Africa

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blindpig
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Tue Aug 30, 2022 4:16 pm

Drought in Horn of Africa Expected To Worsen, WMO Says

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| Photo: @FatimaM86772400

Published 26 August 2022

Below-normal rainfall levels are forecast by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) for Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia for October-December.

The international organization warned of worsening drought in the Horn of Africa region in the face of the fifth consecutive season without rain.

The WMO said that drought-affected areas in Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia are expected to receive significantly below normal rainfall levels through the end of the year.

According to the organization's spokesperson, Clare Nullis, this lack of rainfall will bring with it very tough consequences, since "in the equatorial areas of the Greater Horn of Africa, the October to December season brings up to 70 percent of the total annual rainfall, especially in eastern Kenya."

The director of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development's (IGAD) Climate Prediction and Applications Center (ICPAC), Guleid Artan, said, "In Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, we are on the brink of an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe."



World Health Organization (WHO) data reveal that more than 80 million people in the countries of the region (Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda) are food insecure.

In this regard, the World Food Program (WFP) said that the risk of famine caused by the fifth consecutive season without rains must be tackled immediately.

International agencies have said the drought in the Horn of Africa is the longest in 40 years. An emergency was declared last July given the situation of acute food insecurity suffered by over 50 million people in the region.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Dro ... -0023.html

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Africans Take UK to Court Over Abuses Committed During Colonial Era
AUGUST 26, 2022

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British colonial forces in Africa. File photo.

Kenyan activists are suing the United Kingdom for its grave abuses during the country’s colonial era after London refused to take any accountability for its crimes.

Several Kenyan activists are suing the United Kingdom over abuses committed during the British empire’s colonial era, raising a case against the country in the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) on Tuesday.

The plaintiffs, Africans forced off their land in the Kenyan Rift Valley, are saying London violated the European Convention of Human Rights through the abuses it committed in Africa during its colonial rule of the continent.

The UK is a signatory to the European Convention of Human Rights, and the plaintiffs’ lawyers are saying it violated the accord by consistently ignoring complaints raised by the victims of the brutal British colonial rule.

“The UK government has ducked and dived, and sadly avoided every possible avenue of redress,” Joel Kimutai Bosek, a lawyer representing the Kipsigis and Talai peoples, said. “We have no choice but to proceed to court for our clients so that history can be righted.”

The British Empire, the world’s biggest colonial empire, ruled Kenya between the late 19th century and 1962 while having a chokehold on the majority of the African continent, among various other regions of the world.

The peoples living in the Rift Valley were uprooted from their land in the early 1900s. One of the areas they were forced off of, the one surrounding Kericho, the biggest town in the Valley, is a key region used to grow tea, which is then farmed by multinational corporations to this day.

“Today, some of the world’s most prosperous tea companies, like Unilever, Williamson Tea, Finlay’s, and Lipton occupy and farm these lands and continue to use them to generate considerable profits,” the plaintiffs said in a statement.

The indigenous peoples of the region are not only deprived of their land but are also robbed of the potential profits they could be making from the fertile lands.

Previously, the Kipsigis and Talai took their cause to the UN, where a special investigative panel expressed “serious concern” last year over London failing to take any part of the blame and accountability or even issue an apology for the abuses committed during its colonial era.

The complaint sent to the UN was signed by more than 100,000 people that directly suffered from the colonial rule and those people’s descendants. They were demanding an apology and reparations for their land being ceded to white colonial settlers.

Kericho County outgoing governor Paul Chepkwony highly lauded the plaintiffs’ filing of their case with the ECHR, saying it was a “historic day” for the whole region.

“We have taken all reasonable and dignified steps. But the UK Government has given us the cold shoulder… we hope for those who have suffered for too long that their dignity will be restored,” Chepkwony said.

https://orinocotribune.com/africans-tak ... onial-era/

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Leaders of several countries bid farewell to remains of former Angolan president

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Dos Santos was fired in an open and massive ceremony held in the Republic Square in Luanda.
Published 28 August 2022

At least delegations from 21 countries attended the funeral ceremony of José Eduardo dos Santos, who was the president of Angola between 1979 and 2017.

Leaders from various countries and official delegations from at least 21 states bid farewell this Sunday, along with thousands of Angolans, to the funeral remains of former president José Eduardo dos Santos, in an open ceremony that took place in the Republic Square in Luanda, capital.

Local media detail that they traveled to Luanda, among other personalities, the president of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa; the one from Cape Verde, José Maria Pereira Neves; the dignitary of São Tomé and Príncipe Carlos Vila Nova; that of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa; and the one from Mozambique, Filipe Nyusi.

The Minister of the Territory of that African nation, Marcy Lopes, also attended Denis Sassou Nguesso, head of state of the Congo; Emmerson Mnangagwa, from Zimbabwe; Umaro Sissoco Embalo, from Guinea-Bissau.


José Eduardo dos Santos died on July 8 at the age of 79 in a Barcelona hospital, as a result of cardiac arrest and after being hospitalized since June 23.

The arrival in Angola of his mortal remains took place on August 20, a few days before the elections; and his body was given to his widow, Ana Paula dos Santos, after a legal battle between the two parts of the family in the Spanish courts.

Dos Santos assumed the position of President of the Republic in September 1979, and was in office for 38 years until 2017, becoming the second dignitary of that nation and succeeding the also deceased António Agostinho Neto.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/mandatar ... -0007.html

Google Translator

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Macron Insulted Africans’ Intelligence
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on AUGUST 29, 2022
Andrew

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The shameless ethno-nationalist supremacy associated with his hateful remark will result in Africans doubling down on their anti-imperialist and Pan-Africanism activism since no self-respecting person would ever capitulate in the face of such blatantly racist pressure and thus voluntarily submit themselves to being dominated by their abuser.

French President Macron claimed during his latest trip to Algeria that “Many of the (information) networks that are covertly pushed (in Africa) – … by Turkey… by Russia… by China – have an enemy: France.” This was a supreme insult to all Africans’ intelligence since it channeled the discredited racist trope that they’re supposedly so stupid as to be easily manipulated by multipolar powers. Instead of acknowledging the genuinely grassroots and politically legitimate reasons why many Africans are actively rebelling against French influence in its self-proclaimed “sphere of influence” in so-called “Françafrique” like Turkiye’s Foreign Ministry suggested that he do, Macron chose to once again spew unsubstantiated smears similar in spirit to those malicious ones that it earlier made against Mali.

The reality is that the global systemic transition to multipolarity that unprecedentedly accelerated since the latest US-provoked phase of the Ukrainian Conflict has served to inspire the entire BRICS-led Global South to push back against the US-led West’s Golden Billion at this pivotal moment in the New Cold War between those two polar opposite models of socio-economic and political development. Moreover, many Africans felt emboldened to further intensify their efforts after President Putin unveiled his global revolutionary manifesto in late July that was followed shortly thereafter by Foreign Minister Lavrov pledging that Russia will help Africa fully complete its decolonization processes ahead of his successful trip to the continent.

“Africa’s Role In The New Cold War” is destined to be that of a major battleground between the Golden Billion and the Global South precisely because its people refuse to be subjugated any longer by the former after having ruthlessly been exploited by them for half a millennium. France, which is among the most powerful of the Golden Billion’s hegemons in Africa and even surpasses the US’ influence in some parts of the continent, isn’t even hiding its neo-colonial intentions anymore after Macron ripped off his mask and started insulting Africans’ intelligence in the extremely racist way that he just did. The so-called “battle for hearts and minds” has already been won by the Global South’s multipolar Great Powers like Russia and China, who are helping to liberate all African countries with no strings attached.

They’d never dare disrespect their partners, let alone in the crude way that Macron just did, especially because they themselves have been victimized by similar forms of verbal abuse. Africans are well aware not only of those two and others’ proud anti-colonial histories, but also of just how sincerely they respect all others in contrast to the behavior exemplified by Western leaders like the French one and his peers. Macron’s racist insult of all Africans’ intelligence isn’t just rude, but also suggests that the Golden Billion is done “playing nice” after having abandoned all pretenses of their faux “politeness” that they unconvincingly attempted to practice in the past. As Western “thought leaders” never tire of reminding everyone, “might makes right” in their eyes, hence why they’re now sowing chaos across Africa.

This isn’t speculation either but documented fact after Mali recently accused France of supporting those Al Qaeda-connected terrorists that declared war on its Russian partner in late June and then the joint US- and Egyptian-led but TPLF-driven Hybrid War of Terror on Ethiopia resumed shortly thereafter on the other side of the continent. In fact, that second-mentioned conflict that first went hot in November 2020 after years of multilateral planning can be seen in hindsight as the new template that the West and its regional vassals like Egypt are employing since it was hatched as punishment for Ethiopia’s principled neutrality in the New Cold War between the US-led West’s Golden Billion and the BRICS-led Global South. It therefore follows that similarly multipolar states like Mali and others will be punished too.

Macron made a major mistake though by letting his mask slip after spewing his racist innuendo about Africans supposedly lacking the intelligence to not be manipulated by foreign powers. The shameless ethno-nationalist supremacy associated with his hateful remark will result in Africans doubling down on their anti-imperialist and Pan-Africanism activism since no self-respecting person would ever capitulate in the face of such blatantly racist pressure and thus voluntarily submit themselves to being dominated by their abuser. Far from helping the Golden Billion’s hegemonic cause like his twisted mind imagined that his crude insult would supposedly do, the French leader’s public embrace of racist tropes against Africans will only serve to accelerate the decline of the US-led West’s hegemony over that continent.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/08/ ... elligence/

The Ethiopian Embassy in the US Decisively Responded to the New York Times’ Disinformation
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on AUGUST 28, 2022
Andrew Korybko

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What’s so devious about their latest report is that it masquerades as objective but deliberately twists some key facts while purposely omitting others in order to artificially manufacture a false perception of the conflict that entirely blames the central government for everything. Casual news consumers might therefore easily be misled into falling for this latest information warfare provocation, hence the importance of the Ethiopian Embassy in the US responding as decisively as it did.

The New York Times (NYT) spread disinformation about the latest phase of the Ethiopian Conflict in its recent piece titled “Fighting Erupts In Northern Ethiopia, Shattering Ceasefire”, which prompted the Ethiopian Embassy in the US to decisively respond in a statement shared on their Twitter account so as to set the record straight. That country’s diplomats reminded everyone of their government’s commitment to hold African Union-led peace talks anywhere, about any subject, and at any time without preconditions. They also took issue with that outlet omitting any mention of the TPLF’s responsibility for starting the conflict in November 2020 after their long-planned and coordinated sneak attack against the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF).

Building upon that, another of their contentions was that the NYT falsely framed the conflict as having personally been commenced by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed out of supposed malice for his political opponents. The Ethiopian Embassy in the US then drew a sharp contrast between their universally recognized and democratically elected government’s progressive partnership with the UN’s World Food Program (WFP) and the TPLF’s latest raid against one of its warehouses that was condemned by that global body. They then concluded by warning that “Inaccuracies like those presented on August 24 risk emboldening further aggression in Ethiopia and other parts of the world where democracy is under threat” before reaffirming that the NYT’s audience deserves to know the truth about this conflict.

Taken together, their response can accurately be described as decisive since it concisely corrected the record by sharing objectively existing and easily verifiable facts with that outlet’s audience, who might otherwise have unquestionably extended credence to the NYT’s artificially manufactured narrative and thus falsely thought that Ethiopia’s central government was to blame for everything. The reality is that this multipolar and historically diverse civilization-state has been victimized by a joint US- and Egyptian-led but TPLF-driven Hybrid War of Terror as punishment for its principled neutrality in the New Cold War between the West’s Golden Billion and the BRICS-led Global South. In fact, the latest round of fighting was once again initiated by the TPLF at its patrons’ behest to punish Ethiopia for its summer of success.

Since the hot stage of this preplanned conflict began almost two years ago, the dual American and Egyptian masterminds have relied immensely on information warfare to manipulate the global audience about its dynamics. From falsely alleging that a so-called “genocide” was taking place in the Tigray Region to recently claiming that the Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF) bombed a kindergarten full of kids inside despite the school season having not yet begun (and being stopped entirely in that region since the conflict started), everything pushed about the central government by those two perpetrators and their media proxies has been nothing but lies. It therefore naturally follows that the NYT would also participate in this dimension of the Hybrid War by virtue of its global influence in shaping the narrative.

What’s so devious about their latest report is that it masquerades as objective but deliberately twists some key facts while purposely omitting others in order to artificially manufacture a false perception of the conflict that entirely blames the central government for everything. Casual news consumers might therefore easily be misled into falling for this latest information warfare provocation, hence the importance of the Ethiopian Embassy in the US responding as decisively as it did. Seeing as how the Hybrid War of Terror on Ethiopia probably won’t end anytime soon since its perpetrators refuse to let that multipolar civilization-state peacefully develop according to the vision of its democratically elected leadership, more such fake news and consequence responses should be expected in the coming future.

Scrutinizing The Claim That The Ethiopian Air Force Just Bombed A Kindergarten In Mekelle

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Even leaving aside the central government’s factually grounded designation of the TPLF as terrorists, that group’s proven disreputableness, and its prior pattern of manipulating the US-led Western Mainstream Media (MSM) into amplifying its false narrative against the state by dumping fake body bags and/or the bodies of those who died elsewhere at the scenes of where it claims the government committed war crimes, there are three other reasons not to believe its latest accusations.

The terrorist-designated TPLF claimed that the Ethiopian Air Force (ETAF) just bombed a kindergarten in the regional capital of Mekelle and killed several children as part of the latest round of fighting that this group provoked last week at the behest of its American and Egyptian patrons. Despite this scandalous accusation having only just been made by the same organization that’s infamous for spreading fake news about these sorts of attacks and thus not yet confirmed by any independent third-party observers, UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell jumped on the bandwagon by extending credence to this narrative. The Government Communication Service defended the state’s reputation by revealing that “the terrorist TPLF has begun dumping fake body bags in civilian areas in order to claim that the Air Force attacked civilians”, which is consistent with what that group’s done since November 2020.

These conflicting allegations have understandably resulted in a lot of confusion about what just transpired, hence the need to closely scrutinize the original war crime claim being made by the ETAF. Even leaving aside the central government’s factually grounded designation of the TPLF as terrorists, that group’s proven disreputableness, and its prior pattern of manipulating the US-led Western Mainstream Media (MSM) into amplifying its false narrative against the state by dumping fake body bags and/or the bodies of those who died elsewhere at the scenes of where it claims the government committed war crimes, there are three other reasons not to believe its latest accusations. The first and most obvious of these is that the school season has yet to start in Ethiopia, meaning that it’s highly unlikely that children were at the site when it was allegedly hit.

Second, the reader should be reminded that the TPLF is functioning as their joint American and Egyptian patrons’ proxies in the Hybrid War of Terror on Ethiopia, which is the exact same role that NATO-backed Kiev plays vis a vis that bloc’s Hybrid War on Russia throughout the course of the latest US-provoked phase of the Ukrainian Conflict. It’s therefore reasonable to suspect that Kiev’s strategy of illegally militarizing residential areas in order to deter its opponent’s attacks, which was just proven by Amnesty International’s recent bombshell report, is also being replicated by the TPLF since both forces are Western Hybrid War proxies with the same American patron. With this in mind, it thus can’t be discounted that the terrorists militarized a school building without children inside of it at the time, but were then bombed as legitimate military targets and only afterwards brought bodies from elsewhere.

The final reason not to believe the TPLF’s latest accusations is that the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) have gone to great lengths to mitigate civilian casualties during their law-enforcement-turned-anti-terrorist operation exactly as the Russian Armed Forces (RFAF) have during their special military operation in Ukraine. Just like President Putin truly believes in the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians as proven by his treatise on this topic from summer 2021, to which end he’s declined to authorize the American-like carpet-bombing of enemy-controlled cities (especially those with human shields being held at illegally militarized residential areas) even though this has led to slow but steady progress for his side, so too does Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy truly believe in the historical unity of the diverse Ethiopian people and would thus never authorize the targeting of civilians either.

To summarize the skepticism towards the TPLF’s latest war crime claim against the central government: the group is already rightly designated as terrorists; is infamous for its disreputableness; and previously manipulated the MSM through the means that the Government Communication Service recently reminded everyone of. In the context of the current incident: school doesn’t even start in Ethiopia until Monday; there’s reason to suspect that the TPLF is replicating Kiev’s strategy of illegally militarizing residential areas in order to deter its opponent’s attacks seeing as how they’re Hybrid War proxies that share the same US patron; and Prime Minister Abiy sincerely believes in the historical unity of the diverse Ethiopian people so he’d never authorize the targeting of civilians. Taken together, these six points discredit the latest war crime claim against Ethiopia while suggesting that the TPLF and even UNICIF lied.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/08/ ... formation/

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Lindokuhle Mnguni is third Abahlali baseMjondolo leader to be killed this year

28-year-old Lindokuhle Mnguni, the chairperson of the eKhenana commune of South African shack dwellers’ movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM), was gunned down at his home in Durban on August 20.

August 27, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch



28-year-old Lindokuhle Mnguni, the chairperson of the eKhenana commune of South African shack dwellers’ movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM), was gunned down at his home in Durban on August 20. In its statement, Abahlali described him as “a fearless leader” who always “stood for his community. … He made it very clear, in his calm and gentle way, that he had chosen socialism or death.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/08/27/ ... this-year/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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blindpig
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Fri Sep 02, 2022 3:07 pm

US-backed TPLF resumes war in northern Ethiopia
Dismissing the AU-led peace negotiations, the TPLF called for Western intervention in Ethiopia before resuming the war on August 24. This ended the five-month long truce with Ethiopia’s federal government, weeks after envoys from the US and EU visited its base.

August 30, 2022 by Pavan Kulkarni

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In December, with the support of Amharan and Afar militias, the Ethiopian federal army, led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed had recaptured towns from the TPLF, forcing them to surrender. Photo: Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia Government Communication Service

Young people from Ethiopia’s northernmost State of Tigray, conscripted under threat by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), continue the attack on the Raya Kobo district of the neighboring Amhara State, six days after TPLF resumed the civil war.

In a bid to avoid mass-civilian casualties in urban fighting, the federal troops have withdrawn from Kobo city and taken defensive positions on its outskirts, the Government Communication Service said on Saturday, August 27. While leaving the door open for negotiations under the African Union (AU), the Ethiopian federal government has however stated that it will be “forced to fulfill its legal, moral and historical duty,” if the TPLF does not stop.

The five-month long humanitarian truce in the civil war, which the TPLF started in November 2020 by attacking a federal army base in Tigray’s capital Mekele, effectively collapsed on August 24 after the TPLF launched this attack on Raya Kobo.

A2 – a critical highway between Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa and Mekele – passes through this strategic Amharan district in the northeast of North Wollo Zone, sitting on the border with Tigray to the north and Afar to the east.

Civilians in Amhara and Afar have already suffered mass-killings, rapes, hunger and disease with the looting and destruction of food warehouses and medical facilities, when the TPLF had invaded from Tigray mid-last year.

The southward invasion of the TPLF last year had begun soon after the government declared a unilateral ceasefire and withdrew the federal troops from Tigray on June 29, 2021, to prevent disruption of the agricultural season with fighting. Food insecurity in the region had already reached emergency levels.

Stealing hundreds of UN World Food Program (WFP) trucks that were carrying food aid to Tigray over the following months, the TPLF, using conscripted forces, made rapid advances into Amhara and Afar. By August that year, Raya Kobo had fallen to TPLF. In and around Kobo city alone, the TPLF is reported to have killed over 600 civilians in September.

Advancing further south along the A2, the TPLF had captured several other Amharan cities and reached within 200 kilometers of capital Addis Ababa by the year’s end. To the east, in Afar, the TPLF had pushed south all the way to Chifra, only 50 km from Mille district where it intended to seize the critical highway connecting land-locked Ethiopia’s capital to the port in neighboring Djibouti. However, the use of human waves to attack, which had enabled its rapid advance, had also depleted its forces, having taken heavy casualties by then.

The reversal began in December, when the combined forces of federal troops and regional militias from Afar and Amhara pushed back the TPLF. The TPLF had by then stretched far south from its base in Tigray. All along the way, it had turned the civilian population against itself by its mass-killings, looting and rapes. By the start of this year, the TPLF had been pushed back into Tigray, and encircled there.

However, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government, under enormous international pressure, ordered the troops to stand guard at Tigray’s border and not enter the state. In March 2022, the government unilaterally declared a humanitarian truce to allow for peaceful flow of much needed aid into Tigray. The TPLF reciprocated. Despite occasional clashes, the truce largely held out on the ground for the last five months. During this period, the African Union (AU) High-Representative for the Horn of Africa, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, shuffled back and forth between Addis Ababa and Mekele in preparations for peace negotiations.

