Month: March 2024

Nigeria has announced the lifting of sanctions against Niger, reopening its borders with the Sahelian nation effective immediately. The decision, revealed on Wednesday, March 13, 2024, comes after calls for border reopening from Kano’s governor earlier this week.

The Nigerian presidency detailed the lifting of economic sanctions, allowing for the resumption of land and air travel between the two countries.

This move is expected to revive cross-border trade, particularly in agricultural products and livestock.

Nigeria’s decision follows a recent extraordinary summit of ECOWAS heads of state in Abuja.

While Benin promptly reopened its border after the summit, Niger has yet to formally respond to the announcement.

Kenyan President William Ruto said Wednesday the country will still lead a U.N.-backed multi-national police force to help quell gang violence in Haiti once a transitional presidential council is formed in the Caribbean country.

Ruto said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken had briefed him on the latest developments in Haiti and that he assured Blinken of Kenya’s commitment to deploy a police force to Haiti.

“I assured Secretary Blinken that Kenya will take leadership of the U.N. Security Support Mission in Haiti to restore peace and security,” Ruto said.

Kenya’s Foreign Affairs Principal Secretary Korir Sing’oei on Tuesday said Kenya had put on hold the deployment of 1,000 of its policemen until a clear administration is in place in Haiti. The announcement came after Haiti Prime Minister Ariel Henry said he would resign once a presidential council is created.

Kenya had agreed last October to lead a U.N.-authorized international police force to Haiti, but the country’s top court in January ruled it unconstitutional, in part because of a lack of reciprocal agreements on such deployments between the two countries.

Ruto said that he and Henry had witnessed the signing of the reciprocal agreements between Kenya and Haiti on March 1, clearing the path for the deployment.

Under the plan, the U.N.-backed multi-national police led by Kenyan officers was to help quell gang violence that has long plagued Haiti. But violence escalated sharply since Feb. 29, with gunmen burning police stations, closing the main international airports and raiding the country’s two biggest prisons, releasing more than 4,000 inmates.

Scores have been killed, and more than 15,000 are homeless after fleeing neighbourhoods raided by gangs. Food and water are dwindling and the main port in the capital of Port-au-Prince remains closed, stranding dozens of containers with critical supplies.

After returning from a trip to Kenya where he had gone to salvage plans for the African country’s deployment, Henry has been locked out of his own country and has remained in Puerto Rico since last week.

The head of the African Development Bank has urged African countries to put an end to natural resource-backed loans in an interview to the Associated Press.

Akinwumi Adesina called the deals bad and pointed to a bank initiative that helps countries renegotiate them.

“The risk that one has with natural resource-backed loans, as far as I’m concerned, is that they are just bad, bad, and bad. First and foremost, because you can’t price the asset properly. If you have minerals, oil, metals, and gas under the ground, it’s not actually being marketed, so how you actually come up with a price of that for a long-term contract? It’s a challenge.”

“Second, is that the negotiation is very asymmetric. Most countries that want to do asset-natural resource-backed loans are probably dealing with bigger countries, bigger commercial banks that want to give them a loan and say, ‘Well, look, it’s urgent, we need it. But this is what you have to sign.’ But it is those that actually want to give the loan that have the upper power, not the person who wants or the country that wants to receive the loan.”

Linking future revenue from natural resource exports to loan pay downs is often touted as a way for recipients to get financing for infrastructure projects and for lenders to reduce the risk of not getting their money back.

The shift to renewable energy and electric vehicles has caused a spike in the demand for critical minerals, driving these kind of loans.

Litany of problems

Adesina, whose Abidjan, Ivory Coast-based institution helps finance development in African countries, said these arrangements come with a litany of problems.

He highlighted the uneven nature of the negotiations, with lenders typically holding the upper hand and dictating terms to cash-strapped African nations.

This power imbalance, coupled with a lack of transparency and the potential for corruption, creates fertile ground for exploitation, Adesina said.

“These are the reasons I say Africa should put an end to natural resource-backed loans,” he said as he proceeded to point to a bank initiative that helps “countries renegotiate those loans that are asymmetric, not transparent and wrongly priced.”

The former Nigerian minister for Agriculture said loans secured with natural resources pose a challenge for development banks like his and the International Monetary Fund, which promote sustainable debt management.

Countries may struggle to get or repay loans from these institutions because they have to use the income from their natural resources — typically crucial to their economies — to pay off resource-tied debts, he said.

At least 11 African countries

Adesina specifically mentioned Chad’s crippling financial crisis after an oil-backed loan from commodity trader Glencore left the central African nation using most of its oil proceeds to pay off its debt.

A Glencore spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

After Chad, Angola and the Republic of Congo approached the IMF for support, the multilateral lender insisted on the renegotiation of their natural resource-backed loans.

At least 11 African countries have taken dozens of loans worth billions of dollars secured with their natural resources since the 2000s, and China is by far the top source of funding through policy banks and state-linked companies.

Western commodity traders and banks, such as Glencore, Trafigura and Standard Chartered, also have funded oil-for-cash deals, notably with the Republic of Congo, Chad and Angola.

Standard Chartered didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment, while Trafigura pointed to its 2020 report called “Prepayments Demystified,” which says that “trading firms are enabling production that would otherwise not be possible — thus underpinning economic growth, job creation and the generation of fiscal revenues in the countries concerned.”

