Month: June 2023

Senegalese President Macky Sall said the country’s commitment to democracy will continue “despite those that try to paint with darker colours.”

Sall was speaking in Lisbon to reporters along with Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa.

In recent weeks, Dakar has seen deadly clashes break out between Senegalese police and supporters of opposition leader Ousmane Sonko after Sonko was convicted of corrupting youth, but acquitted on charges of raping a woman who worked at a massage parlour and making death threats against her.

In residential neighbourhoods, protesters threw rocks at police, barricaded roads and set tyres on fire. The army patrolled the streets as police fired tear gas at the demonstrators, detaining people deemed to be causing trouble.

Sonko came third in Senegal’s 2019 presidential election and is popular with the country’s youth. His supporters maintain his legal troubles are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in the 2024 presidential election.

Sonko is considered President Macky Sall’s main competition and has urged Sall to state publicly that he won’t seek a third term in office.

The Senegalese president ordered an investigation to determine who was responsible for protests by supporters of his political opponent but said he was open to consulting with the parties involved.

Sall is on an official visit to Portugal. Following an official welcoming ceremony and meeting, the Portuguese President praised Senegal’s role trying to support peace in Ukraine.

On Saturday Russian President Vladimir Putin met with a group of leaders of African countries who travelled to Russia on a self-styled “peace mission” the day after they went to Ukraine, but the meeting ended with no visible progress.

The seven African leaders — the presidents of Comoros, Senegal, South Africa and Zambia, as well as Egypt’s prime minister and top envoys from the Republic of Congo and Uganda — visited Ukraine on Friday to try to help end the nearly 16-month-old war.

The African leaders then traveled to St. Petersburg on Saturday to meet with Putin who was attending Russia’s showpiece international economic forum.

Ahead of Sierra Leone’s presidential elections on June 24th, supporters of the main opposition party, the All People’s Congress (APC) gathered in the capital Freetown to protest the country’s dire economic situation.

The West African country is preparing for its fifth presidential elections since the end of a brutal civil war there two decades ago. Thirteen people are vying for the top job, however, experts say it will most likely be a tight race between incumbent President Julius Maada Bio and the APC’s Samura Kamara.

Bio, who was elected for a first term in 2018, has faced increasing criticism for the country’s debilitating economic conditions, with several violent anti-government protests taking place in recent months.

As of April, Sierra Leone, which has one of the world’s weakest currencies, saw inflation rise to more than 43% from a high of more than 41% in March. With nearly 60% of the country’s population of more than seven million facing poverty and one of the highest rates of youth unemployment in West Africa, public frustration is growing.

The election also comes during a surge of regional political upheaval, with deadly clashes in Senegal as well as military coups in Burkina Faso and Mali. A peaceful vote in Sierra Leone is therefore of even greater importance, say analysts.

“We’ve seen this democratic backsliding in the region. So if Sierra Leone’s [presidential] election is free, fair and credible, it could be a bellwether for regional democracy,” says Jamie Hitchen, a political analyst focused on Sierra Leone and an honorary research fellow at the University of Birmingham.

This week’s vote will be a reverse of the 2018 presidential elections, when Bio – at the time representing the opposition – faced Kamara – from the then-ruling party. Bio narrowly beat Kamara in a runoff by a margin of less than 5%.

Analysts say that Bio, a former military head of state, has invested in improving education and taken steps to fight rampant corruption in the country. The country ranked 110 on Transparency International’s index in 2022, having moved up from 129 when Bio took office. However, the weak economy has eroded trust in the current leader.

Bio’s opponent, Kamara, a seasoned politician who served in various government positions including as foreign minister, is currently facing corruption charges of allegedly embezzling public funds from a renovation project in New York during his time as minister. His case is set to be heard in court by mid-July. Kamara is hoping to catapult support by promising to fix the country’s economic woes.

Regardless of who wins the election, the new government will face the same macroeconomic challenges and so “the risk of social unrest” is likely to continue over the near-term, according to Rukmini Sanyal, an analyst for the Economist Intelligence Unit, a research and analysis division of the Economist Group.

Economic growth is expected to remain slow, bogged down by sluggish global expansion and a rise in domestic inflation, says Sanyal. The mix of soaring inflation, widespread poverty and high unemployment have turned many away from Bio.

“We need someone who can manage the economy because clearly [the president] is unable to, and we are suffering,” said Alpha Kamara, a taxi driver in the capital, Freetown.

Some people, however, say the ruling party has a proven track record, and they are willing to give it more time. “I want to see more development, which is why I am going to vote for Bio,” said Mohamed Lamin, a local, “He provided us with free education, built roads, a new airport and many other [projects].”

Nigeria qualified for the next AFCON by beating Sierra Leone 3-2 on Sunday thanks to Kelechi Iheanacho’s 95th minute goal, while Tanzania held on for a crucial home win over Niger despite a bizarre late incident when the referee sent off the Tanzanian ball boys for interfering with the ongoing game.

In Tanzania, the ball boys threw numerous balls onto the pitch on at least two occasions, forcing the referee to stop play as Niger launched late attacks in search of an equalizer.

There were at least four balls on the pitch at one point when Niger launched one of their attacks, leading Egyptian referee Mohamed Al Sayd to lose patience and walk over to the ball boys on the touchline to order them off the pitch.

Nevertheless, Tanzania managed to win 1–0 thanks to a 69th-minute goal from Saimon Msuva, which puts them in position to qualify from Group F behind Algeria, who has already booked their place at the 2024 AFCON in Côte d’Ivoire.

Tanzania needs a point from Algeria on the final day of the qualifiers in September to make second place in the group ahead of East African rival Uganda.

Algeria beat Uganda 2-1 on Sunday thanks to winger Mohamed El Amine Amoura.