Then, on August 2, the US special envoy to the Horn of Africa Mike Hammer, US Chargé d’Affaires in Ethiopia Tracey Jacobson and the European Union (EU) envoy Annette Weber, along with other Western diplomats, paid a visit to Mekelle and met TPLF leaders. Soon after this visit, which was criticized by the Ethiopian government, the TPLF began mobilization for war.

‘A proxy of the US and the EU’
Two days before it resumed the war by launching the attack on Raya Kobo on August 24, the TPLF had dismissed AU’s credibility and essentially called for Western intervention in an article published in the African Report on August 22. Originally published under the by-line of TPLF chairman Debretsion Gebremichael and then changed to spokesperson Getachew Reda, this article first condemned the AU for claiming “that there is hope for an imminent diplomatic breakthrough with respect to peace talks.”

After further condemning it for welcoming “the Abiy regime’s embrace of an AU-led peace process” and for calling on “the ‘TPLF’ to do the same,” the article went on to say that “the Abiy regime has made it clear that it is willing to partake only in an AU-led peace initiative.. Abiy regime recoils at the possibility of the democratic West taking direct or indirect part in the mediation process.”

Criticizing the federal government’s “persistent blockage” of the US and EU envoys’ visit to Tigray “until recently,” the article argued that it “reflects [the Ethiopian government’s] fear of being compelled to give peace a chance.” By not allowing the US and its allies to mediate the peace process, the “Abiy regime has taken no practical steps to demonstrate a sincere commitment to peace,” it argued.

“Despite the AU Commission’s…ineffectiveness in moving the peace process forward, the rest of the international community remains reluctant to intervene on account of a well-intentioned but misplaced commitment to the idea of “African solutions for African problems,” TPLF said.

The Ethiopian government “has exploited this understandable sensitivity.. by disingenuously dismissing non-African proposals for peace as a form of “neocolonialism,” the article argued. It also cautioned “the international community” against what it deemed as “Pan-African subterfuge.”

By calling for the West’s intervention, the TPLF has “finally declared the truth about itself – that it is a protégé of external forces, mainly the US and the EU,” former Ethiopian diplomat and historian Mohamed Hassan told Peoples Dispatch.

With the backing of the US, the TPLF had ruled Ethiopia as an authoritarian state for nearly three decades from 1991, when all political parties outside the ruling coalition led by itself were banned. There was no space for free press. Ethiopia during this period was disintegrated into a loose federation of ethnically organized regional states, each with militias of their own.

In 2018, mass pro-democracy protests forced the TPLF out of power at the center and reduced it to a regional force, in power in Tigray alone. Abiy Ahmed came to the fore at this time as a progressive prime minister with a vision of inclusive Ethiopian nationalism that transcends ethnic divisions.

Apart from opening up the political space within the country and allowing free-press, Ahmed’s reforms also extended to foreign policy. Signing a peace deal with Eritrea soon after becoming the prime minister, he ended the decades-long conflict with the northern neighbor the TPLF had declared, and continues to regard, as an enemy nation. Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize for this deal.

He also followed it up with a Tripartite Agreement in which Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia declared that the conflict between the three states had been resolved and their relations had entered a new phase based on cooperation.

Such a “resolution of the antagonism between African states and people is not appreciated by the United States and the European Union. They find this is a very bad example because, in the long term, it might weaken and eventually collapse Africa’s NATO, namely the US Africa Command (AFRICOM),” Hassan argued in an interview with Peoples Dispatch in November last year.

At the time of these developments, the Donald Trump government in the US, in an aberration from the norm, was disengaging from Africa, and hence ignored these threats to its imperialistic interests. However, with the Biden administration, the old foreign policy establishment returned. While waiting to take the White House after winning the election, Biden’s incoming establishment instigated the TPLF to start this war in November 2020, Hassan accused.

All diplomatic maneuvers of the Biden administration have since aimed at depicting the Ethiopian federal government, which is fighting a defensive war, as the aggressor. The US has also announced several sanctions against Ethiopia.

Tigrayan youth increasingly unwilling to fight the TPLF’s war on Ethiopia
Despite external support, the TPLF is increasingly losing authority in Tigray itself, Hassan claims. “There are protests against TPLF everywhere in Tigray – especially in the northern parts. There are now political parties in Tigray that are opposing TPLF’s hegemony,” he said.

In a speech addressing the residents of Mekele in mid-August, barely two weeks after the visit by Western envoys, TPLF chairman Debretsion Gebremichael reflected neither political nor military confidence when he threatened: “Tigray will only be for those who are armed and fighting. Those who are capable of fighting but do not want to fight will not have a place in Tigray. In the future, they will lack something. They will not have equal rights as those who joined the fighting. We are working on regulation.”

Such a threat, coming when the practice of conscription including of child soldiers has already been in place, reflects an increasing refusal of the Tigrayan youth to fight the TPLF’s war.

After interviewing 15,000 surrendered and captured Tigrayan fighters at a camp in Chifra, Afar, in March and April this year, Ann Fitz-Gerald, the director of the Balsillie School of International Affairs, wrote in her research paper:

“The only alternatives to recruitment.. were to be fined, ‘see bad come to their family,’ and have their family members, no matter what age, be imprisoned. One female fighter justified her decision to put herself forward based on her desire to protect her brother, who required medical treatment; another respondent who had young children described how the special forces waited for him at his workplace the next day after having expressed his preference not to join the force due to his young children and his ill wife. When he tried to run from the paramilitary members, he was shot at and had no option but to hand himself over and join the force.”

The surrendered fighters reported receiving medical attention and decent treatment after putting down their arms and “confirmed that the ENDF soldiers who staff the Awash Basin center eat the same food as the captured/surrendered fighters and in the same dining area.”

The TPLF, on the other hand, had “instructed [them] to take their own lives before capture.” Not having done so, these surrendered and captured forces are unable to return to Tigray where their lives are at risk. With another round of recruitment underway during the truce period this year, thousands of Tigrayan civilians have been fleeing the State over the last months to escape conscription. Hundreds caught in the attempt have been detained and arrested by the TPLF.

Nevertheless, the TPLF managed to force considerable conscriptions, as evident in the waves of youth attacking Raya Kobo. Kobo’s main police station was the center where most of the TPLF fighters interviewed by Fitz-Gerald had surrendered after its attack last year was beaten back.

“The TPLF is not a rational organization. They are using human waves as cannon fodder, sending tens of thousands of Tigrayan youth to death with nothing to be gained. They have no regard for the right to life of the people in Tigray,” Hassan said.

TPLF depriving Tigrayans of food
As much as 83% of the population in Tigray is food insecure, according to a report by the WFP in January this year. Over 60% of pregnant or lactating women in the State are malnourished and most people are dependent on food aid for survival.

Under these grave circumstances, soon after the TPLF resumed war on August 24, “World Food Program warehouse in Mekelle, capital of the Tigray region, was forcibly entered by Tigray forces, who took 12 full fuel trucks and tankers with 570,000 liters of fuel,” said Stephane Dujarric, chief spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

“Millions will starve if we do not have fuel to deliver food. This is OUTRAGEOUS and DISGRACEFUL. We demand return of this fuel NOW,” tweeted WFP’s Executive Director David Beasley.

“These storages of food stuff and fuel are supposed to be used to help humanitarian assistance for the peaceful population of Tigray, which is suffering from different man-made and natural calamities,” said Russian Ambassador to Ethiopia Evgeny Terekhin on August 25.

“I cannot imagine anybody in his senses in the international community supporting such deeds.. Of course, I understand that certain sides will try to refrain from condemning, but.. everybody will understand.. what is happening,” he added.

“The US joins the UN in expressing concern about 12 fuel trucks that have been seized by the TPLF,” the US State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs said in a tweet. “The fuel is intended for the delivery of essential life-saving humanitarian assistance & we condemn any actions that deprive humanitarian assistance from reaching Ethiopians in need.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/08/30/ ... -ethiopia/

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Sudan Warns of Nile's Rising Water Level Amid Heavy Flooding

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Effects of the flood in Sudan, Aug. 31, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @SamorahChauke

Published 1 September 2022

Over the past three weeks, large areas in northern, central and western Sudan have been battered by torrential rains that swept over 250 villages and killed 99 people.

The Nile River's water level is rising alarmingly in its sections in Sudan, local authorities warned on Wednesday, prompting new flood concerns in areas that have already been fighting floodwater or battered by torrential rains since June.

"All sections on the Blue Nile River, a major tributary of the Nile River, are witnessing a rise and nearing the flood level," the Sudanese Irrigation and Water Resources Ministry announced, adding the water level of the Nile River has recorded 16.58 meters, which is a high level at this time of the year.

Over the past three weeks, large areas in northern, central and western Sudan have been battered by torrential rains that swept over 250 villages and killed 99 people. Authorities warned that "the worst is yet to come." While floodwater has been surrounding large areas of the villages along the Nile River, the water level of the Nile River continued to rise.

"We are not prepared for heavy rains, due to the lack of infrastructure. The situation is getting worse due to the lack of rainwater drainage channels," said Mahjoub Hassan, a former adviser at the Sudanese Ministry of Environment.


Khartoum State Governor Ahmed Osman Hamza has recently acknowledged that "preparations are less than required due to the lack of funding," and asked for support from the federal government. "It was expected that there would be heavy rains and a rise in the level of the Nile during the rainy season this year," Osman said on Aug. 28.

Saleh Al-Awad, a Sudanese expert on irrigation, dams and water engineering, said construction projects along the Nile River had encroached on its banks and courses, which may have also contributed to recurring floods.

The floods in recent years were due in part to these projects' failure to take into account the potential environmental influence on the water level. At least 136,000 people have been affected by the floods and heavy rains across Sudan since June, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

On Aug.21, the Sudanese Council of Ministers declared a state of emergency in the six flood-hit states of River Nile, Gezira, White Nile, West Kordofan, South Darfur and Kassala. Sudan often witnesses floods caused by heavy rains from June to October.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Sud ... -0002.html

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The “International Community” Is an Unreliable Broker in the Ethiopia Conflict
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on AUGUST 31, 2022
Hermela Aregawi

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Tigray fighters

The ongoing conflict in Ethiopia’s Tigray region has been fueled by support from the United States. It is yet another proxy war which has brought great suffering to thousands of people.

The so-called “international community” is once again proving itself to be an expert at prolonging war. Its role in the nearly two-year long conflict in Ethiopia has emboldened the armed insurgents – that have taken hostage the entire population of Tigray, the northernmost region of Ethiopia – in hopes of overthrowing the central Government.

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Who is the TPLF?

The insurgents are referred to as the TPLF, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front. The TPLF was in power from 1991 to 2018 and acted as a brutal U.S. proxy in the Horn of Africa — violently dividing and suppressing majority voices in Ethiopia, helping demonize Eritrea in the north, and keeping Somalia a fractured, fragile state.

While it’s been ousted out of power in Ethiopia, the TPLF still has a lot of diplomatic leverage on the international stage. The group appears to be using the massive amount of wealth it took from the Ethiopian people to lobby its narrative — that it is fighting for “liberation” of the minority ethnic Tigrayans in the north. That couldn’t be further from the truth. Ethnic Tigrayans which make up roughly 5% of the country’s population of 120 million – are simply collateral in the regime-change plans. There are several reports that many people are escaping Tigray for refuge in other parts of Ethiopia because their lives are threatened if they do not fight in the TPLF’s war.

When it was sidelined from the Government after years of protests, the TPLF took with it a large number of the country’s armaments. It also weaponized the influential relationships it had made in its 27 years in power — to get diplomatic cover even while it pushed child soldiers into war. The Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom is a member of TPLF’s Executive Committee and has no problem using his authority to lobby for the group publicly, under the guise of caring for the people of Tigray.

What is probably most frustrating for many Ethiopians — is not just that they are under attack by a group from within, but that the group gets diplomatic cover from the U.S. and other Western powers who continue to equate the TPLF with the democratically elected Government of Ethiopia.

U.N. Aid Used for War

In a stunning revelation last week, the United Nations World Food Programme announced that TPLF insurgents stole 12 U.N. fuel tankers. The group used that stolen fuel to break a months-long truce – and invaded the neighboring Amhara region, restarting the war against the Ethiopian Government and its people. The Ethiopian Government says the militias even arrested U.N. staff who resisted the fuel looting. This isn’t the first time insurgents in Tigray took U.N. humanitarian supplies and redirected it for war.

Last September, Ethiopia said hundreds of U.N. aid trucks went into Tigray and were not returned. Instead, they were used to transport the militias of TPLF into the nieghboring Amhara and Afar regions, where there were reports of rapes , indiscriminate killings and total destruction of healthcare facilities. Of course, Dr. Tedros had nothing to say about the healthcare facilities destroyed. The United Nations did not hold the TPLF accountable either, and instead continued to levy pressure solely on the Ethiopian Government to allow unfettered humanitarian aid access to the TPLF-occupied region.

The Ethiopian Government did allow unfettered humanitarian aid access and once again, it was burned as TPLF used it to transport militias for war. The Ethiopian Government held up its end of the bargain after being pushed and assured by the “international community.” U.S. Envoy for the Horn of Africa Ambassador Mike Hammer even went to Tigray in early August and met with TPLF leadership. They looked like old buds, taking selfies for example.. But that trip did not stop the TPLF from restarting the war weeks later. Many Ethiopians suspect that it actually legitimized and emboldened the TPLF to do just that.

Yet again, the US-led “international community” has proven to be a failed broker for peace in the Horn of Africa.

TPLF’s History of Weaponizing Crisis: Live Aid 1985

You may remember that “We Are the World” Live Aid 1985 concert and fundraiser for famine-stricken Ethiopia. What if I told you 95% of the $100 million raised was used by the TPLF rebels at the time to buy weapons instead of food? A rare 2010 BBC investigation revealed this damning information and it is corroborated by high-ranking former TPLF officials.

The money Americans thought they were raising to help the poor hungry children in Ethiopia was used to buy weapons. Those weapons eventually allowed the TPLF to overthrow the communist Government of Ethiopia at the time.

What can we glean from the Live Aid 1985 fiasco? Sometimes and maybe often, stories of humanitarian crises in other countries are not always what the media tells you they are. Even when there really is some sort of humanitarian crisis – sometimes, the people that caused it are doing it for international attention – usually using that attention to garner diplomatic cover and manufacture consent for intervention. In today’s case and in the case of 1985, it’s TPLF doing just that. Now, there really was a famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s, but reports suggest that most of the money raised in Live Aid was used to buy weapons – not to feed victims.

Mainstream Media as a Tool of War

As an Ethiopian American journalist whose parents are from the Tigray region, it is stunning to me what is left out of the so-called mainstream media narrative. Here are some fundamental facts that everyone should understand about the conflict in Ethiopia.

The Western proxy TPLF started this war by attacking mostly non-ethnic Tigrayan members of the Ethiopian National Army Defense Forces, during the early morning hours of November 4th, 2020. While the United States was preoccupied with elections, the TPLF was preoccupied with its regime-change plans in Ethiopia. The soldiers killed had been serving the country for decades, were intermarried with women and men from Tigray and were an active part of the community there. It is, arguably, the most treasonous attack in modern Ethiopian history.

While people like Delaware Senator Chris Coons have in passing admitted that the TPLF started the war, Coons and much of the mainstream media often talk about the Ethiopian Government’s “offensive” in Tigray, as if the Government was not responding and defending the country after such a treasonous attack on its soldiers. Mainstream media continues to demonize the Ethiopian Government for fighting back – saying it was going after all ethnic Tigrayans in Tigray, when in fact it was responding to the ethnofacist TPLF’s treasonous attack.

Not an Ethnic or Civil War

This conflict is not about people of different ethnicities in Ethiopia hating each other. It’s not as simplistic and reductionist as the media would have you believe. It’s so much more than that. But that is the narrative the Western media wants people to desperately believe, because then it would make it just another African problem, when in fact — Western powers and external forces have been working around the clock for decades – to divide the Horn of Africa – and are still very much involved in fueling the conflict.

This is about power and control. A minority U.S. proxy which got used to dominating for 27 years told itself, if it couldn’t run the whole of Ethiopia, then it would instead destroy the country. They are trying very hard to make that happen. It has been heartbreakingly costly for the region, which includes Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia – and the struggle continues.

The Horn of Africa has said “No More ” to war. No More to the international disinformation infrastructure that is dividing the people and fueling conflict. The primary obstacle to peace in the Horn of Africa is the TPLF and its Western-backed enablers.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/08/ ... -conflict/

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Workers’ Party leads the battle to save democracy in Tunisia
The Workers Party of Tunisia continues steadfast in the popular mobilization against President Kais Saied’s attempts to undermine the values of the 2011 revolution following his ‘presidential coup’ last year

September 01, 2022 by Abdul Rahman

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Workers Party of Tunisia

Hamma al-Hammami, the general secretary of the Workers’ Party of Tunisia (WP), has asserted that his party, along with its allies, will soon launch a national campaign to overthrow President Kais Saied’s political and constitutional system. According to the WP, Saied’s so-called reforms exploit the popular anger against the established ruling class, which has failed to deliver on all the popular demands following the 2011 revolution.

Despite widespread concerns and opposition, Saied promulgated a new constitution that gives unprecedented powers to the president, including the power to appoint and dismiss government and judicial officials, raising fears of authoritarianism. Saied now wants a new electoral law that will govern the upcoming national elections in December.

Since dismissing the elected government in the country on July 25 last year, Saied has claimed that the silent majority in Tunisia supports his agenda to “purify the country” of corruption, inefficiency and nepotism. However, WP member Sana Baazaoui argues that such claims are nothing but a way to seek popular approval for his authoritarian rule. Saied’s “reactionary and tyrannical project is based on misleading the people with slogans such as resisting corruption and power to the people,” Baazaoui said to Peoples Dispatch.

Failed referendum
All major political parties, including the Islamist Ennahda Movement which holds the largest number of seats in the now-dissolved parliament, led a boycott campaign against the referendum. On July 25, only around 30% of voters turned up to vote in the referendum. However, Saied gave a spin on the results, claiming that over 94% of those who voted supported the new constitution despite “attempts to foil the referendum.”

The WP, like most other parties, called the bluff, underlining the fact that not many of those who came out to vote on July 25 knew the content of the new constitution as the draft released before the vote was partial. Thus they believe those who voted for the constitution were unable to fully understand its implications for Tunisian democracy.

The draft released for public consultation before the referendum, as well as the process of its formulation, were heavily criticized. Sadok Belaid, the head of the drafting committee, appointed by Saied himself, claimed that there were later changes made to the draft he had submitted which were “dangerous.”

Sensing uncertainty regarding its popular reception, Saied had declared that the results of the referendum will have no bearing on the new constitution. This further delegitimized the process.

The WP has repeatedly argued that neither Saied’s rule, nor his so-called reforms have any legitimacy. The party has asserted that Saied does not have the right to disown the constitution according to which he was elected and sworn to power.

Larger agenda to protect ruling class interests
Following the referendum, the WP remains as the sole major political group that has vowed to continue the fight against Saied’s coup with a constructive alternative.

The WP firmly believes that Saied’s coup, in a way, is an attempt to save the ruling establishment – which remained as a “dependent bourgeoisie tied to world monopoly capital” despite the revolution – from growing public anger and a repeat of 2011.

While Tunisia’s economy was in crisis before 2020, the complete collapse of the economy during the COVID-19 pandemic further incited public anger. Poverty and unemployment, two major reasons for the 2011 revolution, have increased since then, and almost half of the population now lives below the poverty line. The mismanagement of national finances has forced Tunisia to negotiate loans with the IMF and the World Bank, even for paying salaries and importing food grains.

As Baazaoui argues, Saied’s coup seems like “it is a rescue plan of the regime at a time when public anger and social movements against it began to grow.” Saied’s forced changes, as the WP accuses, are brought to re-establish former dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s system.

In this context, Baazaoui underlines, the movement of the WP should not be seen merely as a movement against Saied. The party is also trying to highlight how “the rule of the Ennahda or the rule of the pre-revolutionary forces (in particular the Free Dasturian party)” has been “reactionary and destructive” to the interests of the Tunisian people.

The complicity between Saied and the present ruling classes, their common adherence to neoliberalism, and complete disregard for millions of Tunisians is evident in the solutions proposed by Saied to solve the country’s economic problems. For example, Saied’s administration has recently announced a new system of cash transfer instead of subsidies on basic goods and commodities.

