Month: June 2023

The second edition of the DRC Country Risk Conference was well attended by investors and senior Congolese officials.

The DRC’s Finance Ministry organised the conference to help investors understand the risks and opportunities in the country.

A study conducted by a pan-African rating agency known as Bloomfield showed that the DRC has improved its business climate.

“The grade this year has improved by 40 basis points from 5.1 to 5.5 on the scale of ten and that represents a moderate risk on our scale with regard to that methodology. What it means is that we are actually telling investors that they can come and invest in DRC,” said Stanislus Zeze, the Chief Executive Officer of Bloomfield.

That has boosted the confidence of some investors in the DRC’s mining sector.

“Overall, this is a good thing, because we can see that the government is willing to make improvements,” said Marie-Chantal Kaninda, the Chief Executive Officer of Glencore DRC.

The DRC has been a difficult environment to do business in over the past four decades due to widespread corruption, low electricity coverage and poor infrastructure. In 2014, the World Bank’s Doing Business report ranked it as 183rd out of 189 countries.

The Congolese President has vowed to take further steps improve the business climate.

The DRC has vast deposits of minerals. But millions of its citizens are living in poverty due to decades of conflict and political instability.

The Tripoli-based Libyan government on Friday denied any involvement in drone strikes against a base used by the Russian paramilitary group Wagner that had been reported by a military source in the eastern camp of the divided country, media reported.

The military source, who requested anonymity, told Africanewsguru.com that drone strikes “of unknown origin” had targeted the al-Kharrouba air base on Thursday evening, 150km south-east of Benghazi (east), where “elements of the Wagner group are believed to be based”.

News websites attributed the attack to the armed forces of the UN-recognised government in Tripoli, whose legitimacy is disputed by the rival camp in eastern Libya.

“We are surprised by reports of strikes carried out by our aircraft against a base in eastern Libya”, said the Ministry of Defence of the government of national unity, quoted on Friday by the al-Massar channel.

“We are respecting the ceasefire signed in October 2020,” it added.

“None of our aircraft has targeted any site in the eastern region,” said General Mohamad al-Haddad, Chief of Staff of the armed forces in western Libya, quoted by Addresslibya.

This kind of information, he said, “aims to rekindle the war between Libyan brothers and involve Libya in a regional conflict”.

Libya has been in the grip of a major political crisis since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi’s regime in 2011, undermined by divisions between East and West and foreign interference.

From April 2019 to June 2020, Khalifa Haftar, the strongman of Libya’s eastern camp, used Chadian, Sudanese, Nigerian and Syrian fighters, but above all mercenaries from Wagner, in his failed attempt to seize the capital Tripoli.

This failure was followed in October 2020 by a ceasefire agreement, compliance with which is supervised by a military commission comprising five officers from each side.

Since then, hundreds of Wagner members have remained active in the east, in the area of the oil terminals, and in the south of Libya after some of their troops left for Mali or Ukraine to fight alongside the Russian army.

The UN Security Council on Friday voted to end a decade-old peacekeeping mission to Mali, whose military junta urged the troops’ removal as it aligns with Russia.

The Security Council voted unanimously on a resolution that will immediately start winding down the Minusma mission, started in 2013 to prevent a jihadist takeover.

The vote came two weeks after Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop stunned the Security Council by calling the UN mission a “failure” and urging its immediate end.

Mali’s relations with the United Nations have deteriorated sharply since a 2020 coup brought to power a military regime which also severed defense cooperation with France, the former colonial power.

The junta has aligned itself with Russia and brought in Russian military contractors.

“We deeply regret the transitional government’s decision to abandon Minusma and the harm this will bring to the Malian people,” senior US diplomat Jeffrey DeLaurentis told the Security Council.

But he said that the United States voted for the resolution as it agreed with the timeline for withdrawal.

Under longstanding UN practice, a peacekeeping mission needs the approval of the host country.

France must address deep issues of racial discrimination in its police, the United Nations said Friday, after a third night of unrest sparked by the fatal police shooting of a teenager.

The death of 17-year-old Nahel during a traffic stop has revived longstanding grievances about policing and racial profiling in France’s low-income and multiethnic suburbs.

“We are concerned by the killing of a 17-year-old of North African descent by police in France on Tuesday,” UN human rights office spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani told a media briefing in Geneva.

“We note that an investigation has been launched into alleged voluntary homicide.

“This is a moment for the country to seriously address the deep issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement.”

French President Emmanuel Macron was to lead a crisis meeting of ministers on Friday after a third night of protests saw cars torched, shops ransacked and hundreds arrested.

“We also emphasise the importance of peaceful assembly,” Shamdasani said.

“We call on the authorities to ensure use of force by police to address violent elements in demonstrations always respects the principles of legality, necessity, proportionality, non-discrimination, precaution and accountability.

“Any allegations of disproportionate use of force must be swiftly investigated.”