Adesina said there was no “fixation” on one country as being behind these types of loans.

Several people boarded and took control of a ship during a suspected pirate attack in the Indian Ocean, nearly 1,100 km east of Somalia’s coastal capital, Mogadishu, the British army reported on Tuesday.

The ship was boarded by several people on board two boats, “one large and the other small” , said a statement from the British army’s maritime trade operation. “Unauthorized persons now have control of the vessel ,” the statement said. He does not give any further details.

British maritime security company Ambrey said 20 armed attackers took control of the ship as it traveled from Mozambique ‘s capital Maputo to Hamriya in the United Arab Emirates.

Piracy that once raged off the coast of Somalia has declined after peaking in 2011, but concerns about further attacks have increased in recent months .

In December, at least two incidents were reported. One involved a commercial vessel seized by heavily armed people near the town of Eyl, off the coast of Somalia. The other concerns a Maltese-flagged merchant vessel that was hijacked in the Arabian Sea and moved to the same area off the coast of Somalia.

The waters off Somalia saw a spike in piracy in 2011, when the UN said more than 160 attacks were recorded. Incidents subsequently declined significantly, largely due to the presence of the U.S. Navy and its allies in international waters.

Germaine Ololo is a renowned Congolese comedian. Whenever on stage she raises awareness one joke at a time. Be it a scene on forced marriage, violence against women or on the complicated situation of widows in society, there is no taboo issue for her.

The comedian who is a mentor to younger counterparts, welcomes them every week at the headquarters of the Fief which can be translated as the international festival of Women’s speech. Together, the women prepare workshops and shows but they also discuss ways to promote women’s empowerment in the field of art and culture.

“That’s what art is all about, enrich the ordinary language to get a message across, I think that public speaking today, whether it’s telling tales, being a slam poet or a stand UP comedian, all these forms of art must be tools to try to educate,” Ololo says.

Stand up is a popular a theatrical form of comic monologue. On the continent, the number of women comedian keeps increasing by the day.

Many African stars have become sources of inspirations for young women. Ivorian comedian Prissy la degammeuse was in Pointe Noire for the second edition of the Stand up au feminin festival [ Women Stand Up festival] (Mar. 8-Mar. 10).

“I am so happy, to be totally honest, I am still moved. I was able to get on stage today and even talk a bit to Prissy,” one spectator says.

Comedian Alex Cadi explains why she loves stand up: “I like [it] because through it, I can share my thoughts, my vision.”

The 2024 International Women’s day theme, ‘Invest in women: Accelerate progress”, has been largely welcomed by Congolese civil society group who call for a greater support for initiatives led by actresses in the field culture with the aim to contribute to women’s empowerment.

Migrants whose asylum claims are rejected by the United Kingdom will be given £3,000 ($3,800) to move to Rwanda.

The UK has already has a plan in place which pays failed asylum seekers to return to their home countries.

But the new measure targets those who cannot return to their countries of origin, local press reported Tuesday.

The cash in exchange for moving to Rwanda is just another scheme in Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s ambitious plan to stop irregular migration.

It does not replace the plan to deport illegal arrivals to Rwanda, which has been blocked by courts over concerns about the east African country’s safety.

To side step the court’s concerns, the government introduced a bill which seeks to label Rwanda a safe country.

Last week, the proposed legislation suffered a major setback after the House of Lords passed five amendments, which if ratified, would make it harder for the House of Commons to declare Rwanda “safe” and would require the government to comply with domestic and international law.

The bill compels judges to regard Rwanda as a safe country and gives ministers the power to disregard parts of the Human Rights Act.

For accepting to receive deportees, Kigali has so far pocketed $300 million from London.

After numerous court cases and international outcry, no deportation flights have taken off under the deal struck in April 2022.

Prime Minister Sunak has vowed to press ahead with the plan.

A member of Cameroon’s African Cup of Nations squad is among 52 players who face being excluded from the playoffs for the country’s premier national championship due to irregularities in their registration.

Wilfried Nathan Douala and 51 other players considered by the Cameroonian Football Federation to have a “double identity” lied about their age and were suspended, French channel RMC and Cameroonian media reported on Monday.

Only one club – Yong Sports Academy – has had 13 players highlighted for suspension or dual identity.

The federation published on Sunday the lists of teams participating in the qualifiers which are due to begin on Friday, with the names of 52 players highlighted in red for “double identity”.

Douala, who plays for Victoria United FC, is 17 years old according to his registration.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday announced an additional $100 million to finance the deployment of a multinational force mission to Haiti.

Blinken made the pledge during a meeting with Caribbean leaders in Jamaica to discuss the crisis in Haiti.

The US has persuaded Kenya to deploy police personnel to the Carribean country despite a court order blocking the mission.

“Given this increasing urgent need, I’m announcing today that the United States Department of Defense is doubling its approved support for the mission from $100 million to $200 million,” Blinken said

Public order in Haiti country has all but collapsed after attacks by armed gangs on police and other government installations.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who has not been able to fly home since his trip to Kenya last week tendered his resignation on Tuesday.

The development worsens Haiti’s already fragile political situation.