Against the broad alliance of ruling elites, WP leader Ali Jallouli told Peoples Dispatch that his party “will confront and will bear out [its] historical responsibility as a party of the working class and the toiling masses in Tunisia..in the path to complete liberation and for the actual emancipation of.. people.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/09/01/ ... n-tunisia/

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Ghana’s President Says Africa Must Quit Its ‘Mindset of Dependency’ on Western Aid. (Photo: Global Voices)

How France underdevelops Africa
Originally published: JOMO on August 30, 2022 by Yayasan myNadi (more by JOMO) | (Posted Sep 02, 2022)

SYDNEY and KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 2022 (IPS) – Most sub-Saharan African French colonies got formal independence in the 1960s. But their economies have progressed little, leaving most people in poverty, and generally worse off than in other post-colonial African economies.

Decolonization?
Pre-Second World War colonial monetary arrangements were consolidated into the Colonies Françaises d’Afrique (CFA) franc zone set up on 26 December 1945. Decolonization became inevitable after France’s defeat at Dien Bien Phu in 1954 and withdrawal from Algeria less than a decade later.

France insisted decolonization must involve ‘interdependence’—presumably asymmetric, instead of between equals—not true ‘sovereignty’. For colonies to get ‘independence’, France required membership of Communauté Française d’Afrique (still CFA)—created in 1958, replacing Colonies with Communauté.

CFA countries are now in two currency unions. Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Niger, Senegal and Togo belong to UEMOA, the French acronym for the West African Economic and Monetary Union.

Its counterpart CEMAC is the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa, comprising Cameroon, the Central African Republic, the Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea and Chad.

Both UEMOA and CEMAC use the CFA franc (FCFA). Ex-Spanish colony, Equatorial Guinea, joined in 1985, one of two non-French colonies. In 1997, former Portuguese colony, Guinea-Bissau was the last to join.

Such requirements have ensured France’s continued exploitation. Eleven of the 14 former French West and Central African colonies remain least developed countries (LDCs), at the bottom of UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI).

French African colonies
Guinea was the first to leave the CFA in 1960. Before fellow Guineans, President Sékou Touré told President Charles de Gaulle, “We prefer poverty in freedom to wealth in slavery”.

Guinea soon faced French destabilization efforts. Counterfeit banknotes were printed and circulated for use in Guinea—with predictable consequences. This massive fraud brought down the Guinean economy.

France withdrew more than 4,000 civil servants, judges, teachers, doctors and technicians, telling them to sabotage everything left behind: “un divorce sans pension alimentaire”—a divorce without alimony.

Ex-French espionage documentation service (SDECE) head Maurice Robert later acknowledged, “France launched a series of armed operations using local mercenaries, with the aim of developing a climate of insecurity and, if possible, overthrow Sékou Touré”.

In 1962, French Prime Minister Georges Pompidou warned African colonies considering leaving the franc zone: “Let us allow the experience of Sékou Touré to unfold. Many Africans are beginning to feel that Guinean politics are suicidal and contrary to the interests of the whole of Africa”.

Togo independence leader, President Sylvanus Olympio was assassinated in front of the U.S. embassy on 13 January 1963. This happened a month after he established a central bank, issuing the Togolese franc as legal tender. Of course, Togo remained in the CFA.

Mali left the CFA in 1962, replacing the FCFA with the Malian franc. But a 1968 coup removed its first president, radical independence leader Modibo Keita. Unsurprisingly, Mali later re-joined the CFA in 1984.

Resource-rich
The eight UEMOA economies are all oil importers, exporting agricultural commodities, such as cotton and cocoa, besides gold. By contrast, the six CEMAC economies, except the Central African Republic, rely heavily on oil exports.

CFA apologists claim pegging the FCFA to the French franc, and later, the euro, has kept inflation low. But lower inflation has also meant “slower per capita growth and diminished poverty reduction” than in other African countries.

The CFA has “traded decreased inflation for fiscal restraint and limited macroeconomic options”. Unsurprisingly, CFA members’ growth rates have been lower, on average, than in non-CFA countries.

With one of Africa’s highest incomes, petroleum producer Equatorial Guinea is the only CFA country to have ‘graduated’ out of LDC status, in 2017, after only meeting the income ‘graduation’ criterion.

Its oil boom ensured growth averaging 23.4% annually during 2000—08. But growth has fallen sharply since, contracting by -5% yearly during 2013—21! Its 2019 HDI of 0.592 ranked 145 of 189 countries, below the 0.631 mean for middle-ranking countries.

Poor people
With over 70% of its population poor, and over 40% in ‘extreme poverty’, inequality is extremely high in Equatorial Guinea. The top 1% got over 17% of pre-tax national income in 2021, while the bottom half got 11.5%!

Four of ten 6—12 year old children in Equatorial Guinea were not in school in 2012, many more than in much poorer African countries. Half the children starting primary school did not finish, while less than a quarter went on to middle school.

CFA member Gabon, the fifth largest African oil producer, is an upper middle-income country. With petroleum making up 80% of exports, 45% of GDP, and 60% of fiscal revenue, Gabon is very vulnerable to oil price volatility.

One in three Gabonese lived in poverty, while one in ten were in extreme poverty in 2017. More than half its rural residents were poor, with poverty three times more there than in urban areas.

Côte d’Ivoire, a non-LDC CFA member, enjoyed high growth, peaking at 10.8% in 2013. With lower cocoa prices and Covid-19, growth fell to 2% in 2020. About 46% of Ivorians lived on less than 750 FCFA (about $1.30) daily, with its HDI ranked 162 of 189 in 2019.

CFA’s neo-colonial role
Clearly, the CFA “promotes inertia and underdevelopment among its member states”. Worse, it also limits credit available for fiscal policy initiatives, including promoting industrialization.

Credit-GDP ratios in CFA countries have been low at 10—25%—against over 60% in other Sub-Saharan African countries! Low credit-GDP ratios also suggest poor finance and banking facilities, not effectively funding investments.

By surrendering exchange rate and monetary policy, CFA members have less policy flexibility and space for development initiatives. They also cannot cope well with commodity price and other challenges.

The CFA’s institutional requirements—especially keeping 70% of their foreign exchange with the French Treasury—limit members’ ability to use their forex earnings for development.

More recent fiscal rules limiting government deficits and debt—for UEMOA from 2000 and CEMAC in 2002—have also constrained policy space, particularly for public investment.

The CFA has also not promoted trade among members. After six decades, trade among CEMAC and UEMOA members averaged 4.7% and 12% of their total commerce respectively. Worse, pegged exchange rates have exacerbated balance of payments volatility.

Unrestricted transfers to France have enabled capital flight. The FCFA’s unlimited euro convertibility is supposed to reduce foreign investment risk in the CFA. However, foreign investment is lower than in other developing countries.

Total net capital outflows from CFA countries during 1970—2010 came to $83.5 billion—117% of combined GDP! Capital flight from CFA economies was much more than from other African countries during 1970—2015.

https://mronline.org/2022/09/02/how-fra ... ps-africa/
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 06, 2022 1:38 pm

WHO Chief, TPLF Leader Tedros Silent about His Party’s Theft of World Food Program Fuel
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 2, 2022
Ann Garrison

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UN World Health Organization chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom is also the world’s most prominent advocate of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front. He has said nothing about the TPLF’s recent theft of fuel intended for UN relief efforts in Ethiopia.

On the morning of August 24th, fighting in Ethiopia’s Amhara Region shattered a ceasefire in a nearly two-year war between the Ethiopian government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF).

Then, in the late afternoon of August 24th, UN World Food Program (WFP) Chief David Beasley tweeted shocking news:

Hours ago, Tigrayan authorities stole 570,000 liters of fuel for @WFP operations in #Tigray! Millions will starve if we do not have fuel to deliver food. This is OUTRAGEOUS and DISGRACEFUL. We demand return of this fuel NOW.

— David Beasley (@WFPChief) August 24, 2022


Stéphane Dujarric, Spokesperson for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres, had included more detail in his August 24, 2022 briefing. According to Dujarric, after the TPLF broke into World Food Programme facilities, it overwhelmed UN staffers and stole 12 fuel tanker trucks:

“I was asked what the impact of the renewed fighting was having. This morning, on August 24th, a World Food Programme warehouse in Mek’ele was forcibly entered by Tigrayan forces who took 12 fuel trucks/tankers with 570,000 liters of fuel. The team on the ground unsuccessfully tried to prevent this looting.

These stocks of fuel were to be used solely for humanitarian purposes, with the distribution of food, fertilizer, and other emergency relief items. This loss of fuel will impact humanitarian operations in supporting communities in all of Northern Ethiopia.

We condemn any looting or confiscation of humanitarian goods or humanitarian premises, and we call on all parties to uphold their obligations under international humanitarian law and to respect humanitarian personnel, activities, assets, and goods.”


The TPLF, who control Tigray regional state, have always claimed to represent the people of Tigray, who are no doubt suffering as a consequence of the war. But the faction’s brazen heist of fuel needed for humanitarian relief operations makes it difficult to believe it actually cares about the conflict’s human toll.

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US Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa Mike Hammer and EU Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa Annette Weber went to Tigray to talk and snap a selfie with TPLF leaders Debretsion Gebremichael and Getachaw Reda. This was several weeks before the resumption of the Ethiopian civil war and the TPLF fuel heist.

As Tedros’ party steals from UN’s largest humanitarian agency, he looks the other way

One hour after Dujarric’s August 24 briefing, UN World Health Organization Secretary-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was busy tweeting about a conference in Togo. By early afternoon on August 25th, Tedros had returned to do more of the same before moving on to tweeting about Ebola vaccinations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Yet Tedros – who also happens to have been a leader of the TPLF and the faction’s prominent advocate – had absolutely nothing to say about his political party’s theft of 600,000 liters of fuel from the UN’s most important humanitarian agency.

One week later, many of Tedros’s 1.8 million Twitter followers are still waiting for the WHO chief’s response to the TPLF fuel heist.

As The Grayzone revealed, UN staffers have previously accused Tedros of flagrantly violating UN code to further the objectives of his political allies in Ethiopia’s conflict.

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Tedros tweeted his anguish about Tigray the day before the civil war resumed and the TPLF stole 570,000 liters of fuel meant for delivering humanitarian relief.

Tedros uses his UN post to lobby for his TPLF party

Tedros served as the TPLF’s Health Minister from October 2005 to November 2012, and its Foreign Minister from November 2012 to November 2016, while it held power in Ethiopia’s capital Addis Ababa. Eight months after leaving the foreign ministry, in July 2017, he was appointed as the World Health Organization’s Director General and thus, beginning in 2020, the manager of the global coronavirus pandemic.

In 2018, a year after Tedros assumed his post at the WHO, a popular uprising ousted the TPLF from power, after which they retreated to Tigray. Ethiopia’s parliament then elected Abiy Ahmed as prime minister; he won a popular election two years later.

In November 2020, in a seeming bid to return to power, the TPLF attacked fellow soldiers at Ethiopia’s Northern Command Base, initiating the ongoing civil war. Prime Minister Abiy immediately dispatched national troops to Tigray to stop the insurrection but withdrew them in July 2021. The TPLF then invaded Amhara and Afar regional states, until the Ethiopian national army and regional forces drove them back into Tigray and the Ethiopian government declared the humanitarian truce that ended on August 24th.

Throughout this time, no one has been more vocal and visible than Tedros in accusing the Ethiopian government of deliberately fomenting a humanitarian crisis in Tigray, blockading food aid to Tigray, and even committing genocide in the region. He has never, however, acknowledged the pain and displacement that the TPLF has inflicted on Amharas and Afaris.

Throughout April and May of this year, I traveled through Amhara and Afar regional states and saw thousands huddled in IDP camps, all in dire need of food, water, medicine, and sanitation.

Around this time, the Internal Displacement Monitoring Center reported, “Conflict and violence triggered more than 5.1 million new displacements in Ethiopia in 2021, three times the number in 2020 and the highest annual figure ever recorded for a single country. The conflict in the northern region of Tigray deepened, spreading to neighboring regions and uprooting millions of people from their homes.”

US humanitarian interventionists cry genocide, ignore TPLF human rights abuses

Within hours of the unprovoked TPFL attack on Ethiopia’s national army in November 2020, the TPLF and its advocates took to Twitter to cry “Tigray genocide!” Meanwhile, the most vehement humanitarian interventionists in the US, from USAID Chief Samantha Power to congress members Tom Malinowski, Brad Sherman, Ilhan Omar, and Gregory Meeks, to name a few, joined the calls to defend Tigray and destabilize the government in Addis Ababa.

Malinowski’s bill, House Resolution 6600, which has yet to reach a vote on the House floor, demands the Ethiopian government’s total capitulation. “Sanctions will be lifted,” it says, “only after: (1) The Government of Ethiopia has ceased all offensive military operations associated with the civil war and other conflicts in Ethiopia.”

The TPLF enjoyed wholehearted US support throughout its 27-year rule, from 1991 to 2018, in exchange for its compliance with the US agenda in Africa. As former CIA and State Department official Cameron Hudson commented to Foreign Policy, “This is a major strategic shift in the Horn of Africa, to go from an anchor state for US interests to become a potential adversary to US interests.”

In 2015, shortly after the TPLF announced that it had won a thoroughly implausible 100% of the seats in Ethiopia’s parliament, Susan Rice and Barack Obama traveled to Addis Ababa to congratulate the party on its democratic achievements.

How do the TPLF keep fighting?

If Tigray is suffering such terrible deprivation, as the WHO’s Tedros, the TPLF, and their humanitarian interventionist allies insist, where do the TPLF find the resources to keep fighting? War is expensive. It requires the constant resupply of weapons, munitions, vehicles, food, emergency trauma care, and intelligence technology.

We may have a partial answer to that question now that both WFP Chief David Beasley and the UN Secretary-General’s spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric report that the TPLF have broken into a WFP warehouse and stolen 12 fuel tankers containing 570,000 liters of fuel that is desperately needed for humanitarian relief operations.

Hundreds of WFP aid convoy trucks have also disappeared into Tigray, though without a trace of official outrage.

The TPLF’s seizure of food aid and its use of food to force recruitment and otherwise exploit civilians has been widely reported by Tigrayan IDPs who have fled to the Amhara region, as well as by Tigrayan troops who were captured or who surrendered in Afar Region. Again, none of this malfeasance triggered protests at the very top of the UN hierarchy as the fuel heist has.

Will WHO Chief Tedros call WFP Chief David Beasley to explain this heinous crime by his political faction?

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... gram-fuel/

Blowback for NATO’s Crime against Libya
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 2, 2022
Rainer Shea

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Eleven years ago, when the U.S. empire committed one of its most recent great crimes by bombing Libya into becoming a failed state, the Queen of Chaos Hillary Clinton celebrated by saying “We came, we saw, he died!” about Muammar Gaddafi. For someone whose role was to bring about chaos during the early years of U.S. imperialism’s efforts at reigniting great power competition, destroying Libya evidently felt like a great achievement in itself. Clinton and the other participants in the war crime had thrown Africa’s richest democracy into disarray, eliminating a longtime anti-imperialist government and taking away an aspirational example for the African countries currently trapped under neo-colonial rule. It’s because of this that a representative for Clinton’s later confirmed the former secretary of state had no regrets on pushing for the intervention within Libya, saying “the secretary feels confident … people will see that her decision-making and her leadership helped save us from a scenario where it could have become another Syria.”

Despite Obama himself admitting that he had made a strategic error by having had too much faith in the Europeans to stabilize the situation, and that he had essentially brought a repeat of Bush’s failed nation-building in Iraq, the calculus of the imperialists has been that making the country into a failed state is worthwhile. This applies not just to Libya, but to Somalia, Myanmar, Ethiopia, Eritrea, and the growing number of other countries imperialism has been destabilizing throughout the last decade in order to try to deprive China of trading partners. Washington’s strategy in the new cold war is to force every country which embraces China’s development projects into a state of anarchy, regardless of the slave trades, famines, and civil wars that this has brought upon the peoples Washington wants to “help.”

The chaos-mongers don’t want to save the peoples of the places they target, they want to save imperialism’s market access from the threats posed by functioning politically independent states. When the Clinton team claimed the secretary had prevented a Syria-style civil war in Libya by promptly bringing about a regime change invasion, they left out that if not for U.S. meddling, such a war would never have been a risk in the first place; igniting a Libyan civil conflict by backing terrorists was Washington’s Plan B for deposing Gaddafi, and they’ve since used this fact to tell the world to be grateful about how they instead opted for their Plan A of a bombing campaign.

Moreover, civil war has been ravaging the country as a consequence of the intervention, and of imperialism’s futile effort to nation-build. Washington has been propping up a neo-colonial government, which the people broadly haven’t supported. Naturally the anti-American faction, backed by Russia, has been able to pose an insurmountable challenge to this government. The purpose of Washington’s attempt to further deprive Libyans of self-determination has, as was the case for the post-invasion Baghdad colonial regime, been to loot the country’s resources. The U.S. and its allies have been stealing Libyan oil, parallel to how the U.S. military continues to steal Syrian oil within the parts of the country it’s managed to break away from the Assad government. The imperialists see Syria’s current situation as worse than Libya’s, despite Assad’s survival enabling Syria to begin a rebuilding process, because Libya’s utter destabilization has allowed for more kleptocratic opportunities.

It’s a vile scheme that the imperialists have been carrying out. But it’s now having blowback for the imperialists, who would need Libya to become stable in order to have the oil access they require under the present circumstances. The Russia sanctions have been pummeling Europe and the U.S. itself to a lesser extent, and without access to the oil that Libya’s anti-imperialist militias control, Washington finds itself in a great dilemma.

As Washington has been sacrificing Europe for the sake of advancing its proxy war, throwing the region into a resource crisis to make up for how the Global South doesn’t support the Russia sanctions, Europeans are headed for a worst case scenario. They’re being cut off from oil at a moment when they’re about to enter into another one of the brutal winters which the climate crisis has been subjecting them to. As Politico writes, the ongoing lack of stability within Libya is making this situation threaten Washington’s war efforts: “as Europe finds itself in need of alternative energy sources — while it tries to cut itself off from Russian fossil fuels — Libya is the bloc’s closest alternative supply source. Europe is already struggling to maintain unity on Russian sanctions, and if it doesn’t find abundant new fuel supplies, it might be forced to lift its oil embargo on Moscow. However, Libya’s enduring instability makes its supply largely inaccessible, as the vast majority of its reserves are under the control of the Libyan National Army. This is just one of many reasons why the international community needs to stop overlooking the chaos in Libya and help it become a functioning state again.”

The imperialists are willing to sacrifice the livelihoods of Europeans as much as they were the livelihoods of Libyans. Human lives aren’t the priority of the capitalist class which drives imperialism, profit is. But when this humanitarian crisis they’ve created in Europe starts to endanger the social stability of the impacted countries, and the ruling classes of these countries react by becoming less unified on the sanctions, the imperialists at least have to confront reality. If they subject the populations of the imperialist countries to too much suffering, the NATO and EU unity that the Ukraine conflict has brought will break down, and Washington’s only hopes for making its geopolitical maneuver in Ukraine pay off will be thwarted.

Since there’s no way the imperialists will give up their project to maintain a looting base within Libya, or concede another geopolitical point to Russia by letting the anti-imperialist Libyan forces win, they’re not going to take that pragmatic route and help Libya reach stability. They’re instead trying to make up for the fuel shortage by looting oil from other sources. Last month, France deployed troops to steal natural gas from Yemen, a decision whose motives are quite transparent given the context in which it takes place. As IUVM Press has written:

The Western parties are currently assiduous in their quest to tap into the maximum possible capacity of the world’s energy resources to replace the shrinking Russian oil and gas…In recent months, with the ceasefire agreement in place, the conditions for looting Yemeni oil and its export by Western countries have been facilitated, and concomitantly, the intense infighting between various mercenary militias vying for a greater share of the windfall profits. Simultaneously, the EU, which does not envisage any bright days looming due to the decrease in Russian gas exports, is looking desperately for Yemeni energy facilities that can alleviate some of Europe’s needs. Nonetheless, due to Yemen’s precarious political and military conditions, the volume of oil and gas extraction will remain low for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, the UAE, which keeps surmising the situation in the global energy market will not get better, tries to use the ongoing scenario as a rare opportunity to gain economic and political concessions from Europe. To accomplish this goal, the UAE’s leadership has decided to extend its military clout in the south, which runs counter to the interests of its “Big Brother,” Saudi Arabia (KSA).