South Africa’s president has been exonerated of charges of misconduct and betraying the honour of his office in a burglary scandal that almost cost him his job last year, the country’s ombudswoman announced on Friday.

The scandal broke in June 2022 when the former head of intelligence lodged a complaint accusing Cyril Ramaphosa of having concealed the theft in 2020 of bundles of dollars unearthed by burglars under the cushions of a sofa in one of his properties.

The police and the Ombudsman, Kholeka Gcaleka, launched investigations at the time. Mr Ramaphosa was also accused in the complaint of having bought the silence of burglars who had stumbled upon these sums, leading to suspicions of money laundering and corruption.

The Ombudsman, also known as the Public Protector, determined that in this case the behaviour of Mr Ramaphosa, 70, was not contrary to the Constitution.

“In the light of the standards imposed by the executive’s code of ethics, there is no basis for concluding that the President has breached” the relevant provisions of the law, “including during the period following the alleged theft of dollars”, Kholeka Gcaleka told the press in Pretoria.

The Office of the Public Protector is an independent institution, provided for in the Constitution, which must investigate and report any misconduct or wrongdoing within the government “without fear, favour or prejudice”. It does not, however, have the power to prosecute.

Mr Ramaphosa has always denied any dishonesty in this affair, stating that the money, $580,000 in cash, came from the sale of buffalo from his farm.

Last year, a parliamentary committee found that he “may have committed” “violations and faults” in this affair. Parliament subsequently decided not to initiate impeachment proceedings, which could have forced him to step down.

Mr Ramaphosa, a former trade union leader who became a business tycoon after apartheid, took over as head of South Africa in 2018, promising a “new dawn” after the scandal-ridden term of office of his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

The body of a 19-year-old Guinean man killed during a roadside checkpoint on 14 June in south-west France was received in Conakry on Wednesday evening by his family and the authorities, who called for justice to be done, a concerned individual spoke to an Africanewsguru.com journalist.

“It is with great emotion that we receive the body of young Alhoussein. The Head of State had promised that the body would be brought back here to Guinea for a dignified burial, which has been done by the grace of God,” said Foreign Affairs Minister Morissanda Kouyaté on his arrival at the airport.

“The conditions in which he died will be clarified. Guinea wants the justice system in France to do its utmost to elucidate the conditions in which he died”, he added.

The father of the young man killed, Fodé Camara, thanked the authorities for standing by the family.

The 52-year-old French police officer who fired the fatal shot was charged on Wednesday with culpable homicide, “with a ban on possessing a weapon and a ban on practising his profession”, announced the public prosecutor in Angoulême.

In the early hours of 14 June, in Saint-Yrieix-sur-Charente, on the outskirts of Angoulême, Alhoussein Camara was fatally shot by a police officer as he tried to escape being stopped during a roadside check.

According to the initial investigation, while two police vehicles were attempting to stop him for a check, the young man put his car into reverse and then drove forward, hitting the legs of a police officer, who then fired a shot.

Mr Camara’s family were quick to denounce the incident as a “blunder”.

The young Guinean, who arrived in France in 2018, was working in a supermarket logistics base, where he was travelling, according to those close to him. He was unknown to the law, according to the public prosecutor.

Between 800 and 1,000 people took part in a march after his death, demanding justice, in the presence of the Guinean ambassador to France, Sinkoun Sylla.

This case echoes the death on Tuesday in Nanterre, near Paris, of Nahel, a young 17-year-old motorist who was killed by a police officer as he tried to escape a roadside check. The tragedy led to two nights of violence across France.

Nigeria’s food and drug regulator, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), has issued a recall order for a batch of Sprite glass bottles in circulation due to possible contamination with particles.

The recall was initiated following a consumer complaint, and subsequent investigations revealed that over five crates of the implicated batch of Sprite 50cl glass bottles were contaminated. The specific nature of the particles and their potential implications have not been disclosed by the authorities.

The Nigerian Bottling Company Limited, Abuja plant, has been instructed to recall the affected batch. The company has yet to comment on the decision. The regulator has urged retailers and consumers to exercise caution and refrain from consuming contaminated products.

Individuals who have consumed the affected items have been advised to seek immediate medical attention. Furthermore, an inspection of the manufacturing site will be conducted to determine the cause of the contamination.

This recall comes after the regulator previously launched an investigation into a popular brand of noodles in May, following recalls in Malaysia and Taiwan due to the detection of a potentially cancer-causing substance.

The controversial plan to deport migrants who arrived clandestinely in the UK to Rwanda was declared unlawful on Thursday by the British court of appeal due to safety concerns, much to the dismay of the government, which has announced that it will appeal to the supreme Court.

The court explained that Rwanda cannot currently be considered a safe third country as there is a real threat that those sent to the east African country will be returned to their country of origin where they may have been subject to persecution and inhumane treatment.

