Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) 2017 points to a more hopeful future for the continent.

The index, released by the global civil society organisation leading the fight against corruption, on February 21 reveals that despite attempts to combat corruption around the world, the majority of countries are moving too slowly in their efforts.

: Jutta Wolf; THE WORLD; Africa; 21 February 2018

A Revolutionary Change is Sweeping Across Southern Africa

Viewpoint by Jonathan Power*

LUND, Sweden (IDN-INPS) – It’s been an odd couple of months for southern Africa. No one predicted last year that in almost the same breath the long-serving dictator of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, and the super-corrupt president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, would be soon overthrown – and non-violently to boot.

In Zimbabwe the army did trigger Mugabe's demise, but it was a sort of passive coup, a non-violent withdrawal of support. In South Africa Zuma was compelled to stand down as leader of the African National Congress because of a majority vote against him in an assembly of the ANC, the party of black protest against former minority white-led rule. Again, all done non-violently.

: Jonathan Power; OPINION; 20 February 2018

Photo: President Barack Obama and Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, President of the Republic of Equatorial Guinea with their wives in the Blue Room during a U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit dinner at the White House, August 5, 2014. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.

Obiang Restores Death Penalty in Bid to Save Unpopular Regime

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – The Central African Equatorial Guinea, under President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, is reviving the odious death penalty against 147 opposition activists accused of "rebellion, attacks on authority and public disorder".

The activists include leaders of Citizens for Innovation (CI), many of whom were rounded up after a purported coup plot discovered near the country's border with Cameroon. Malabo's security minister accused citizens of Chad, Sudan and the Central African Republic of taking part in the attempted putsch but his version of events could not be confirmed.

: Global Information Network; NEWSBRIEFS; 20 February 2018

Photo: It has received little attention internationally but is the biggest political crisis to hit Ethiopia since the 2005 elections. Source: Human Rights Watch.

Ethiopian Resignation Triggers Anxiety, Anger and Emergency

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – The Ethiopian government has given itself sweeping new powers – from restrictions on freedom of assembly and free expression to the deployment of combat-ready troops in civilian centers. The newly imposed state of emergency is expected to last six months.

The harsh new limits on democratic expression – strongly criticised by the U.S. and the European Union – may have blindsided those in the international community who were expecting an opening for reforms with the surprise resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 20 February 2018

UN Agency in Talks with Israel on African Asylum Seekers

By Jaya Ramachandran

GENEVA | TEL AVIV (IDN) – UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, is negotiating with Israel to resettle a portion of African asylum seekers in third countries deemed by the UN to be "safe," perhaps including Western countries, in exchange for some of the refugees to be given permanent residency in Israel, according to The Times of Israel.

The aim is to halt Israel's plans to deport thousands of asylum seekers to African countries, widely believed to be Rwanda and Uganda. "Such an arrangement could be realized, though the necessary details need to be worked out," Sharon Harel, the external relations officer at the UNHCR office in Israel, told the newspaper.

: Jaya Ramachandran; THE WORLD; Middle East; 11 February 2018

Drought Forces Ghana To Ration Water Supply

By Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ACCRA (IDN) – The state-owned Ghana Water Company Ltd (GWCL) has announced that due to severe dry winter winds (called ‘harmattan’) and the drying up of rivers, water deliveries will be rationed over the coming months while the country awaits the rain.

“We are sorry to inform the consuming public that the situation has led to intermittent water supply in most cities and towns in the country,” said Stanley Martey, communications director of the national company. The rate of evaporation of water bodies nationwide has become alarming and there will be consequences for some communities, he said.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 07 February 2018

Photo: Escorted team from UNAMID’s Governance and Community Stabilization Section is pictured on its way to Birka area, North Darfur. The purpose of the trip, which took place on 2 February 2018, was to conduct a peace conference for farmers and herders as part of the Mission’s support to peaceful coexistence and stability between the two communities. Credit: Mohamad Almahady, UNAMID.

Security Council Statement under Kazakh Presidency Voices Concern and Relief on Darfur

By J Nastranis

UNITED NATIONS (IDN) – In a presidential statement on Darfur by Kazakh Ambassador Kairat Umarov, Security Council President for January, has welcomed improvements in the security situation, as well as the on-going absence of armed clashes between Government forces and the armed opposition, in addition to the extension of unilateral cessations of hostilities by both sides.

The presidential statement (S/PRST/2018/4) issued on January 31 said: "The Security Council also welcomes improvements in the humanitarian situation, including increased humanitarian access throughout Darfur and the return from Chad and the Central African Republic of more than 5,000 refugees in recent months."

: J Nastranis; UN INSIDER; 03 February 2018

Photo: UN Secretary-General António Guterres (at podium, right) and Moussa Faki Mahamat, Chairperson of the African Union Commission, address the press following the signing of a Joint UN-AU Framework for Enhancing Partnerships on Peace and Security in April 2017 at UN headquarters in New York. UN Photo/Manuel Elias.

UN, African Union Partnership Key to Success of Peacekeeping

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Strong partnership between the United Nations and African Union is a key to the success of peacekeeping operations of the Joint Task Force on Peace and Security, particularly in view of an increasingly complex nature of conflict and the lack of progress of political processes, a consultative meeting at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, has stressed.

The Task Force welcomed the determination of the African Union to continue developing its compliance framework in line with the African Union Peace and Security Council communiqué of May 30, 2017.

: J Nastranis; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 February 2018

Photo: Survivors of Namibia’s Herero tribe surrendering after a battle with German forces. Ullstein Bilderdienst Berlin/Supplied

Reparations Suit Over German Colonial Massacre Significant for the UN Genocide Convention

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – In its first formal response to a class-action suit filed by the Herero and Nama people of Namibia, Germany has asked a New York judge to throw out the suit as “inadmissible” because of “the principle of state immunity.”

Representatives of the communities directly affected by the 1904-1908 genocide in Namibia have taken the German government to court in New York, demanding damages to be paid directly to the descendants of the Ovaherero and Nama genocide survivors.

In 1904 and 1905 the Ovaherero and Nama of central and southern Namibia rose up against colonial rule and dispossession in what was then called German South West Africa.