The resources the imperialists can steal are too limited for them to avoid the humanitarian and political crises which this winter will inflame. In both Europe and the Arab world, imperialism’s allied states are becoming less unified, and more willing to assert their own interests. In both Libya and Yemen, the chaos the imperialists have manufactured is coming at the expense of imperialism’s attempt to destabilize Russia, and is exacerbating the scarcity within the imperialist countries. The Queen of Chaos can remain satisfied in the destruction that she brought, but this destruction is what’s ultimately causing the imperialist structure to come apart.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... nst-libya/

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Ethiopian diaspora groups gear up for protests against West’s support to TLPF

“Deploring the International community, in particular the UN, United States and the EU Member states, for their continued sympathy” towards the TPLF, the Ethiopian Advocacy Organizations Worldwide (EAOW) passed a resolution calling for peace on September 2

September 05, 2022 by Peoples Dispatch

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Ethiopians in the US rally in Washington D.C on November 9, 2021, demanding the US and its media to stop backing the TPLF. (Photo: www.waltainfo.com)

Ethiopian diaspora across the Western world is condemning the US and the EU for “emboldening” the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) which resumed the war in the northern part of the country on August 24, ending the truce initiated by the federal government in March.

“Deploring the International community, in particular the UN, United States and the EU Member states, for their continued sympathy” towards the TPLF, the Ethiopian Advocacy Organizations Worldwide (EAOW) passed a resolution on Friday, September 2. The EAOW, a consortium of 18 organizations representing Ethiopian nationals in the US, Canada, UK, South Africa, and 11 European countries, condemned the TPLF’s alleged systematic large-scale forced conscriptions – including of child soldiers – in the northernmost State of Tigray.

Thousands have been fleeing Tigray, which is under the TPLF’s control, in order to escape forced conscription. However, hundreds have been caught and arrested by the TLPF, which is waging a war against the Ethiopian federal government. Tens of thousands of conscripts were sacrificed in human wave attacks launched by the TPLF, which had advanced south into the neighboring states of Amhara and Afar last year before being beaten back into Tigray.

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The resolution alleges that in order to conscript more soldiers for another round of invasion into Tigray’s neighboring States, the TPLF instituted a “one family one soldier” policy, as the war became increasingly unpopular in Tigray itself. The groups is also allegedly denying food aid to families unable or unwilling to contribute soldiers. This is when, according to the World Food Programme (WFP), 83% of Tigray’s population is food-insecure and over 60% of pregnant or lactating women were malnourished as of January.

Multiple reports indicate that on resuming the war on August 24, the TPLF looted 12 full fuel trucks from the WFP and tankers with 570,000 liters of fuel meant to facilitate food aid delivery. Hundreds of WFP trucks which entered Tigray to distribute food aid had already been seized by the TPLF and used to mobilize its troops during its offensive last year.

“This has only reaffirmed the view [that] the TPLF should not be playing a central role in the distribution of aid in Tigray,” Bisrat Aklilu, a board member of the American Ethiopian Public Affairs Committee (AEPAC), said in a letter to WFP’s Ethiopia country director Adrian van der Knaap.

He called on the WFP “to undertake an urgent review of its processes and to identify any misuse of aid by the TPLF.. Given the sheer number of Ethiopians in need in Tigray, Afar and Amhara regions, it would be an unforgivable scandal if WFP’s humanitarian assistance is ending up in the hands of rebel forces rather than the vulnerable communities who are suffering.”

“Deploring the deafening silence of the International Community in condemning such blatant violation of international law by TPLF,” the resolution urged the international community to force the TPLF to come to the negotiating table.

The federal government led by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has kept the door open for negotiations under the African Union (AU). AU’s High-Representative for the Horn of Africa, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo, had met with the government’s and TPLF’s leaders several times during the months of truce.

The EAOW resolution has called on the international community to “reiterate the peace process under the undisputed leadership” of the AU.

However, dismissing the AU as incompetent, the TPLF had effectively called for Western intervention only two days before resuming the war. It made particular references to the US and EU, whose envoys had met its leaders only weeks before it resumed the war.

“To date, the American Ethiopian community has been disappointed with the United States Government’s approach to the conflict, which has been perceived as more favorable to the TPLF terrorist group than the democratically elected government of Ethiopia,” AEPAC said in a press release.

AEPAC, which is a part of the EAOW and a signatory to its resolution, will be holding demonstrations and rallies on Tuesday, September 6, in Washington D.C and other cities in the US.

“The rallies will have a clear objective – to call on the US Government to support peace over violence in Ethiopia,” its statement said. “The only way to give peace a chance for the people of Ethiopia and ensure stability in [the] Horn of Africa is to end the TPLF’s violence. AEPAC will continue to engage US legislators and the administration to educate them on the facts on the ground and views of the diaspora.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/09/05/ ... t-to-tlpf/

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Terrorist attack leaves 35 dead in Burkina Faso

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Burkina Faso has been plagued by terrorist attacks since 2015 by groups such as ISIS and Al-Qaeda. | Photo: EFE
Published 6 September 2022

It is part of the wave of terrorist violence and insecurity that has affected the African region of the Sahel for 10 years.

At least 35 civilians died and another 37 were injured after an explosion that shook Burkina Faso this Monday afternoon, attributed by local authorities to an explosive device.

The homemade explosive device exploded in a truck carrying supplies, in what would be the latest in the latest series of terrorist attacks that has rocked the Central African nation.

In recent months, before and after the coup, violent activity has increased, amid insurgency and violent outbreaks, especially in the north.



The governor of the Sahel region where the explosion occurred said in a statement that the truck was also carrying civilians on the highway between the cities of Djibo and Bourzanga when it ran into the explosive device.

According to the statement, these transport trucks regularly circulate alongside a military caravan and transport food and supplies to the north of the country besieged by armed terrorist groups.


This attack comes after two simultaneous explosions claimed the lives of 15 soldiers in early August, and also after armed groups have bombed sites on the main roads in recent weeks leading to the northern cities of Djibo and Dori in an attempt to isolate them.

Burkina Faso has been plagued by terrorist attacks since 2015 by groups including ISIS and Al-Qaeda after a military coup, which resulted in thousands of deaths and nearly 2 million civilians fleeing their homes. According to official data, more than 40 percent of the country's territory is not controlled by the state.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/burkina- ... -0008.html

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Tue Sep 20, 2022 3:51 pm

Economic Freedom Fighters Statement on the Death of Queen Elizabeth
Sinawo Thambo, Leigh-Ann Mathys, Sixolise Gcilishe 14 Sep 2022

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Memorial bust of colonizer Cecil Rhodes was vandalized in Cape Town, South Africa in 2020. (Photo: Nic Bothma/EPA)

The brutal history of British imperialism should not be forgotten in the wake of the Queen's death. The South African organization, Economic Freedom Fighters, recounts the many crimes perpetrated by the British empire in their country and around the world.

This statement was originally published by the Economic Freedom Fighters on Twitter .

The Economic Freedom Fighters notes the death of Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor, the Queen of the United Kingdom, and the ceremonial head of state of several countries that were colonized by the United Kingdom. Elizabeth ascended to the throne in 1952, reigning for 70 years as a head of an institution built up, sustained, and living off a brutal legacy of dehumanization of millions of people across the world.

We do not mourn the death of Elizabeth, because to us her death is a reminder of a very tragic period in this country and Africa's history. Britain, under the leadership of the royal family, took over control of this territory that would become South Africa in 1795 from Batavian control, and took permanent control of the territory in 1806. From that moment onwards, native people of this land have never known peace, nor have they ever enjoyed the fruits of the riches of this land, riches which were and still are utilized for the enrichment of the British royal family and those who look like them.

From 1811 when Sir John Cradock declared war against amaXhosa in the Zuurveld in what is now known as the Eastern Cape up until 1906 when the British crushed the Bambatha rebellion, our interaction with Britain under the leadership of the British royal family has been one of pain and suffering, of death and dispossession, and of dehumanization of African people. We remember how Nxele died in the aftermath of the fifth frontier war, how King Hintsa was killed like a dog on the 11th of May 1835 during the sixth frontier war, and had his body mutilated, and his head taken to Britain as a trophy.

It was also the British royal family that sanctioned the actions of Cecil John Rhodes, who plundered this country, Zimbabwe and Zambia. It was the British royal family that benefited from the brutal mutilation of people of Kenya whose valiant resistance to British colonialism invited vile responses from Britain. In Kenya, Britain built concentration camps and suppressed with such inhumane brutality the Mau Mau rebellion, killing Dedan Kimathi on the 18th of February 1957, while Elizabeth was already Queen.

This family plundered India via the East India Company, it took over control and oppressed the people of the Caribbean Islands. Their thirst for riches led to the famine that caused millions of people to die in Bengal, and their racism led to the genocide of aboriginal people in Australia.

Elizabeth Windsor, during her lifetime, never acknowledged these crimes that Britain and her family in particular perpetrated across the world. In fact, she was a proud flag bearer of these atrocities because during her reign. When the people of Yemen rose to protest against British colonialism in 1963, Elizabeth ordered a brutal suppression of that uprising.

During her 70-year reign as Queen, she never once acknowledged the atrocities that her family inflicted on native people that Britain invaded across the world. She willingly benefited from the wealth that was attained from the exploitation and murder of millions of people across the world. The British Royal family stands on the shoulders of millions of slaves who were shipped away from the continent to serve the interests of racist white capital accumulation, at the center of which lies the British royal family.

If there is really life and justice after death, may Elizabeth and her ancestors get what they deserve.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/econo ... -elizabeth

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Somalia: Clan Revolt Threatens the Future of al-Shabaab
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 19, 2022

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The Somali government is using all means of war to defeat terrorists from all regions of the country. Clan support for the Somali army has confused and weakened the jihadists.

Mogadishu-analysts agree that the Somali government is trying to invest the so-called popular revolution against the jihadist al-Shabaab movement in some federal states to be able to defeat the terrorist organization and contain its activity in the south and center at least.

According to analysts, several factors contributed to the outbreak of an armed tribal revolt against al-Shabaab in some federal states.

Among these factors is the humanitarian crisis experienced by the citizens, along with strict orders and illegal royalties imposed on them in this difficult humanitarian situation, not to mention the demolition of the few wells, which are the only source of water for the villagers, in light of the severe drought that is hitting the country.

President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud, at a press conference held on September 12, praised the armed tribal revolution, which resulted from the accumulation of attacks by terrorists against citizens and their property.

Any victory over Al-Shabaab depends on the strategy that the government will adopt to exploit the gift of the clans

President Sheikh Mahmoud pointed out that the government will use all means of war to defeat terrorists in all regions of the country.

The US embassy in Mogadishu commented on the security operations witnessed by some federal states, saying that “the rise of the population in the face of youth, with the support of government and federal forces, will liberate Somalia from the destruction caused by extremist violence”.

The local federal states of Hirshabelle, south-western Somalia and Galmudug are witnessing security operations between government forces and armed tribal militias on the one hand, and al-Shabaab militants on the other.

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حرب مفتوحة على الإرهاب

These clashes led to the loss of more than 20 towns under the control of al-Shabaab, according to a local information ministry.

The outbreak of the armed tribal revolution coincided at a time when the government is preparing to launch a war against the youth militants, which puts the movement in a vulnerable position to face two different war fronts at the same time.

“The security situation in which al-Shabaab is living at this time is a valuable security opportunity for the government, if these opportunities are invested in a strategic and effective way,” says Abdulqader Hajer, an analyst at the Sahn Research Center.

“The armed tribal revolution against al-Shabaab fighters in some federal States has shown the weaknesses of their security capabilities,”Hajar added.

Al-Shabaab militants have shown their inability to confront “this revolution, which broke out as a result of their militant practice and the large taxes imposed on the villagers,”he said.

The political analyst pointed out that”the current government security strategy to support tribal militias changes the course of the usual war between government forces and al-Shabaab fighters”.

“The armed clans have access to areas that government forces cannot reach, and they target youth elements in their own backyard,”he said.

“The tribal revolution is a rare opportunity for the government that may not be repeated again, because it stems from the accumulation of terrorist attacks over the past 15 years,”Hajar said.

This revolution “reflects the readiness of the people to curb the practice of terrorists, and the government should support these militias militarily,” he said.

Armed tribal alliances continue in the states of Hirshabelle, Galmudug and southwestern Somalia to confront al-Shabaab militants and liberate them from their areas of residence. The movement is desperate to put down this revolution by force through mass murder, intimidation and the destruction of water sources in these regions.

“This revolution is the result of the accumulation of pressure on citizens, and a reaction from the actions of al-Shabaab fighters,”says University Professor Ahmed Youssef.

He pointed out that al-Shabaab militants imposed royalties on citizens, especially in this humanitarian circumstance, when half of the population is suffering from a severe humanitarian crisis as a result of the drought that hit the country.

As for whether this tribal revolution will push the movement to withdraw from those territories, Youssef considered that it “will be a fatal blow to the youth”.

“Not only to withdraw, but also to remove its influence within the tribes, where it used to carry out its activities comfortably through its elements, but after the revolution it will not be easy for it,” he explained.

“The al-Shabaab fighters used to practice a policy of intimidation to undermine the ability of any clan to respond, but because of the opening of the fronts of the various clans, they are currently unable to put down the revolution,”he said.

The political analyst pointed out that this “led to them receiving successive losses on the battlefields, which will negatively affect their qualitative operations against government forces and military centers of the African forces (ATMIS)”.

According to tribal sources, al-Shabaab fighters arrested dozens of villagers belonging to the armed clans in Wadamago, and took them to unknown places, to use them as a pressure factor against those tribes. But this step did not change the course of the revolution, but rather it became more heated, as those clans declared their readiness to liberate their areas from al-Shabaab fighters.

For the youth elements, the tribe constitutes a suitable environment for passing their agendas and living without any security pursuits with the knowledge of the tribe’s residents. This continues as long as the tribe is safe, and is not targeted by terrorist operations carried out by al-Shabaab, which often target employees of government bodies.

“The tribal revolt that is taking place in some federal states indicates that al-Shabaab is beginning to emerge from the cloak of tribes,”says political analyst Abtedon Abdi.

Abdi added that this would “cause many repercussions for al-Shabaab in the coming stage, especially in front of the war declared by the government against it”.

“The tribal factor was one of the most prominent reasons that contributed to the survival of al-Shabaab fighters throughout the past period and their steadfastness against government and African forces,”he added.

Analysts agree that any victory over al-Shabaab in the current battle depends on the strategy that the government will adopt to exploit this gift and adapt it for the benefit of the government.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... l-shabaab/

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Somali Forces Kill 75 Al-shabab Militants in Central Region

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Members of an irregular armed group in Somalia, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/ @ugnews24

Published 20 September 2022 (44 minutes ago)
Over 30 villages have been captured by the Somali National Army forces in operations carried out in the past few weeks.

On Monday, Odowaa Yusuf Rageh, chief of Somali National Army (SNA) confirmed that his forces killed 75 al-Shabab militants during an operation conducted in the Hiran region of central Somalia.

The military operation was conducted in Yasoman village amid increased attacks by government forces. The operation was still underway to flush out the terrorists who have engaged the government forces in near-daily attacks.

The latest move came after the government forces on Saturday killed 43 al-Shabab militants in an operation carried out in Aborey which is the central part of Somalia.

Mohamed Tahlil Bihi, SNA commander of infantry troops said more than 30 villages have been re-captured by SNA forces in operations carried out in the past few weeks.


"Our recent military campaign gains were the outcome of this public revolution. It must continue and we will support it without hesitation," Bihi mentioned.

At least 200 al-Shabab militants have been killed, a hundred others severely wounded while scores were arrested pending for interrogation during operations in the past two weeks.

The government and allied forces have intensified military operations into territory formerly controlled by al-Shabab after driving the insurgents out of Mogadishu in 2011.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Som ... -0001.html

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Record 160 deaths from heavy rains in Niger

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The forecasts warn about the increase in rainfall until the end of September. | Photo: @nihsa_ng
Published September 19, 2022 (9 hours 10 minutes ago)

So far this year, 121 people have died when their houses collapsed as a result of heavy rainfall.

The Niger Civil Protection System confirmed this Monday through a balance that 160 people died and more than 225,000 were affected after the heavy rains that have hit the country in recent months.

The data published by the entity show that so far this year, 121 people have died when their houses collapsed and another 38 have drowned. They also confirmed that the rains also destroyed more than 25,000 homes.

On the other hand, 71 classrooms, six health centers and 210 grain stores were also damaged. According to the authorities, around 225,539 people have been affected and almost 200 more were injured.


The forecasts warned about the increase in rainfall until the end of September. Based on this scenario, the authorities urged the population to remain alert or evacuate in the event that conditions are unfavorable.

Local platforms valued that parallel to the increase in the number of deaths after the rains, Niger suffers at the same time from a serious food crisis in more than 20 percent of its population.

According to the United Nations Organization (UN) the increase in temperature has contributed to reduce the growth of agricultural productivity in Africa by 34 percent since 1961, more than in any other region of the world.

This trend is expected to continue in the future, increasing the risk of acute food insecurity and malnutrition.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/reportan ... -0032.html

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Wed Sep 21, 2022 1:32 pm

Why Nigerian Protesters Want the French Army Out
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
Ekaterina Blinova

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Nigerians took to the streets of the country’s capital Niamey on September 18, with some of the protesters carrying Russian flags and placards saying “criminal French Army – get out” and “The colonial army of Barkhane must go”.

“The demonstration [on September 18] fits in a wider development and sentiment that has been brewing in recent years,” explained Dr. Klaas van Walraven, a historian and political scientist at the University of Leiden who is currently working on the history of colonialism and de-colonization in French Equatorial Africa.

“Last year, the population of Téra, in the south-west, tried to prevent a French military convoy entering the country from Burkina Faso to move further into Niger, out of anger over the insecurity in the south-west. There is much anger about the rising insecurity especially in the western region of Niger, bordering on both Mali and Burkina Faso. The trigger here was the mess in Mali but similar problems that seem part of the problem exist in Niger (such as the problematic relations between sedentary and pastoral communities),” the historian continued.


On November 27, 2021, at least two people were killed and 18 injured in western Niger when protesters clashed with a French military convoy. They blocked the convoy after it crossed the border from Burkina Faso, protesting over French forces’ failure to stop rising violence by Islamist militants affiliated with al-Qaeda and Daesh. The Guardian noted at the time that “anger about France’s military presence in its former colonies has been rising in Niger, Burkina Faso and other countries in west Africa’s Sahel region.”

The latest protests in Niger were organized by the M62 movement, a group of NGOs which reportedly describes itself as “peaceful” and committed to “the dignity and sovereignty of the Nigerian people.” Seydou Abdoulaye, the coordinator of the M62 Movement, told Agence France Presse (AFP) that Nigerians demand the immediate departure of French troops from Niger as the military deployment violates Niger’s sovereignty and destabilizes the Sahel.

France has beefed up its presence in Sahel since January 2013 when it launched Operation Serval to halt the advance of a coalition of Tuareg rebel and Islamist fighters in Mali. The French intervention came on the heels of the 2011 destruction of Libya by NATO. Following the ousting of Muammar Gaddafi’s government by NATO-backed rebels, the power vacuum saw greater destabilization in the region. The French-led Operation Barkhane succeeded Operation Serval in August 2014: approximately 4,500 French troops were deployed between Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad.

Sahel’s Dissatisfaction With France’s Operation Barkhane

Operation Barkhane has failed to curb the terror threat in Sahel, according to Dr. Mady Ibrahim Kante, lecturer at the Faculty of Administrative and Political Sciences of the University of Legal and Political Sciences of Bamako.

“I think this is the situation which all the population of the Sahel can see,” said Kante. “This situation pushes the population to say ‘no’ to French troops in Niger because the same troops were in Mali before. All this time, they didn’t reach any solution for the situation in Mali (…) We can see the situation in Mali is catastrophic, because when they [French] first came to Mali in 2013, it was the terrorism in the north [of the country] only, but after eight or nine years the terrorism is not just only in the north of Mali, but in the central and other regions of Mali (…) If they [French] come to Niger, it will be the same.”

France decided to withdraw its troops from Mali in June 2021 and completed the pull-out in August 2022. Paris’ relations with Bamako have deteriorated since 2020, with Malian Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga accusing the French in February 2022 of having sought the partition of the west African country during its military mission and assuming that the French intervention helped terrorists in the north to regroup. Having pulled out from Mali, Paris brought its troops to Niger, making the latter its new military hub with close to a thousand soldiers based in Niamey.

“[Nigerian] people are afraid that France is not able to solve the terror problem and, to some extent, some of them think or are afraid that the presence of French troops in that region is another new sort of occupation, ‘new colonialism’,” noted Dr. Ismael Buchanan, senior lecturer at the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Rwanda. “That is the reason why many local people are complaining that French troops must or should get out of their territory in case it cannot protect them.”