The Nigerian Eagles were well on the path to victory over Sierra Leone after Victor Osimhen scored twice within 32 minutes, putting the Napoli striker within the same category as Sadio Mané, both top of the qualifying scoring charts with five goals.

Sierra Leone narrowed the gap before half-time, however, and levelled the scores in the 84th minute through Augustus Kargbo.

With around 55 seconds remaining, Nigerian left-back Zaidu Sanusi broke through the defense and crossed for Leicester’s Iheanacho, who’s goal sealed the Super Eagles qualification for the  Africa Cup of Nations 2024.

Guinea-Bissau also qualified from Group A alongside Nigeria.

Mané’s Senegal, World Cup semi-finalists Morocco, Egypt and Algeria all qualified, with Egypt securing their place last week by beating Guinea 2-1. Morocco, meanwhile, lost 2-1 in South Africa last Saturday, although both teams had already qualified.

Cameroon, five-time African champions, and Ghana, four-time African champions, are the two biggest teams yet to book their ticket to Côte d’Ivoire. The fate of the Indomitable Lions will be decided in a home match against Burundi in September, by which time the Cameroonians could have dropped to third place in their group.

Ghana was held to a 0-0 draw in Madagascar on Sunday, while a win would have put them in third place.

They now need at least a home draw against the Central African Republic in their final qualifier. Ghana tops Group E, but only two points separate them from second-placed Angola and third-placed Central African Republic.

A security guard was fatally stabbed outside the Brazilian embassy in Tunisia on Monday, according to the Tunisian Interior Ministry.

The suspected attacker was shot in the leg by the police and arrested. According to a statement from the ministry, the guard was stabbed in the heart after asking the suspect why he was outside the embassy.

The area, in a residential zone of the capital, Tunis, was cordoned off by police as forensic officers examined the scene of the attack.

The suspect’s son told investigators that his father is a 53-year-old teacher who had suffered psychiatric troubles and had not been home for two days.

According to the ministry, the suspect was not previously known to Tunisian security services and the attack does not appear to have had terrorist motives.

Tunisia has experienced some terrorist and other attacks in recent years.

As the search for possible survivors continued Thursday, nine Egyptian men suspected of being smugglers were arrested in Greece, following the sinking of a boat carrying migrants off the Greek coast, which could have claimed hundreds of lives.

A port source related that among those arrested was the captain of the boat that capsized and sank, killing at least 78 people, according to official figures.

According to this source, the fishing boat had left Egypt empty before taking on migrants in Tobruk, a port city in eastern Libya, and had headed for Italy.

The suspects arrested in Kalamata, the port on the Peloponnese peninsula where the survivors were taken, are suspected of “illegal trafficking” in human beings, according to the Greek agency ANA.

The International Organization for Migration (IOM) said it feared that “hundreds more people” had drowned “in one of the most devastating tragedies in the Mediterranean in a decade”.

Greek government spokesman Ilias Siakantaris had said on Wednesday that unconfirmed reports put the number of people on board the trawler at 750.

Two patrol boats, a navy frigate, three helicopters and nine other vessels were continuing to inspect the waters to the west of the Peloponnese coast, one of the deepest areas of the Mediterranean.

The Greek supreme court has also ordered an inquiry to determine the causes of the tragedy, which has shocked Greece, which has been accused of years of turning back migrants seeking asylum in the EU.

A three-day national mourning period was declared, interrupting the electoral campaign for the legislative elections on 25 June.

But some newspapers made no secret of their anger at this latest tragedy involving migrants. The center left daily Efsyn ran the simple headline “Shame” in six languages.

In Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece’s second largest city, some 5,000 people took to the streets, according to the police, bearing slogans such as “The government and the European Union are killing” and “No to Fortress Europe. Solidarity with refugees”.

“In a state of shock”

In the port of Kalamata, “it’s really horrible”, UNHCR employee Erasmia Roumana explained. The survivors are “in a very bad psychological state Many are in a state of shock, they are overwhelmed”.

One hundred and four people were rescued and should soon be transferred to a reception center for migrants in Malakasa, north-east of Athens.

The survivors “are all men”, said the coastguard spokeswoman, raising fears that women and children, who usually also board these boats, were among those missing.

Most of the survivors were Syrians (47), Egyptians (43), as well as 12 Pakistanis and two Palestinians, according to the Greek authorities.

One survivor also told doctors at Kalamata hospital that he had seen around a hundred children in the hold of the boat, according to the public television channel ERT.

More than twenty people remain hospitalized in Kalamata, according to the same source.

An image broadcast by the coastguard showed a blue trawler, between 25 and 30 meters long and clearly in poor condition, overloaded with people, gathered on deck from bow to stern and even on the roof of the gangway.

According to the Greek port authorities, a surveillance plane from the European agency Frontex had spotted the boat on Tuesday afternoon, but the rescue services did not intervene because the passengers “refused all help”.

Frontex did not comment. However, its boss Hans Leijtens travelled to Kalamata to establish “the role” of the European border surveillance agency in this “horrific” shipwreck.

From Libya

“You don’t ask people on board a boat adrift if they want help, immediate help would have been needed”, Nikos Spanos, an international expert on maritime incidents, told Afrcanewsguru.com.

“The question is not whether the boat refuses help. An overloaded boat is a boat in distress, there is no question of its condition or its ability to continue its journey or not”, added Jérôme Tubiana, from Médecins sans Frontières (MSF) on the French public radio station France Culture.

The boat capsized 47 nautical miles (87 km) from Pylos, in the Ionian Sea, said Mr. Siakantaris, sinking in ten to fifteen minutes.

According to several officials, the survivors did not have life jackets.