Month: July 2024

The World Bank’s board has granted approval for $1.5 billion in financing for Ethiopia’s budget support, marking the first time the lender has offered this type of lending to the country.

This decision comes as Ethiopia strives to advance its long-standing debt restructuring.

The second most populous country in Africa received a $3.4 billion program from the International Monetary Fund on Monday, following the decision to float its birr currency by the central bank, allowing for progress in its debt restructuring.

To support Ethiopia's Homegrown Economic Reform Agenda that aims to stimulate private investment and jobs, our Board approved a 4-year $3.4bn ECF to help Ethiopia address economic challenges, strengthen growth, and resume rising living standards.https://t.co/AaWah3iFqm pic.twitter.com/wb6G6xDBCA

— IMF Africa (@IMFAfrica) July 30, 2024

Ethiopia will receive a $1 billion grant and a $500 million low interest credit line from the World Bank, in what is the first direct budgetary support facility provided to the country by the global lender.

Financial support was contingent on the government implementing important economic reforms, which included liberalizing the foreign currency market.

Ethiopian officials report that the funding is included in a $10.7 billion financial package provided by the IMF, World Bank, and other lenders.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday congratulated Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro for his victory in the presidential election held the previous day.

“Russian-Venezuelan relations are of a strategic partnership nature. I am confident that your activities as head of state will continue to contribute to their progressive development in all areas,” Putin said in a letter published by the Kremlin.

“Remember that you are always a welcome guest on Russian soil. I wish you success, as well as good health and well-being,” he added.

Nicolás Maduro was declared the winner in Venezuela’s presidential election on Sunday, even as his opponents were preparing to dispute the results, setting up a high-stakes showdown that will determine whether the South American nation transitions away from one-party rule.

“I am Nicolás Maduro Moro, re-elected president of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela. Thanks for defending our democracy, our laws and our people,” Maduro said while addressing a crowd in Caracas.

Shortly after midnight, the National Electoral Council said Maduro secured 51% of the vote, overcoming the main opposition candidate, Edmundo González, who garnered 44%.

But the electoral authority, which is controlled by Maduro loyalists, didn’t immediately release the tallies from each of the 30,000 polling booths nationwide, hampering the opposition’s ability to challenge the results after claiming it had data for only 30% of the ballot boxes.

“We want to tell all Venezuelans and the whole world that Venezuela has a new elected president and it is Edmundo González,” opposition member María Corina Machado told the media after the announcement.

China and 26 African countries have agreed to strengthen partnerships and boost innovation in the digital sector.

African participants at the Forum on China, Africa Digital Cooperation were hosted Monday (Jul. 29) by the Chinese ministry of Industry and Information Technology in Beijing.

Senegal’s minister of telecommunications looked forward to the changes scheduled over the next three years

“This digital cooperation between China and Africa is win-win, and will bring benefits to our countries, the African continent and China through the setting up of innovative infrastructures,” Alioune Sall said.

The parties jointly issued an action plan which includes the implementation of 10 digital transformation demonstration projects and the training of at least 1,000 professionals in the digital field.

This initiative aims to strengthen partnerships in digital policy, infrastructure, cutting-edge innovation, digital transformation, security, and talent nurturing over the next three years.

In recent years, China has struck digital cooperation deals with numerous African governments.

According to the China Academy of ICTs, Chinese firms are involved in bolstering network infrastructures on the continent, benefiting over 900 million people.

These include the deployment of undersea cables by Chinese companies and the lanch of data centers.

Dozens of Wagner mercenaries were killed by jihadis and rebels over the weekend in northern Mali in what one analyst described on Monday as the largest battleground blow to the shadowy Russian group in years. At least two others were taken captive.

Approximately 50 Wagner fighters in a convoy were killed in an al-Qaida ambush, which was joined by rebels who were in pursuit, along the border with Algeria, said Wassim Nasr, a Sahel specialist and senior research fellow at the Soufan Center, a security think tank, who said he counted bodies in a video of the aftermath.

The mercenaries had been fighting mostly Tuareg rebels alongside Mali’s army when their convoy was forced to retreat into jihadi territory and ambushed south of the commune of Tinzaouaten, Nasr said.

Wagner confirmed in a Telegram statement on Monday that some of its fighters as well as Malian troops were killed in a battle with hundreds of militants. The mercenary group did not say how many of its fighters were killed. Mali’s army said it lost two soldiers and 20 rebels were killed.

In a statement over the weekend, al-Qaida asserted that 50 Wagner fighters were killed in its attack meant to “avenge the massacres committed in the center and north” of Mali in the yearslong battle against the extremists. The Tuareg rebels said an unspecified number of the mercenaries and Malian soldiers surrendered to them.

The Associated Press was not immediately able to verify the video Nasr cited.

“This is really important. It’s never happened before on African soil and it will change the dynamics,” Nasr said. “They (Wagner) won’t be sending any more wild expeditions like this near the border with Algeria. They had been bragging about how well they were doing and how strong they are, but they don’t have the manpower to do this for long or to hold on territory to secure deployments.”

Russia has capitalized on the deteriorating relations between the West and coup-affected Sahel nations in West Africa to send fighters and assert its influence. Wagner has been active in the Sahel — the vast expanse south of the Sahara Desert — as the mercenaries profit from seized mineral riches in exchange for their security services.

Wagner has been present in Mali since late 2021 following a military coup, replacing French troops and international peacekeepers in helping to fight militants who have threatened communities in the central and northern regions for more than a decade. At the same time, Wagner has been accused of helping to carry out raids and drone strikes that have killed civilians.

The group has had an estimated 1,000 fighters in Mali.

Since helping Mali’s forces to regain control of the key northern town of Kidal, Wagner mercenaries have been overconfident and overstretched, said independent analyst John Lechner.

He said failures like the weekend ambush are the reason why the Wagner brand was retained in Mali. “Large losses or setbacks are attributed to private military companies,” he said. “Victories to the (Russian) ministry of defense.”