However, France is seeking to maintain its presence in Niger because the land-locked sub-Saharan nation possesses the world’s fourth-largest uranium reserves, remarked Kante. Uranium, which was discovered in Niger by the French Bureau de Recherches Geologiques et Minières (BRGM) in 1957, is mined close to the towns of Arlit and Akokan, 900 kilometers northeast of Niamey.

“[If we talk about France’s interest in the country], Niger can be the first country by uranium and other natural resources [which are] in Niger,” he said. “France will do everything to keep Niger as an ally in the Sahel. That is important for France to be there. Even in Mali – when France decided to come to Mali – it is a tool to try to keep or to save their interests in Sahel in general, and especially in Niger.”

Russian Flags in Niger

As anti-French sentiment grows in the Sahel region, France has been strengthening relations with the Niger leadership, according to France 24. The French broadcaster drew attention to the fact that Niger’s President Mohamed Bazoum was the only leader among Sahel rulers who shared a room with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron during a virtual G5 Sahel meeting in July, 2021. The pivot to Niger was highlighted by Macron again in February 2022, according to the broadcaster. France 24 called the strategy a “marriage of convenience,” adding that Paris has “little choice.”

However, despite boosting relations with Niamey, France has failed to win the hearts and minds of ordinary Nigerians, according to Kante.

“I think the authorities of Niger decided to bring French troops to Niger from Mali without the agreement of all of the opinions of the population,” he explained. “Part of the population in Niger and even in Burkina Faso didn’t agree and [will] never agree [to the presence of] different troops, French or even European, in Niger or in the Sahel in general. I think this is the same process, procedural process that they did before, they will continue to protest against Barkhane in Niger.”

The fact that Nigerians carried Russian flags during the protests could be explained by the people’s belief that “Russia’s presence in the region may rescue them and Russia as a strong nation is maybe able to secure the region by fighting the insurgency,” according to Dr. Ismael Buchanan.


On the other hand, the pro-Russian sentiment in Niger could be driven by Mali’s decision to invite Russian military advisers from the PMC Wagner Group to cope with the rebel and jihadism threat following France’s unilateral decision to pull out from the country.

Last spring’s survey, conducted by Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, a German political foundation, indicated that 93.5% of Malians were aware of Russian military instructors’ presence in the country with nine out of ten respondents (92%) believing that Russians will help Mali regain its territorial integrity. 73% of Malians expressed dissatisfaction with France’s Barkhane Operation, accusing French troops of failing to protect locals against violence and terrorism.

Likewise, Russian military instructors have made progress in the Central African Republic (CAR), given that the region has been engulfed in conflicts for over twenty years. CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra turned to Russians in 2017 as he was disappointed by the inability of UN peacekeepers to curb violence in the country. Russia’s growing influence in Africa has prompted a lot of criticism from the West, especially after a plethora of African states refused to vote in favor of a UN resolution aimed against Russia’s special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... -army-out/

Morocco Fails to Obtain Kenyan Endorsement for its Colonial Occupation of Western Sahara
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 20, 2022
Pavan Kulkarni

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Kenya relations with Western SaharaSADR President Brahim Ghali attending the inauguration ceremony of the Kenyan President William Ruto on September 13. (Photo:: Kamal Fadel/Twitter

A Kenyan foreign ministry’s communique has clarified that the announcement made on Twitter by newly elected President Willian Ruto on rescinding recognition for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) was arbitrary and had no bearing on the country’s foreign policy

Dismissing a now-deleted tweet by Kenyan President Willian Ruto’s about rescinding recognition for the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), the Kenyan foreign ministry clarified on September 16 that it would continue to maintain diplomatic relations with SADR and support its right to self-determination.

Also known as Western Sahara, SADR is a founding member of the African Union (AU) and the continent’s last colony, fighting a war for liberation from Morocco. The Moroccan occupation of most of SADR’s territory since 1975 has been receiving increasing Western support, despite a consensus in international law that Morocco has no legitimate territorial claims over SADR, whose right to self-determination is well-recognized.

But Kenya has emerged as an important ally, championing SADR’s cause over the last decade. Sources and media reports said that the reversal of Ruto’s position, only a day after his swearing-in ceremony—which was also attended by SADR President Brahim Ghali—was due to a public backlash and dissonance within the administration.

“Kenya’s position [on SADR] is fully aligned with… the AU Charter which calls for the unquestionable and inalienable right of a people to self-determination,” read the foreign ministry communique dated September 16, addressing all of Kenya’s missions and directorates.

This communique, which was made public on Monday, September 19, reiterated, “UN Security Council Resolution 690 (1991)… calls for the self-determination of Western Sahara through a free and fair referendum administered by the UN and the AU. Kenya supports implementation of this UN security Council Resolution to the letter.”

Implicitly criticizing the new president’s hasty announcement, the communique signed by principal secretary Ambassador Macharia Kamau added, “It should be equally noted that Kenya does not conduct its foreign policy on Twitter or any other social media platforms, rather through official government documents and frameworks.”

Following a meeting with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita, Ruto had tweeted on September 14, “At State House in Nairobi, received a congratulatory message from His Majesty King Mohammed VI. Kenya rescinds its recognition of the SADR and initiates steps to wind down the entity’s presence in the country.”

While the tweet was soon deleted, Morocco’s foreign ministry released an official statement on its website the same day, announcing: “Following the message of His Majesty King Mohammed VI to the new President of the Republic of Kenya, Mr. William Ruto, the Republic of Kenya has decided to withdraw the recognition of the so-called ‘SADR’ and to initiate the steps to close its representation in Nairobi.”

The statement further claimed that Morocco and Kenya had signed a joint statement agreeing that “in deference to the principle of territorial integrity and non-interference, the Republic of Kenya [had extended] total support to the serious and credible autonomy plan proposed by the Kingdom of Morocco” as the only possible solution to the Sahara issue.

The Kenyan foreign ministry’s communique two days later in effect clarified that the tweet by the president had been arbitrary and had no bearing on the country’s foreign policy. This was a setback to Morocco, which had declared a diplomatic victory over SADR prematurely, before any official announcement by the Kenyan government.

Asked to explain the sudden change in stance and dissonance within the government, Kenya’s Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua told KTN News on Monday, “This was an administration in transition—[having been] only one day in office… We had many visitors, there [were] so many delegations, and communications had to be made.” He said this without specifying which countries’ delegations or visitors had sought for such a communication to be made.

Gachagua stressed that the most important thing was that “a clarification had been made,” and that the country’s position was “that of the United Nations and that of the African Union.”

US and Israel allegedly lobbying Kenya to endorse Morocco’s occupation

Even before the election was held in August this year, the US and the UK, which were allegedly supporting Ruto’s candidacy, had sought from him a reversal of Kenya’s policy on SADR during his foreign trips, alleged Booker Ngesa Omole, National Vice Chairperson of the Communist Party of Kenya (CPK).

The UN, the AU, the Court of Justice of the European Union, and the International Court of Justice all maintain that Morocco has no legitimate territorial claims over SADR. Nevertheless, in late 2020, then US President Donald Trump had announced his decision to open an embassy in occupied Western Sahara, in effect recognizing it as Moroccan sovereign territory.

After Ruto was declared the president-elect, a presidential delegation from the US earlier this month and the subsequent Israeli delegation led by its minister of intelligence, had both allegedly brought up Kenya’s policy vis-à-vis SADR in the meetings with Ruto, Omole claimed.

Morocco, which is the second largest exporter of fertilizer in the world, had in the meantime seen a further opening in Ruto’s election promise of providing cheap fertilizers, he explained. With an apparent assurance from Morocco about “providing fertilizers at subsidized prices, Ruto went on national television to announce that he will provide subsidies to all farmers on fertilizers within two weeks time. A day later, he announced he was rescinding SADR’s recognition,” Omole said.

The bulk of the phosphate used in Moroccan fertilizers is extracted from the occupied Western Sahara. “The Moroccan regime uses the resources stolen from Western Sahara to bribe foreign officials to obtain recognition for its illegal occupation of our homeland,” Kamal Fadel, SADR’s Representative to Australia and the Pacific, told Peoples Dispatch.

“Those who receive the stolen goods from Western Sahara are complicit in the war crime of pillage and their involvement is a tacit support to an illegal occupation—one with continuing notorious human rights abuses occurring during a time of armed conflict,” he added.

Pointing out that within an hour of Ruto’s announcement, “Kenyans had jumped on his tweet, attacking him for surrendering sovereign foreign policy to Moroccan bribes,” Omole explained that there is a strong sentiment against what is perceived as a return to old foreign policy.

“Kenyan population supports the Sahrawi people”

“Except for the last 10 years, Kenya has not had a progressive foreign policy. It was always a wait-and-see opportunistic policy, aligning with whichever position brings in most alms from foreign countries. So our relations with Western Sahara had always been strained,” Omole told Peoples Dispatch.

In 2006, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki had placed diplomatic relations with SADR on “a temporary freeze” only months after first receiving diplomatic credentials from its ambassador. “But the Kenyan masses are always ahead of their governments. There was an uproar here, led by the Kenya Western Sahara Friendship Society (KWSFS),” said Omole, who has been a member of the KWSFS for 20 years.

“This organization has been fostering people-to-people friendship between the two countries. A few times, we have also hosted families from the refugee camps [of the displaced Sahrawis in Algeria]. Kenyan people lobbied the government to condemn Morocco’s occupation,” he explained. Under popular pressure, “Kibaki had to initiate the process to re-establish diplomatic relations with SADR.”

While this was unfolding, Uhuru Kenyatta and William Ruto, who at the time were contesting the 2013 election together as presidential and vice-presidential candidates, were put on trial by the International Criminal Court (ICC). They were tried for charges of crimes against humanity for political violence in the aftermath of the 2007 presidential election. The charges were subsequently dropped.

However, Kenyatta did not take the alleged US and UK support for this trial well, Omole claimed. “After he won the election, he went about changing Kenya’s foreign policy against the interests of the West. He pursued alternative trade relations with the East, instead of continuing to rely on the West. He refused to follow Israel’s line and supported Palestine. He opened the SADR’s embassy in Nairobi, and, for the first time, Kenya appointed an ambassador to SADR. For the first time, a Kenyan ambassador presented his credentials to the president of the SADR.”

In the regional and international forums of the AU and the UN, Kenya actively supported the cause of the SADR. “The progressive foreign policy has continued since,” and during this period Kenyan people’s relations and solidarity with the Sahrawi people has deepened, Omole said.

There is a high degree of “awareness among the Kenyan people about the Sahrawi people’s struggle for liberation. It seems our new president was out of touch with the reality that the Kenyan population supports the Sahrawi people, regardless of the divisions that will be sown by governments,” he observed.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... rn-sahara/

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Amidst the Biden Administration’s Forever-Wars Policy in Africa, BAP Launches a Month of Action Against AFRICOM (U.S. Africa Command)
Black Alliance For Peace 21 Sep 2022

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2019 protest march in Sudan. (Photo: Mohamed Nureldin Abdallah/Reuters)

The Black Alliance for Peace hosts a Month of Action Against the US Africa Command, AFRICOM, every October. AFRICOM continues to play a dangerous role in enforcing US foreign policy that is harmful to all African people.[/b]

This statement was originally published on the Black Alliance for Peace website .

Media Contact
communications@blackallianceforpeace.com
(202) 643-1136

SEPTEMBER 19, 2022—October 1, 2022 is the 14th anniversary of the launch of the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). Yet, jihadist terrorist violence on the African continent has increased since the founding of AFRICOM and NATO’s destruction of Libya resulting in civilian casualties and instability, which the West has used as pretext and justification for the continued need for AFRICOM. Since its founding, coups carried out by AFRICOM-trained soldiers have also increased.

That is why the Black Alliance for Peace (BAP) is organizing an International Month of Action Against AFRICOM in October. This is an effort to raise the public's awareness about how the presence of U.S. military forces exacerbates violence and instability throughout the continent.

Despite its rhetoric, the purpose of AFRICOM is to use U.S. military power to impose U.S. control on African land, resources and labor to service the needs of U.S. multinational corporations and the wealthy in the United States. It also serves as a major boon to “defense” contractors.

AFRICOM is a direct product of NATO via the U.S. European Command (EUCOM), which originally took responsibility for 42 African states. In 2003, NATO started expanding; four years later, in 2007, EUCOM commander James L. Jones, who was also NATO commander of operational forces, proposed the creation of AFRICOM.

NATO has become a huge global axle in the wheel of the military industrial complex, which includes more than 800 U.S. military bases around the world as well as joint bases or relationships with almost all African countries. These are all controlled by the U.S. empire for realizing the U.S. policy of Full Spectrum Dominance , which is driven by the ferocious appetite of international finance capital.

NATO continues today in the form of AFRICOM facilitating wars, instability and the corporate pillage of Africa. This hypocrisy explains why 17 African nations abstained from the March 2 United Nations resolution condemning Russia. One African state, Eritrea, even voted no. Their experiences with NATO and AFRICOM ensure skepticism of self-proclaimed noble motives.

Motives such as bill H.R. 7311 , the “Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act',' a racist affront to African sovereignty designed to dictate what bi-lateral relations African states are permitted to have.

That is why we call on our friends and allies to endorse this month as an individual or organization. Beyond that, we are calling on you to participate each week using our calls to action, for which we have provided materials on our webpage . Each week’s call to action ranges from watching our kick-off webinar to organizing mass actions like banner drops, facilitating teach-ins using our materials and spreading the word using BAP’s custom graphics.

The Black Alliance for Peace calls for the dismantling of NATO, AFRICOM and all imperialist structures. Africa and the rest of the world cannot be free until all peoples are able to realize the right of sovereignty and the right to live free of domination.

We demand:

The complete withdrawal of U.S. forces from Africa;
The demilitarization of the African continent;
The closure of U.S. bases throughout the world; and
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) oppose U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and conduct hearings on AFRICOM’s impact on the African continent, with the full participation of members of U.S. and African civil society.

https://www.blackagendareport.com/amids ... st-africom

Survivors Uncensored: Voices from Rwanda and the Rwandan Diaspora
Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor 21 Sep 2022

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Most reporting of the Rwandan 1994 atrocities was false and driven by the Clinton administration's need to hide its culpability. The book Survivors Uncensored allows Rwandans to tell their own story.

Samantha Power, former UN Ambassador, National Security Advisor, current USAID Chief, and a principal in the decisions to bomb both Libya and Syria "to stop genocide," was on the ground in Yugoslavia in the 1990s as a pro-NATO journalist. She went on to build her whole histrionic career on a Machiavellian distortion of the Rwandan Genocide before writing "A Problem from Hell, America in the Age of Genocide " and creating her laughable 1-800-GENOCIDE line.

Search now for Ukraine and "genocide" and you'll get a slew of headlines and proposed prosecutions. Recently, Samantha Power spoke with Rachel Maddow in a segment titled "Samantha Power On Russian Atrocities And 'Genocide': 'The Facts Are Plain As Day '." Everything's black and white and plain as day for Samantha Power and the humanitarian imperialists, and everything returns to Rwanda. Bill Clinton, the US, and the “international community” legendarily failed to stop genocide in Rwanda and have thus been morally obliged to “stop genocide” everywhere since.

In fact, Bill Clinton didn’t fail. He acted in accordance with US policy at the time, which was to see the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) led by then General, now President, Paul Kagame win the Rwandan war, seize power in Kigali, and become a key manager of the enormous resource wealth in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo, which was then called Zaire.

Clinton sent his UN Ambassador, the late Madeleine Albright, to the UN Security Council to block any attempt to mobilize a multilateral force to join the UN Mission already on the ground in Rwanda to stop the massacres.

What the Security Council is supposed to do, in accordance with the UN Charter and in response to urgent situations like Rwanda’s in 1994, is to organize a multilateral force to intervene with a UN mandate. The US blocked intervention by a multilateral UN force, then went on to use the consequent tragedy as an excuse for its unilateral crusades “to stop genocide,” which are in fact imperialist wars.

Any political and/or military entity that the US and NATO are at odds with is now said to be guilty of genocide. Ethnic, religious, and racial groups are quick to claim to be genocide victims with consequent prerogatives. And the once solidly anti-war left has divided in response.

In “Slouching Towards Sirte, NATO’s War on Libya and Africa ,” Max Forte wrote, “Everywhere is Rwanda for the humanitarian imperialist, which makes one want to know what really happened there in 1994.”

“Survivors Uncensored ” is the latest of honest answers to that question, which also include “Rwanda and the New Scramble for Africa, from Tragedy to Useful Imperial Fiction ,” “How Paul Kagame Deliberately Sacrificed the Tutsis ,” “In Praise of Blood: Crimes of the Rwandan Patriotic Front ,” “Enduring Lies: The Rwandan Genocide in the Propaganda System, 20 Years Later ,” “Post-Genocide Rwandan Refugees: Why They Refuse to Return ‘Home’: Myths and Realities ,” and “Dying to Live: A Rwandan Family's Five-Year Flight Across the Congo .”

This book is a collection of voices of those who lived through the four-year Rwandan war and massacres and of the prelude and aftermath. Its full title is “Survivors Uncensored: 100+ Testimonies from Survivors of the Rwandan Genocide as Well as Pre- and Post Genocide Rwanda; Inspiring stories of Resilience and Humanity.”

These voices are rigidly censored inside Rwanda, where the totalitarian dictatorship of Paul Kagame demands absolute adherence to its account of demon Hutus slaughtering innocent Tutsis, perhaps as many as a million in a hundred days. And to its legally enforced “Genocide against the Tutsi” description, which is meant to hide his Rwandan Patriot Front’s massacres of Hutus throughout the four-year war in Rwanda and then in refugee camps in what was then called Zaire, now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The names of those speaking for the book from inside Rwanda have been changed for their protection.

Outside Rwanda, the RPF’s fanatics and enforcers slander, threaten, and even try to prosecute anyone, Rwandan or not, who dares to deviate from their story. Hence the title, “Survivors Uncensored.”

100+ Voices

I highly recommend reading the book and all its 100+ voices, but I can only highlight a few here. Many are fascinating accounts of Rwanda well before and after the 1990-1994 war that broaden the war’s historical context, but I’m going to focus on just a few testimonies about what took place during the war that run counter to the widely received story.

Nadine Kazumba on the 1990-1994 war

Nadine Kazumba begins the book’s third chapter by saying that her testimony will focus on what she and her family experienced during the war. She was almost ten years old when it began and said she heard that Rwanda had been attacked by a Tutsi-led rebel group known as the Rwandan Patriotic Front, the party that has ruled ever since its army advanced to Kigali and won the war.

She then saw things change through her ten-year-old eyes. Curfews were established. “There was fear in people’s eyes, there was confusion.” Soldiers began appearing in combat uniforms with weapons she had never seen.

The RPF, many of whom had been serving in the Ugandan army, crossed the Ugandan border to attack Northern Rwanda, and soon she and others began hearing of Northern Rwandans fleeing their homes, and of the RPF killing people in the most gruesome ways: “. . . invading homes and stabbing people, shooting them, mutilating them, decapitating them. They would also group people into crowds, then throw grenades into the crowds.”

By 1991, the RPF was attacking parts of Northern Rwanda where her parents and grandparents had grown up and where many of her relatives still lived. Her grandfather at first resolved to die in his own home, but finally fled, joined her grandmother and other relatives in a camp for internal refugees where he died of a heart attack.

As conditions worsened in that camp, her parents decided to shelter as many of their relatives as they could in their home in Kigali. From 1991 to 1994, she was living in a house full of internal refugees.

Her cousins told her horror stories about crimes committed by the RPF. One story was of a young girl who was with her father when the RPF killed and decapitated him. She showed up in a camp wearing her father’s jacket and carrying his head.

In Chapter 4, Kazumba gives testimony to what she saw in Nyacyonga Refugee Camp, just outside Kigali, which was ringed with camps sheltering a million desperate refugees by the time the RPF assassinated President Habyarimana and the final hundred days of massacres began.

She saw malnourished children living in huts made of wood, covered with leaves, and, if they were lucky, a plastic cover to stop the rain from getting in. Not enough to keep a tropical storm out, but better than nothing.

She saw horribly unsanitary conditions.

She saw children taking care of children, including a boy younger than herself who was taking care of three younger siblings. She could not imagine having such responsibility.

The children from that camp would walk miles barefoot, malnourished, in torn clothes to beg for food in Kigali.

Seeing all this, she said she already had an idea of who the RPF were and resolved to flee from them as fast as possible if she had to. In the end she lost three uncles, five cousins, and many other relatives to the RPF. She said she felt she would betray them and other Rwandans, Congolese, and Burundians who were killed if she remained silent about what she had seen.