“The deficiencies in the asylum system in Rwanda are such that there are substantial grounds for believing that there is a real risk that persons sent to Rwanda will be returned to their home countries where they faced persecution or other inhumane treatment, when in fact they have a good claim for asylum. In that sense, Rwanda is not a safe third country,” said Lord Chief Justice, Lord Burnett.

“Unless and until the deficiencies in its asylum process are corrected, sending asylum seekers to Rwanda will be unlawful,” the court stressed in a summary of the judgment.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said he fundamentally disagreed with the decision and announced that his government would seek permission to refer the matter to the Supreme Court.

“The policy of this government is very simple, it is this country, and your government, that must decide who comes here, not criminal gangs,” he said in a statement, claiming he would do “whatever is necessary” to implement it. “Rwanda is a safe country,” he insisted.

Fears of persecution

The fight against illegal immigration is one of the priorities of Mr. Sunak’s government.

Despite Brexit promises to “take back control” of borders, more than 45,000 migrants crossed the Channel from France in small boats in 2022, a record. And there are more than 11,000 this year to have done the same.

The Court of Appeal made it clear that its decision did not imply “any view whatsoever on the political merits” of this measure, and that its only concern was to judge whether this policy complied with the law.

Despite this decision, “Rwanda remains fully committed to making this partnership” with the UK “work”, Kigali government spokeswoman Yolande Makolo explained.

“While this decision ultimately rests with the British judiciary, we dispute the fact that Rwanda is not considered a safe country for refugees and asylum seekers”, she added.

In terms of human rights, however, Rwanda is regularly criticized for its harsh repression of political opposition and its lack of respect for freedom of expression.

Changing course

Hailing a “rare piece of good news in the UK’s grim human rights landscape”, the country director of Human Rights Watch, Yasmine Ahmed, urged Home Secretary Suella Braverman to “abandon this feverish, impractical and unethical dream”.

This ruling “offers the government the opportunity to change course”, she added: “Rather than treating human beings as cargo to be shipped elsewhere, it should focus on ending the hostile environment towards refugees and asylum seekers”.

Last December, London’s High Court gave the green light to the deportation of certain illegal migrants to Rwanda, deeming the scheme legal.

The project has since been put on hold due to legal challenges.

However, the judges agreed to consider an appeal by several applicants and Charity Aid, which provides legal support to asylum seekers. They denounce the project as “systemically unjust”, and believe that asylum seekers who are expelled to Rwanda risk persecution there.

No expulsions have yet taken place. A first flight scheduled for June 2022 was cancelled after the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) called for a thorough review of the policy.

The plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda was announced when Boris Johnson was Prime Minister, in a bid to discourage illegal crossings of the English Channel.

In 2021, 27 people lost their lives trying to cross this strait, one of the busiest in the world. At least four more died last year.

Germany, which has deployed some 1,000 soldiers to Mali, is already withdrawing them and aims to wind up by May 2024.

With a UN peacekeeping deployment set to conclude on June 30, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has stated that his nation wants to remove its troops from Mali more quickly while maintaining order.

The troops were mostly stationed near the northern town of Gao where their main task is to gather reconnaissance for the UN peacekeeping mission MINUSMA.

On June 16, taking everyone by surprise, Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop, while denouncing the “failure” of the UN mission, suddenly demanded before the Security Council its immediate withdrawal.

The peacekeeping operation, known as Minusma, was the most expensive mission on the UN’s books, costing $1.2 billion per year, now appears set to wind down, plunging Mali — a country struggling with jihadist attacks — into the unknown.

As recently as early June, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had deemed the continued presence of Minusma “invaluable,” despite the high cost, highlighting regional fears of an expansion of extremist groups in the event of a withdrawal.

However, one of the key principles of peacekeeping is the consent of the host country.

Therefore, the latest draft resolution from France on Wednesday, suggests the Security Council will “terminate Minusma’s mandate under resolution 2640 (2022) as of June 30 2023.”

The mission created in 2013 to help stabilize a state under a serious jihadist threat, and to protect civilians, would cease its activities on July 1 to focus on the withdrawal, “with the objective of completing this process by 31 December 2023.”

Rapper Stormzy has teamed up with Crystal Palace striker Wilfried Zaha to buy ninth-tier English soccer side Croydon Athletic, the club said on Tuesday.

Zaha was born in the Ivory Coast but grew up in Croydon from the age of four, while Grime sensation Stormzy also hails from the London borough. The duo have joined forces with former Palace head of player care Danny Young to buy the club.

“The consortium will own, operate and develop their childhood hometown football club,” Croydon said in a statement.

“Whilst completion is subject to legislative and governance procedures, the three consortium members are excited about developing a community asset in the borough that gave them their own opportunities.

“They hope to take the entire community on this exciting journey with them.”

A number of celebrities have recently invested in football clubs.

Hollywood actors Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney, who acquired Wrexham in November 2020, are enjoying success after the Welsh club secured promotion to the English Football League in April following a 15-year absence.

Actor Michael B. Jordan is an investor at Bournemouth and NBA great LeBron James has a stake in Liverpool.