Chapter 7, Eric Ngoga on his family’s ordeal during the war

Eric Ngoga’s family story is well worth reading, but his account is also particularly interesting to me because it begins with his description of the consequences of multi-party democracy, the political system that the West forced on Rwanda, as it has on so much of the world.

“In the early 90s,” he writes, “with the start of the multi-party system, everything changed. Our neighborhood saw the rise of fanatics towards the different political parties in Rwanda. And in a few months, all these parties had their flags in front of the business area near the road. Within a span of 20 meters, we had PSD, PL, MDR, and MRND flags just one next to each other. In the earliest days, everyone was tolerant about the political affiliation of the others. But as time went by, sabotage started, and the flags would get stolen by the opponents or the flagpoles were removed. Later the flag of CRD was also present, but at that time, the PSD, PL, and MDR were removed.”

UPI reported on multi-party democracy coming to Rwanda in 1991: “Rwanda, like other developing countries, has been under heavy pressure from Western donors of financial aid to end the one-party political system.”

Ngoga also described less than positive consequences to the peace process and the 1993 Arusha Accords, which were also imposed on Rwanda by the West. “In those times, the political space in Rwanda was changing quickly because of the peace agreements between the government of Rwanda and the RPF. For these reasons, some places were very dangerous and the security was precarious. My neighborhood was one of those that was radicalized and came under complete control of the Interahamwe [the ad hoc militia who massacred Tutsis and anyone else they didn’t like]. My neighborhood was like an island of danger, but the Interahamwe were able to control only a small territory.”

Needless to say, neither multi-party democracy nor the Arusha Accords led to good outcomes. Three years after the introduction of multi-party democracy and less than a year after the Arusha Accords were signed, Rwanda had been even further ravaged by the RPF’s invasion and war: the RPF had assassinated President Habyarimana, massacres had shocked the world, and millions of refugees were fleeing into every country neighboring Rwanda, but most of all into what is now the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Ironically, Rwanda is now ruled by the Rwandan Patriotic Front’s one-party dictatorship which stages charades of multi-party democracy every few years. During the 2010 presidential election, three real candidates attempted to run, but they were never even allowed to register their parties, and by the time the election was over, two of the three were in prison and the third was in exile.

In the last election, President Kagame claimed to have won 99% of the vote, but Western powers and leaders—those who insisted that Rwanda institute multi-party democracy—can’t praise him enough.

The RPF, a signatory to the Arusha Peace Accords, has waged a resource war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo since 1996.

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Thu Sep 29, 2022 1:52 pm

Breaking the Influence of International Capital in Africa
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 28, 2022

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ROAPE interviews the Ruth First prize winner Japhace Poncian about the crippling influence of international capital on the continent, resource nationalism, and the need for Africa to break its dependence from foreign direct investment and technology and to harness its own resources. Japhace argues that Africa must build up its own technical, financial, and human capacities to master its own fate.

ROAPE: Can you please tell us, Japhace, about yourself, and your background?

Japhace Poncian: I was born and grew up in a rural village in northwestern Tanzania. I had all my primary and ordinary secondary education there before going for my Advanced level secondary education. After my A-level education, I joined Mkwawa University College of Education, which is a constituent college of the University of Dar es Salaam for my BA (Education) degree in 2006, majoring in History and Geography. Right from my ordinary secondary education, history had always fascinated me. I was always fascinated by leftist perspectives on Africa’s marginalization in the international political economic system. After my BA degree, I was recruited as a Tutorial Assistant of History at Mkwawa University College of Education, which is a constituent college of the University of Dar es Salaam.

From Dar, I went for an MA in Global Development and Africa at the University of Leeds, United Kingdom to further my intellectual curiosity about Africa’s place and role in global political economy. Taught and supervised by the likes of Raymond Bush, I slowly developed interest in the political economy of extractive resources. I subsequently wrote my MA dissertation on Tanzania’s then mining law which was enacted in 2010. I problematized the content of the resulting law in light of the then public and political outcry about the infamous neoliberal reforms that had characterized the mining sector since the mid-1990s. Building on this background, I moved to Australia for my PhD at the University of Newcastle in 2015 where I researched the government-community engagement dynamics in the governance of Tanzania’s natural gas.

A common strand running through my research was my focus on how extractive resource politics impact unfairly on the communities, how these communities organize to fight back, how the state responds and what this means for the broader processes and national and international political economy of resources. I have continued to work along these lines but have extended my research into resource nationalist politics which my recent ROAPE paper draws. Apart from this research, I also teach undergraduate courses in Development Studies and Political Science at Mkwawa University College of Education.

Tanzania was the ‘incubator’ of ROAPE in our early days (with comrades like Issa Shivji involved from the start). Before ROAPE was founded, many of our comrades were inspired and schooled in Nyerere’s Tanzania. There was much continental hope for radical and socialist changes from Dar es Salaam in the 1960s and 1970s. Coming from a later generation, can you tell us about what it was like growing up in the context of this history and environment and how it has influenced you, your family and your work?

I must say from the outset that growing up in this context was inspirational. Even though I did all my schooling in the post-socialist era, the memory of Nyerere’s socialist policies were still very much intact and commanding public support. Some policy practices of the socialist era were still being practiced at the time. I remember we used to study for free and were usually provided with free exercise books and school equipment at the beginning of each year until around 1994 when this practice was abandoned. Yet socialist ideas continued to be at the core of our primary school songs.

Even though President Mwinyi [Ali Hassan Mwinyi was the second president of Tanzania from 1985-1995] was the presiding leader, the general community in which we lived and interacted still held Nyerere in high esteem. The national radio broadcasting, Radio Tanzania Dar es Salaam, used to broadcast Nyerere speeches every day after the 8pm news bulletin. Being the only radio station at the time, this meant that the ideas we were exposed to were mostly those of Nyerere. So, growing up in this context influenced my future perspective about development and the international system. So, it is not surprising that even when I went for my secondary education, I gravitated to Africa’s history from what we used to call back then an Afro-centric perspective. This also explains why I have continued to conduct my research building on the legacy and heritage of Nyerere’s socialist policies.

Your own research has looked at the much spoken about ‘resource nationalism’ in Tanzania in recent years – there was an expectation, or at least political hope, that this was a radical measure that would take back for the country’s poor its own wealth and resources. Can you describe the political context of these measures, and what has really been revealed (and achieved) by such politics?

Resource nationalism, as I and other scholars such as Thabit Jacob have argued is very much a product of failed resource liberalism. When it was adopted during the late 1980s and early to mid-1990s, resource liberalism was premised on the ‘false’ promise of job opportunities, revenues, FDI inflows and technological exchange. However, the reality what actually came about did not come anywhere near what was promised.

Across Tanzania and the rest of Africa, there was public outcry at the failure of these reforms and the need for Tanzania to take measures to address the imbalance. At the same time, opposition parties, themselves a product of political liberalization, were gaining political mileage as they built on popular dissatisfaction to galvanise popular support. From 2005 to 2010, it was becoming clear that if nothing was done, the ruling party Chama cha Mapinduzi (CCM) would lose many parliamentary seats to the opposition and would perform poorly in presidential elections. This being the case, the CCM government under President Kikwete (2005-2015) built on the Nyerere on international capital and its plundering tendencies to re-introduce resource nationalism to tame the growing influence and popularity of opposition parties.

The opposition Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA- Party for Democracy and Development), for instance, had organized popular campaigns dubbed ‘operation sangara’ and Movement for Change (M4C)’ in the period between 2007 and 2013. Riding high on corruption scandals and mining failure to deliver benefits to Tanzania, CHADEMA went throughout the country mobilizing the youth and poor to the extent it was became a thorn in the side of CCM. Opposition members of parliament also became very vocal in parliament so that some top political leaders including the Prime Minister were forced to resign on account of corruption.

Together these crises pushed the government to come up with ‘resource nationalist measures’ between 2006 and 2010 and subsequently in 2015 and 2017. The CCM has held onto power, but these measures have not helped increase its electoral performance. Further, resource nationalism has not transformed the extractive sector into one that bolsters value addition and industrialisation.

Though there have been some gains due to subscription to the Extractives Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) these cannot be attributed to resource nationalism. Finally, the reforms have made the sector unstable and unpredictable because they have meant that periodic revisions have become a norm. The 2017 nationalist reforms, for instance, are now being sidelined by the sitting government in favour of the market.

If, as you claim in your Ruth First prize winning article, the key element in Tanzanian political economy are ‘structural constraints’, which has undermined efforts at radical reforms, what can be done to alter and transform the continents trajectory?

You are very right on structural constraints in relation to Tanzania’s efforts to alter and transform its trajectory. Resource nationalism, and indeed broader economic nationalization programmes, has historically been adopted in Tanzania and across Africa within the constraints of structural challenges. Tanzania and Africa generally, has historically sought to fight the power of international capital by resorting to nationalistic policies and strategies without addressing the structural constraints secure capital’s control over nation-states.

Whereas resource nationalist reforms adopted recently and those adopted during the Arusha Declaration era had good intentions and represented a government’s resolve to address the negative consequences of international capital encroachment, they nevertheless were ill-thought and failed.

Looking forward, I would suggest that Africa should place more emphasis on transforming the structural constraints first before introducing radical resource nationalist measures. You do not break from the influence of the international capital if you still depend on foreign direct investment and technology to harness your resources. It would make sense, and many have written about this, for Tanzania and Africa to invest in building its technical, financial and human capacity if the goal is to take over the running of the extractive sector. Without investing in building this capacity, resource nationalist policies on, for instance, state participation, local content, resource-based industrialisation, etc. cannot produce the desired outcomes by continuing to depend on international capital. If anything, Africa should start building from below before it can flex its ‘weak’ muscles against the politically, economically and technologically powerful multinational corporations. Because this appears to be a longer term strategy whose ‘fruits’ can only be realised after a long time, Africa can pursue this while at the same time continue to negotiate fair deals with international capital without initially signaling a ‘threat of nationalisation.’

What role does agency, and the engagement of working people, play in the transformation of Tanzania? There have been some important struggles in Tanzania in recent years, can you talk about this?

Agency is a very important determinant here. In fact, none of the three waves of resource nationalist reforms in Tanzania have come without such agency. Much of the reforms have been enacted in response to political and general public outcry, often with the ruling party feeling politically threatened. Struggles from within the ruling party (i.e., between party cadres loyal to the ideas of Nyerere and those ascribing to market forces), confrontation between artisanal and small scale miners and large scale miners, community complaints, civil society advocacy and popular campaigns building on the emotions of the public have all been very important in bringing about then reforms in the form of resource nationalism.

Everyone from ruling party policy makers to the common citizen has complained about Tanzania not benefitting adequately from extractive resource extraction and demanded that the government take steps to address this. Although the agency and struggles of the popular classes have been important in shaping Tanzania’s extractive reforms, the processes through which these reforms have been instituted has tended to be exclusionary. The government has consistently sought to introduce legal reforms under a certificate of urgency, systematically keeping alternative and popular voices and influence away from the process.

In effect, many of these reforms have tended to be contentious and controversial resulting in their revision within a short period of time. Therefore, one can say that civil society agency and public dissatisfaction have always pushed the government to introduce reforms. However, the government has consistently hijacked the agenda by legislating for reforms behind ‘closed’ doors. Unquestionably this is why we have not seen that much transformation coming out of these reforms.

Looking at the continent as a whole, and similar rhetoric at industrialisation (see Ethiopia and Rwanda for example), how do you interpret and understand efforts at development on the continent and the role of imperialism and structural constraints in undermining these efforts?

On a general note, it appears that Africa has awakened from slumber and is keen to take advantage of its resources to catapult socio-economic and industrial transformation. In the period since, say, the first half of the 2000s, certain African politicians have individually and collectively made at least a rhetorical commitment to large scale transformation. Mega-infrastructural, energy and industrial projects have become fashionable across the continent. The adoption the Africa Mining Vision in 2009 has reinvigorated Africa’s desire to promote a resource-based industrialisation. Similarly, the adoption of the African Continental Free Trade Area is an attempt to address intra-African trade barriers to ensure African countries trade amongst each other to promote continental industrialisation. The global fourth industrial revolution is also exerting pressure on the continent with countries striving to cope with and take advantage of its trends for their own transformation.

On more practical level, however, these efforts are not only beset by global imperial and structural constraints but are also challenged by the nationalist orientation of individual African countries. The development challenges that Africa face today require deep partnerships to address them; yet this continental collaboration and partnership does not seem to take root. Xenophobic attacks in some countries point to the deeper intra-African structural constraints and unresolved legacies of colonial imperialism.

Further, the sluggish implementation of continentally agreed strategies by individual countries is suggestive of the lack of a Pan-African spirit needed to overcome imperialist challenges. What do you expect if, for instance, African leaders voluntarily agreed and adopted a continental Mining Vision in 2009 but none of them has fully, or in any real sense, implemented the Vision which is now more than ten years old? How can mining bolster industrialisation if resource-rich countries do not respect the decisions they made on their own volition without external influence?

How do you see your work and research, and political engagement, evolving in the coming years? What areas are you planning to move into?

Looking into the future, I still see myself working and researching on political-economic questions regarding mineral, oil and gas resource extraction and development dynamics. My particular interest is to further pursue a line of inquiry on grassroot community organising and movements that seek to challenge the mainstream resource extraction agenda and how ‘resource governance’ seeks to integrate their voices and concerns into policy and practice, which as we have seen does little or nothing. A second line of inquiry that I am interested in is renewable energy politics in Africa in the context of global sustainability initiatives and targets and regional and local development needs and dynamics.

Japhace is a lecturer in Development Studies and runs the Department of History, Political Science and Development Studies at Mkwawa University College of Education in Tanzania. He researches on the politics of extractive resource governance and broader development issues in Tanzania and Africa. He holds a PhD in Politics from the University of Newcastle in Australia, an MA (Global Development and Africa) from the University of Leeds, in the UK, and a BA (Education) from University of Dar es Salaam.

Featured Photograph: Miners in Tanzania (23 August 2017).


https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... in-africa/

Western Sahara: Africa’s Last Colony
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on SEPTEMBER 28, 2022
Meriem Naïli

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Meriem Naïli writes about the continuing struggle for the independence of Western Sahara. Occupied by Morocco since the 1970s, in contravention of the International Court of Justice and the UN. The internationally recognised liberation movement, POLISARIO, has fought and campaigned for independence since the early 1970s. Naïli explains what is going on, and the legal efforts to secure the country’s freedom.

The conflict over Western Sahara can be described as a conflict over self-determination that has been frozen in the past three decades. Western Sahara is a territory in North-West Africa, bordered by Morocco in the north, Algeria and Mauritania in the east and the Atlantic Ocean to the west. A former Spanish colony, it has been listed by the UN since 1963 as one of the 17 remaining non-self-governing territories, but the only such territory without a registered administrating power.

Since becoming independent from France in 1956, Morocco has claimed sovereignty over Western Sahara and has since the late 1970s formally annexed around 80% of its territory, over which it exercises de facto control in contravention of the conclusions reached by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in its advisory opinion of October 15, 1975, on this matter. The court indeed did not find any “legal ties of such a nature as might affect the application of resolution 1514 (XV) in the decolonization of Western Sahara and, in particular, of the principle of self-determination through the free and genuine expression of the will of the peoples of the Territory” (Western Sahara (1975), Advisory Opinion, I.C.J. Reports 1975, p.12).

On 14 November 1975, the Madrid Accords – formally the Declaration of Principles on Western Sahara – were signed between Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania setting the conditions under which Spain would withdraw from the territory and divide its administration between the two African states. Its paragraph two reads that “Spain shall immediately proceed to establish a temporary administration in the territory, in which Morocco and Mauritania shall participate in collaboration with the Jemâa [a tribal assembly established by Spain in May 1967 to serve as a local consultative link with the colonial administration], and to which the responsibilities and powers referred to in the preceding paragraph shall be transferred.”

Although it was never published on the Boletin Oficial del Estado [the official State journal where decrees and orders are published on a weekly basis], the accord was executed, and Mauritania and Morocco subsequently partitioned the territory in April 1976. Protocols to the Madrid Accords also allowed for the transfer of the Bou Craa phosphate mine and its infrastructure and for Spain to continue its involvement in the coastal fisheries.

Yet in Paragraph 6 of his 2002 advisory opinion, UN Deputy Secretary General Hans Corell, reaffirmed that the 1975 Madrid Agreement between Spain, Morocco, and Mauritania “did not transfer sovereignty over the Territory, nor did it confer upon any of the signatories the status of an administering Power, a status which Spain alone could not have unilaterally transferred.”

The war

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Saguia el-Hamra and Rio de Oro (POLISARIO) is the internationally recognised national liberation movement representing the indigenous people of Western Sahara. Through the self-proclaimed Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), it has been campaigning since its creation in May 1973 in favour of independence from Spain through a referendum on self-determination to be supervised by the UN. A war broke out shortly after Morocco and Mauritania’s invasion in November 1975. Spain officially withdrew from the territory on 26 February 1976 and the Sahrawi leadership proclaimed the establishment of the SADR the following day.

In 1984, the SADR was admitted as a full member of the Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union), resulting in Morocco’s decision to withdraw the same year in protest. Morocco would only (re)join the African Union (AU) in 2017. The admission of the SADR to the OAU consolidated the movement in favour of its recognition internationally, with 84 UN member states officially recognising the SADR.

In the meantime, to strengthen its colonization of the territory, Morocco had begun building what it later called “le mur de défense” (the defence wall). In August 1980, following the withdrawal of Mauritanian troops the previous year, Morocco sought to “secure” a part of the territory that Mauritania had occupied. Construction of the wall – or “berm” – was completed in 1987 with an eventual overall length of just under 2,500km.

A “coordination mission” was established in 1985 by the UN and the OAU with representatives dispatched to find a solution to the conflict between the two parties. After consultations, the joint OAU-UN mission drew up a proposal for settlement accepted by the two parties on 30 August 1988 and would later be detailed in the United Nations Secretary General’s (UNSG) report of 18 June 1990 and the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution establishing United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO).

Since 1979 and the surrender of Mauritania, around 80% of the territory has remained under Morocco’s military and administrative occupation.

Deployment of MINURSO

The Settlement Plan agreed to in principle between Morocco and POLISARIO in August 1988 was submitted to the UNSC on 12 July 1989 and approved in 1990. On 29 April 1991, the UNSC established MINURSO in resolution 690, the terms of reference for it being set out in the UNSG’s report of 19 April 1991. The plan provided for a cease-fire, followed by the organisation of a referendum of self-determination for which the people of Western Sahara had to choose between two options: integration with Morocco or plain and simple independence.

In this regard, it provided for the creation of an Identification Commission to resolve the issue of the eligibility ofSahrawi voters for the referendum, an issue which has since generated a great deal of tension between the two parties. A Technical Commission was created by mid-1989 to implement the Plan, with a schedule based on several phases and a deployment of UN observers following the proclamation of a ceasefire.

Talks quickly began to draw up a voters list amid great differences between the parties. POLISARIO maintained that the Spanish census of 1974 was the only valid basis, with 66,925 eligible adult electors, while Morocco demanded inclusion of all the inhabitants who, as settlers, continued to populate the occupied part of the territory as well as people from southern Morocco. It was decided that the 1974 Spanish census would serve as a basis, and the parties were to propose voters for inclusion on the grounds that they were omitted from the 1974 census.

In 1991, the first list was published with around 86,000 voters. However, the process of identifying voters would be obstructed in later years, mainly by Morocco which attempted to include as many Moroccan settlers as possible. The criteria for eligibility had sometimes been modified to accommodate Morocco’s demands and concerns. Up to 180,000 applications had been filed on the part of the Kingdom, the majority of which had been rejected by the UN Commission as they did not satisfy the criteria for eligibility.

Consequently, the proclamation of “D-Day”, to mark the beginning of a twelve-week transition period following the cease-fire leading to the referendum on self-determination, kept being postponed and eventually was never declared.

The impasse

Following the rejection by Morocco of the Peace Plan for Self-Determination of the People of Western Sahara (known as Baker Plan II) and the complete suspension of UN referendum preparation activities in 2003, Morocco’s proposal for autonomy of the territory under its sovereignty in 2007 crystallised the stalemate [the Peace Plan is contained in Annex II of UNSG report S/2003/565, and available here].

The Baker Plan II had envisioned a four or five-year transitional power-sharing period between an autonomous Western Sahara Authority and the Moroccan state before the organisation of a self-determination referendum during which the entire population of the territory could vote for the status of the territory – including an option for independence. It was ‘supported’ by the UNSC in resolution S/RES/1495 and reluctantly accepted by POLISARIO but rejected by Morocco.

The absence of human rights monitoring prerogatives for MINURSO has emerged as an issue for the people of Western Sahara as a result of the stalemate in the referendum process in the last two decades. MINURSO is the only post-Cold War peacekeeping operation to be deprived of such prerogatives.

Amongst the four operations currently deployed that are totally deprived of human rights monitoring components (UNFICYP in Northern Cyprus, UNIFIL in Lebanon, UNDOF in the Israeli-Syrian sector and MINURSO), MINURSO stands out as not having attained its purpose through the organisation of a referendum. In addition, among the missions that did organise referendums (namely UNTAG in Namibia and UNAMET in East Timor), all had some sort of human rights oversight mechanism stemming from their mandates.

On 8 November 2010, a protest camp established by Sahrawis near Laayoune (capital of Western Sahara) was dismantled by the Moroccan police. The camp had been set up a month earlier in protest at the ongoing discrimination, poverty, and human rights abuses against Sahrawis. When dismantling the camp, gross human rights violations were reported – see reports by Fédération internationale des ligues des droits de l’Homme (2011) and Amnesty International (2010).

This episode revived the international community’s interest in Western Sahara and therefore strengthened the demand by Sahrawi activists to “extend the mandate of MINURSO to monitor human rights” (see Irene Fernández-Molina, “Protests under Occupation: The Spring inside Western Sahara” in Mediterranean Politics, 20:2 (2015): 235–254).

Such an extension was close to being achieved in April 2013, when an UNSC resolution draft penned by the US unprecedentedly incorporated this element, although it was eventually taken out. This failed venture remains to date the most serious attempt to add human rights monitoring mechanisms to MINURSO. Supporters of this amendment to the mandate are facing the opposition by Moroccan officials who hold that it is not the raison d’être of the mission, and it could jeopardize the negotiation process.

What’s going on now?

At the time of writing, the people of Western Sahara are yet to express the country’s right to self-determination through popular consultation or any other means agreed between the parties. The conflict therefore remains unresolved since the ceasefire and has mostly been described as “frozen” by observers.

On the ground, resistance from Sahrawi activists remain very much active. Despite the risks of arbitrary arrest, repression or even torture, the Sahrawi people living under occupation have organised themselves to ensure their voices are heard and violations are reported. Freedom House in 2021 have, yet again, in its yearly report, rated Western Sahara as one of the worst countries in the world with regards to political rights and civil liberties.

Despite a clear deterioration of the peace process over the decades, several factors have signalled a renewed interest in this protracted conflict among key actors and observers from the international community. A Special Envoy of the AU Council Chairperson for Western Sahara (Joaquim Alberto Chissano from Mozambique) was appointed by the Peace and Security Council in June 2014. This was followed by Morocco becoming a member of the AU in January 2017.

More recently, major events have begun to de-crystalise the status quo. The war resumed on 13 November 2020 following almost 30 years of ceasefire. Additionally, for the first time, a UN member state – the US – recognised Morocco’s claim to sovereignty over the territory. Former US President Trump’s declaration on 10 December 2020 to that effect was made less than a month after the resumption of armed conflict. It has not, however, been renounced by the current Biden administration. As this recognition secured Morocco’s support for Israel as per the Abrahamic Accords, reversing Donald Trump’s decision would have wider geopolitical repercussions.

In September 2021, the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) issued decisions invalidating fisheries and trade agreements between Morocco and the EU insofar as they extended to Western Sahara, rejecting Morocco’s sovereignty. This decision is the latest episode of a legal battle taking place before the European courts.

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), had previously reaffirmed the legal status of Western Sahara as a non-self-governing territory, set by the UN in 1963 following the last report transmitted by Spain – as Administering Power – on Spanish Sahara under Article 73 of the UN Charter. The Court rejected in December 2016 any claims of sovereignty by Morocco by restating the distinct statuses of both territories.

The last colony in Africa remains largely under occupation and the UN mission in place is still deprived of any kind of human rights monitoring. In the meantime, the Kingdom of Morocco has been trading away peace in the form of military accords and trade partnerships. This situation must end – with freedom, and sovereignty finally won by Western Sahara.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/09/ ... st-colony/

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The home of the President of the People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), Mlungisi Makhanya, in Swaziland, was attacked in the early hours of 20 September 2022.

Residence of Swazi pro-democracy leader bombed by alleged state-sponsored hit-squad
Originally published: Peoples Dispatch on September 21, 2022 (more by Peoples Dispatch) | (Posted Sep 27, 2022)

In Swaziland’s eastern town of Siketi in the Lubombo region, an alleged state-sponsored hit-squad, bombed the residence of Mlungisi Makhanya, president of People’s United Democratic Movement (PUDEMO), after midnight at about 1 AM on September 20.

“Residents in neighboring houses heard gunshots. Then they saw armed men had climbed a wall fence [of Makhanya’s house] and were shooting at the electric cable. After the lights went out, they threw what seemed to be explosive grenades into his house,” Wandile Dludlu, Secretary General of PUDEMO, told Peoples Dispatch. When flames engulfed his house “they sped away in their cars.”

Makhanya, however, is safe. Two months ago in July, PUDEMO had received credible information that its president was going to be a target of assassination, Dludlu said. PUDEMO is one of the leading pro-democracy parties in the continent’s last absolute monarchy where all political parties are banned.

Makhanya had been moved to safety in neighboring South Africa, where several pro-democracy activists from Swaziland have been forced into exile or hiding by the regime of King Mswati III.

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When asked if the police have registered any case, Makhanya replied, “Of course not.” He said,

It was them [who did it]. They don’t entertain cases that require them to investigate themselves, or even worse, to investigate the army soldiers.

In a statement after the bombing, PUDEMO said,

This attack comes in the backdrop of threats from Mswati’s traditional governor, Timothy Ginindza, to the effect that the regime has trained an arson squad whose sole purpose is to target and burn down the homes of leaders of the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) and to assassinate them.

MDM is a coalition of more than a dozen pro-democracy political parties, student unions, trade unions, youth organizations, and other groups. Ginindza’s threat to such organizations, Dludlu said, has been caught in an “intercepted” cell phone conversation in which he was “discussing.. the plot to bomb properties belonging to political leaders,” according to Swaziland News.

PUDEMO maintains that this hit-squad is a direct result of Mswati’s order to the security forces to take an “eye for an eye,” as he threatened in his Police Day address on August 5. Dludu said that there has been a significant rise in “attacks on homes of leaders and activists, arrests, and clampdown on mass activities like protests” since this speech.

Leaders of other prominent pro-democracy parties, including the Communist Party of Swaziland (CPS), have also faced increased attacks and raids on their homes.

Many believe his threat is an incitement to exact revenge for the attacks on his properties last year. These attacks occurred during the broader anti-monarchist insurrection that followed the violent crackdown on unprecedented nationwide peaceful pro-democracy marches.

Amid the attacks on the businesses and industries he owns, the King had briefly fled the country, returning only after his army had put down the rebellion by killing over 70 people and arresting hundreds.

Nevertheless, strong anti-monarchist sentiments have not only prevailed within urban contexts, but has also taken root in villages, which until last year were presumed loyal to the King.

Despite intensifying repression by the security forces who have since grown increasingly nervous, protests have continued as a regular feature in this small landlocked country with a population of 1.2 million. Most of the Swazi economy is owned by the King and run to finance the royal indulgences, including palaces, a fleet of Rolls Royce cars, and private jets. The youth see the myriad businesses and industries owned by him as a prime target to attack.

In this context, the monarch’s call for security forces to take an “eye for an eye” appears to have translated into increasing attacks and arson on homes of pro-democracy activists.

PUDEMO has assured that “the president remains unshaken, defiant, and ready for the revolutionary task of fighting side by side with you in attaining the freedom and liberation of the country from royal rule.”

“The value we attach to our material possessions is ephemeral, but the value we attach to our noble struggle is permanent,” the party states.

PUDEMO and the pro-democracy movement in Swaziland also received international messages of solidarity.

the International Peoples Assembly (IPA) wrote in a statement:

We vehemently condemn this and all attacks, harassment and intimidation of the people of Swaziland by the monarchy as a blatant violation of basic human and political freedoms.

The IPA, comprising about 200 progressive organizations from across the world, has reiterated that “peoples’ sovereignty and democracy are core pillars of our work and must be defended from Western Sahara and Morocco to Swaziland!”

https://mronline.org/2022/09/27/residen ... hit-squad/

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Zambia’s debt crisis a warning for what looms ahead for Global South

Zambia is heading toward critical negotiations to restructure its mounting debts. The IMF has approved a $1.3 billion bailout plan for the country, which will impose cruel austerity measures on the Zambian people

September 22, 2022 by Tanupriya Singh

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Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema meets with IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. (Photo: @KGeorgieva/Twitter)

On September 6, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) unveiled a series of conditions attached to a $1.3 billion loan program for Zambia under an Extended Credit Facility (ECF). The 38-month bailout was announced on August 31 following talks between Zambia and its official creditors to restructure its external debts, which had soared to $17.3 billion by the end of 2021.

As Lusaka heads into these debt relief negotiations, the IMF is imposing brutal austerity measures on the people of Zambia, at least 60% of whom are already living in poverty.

“Zambia is dealing with the legacy of years of economic mismanagement, with an especially inefficient public investment drive,” read a statement by the IMF. Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva went on to add: “Zambia continues to face profound challenges reflected in high poverty levels and low growth. The ECF-supported programme aims to restore macroeconomic stability and foster higher, more resilient, and more inclusive growth.”

How exactly does the IMF intend on achieving these goals? Through a “large, front-loaded, and sustained fiscal consolidation” that will reform “regressive and wasteful subsidies” and reduce “excessive and poorly targeted public investment:”

“These are typical, vintage IMF conditions of austerity, which effectively means slowing down government expenditure in quite a drastic way, the brunt of which falls on the poor, on women, and the youth,” stated Dr. Grieve Chelwa, the director of research at the Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy at The New School in New York, USA, in an interview with Peoples Dispatch.

The blow caused by the IMF’s conditions will be swift, with the complete removal of fuel subsidies set to take place by the end of September. Implicit subsidies, including reduced excise on petrol and diesel and zero-rating them for Value Added Tax (VAT), which the government had introduced in 2021 to cushion against soaring inflation and the impact of the pandemic, will also be eliminated. Import duties will be reintroduced.

The Bank of Zambia has already stated that the move will cause a “nudge” in inflation.

Subsidy removal will lead to a rise in electricity tariffs, which will have a demonstrably greater impact on poor households. According to data from the World Bank, only 44.5% of Zambia’s population had access to electricity in 2020. The figure for rural areas was 14%.

The IMF has also taken aim at Zambia’s agricultural subsidies, especially the 20-year-old Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP), and intends to reduce the cost of subsidies to around 1% of the GDP by 2025. The new program will be implemented in the 2023-24 agricultural cycle. According to Chelwa, a million Zambians—or approximately 5% of the country’s population—rely on the subsidy program for maize. A majority of these people, who are responsible for growing the bulk of the country’s maize, are small-scale farmers.

To increase revenues, the IMF has directed the Zambian government to expand its VAT base. This includes a rollback on VAT exemptions on unprocessed foodstuffs, limiting them to “specific items that figure prominently in the food baskets of the poor.”

Between July and September, over 1.35 million Zambians were estimated to be experiencing severe food insecurity driven by high food prices and climate shocks. Out of the 91 districts analyzed, over 15% were facing crisis (Integrated Food Security Phase Classification Phase 3) levels of food insecurity. An additional 34 districts are projected to fall under these conditions between October 2022 and 2023.

In an attempt to somehow gloss over the gravity of these measures, the IMF pointed to a projected increase in social protection spending from 0.7% of the GDP in 2020 to 1.6% in 2025, as well as the government’s plans to hire additional staff in the health and education sectors. It also made references to several social safety programmes, including World Bank-supported social cash transfers (SCT), adding that the monthly benefit under the program had been increased from 90 to 110 kwacha ($5.75 to 7) in 2021.

“Overall, for low-income households, the benefits from increased social spending should outweigh the impact from the removal of fuel and electricity subsidies,” the IMF claimed.

“In dollar terms, the increase in monthly benefits is nothing, it is a pittance especially given the increases in fuel prices, electricity prices, and the VAT, which will take place as a result of the Fund’s conditions,” said Chelwa.

Importantly, he added, “social cash transfers are given to the ultra-poor. You have all these distinctions of people characterized as being moderately poor, working poor, ultra poor. However, these are effectively abstract and arbitrary distinctions in countries that are [on the whole] massively poor.”

Not only are taxes on labor income expected to rise in the medium term, Chelwa argued, the rate of this increase will be faster than the taxes on profits in both mining and non-mining sectors, large portions of which are under the control of private corporations, owing to the aggressive structural adjustment and privatization pushed by the IMF and the World Bank in the 1990s.

“These are essentially properties of global and Western capital, so they are going to be treated quite favorably when it comes to taxation. The extent of this favorable treatment in the IMF document is shocking. 70% of the burden of raising new taxes is going to be the VAT; 15% is going to be the corporate sector,” Chelwa said.

“You would think that the IMF would tell Zambia that it was time to tax the mining sector appropriately, but that is conspicuously absent from the document, and this is by design.”

Mining corporations have been given major concessions in recent years, and these have been balanced by drastic cuts to social spending. Meanwhile, by 2019, Zambia’s debt rose to 85% of its GDP. Conditions worsened dramatically with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, and debt rose to 118% of the GDP.

In November 2020, even though it was able to secure a debt relief agreement with China, Zambia became the first African country to default on its external debt payments, after it was denied a request for a six month extension on the payment of $42.5 million in interest on eurobonds due in October. However, the crisis had been years in the making.

Debt accumulation in Zambia

After having had most of its debt waived under the IMF and World Bank’s Heavily Indebted Poor Countries initiative, Zambia began accumulating new debt in 2012.

“Like many poorer countries, Zambia began borrowing from international capital markets based on the advice of international financial institutions,” explained Chelwa. “We were told that the prospects looked good and that the forecasts for commodity prices were strong. It is important to keep in mind that most countries in the Global South are exporters of raw commodities. They told us to borrow, and we went out and took out bonds.”

However, Chelwa pointed to important problems inherent to these bond contracts: “We were borrowing to finance infrastructure projects and expecting to repay in a very short period of time. Returns on projects like bridges, highways, and hospitals can sometimes take decades, but we were expecting to pay back within a decade.”

Compounding the issue was the fact that the “commodity prices, upon which the forecasts were based, crashed and then we have COVID-19 and the climate crisis. Ten years later, the debt is unsustainable, and the way that the international financial architecture is set up, we have to pay no matter what.”

One route is that of the IMF, Chelwa explained further, “where you accept a programme hoping that it will get you into the good books of those you owe money to. However, in actuality this process is quite convoluted and it is not a foregone conclusion that having an IMF arrangement will ensure that creditors treat us better.”

After its initial default in 2020, the Zambian government, under former President Edgar Lungu, formally requested to restructure its debt under the G20 Common Framework in February 2021.

In December, Zambia, now led by incumbent President Hakainde Hichilema, secured a staff-level agreement with the IMF for a bailout of upto $1.4 billion. However, final approval by the IMF board was contingent on assurances that Zambia’s debt could be brought down to levels considered sustainable.


In June 2022, a creditor committee led by China and France was established to deliberate Zambia’s debt relief request under the Common Framework. In July, the creditors agreed to restructure the country’s debts, paving the way for the IMF bailout.


In its report on September 6, the IMF stated that Zambia was seeking debt relief of $8.4 billion between 2022 and 2025. According to Debt Justice, $8.4 billion accounts for 90% of payments to government and private lenders in this period. The organization has called for a permanent cancellation of debt payments, so that these are “not rolled over to the 2030s to fuel another debt crisis next decade.”

With restructuring talks set to begin, one major hurdle stands in the way—private lenders, chief among them BlackRock. The asset management giant is currently the largest owner of Zambia’s bonds, holding $220 million.

On September 16, over 100 leading economists and other experts from across the world wrote an open letter to BlackRock, the G20, and Zambia’s other creditors to engage in a “large-scale debt restructuring, including significant haircuts, in order to make Zambia’s debt sustainable.”

“Over the last decade of low global interest rates, private lenders charged high-interest loans to lower income countries. The supposed logic for charging poorer countries far higher interest rates than richer countries was the greater risk of economic shocks that could make debt repayment more difficult. That risk has now materialized,” the letter noted.


The rise of private lending and crisis profiteering
How is it that private lenders such as BlackRock rose to such prominence when it comes to the debt scenarios in poor countries?

The answer, as Chelwa explained, lies in a major change in the international financial architecture in the past decade or so. “Historically, most indebted countries have borrowed from other countries. It is bilateral debt, and it is coordinated under the framework of the Paris Club, which is essentially this list of wealthy creditor countries,” he stated.

“About 12-13 years ago, the situation changed because countries started getting what are called sovereign credit ratings, from agencies including Moody’s, Fitch, and Standard and Poor’s, after which they could borrow from private lenders. So these countries began to issue bonds. This was the structural change and now we are dealing with the first major crisis of this new architecture,” Chelwa added.

Between 2022 and 2028, 45% of Zambia’s external debt payments are to Western private lenders, 37% to public and private lenders in China, 10% to multilateral institutions, and 8% to other governments.

In 2020, BlackRock was among private lenders which refused to suspend Zambia’s debt payments. While the G20 declared that some bilateral debts would be waived under the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), private lenders and multilateral lenders were excluded from the measure. Not only that, private lenders were able to exploit the suspension of debt by official sources to extract full debt repayments.

Between 2021 and 2024, 59% of Zambia’s external debt payments were estimated to be to private creditors. According to Debt Justice, some private lenders stood to make profits between 75-250% from Zambia’s debt if paid in full. This is at a time when people are losing their lives and livelihoods under a deadly pandemic.

In April, Debt Justice estimated that BlackRock could make $180 million in profit for itself and its clients from its investment in Zambian bonds, if the debts were paid in full. This would represent a profit of 110%. Meanwhile, Zambia has cut its health and social protection spending by 20% in the past two years. A report by Oxfam released in May found that the government’s planned cuts between 2022-2026 would amount to more than five times the annual health budget.

The G20 Common Framework provides for coordinated debt relief, and mandates private creditors to participate on comparable terms. Since the start of 2021, three countries—Zambia, Chad, and Ethiopia—have applied for relief under the framework. No help has been given until now.

“The prominence of private lenders is what is going to complicate any attempt to resolve debt,” Chelwa stated. This is because bilateral debt has other, even political considerations. “It is more than financial returns. China has a willingness to suspend interest payments, to restructure debt, to defer it. But are the likes of BlackRock interested in that? What good does suspending debt payment do them?”

“Zambia is a test case, it is also an example of what is to come for much of the Global South as we deal, yet again, with another sovereign debt crisis.”

As entities such as BlackRock continue to reap obscene profits, the people of Zambia will bear the burden of an IMF bailout in which they had no say. In its statements, the Fund increasingly uses the term “homegrown” to refer to the arrangement’s policies. Chelwa has also denounced the co-optation of civil society organizations who lent credibility to the “opaque process that gave birth to such an anti-poor deal.”

“This is the IMF of the 21st century,” he said. “They have learned from their mistakes, not of policy, but of public relations… They call the programme homegrown, yet they impose structural benchmarks. If it was truly homegrown, why would we need an external party to impose milestones?”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/09/22/ ... bal-south/

The red union will never fold!
Mbali Ngwenda of the Pan Africanism Today Secretariat writes about the struggles of United Textile Employees (UNITE), the radical textile workers’ union of Lesotho

September 23, 2022 by Mbali Ngwenda

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(Photo: via Mbali Ngwenda)

The challenges that organized labor continues to face in the current world are becoming more intense, not just in Africa but all over the world. Organizations of the working class have a very difficult path to navigate: how do worker-leaders give confidence to their union membership in times of retrenchment bloodbaths? How do members of unions relate to the issues that seek to liquidate their unions and weaken their position as an immediate bulwark against capitalist exploitation?

Challenges to organized labor

Neoliberalism has had a direct, detrimental effect on the developments we see in labor movements today, and, globally, on the broader working class. In the past three or four years, workers have seen massive reversals in the gains that they had struggled for.

Retrenchments, the automation of the workplace, and clampdowns by the state on the rights to strike and to associate continue to negatively impact organized labor. The worker-led victories of the 1970s and 1990s—such as progressive labor laws and codes—are being aggressively attacked through the neoliberal order of today. The onslaughts of cost-cutting and austerity we have seen in recent years have exacerbated unemployment and directly resulted in decreasing membership in unions. The direct impact of these can be seen through the example of one union in the small, landlocked southern African country of Lesotho: UNITE (United Textile Employees).

The union makes us strong

UNITE has been growing quickly and has more than 10,000 members. In 2021, the union led a historic strike of textile and garment workers. As reported by Peoples Dispatch, this saw nearly 38,000 of roughly 40,000 workers in this sector—which accounts for 20% of the GDP of Lesotho—down tools for more than a month.

UNITE has become the largest union in the country’s textile industry, quickly approaching the threshold of 50% worker representation in all firms in which it organizes. Demonstrating the power of organized labor, as it did over the course of the 2021 strike, was an important victory.

Under attack

UNITE’s success at organizing workers has seen employers continue to, so far unsuccessfully, attempt to push UNITE out. Employers have turned to using their own “sweetheart unions” to advance this agenda, as in the case of the company Precious Garments.

Employers are justifying their attack on the union based on a free-market argument: UNITE is causing capital flight; therefore they cannot work with the union. They have gone as far as to write letters to the ministry of labor calling for the deregistration of the union.

At the height of this offensive against the Union, shop stewards were unilaterally dismissed from firms. The focal point of this attack was the dismissal of the union’s second vice president, Thathasela Mabatho. Here, employers used one of UNITE’s own members to collaborate against her to get her dismissed. In other cases, shop stewards and organizers have been denied entry into firms by employers while workers have been denied leave to attend political workshops during working hours. In some cases employers have gone as far as to deny workers representation by UNITE shop stewards.

The union had condemned these unfair labor practices and made an urgent application to the labor court in Lesotho. The court has since ruled in favor of the union. In its ruling, it said that UNITE could not be suspended in the workplace, and that Precious Garments and its general manager must pay the union’s outstanding dues. Put differently: the union must be recognized!

Precious Garments did not comply with the aforementioned order. The union filed for contempt of court against them and they won on September 13, 2022.

The judgment went on to state:

“That the respondents were outrightly contemptuous of [the] court’s clear and unambiguous interim orders that were served on them. Respondents seem to […] have refused and or failed for no justifiable causes whatsoever to comply with [the] court’s clear interim orders.”
“The applicant has all in all succeeded in establishing beyond reasonable doubt that the concerned respondents have been outrightly contemptuous of [the] court’s interim orders.”
The second respondent “Foley Chien is hereby committed to prison for a period of 90 days or until such time as he has purged his contempt as the general manager and representative of [Precious Garments]”.

“The victory means a lot to the organization. […] The right of the workers to be represented by their organization is restored.”

— Solong Senohe, General Secretary of United Textiles Employees


The union has also radically linked struggles in the workplace with struggles in the community. This is something that only the finest trade unionists of our era have done. The revival of activism remains an important element of building trade unions that supplement the economic struggles of workers and the political struggle for socialism.

UNITE stands as an example of what working-class formations are dealing with in these times of capitalist crisis and aggression. The union’s victory in court also reassures the labor movement that reversals of the hard won rights of workers will not be accepted haphazardly and without a fight.

UNITE continues to agitate for socialism at all times and remains at the center of a peoples’ transformation: never wavering from placing people before profits!

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/09/23/ ... ever-fold/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Tue Oct 11, 2022 2:44 pm

Sudanese Resistance Committees Agree on Revolutionary Charter for the Establishment of People’s Power
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on OCTOBER 7, 2022

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Sudanese demonstrators attend rally to demand the return to civilian rule, in Khartoum, Sudan, October 6, 2022. (AP)Sudanese demonstrators attend rally to demand the return to civilian rule, in Khartoum, Sudan, October 6, 2022. (AP)

More than 50 Sudanese pro-democracy groups have agreed on a new draft constitution, in one of the largest shows of unity from the country’s opposition since the 2019 popular uprising.

The document, signed Wednesday evening, is meant to put the country back on the path to democracy and remove the military from power, according to group leaders.

Sudan has been mired in political turmoil since its military seized power in a coup last October after three decades of repressive Islamist rule under former President Omar Al Bashir. Following the military takeover, Sudan’s top general and current ruler, Abdel Fattah Burhan, swept away his civilian partners in government and detained hundreds of officials and activists.

At least 54 mainly grassroots networks, known as the Resistance Committees, signed the charter late Wednesday in Khartoum, in what is a hybrid of two separate proposals drafted earlier this year.

The merged charter has yet to be formally published by the coalition of opposition groups. However, an unpublished version seen by The Associated Press on Thursday included measures for the removal of the current military leaders, the cancellation of the Juba Peace Agreement and the implementation of a new transitional constitution and legislative council.

The Juba Peace Agreement, signed between the former military-civilian power-sharing government and various rebel groups in 2020, promised to integrate the country’s various armed factions into one military united force and improve regional and ethnic representation across the country. However, most protocols stipulated in the deal, including the armed unification, have made little headway. The deal was also not signed by several of Sudan’s more powerful rebel forces.

According to Hamid Khalafallah, an analyst and researcher specialising in Sudanese governance, the charter proves the Resistance Committees are real political players in Sudan but it may fail to rally wider support.

“The charter doesn’t provide enough flexibility to engage with other actors beyond the Resistance Committees,” said Khalafallah.

Since October, the Resistance Committees have spearheaded near-weekly rallies against Sudan’s military government who in turn have ruthlessly cracked down on public dissent. Doctors groups say that security forces have killed at least 117 demonstrators since October’s coup and detained hundreds more.

In an interview with The Associated Press at the UN General assembly in September, Burhan refuted these claims denying Sudan had any political prisoners.

Under the weight of domestic and international pressure, both Burhan and his deputy, General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, have separately in recent months vowed to restore the democratic process, but neither has provided details on what that restoration would look like. Burhan announced the military would step back from leading the political transition, though he remains the country’s most powerful figure.

The UN political mission in Sudan, the African Union and the eight-nation east African regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development group have been trying to broker a way out of the political impasse through cross-party dialogues.

The UN’s engagement with the military generated anger among various pro-democracy movements. In July, Burhan announced the withdrawal of the military from the UN-facilitated dialogue.

Arab Weekly

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/10/ ... les-power/

***

Abahlali baseMjondolo Demands Justice for its Members Lost to “the Politics of Blood”
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on OCTOBER 3, 2022
Peoples Dispatch

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AbM members carry the coffin of slain leader Nokuthula Mabaso. Photo: Siya Mbhele

AbM leader George Mqapheli Bonono called on the UN to take a stand against the murders of the movement’s leaders, and for the South African government to set up a commission of inquiry to ensure justice for all victims of political killings


On Friday September 30, South Africa’s militant shack dwellers’ movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo (AbM), in a speech addressed to the United Nations, demanded justice for the lethal repression unleashed on its members

Speaking at an event on the sidelines of the 51st session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, AbM’s national vice president George Mqapheli Bonono stated, “Our movement was formed in 2005 to struggle for a just and equal society based on respect and dignity for all people. Most of our members live in appalling conditions in shacks”

With over 115,000 members across South Africa today, AbM has been occupying lands to build housing for the urban poor for nearly two decades. Bonono added, “We organize for access to land and decent housing, to build women’s power from below, and against xenophobia— objectives that strongly align with key commitments set out in the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action.”

The shacks built by AbM members are self-connected to water and electricity supply systems, without any assistance or permission from the government. In its eKhenana occupation, comprising 3,000 shacks, AbM has been working towards sustainability, setting up communal projects — including a vegetable garden, a poultry farm, and a tuck shop — as well as the Frantz Fanon school for political education.

In its struggle to secure dignity and basic rights for its members, the AbM has faced “severe repression, including slander, assault, arrest, violent and unlawful evictions, false imprisonment, torture, and killings,” Bonono stated. He added that the situation had been particularly severe in the city of Durban.

The eKhenana occupation in particular has also faced several illegal demolition drives by the local African National Congress-led municipal authorities, even though an eviction moratorium was put in place during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Since 2009, 24 of our leaders have been killed; some by police, others by armed state forces, and some by assassins linked to local politicians. So far this year, we have lost four comrades. One was murdered by masked police officers and three were murdered by assassins,” Bonono stated.

On August 20, the chairperson of the eKhenana commune, 28-year-old Lindokuhle Mnguni, was assassinated by two gunmen in his home in Cato Crest, Durban. Eyewitnesses stated that the killers were part of the same hit squad that killed eKhenana’s deputy chairperson Ayanda Ngila on March 8. Both leaders were out on bail after being arrested on a murder charge at the time of their assassination. Just months after Ngila was killed, another AbM leader in eKhenana, Nokuthula Mabaso, was assassinated on May 5. Both Mabaso and Mnguni had been witnesses to the murder of Ngila.



“There are only two cases in which the perpetrators of these killings have been brought to justice. A police officer was imprisoned for twelve years for the murder of Nqobile Nzuza in 2013,” Bonono said on Friday. 17-year-old Nzuza was shot from behind by the police during a peaceful road blockade organized by AbM in Cato Crest to demand an end to illegal evictions, corruption, and police repression.

In 2016, two local ANC ward councillors were sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of prominent AbM leader Thuli Ndlovu. She was killed in September 2014 after a gunman entered her home in KwaNdengezi and proceeded to shoot her seven times.

“There has been no justice for the 22 comrades that we have lost to the politics of blood,” Bonono decried in his statement.

“We call on the UN to take a stand against the ongoing murder of our leaders and we call on our own government to urgently establish a national commission of inquiry into these murders and to ensure justice for all victims of political killiings in South Africa.

On September 9, the Socio-Economic Rights Institute of South Africa (SERI) had also called for an “urgent national intervention” to protect AbM activists against ongoing attacks. Endorsed by over 140 civil society organizations, the letter said, “As members of civil society, in support of Abahlali, we condemn these attacks and further condemn the apparent silence on these events from the state…Such violence against movements and organizations like Abahlali is an indication that South Africa’s constitutional democracy and the freedoms for which we fought so hard are under attack.”

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/10/ ... -of-blood/

****

Ahead of UN session, Sahrawis recollect decades of betrayal that enabled Moroccan colonization

The UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) became “hostage to the Moroccan authorities,” unable even “to report on the human rights situation in the territory,” said Kamal Fadel, Western Sahara’s representative to Australia and the Pacific

October 10, 2022 by Pavan Kulkarni

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Photo: freewesternsahara.org

Amid the ongoing war for the liberation of Western Sahara from Morocco, which is illegally occupying 80% of its territory, the UN Security Council (UNSC) is reportedly scheduled to discuss the conflict for the second time this month on Monday, October 10. Two more sessions are scheduled for October 17 and 27.

The “Council is expected to renew the mandate of the UN Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO), which expires on 31 October,” states the UNSC’s monthly forecast for October.

Known officially as the Sahrawi Democratic Republic (SADR), Western Sahara – a founding and full member-state of the African Union (AU) – is Africa’s last colony. It is listed by the UN among the last countries awaiting complete decolonization.

Its former colonizer, Spain, ceded the country to Morocco at the persuasion of the US in 1976, despite the fact that the International Court of Justice (ICJ) had dismissed Morocco’s territorial claims. The position supporting the Sahrawi peoples’ right to self-determination has since been upheld by the UN, the AU, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR).

MINURSO was established by the UNSC in April 1991 to facilitate the realization of this right by organizing a referendum. In August that year, a ceasefire was secured between the Polisario Front (PF), recognized by the UN as the international representative of the people of Sahrawi, and Morocco.

However, with the backing of the US and France, Morocco has been able to subvert the organization of this referendum till date. On November 13, 2020, the ceasefire fell apart after 29 years. That day, Moroccan troops crossed the occupied territory into the UN-patrolled buffer zone in the southeastern town of Guerguerat to remove unarmed Sahrawi demonstrators blockading an illegal road that Morocco had built through the territory to Mauritania

“Morocco’s armed incursion was a flagrant violation of the terms of the ceasefire that was declared under UN auspices in 1991,” Kamal Fadel, SADR’s representative to Australia and the Pacific, told Peoples Dispatch. “The Sahrawi army had to react in self-defense and to protect the Sahrawi civilians that were attacked by the Moroccan army.”

Hugh Lovatt and Jacob Mundy, in their policy brief to the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) published in May 2021, observed that “Self-determination for the Sahrawi people appears more remote than when MINURSO was first launched in 1991.” ” With its mandate renewed well over 40 times, the UN “has little to show” for three decades of MINURSO, they said.

“With no power and no support from the UNSC,” MINURSO became “hostage to the Moroccan authorities,” unable even “to report on the human rights situation in the territory, unlike any other UN peace-keeping mission,” Fadel noted.

“We wasted 30 years waiting for MINURSO to deliver the promised referendum. MINURSO’s failure seriously damages the UN’s credibility and encourages authoritarian regimes to defy the international community,” he argued.

While reiterating that “we still believe in a peaceful, just and durable solution under the auspices of the UN,” Fadel maintained that “the UN has to work hard to repair its badly damaged reputation in Western Sahara.”

The position of the UN Secretary General’s former Personal Envoy for Western Sahara was left vacant for more than two years after the resignation of Horst Köhler in May 2019. It was only in October 2021 that Staffan de Mistura was appointed to the post. Mistura, who will be briefing the UNSC member states in the sessions scheduled this month to discuss Western Sahara, is yet to pay a visit to the territory in question. His plan to visit Western Sahara earlier this year was canceled without any reasons stated.

“We hope Mr. Mistura will be able to visit the occupied areas of Western Sahara soon and meet with the Saharawi people freely. It is odd that he has not yet set foot in the territory he is supposed to deal with,” remarked Fadel. Mistura has already met with Foreign Ministers of Morocco and Spain, European officials, and US State Secretary Antony Blinken.

US and European powers facilitated Moroccan occupation of Western Sahara

Western Sahara was colonized by Spain in the early 1880s. Faced with an armed rebellion by the Polisario Front (PF) from 1973, the Spanish government of fascist dictator Francisco Franco agreed in 1974 to hold a referendum. It was an obligation on Spain to fulfill the Sahrawi right to self-determination, in line with the UN’s 1960 Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries.

The neighboring former French colonies of Morocco and Mauritania, eyeing Sahrawi’s mineral wealth and a vast coastline, had already laid claim over the territory since their independence. With about $20 million-worth of weapons supplied by the US, Morocco began preparation for an armed invasion. Informing the then Spanish Foreign Minister Pedro Cortina about this impending attack in a meeting on October 4, 1975, US State Secretary Henry Kissinger had nudged him to negotiate an agreement with Morocco.

“We are ready to do so.. However, it is important to maintain the form of a referendum on self-determination… Self-determination does not mean independence, although that is one of the options included to give it credibility, but what the people of the area will be called on to do is to show their preference either for Morocco or for Mauritania,” Cortina had responded.

“The problem is the people won’t know what Morocco is, or what Mauritania is,” said Kissinger, with his characteristic cynicism. Cortina corrected him, saying, “Unfortunately, they have learned well from experience what those countries are and they know what all the possibilities are.”

In a subsequent meeting on October 9, Cortina confronted Kissinger about US support for an imminent Moroccan invasion of Sahrawi, then known as Spanish Sahara. He was told that if Spain failed to reach an agreement with Morocco, “it’s not an American concern.” In effect, Kissinger had told Cortina that if Moroccan forces invaded Spanish Sahara using American weapons, the US would not intervene to stop it.

“We have no particular view about the future of the Spanish Sahara,” Kissinger elaborated on the US position. “I told you privately that.. the future of Spanish Sahara doesn’t seem particularly great. I feel the same way about Guinea-Bissau, or Upper Volta. The world can survive without a Spanish Sahara; it won’t be among the countries making a great contribution. There was a period in my life when I didn’t know where the Spanish Sahara was, and I was as happy as I am today.”

“Before phosphates were discovered,” Cortina exclaimed. He was referring to the large deposits found in the territory. Phosphates are the main mineral needed to make fertilizers, of which Morocco went on to become one of the world’s largest producers.

On securing guarantees on access to phosphate and fishing rights, the Spanish government – which had by then also realized that it would not be able to install a puppet Sahrawi elite under Spanish control in power after independence – signed the Madrid Accords. With this treaty, signed on November 14, 1975, only days before the death of Franco who had already slipped into coma, Spain ceded its colony to Morocco and Mauritania.

‘No tie of territorial sovereignty’: ICJ

The UN does not recognize this treaty, which had disregarded the advisory opinion given by the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The advisory opinion was given on the request of the UN General Assembly only a month before, on October 16, 1975. The ICJ, which had also been approached by Morocco, stated that “the materials and information presented.. do not establish any tie of territorial sovereignty between the territory of Western Sahara and the Kingdom of Morocco or the Mauritanian entity.”

However, the US and its Western allies calculated that an independent Western Sahara under the rule of PF, supported by Algeria which was perceived as inclined toward the Soviet Union, would be against their Cold War interests. And so, the aspirations of the Sahrawi people to realize their internationally recognized right to self-determination, which was pitied as ‘unfortunate’ by the Spanish foreign minister at the time, was trampled over for imperial interests.

By the start of 1976, Moroccan forces occupied the western coastal region of Sahrawi, while Mauritanian forces took over the eastern interior region, forcing 40% of the Sahrawi population to flee to Algeria, where they continue to reside in refugee camps in the border town of Tindouf.

Guerrillas of the PF fought back, quickly regaining the eastern territory from Mauritania, which made peace with SADR and withdrew all its claims by 1979. However, “backed by France and the United States, and financed by Saudi Arabia, Morocco’s armed forces eventually countered Polisario by building a heavily mined and patrolled 2,700-kilometer berm,” Lovatt and Mundy recount in their policy brief to ECFR.

Constructed with the help of American companies Northrop and Westinghouse, the berm is the second longest wall in the world, reinforced with the world’s longest minefield consisting of about seven million landmines. It is among the largest military infrastructures on earth.

Although the Moroccan forces managed to bring about a stalemate by the 1980s with the completion of the construction of the berm, PF’s forces continued to antagonize their positions along the wall. By the time the ceasefire was agreed upon in 1991 following the establishment of MINURSO with a mandate to conduct a referendum, over a thousand enforced disappearances had been reported from the territory under Moroccan occupation. Yet, the protests were unrelenting.

In the meantime, SADR’s cause was gaining increasing support. In 1980, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) recognized the PF as the international representative of Western Sahara. In 1984, after SADR was welcomed as a member of the Organization of African Unity (OAU), the precursor to the African Union (AU), Morocco quit the organization in protest.

Three years later, Morocco applied for membership of the European Communities, which later evolved into the European Union (EU). However, not considered a European country, Morocco’s application was turned down. It was only in 2017 that Morocco joined the AU, to which it was admitted without recognition of any territorial rights over SADR, which is a founding and full member-state of the AU.

In this context of the increasing isolation it faced in the 1990s over its occupation of SADR – except for the backing of the US, France and Spain – Morocco agreed to hold a referendum, and eventually signed the Houston Agreement with the PF in 1997. This remains till date the only agreement signed between the two. Voter lists were then prepared by MINURSO, and SADR seemed to be on the verge of holding the long-due referendum to realize its decolonization in accordance with the UN Declaration of 1960.

However, more concerned about the stability of the Moroccan monarchy – whose throne had passed from King Hassan II after his death in 1999 to his son Mohammed VI – the US and France nudged the new King to renege on the Houston agreement, Lovatt and Mundy recount.

The US’ facade of neutrality on the Sahrawi issue and support for the UN Declaration on decolonization – even while antagonizing the Sahrawi liberation struggle all these decades – was officially removed on December 10, 2020.

The White House, under Donald Trump’s presidency, announced that day that “the United States recognizes Moroccan sovereignty over the entire Western Sahara territory.” Arguing that “an independent Sahrawi State is not a realistic option for resolving the conflict” the US declared that autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty is “the only basis for a just and lasting solution to the dispute.”

Less than two years later, Spain, which had reversed its position in the 2000s after facing considerable international shame over its handing over of Sahrawi to Morocco, did another volte face, yielding again to the latter’s claims to sovereignty over its former colony in March 2022.

EU and UK are invested in Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara
This decision of Spain was quickly welcomed by the EU. Its Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell’s spokesperson remarked that stronger bilateral relations between any of its member-states and Morocco “can only be beneficial for the implementation of the Euro-Moroccan partnership.”

94% of the fisheries caught by the European fleets from 2014-18 under this “partnership” with Morocco was from Sahrawi waters. When the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in 2018 that the fisheries agreement with Morocco cannot extend to Sahrawi waters over which Morocco had no sovereignty, the EU simply renegotiated the agreement specifying the inclusion of Sahrawi territory.

A total of 124,000 tonnes of fishery, worth EUR 447 million, was extracted by Europe from Sahrawi waters in 2019, and another 140,500 tonnes, valued EUR 412 million, in 2020. Ruling on Polisario’s challenge to this continuation of European fishing under a new agreement, the General Court of the European Union annulled the same in September 2021.

The European Commission appealed this decision of the court in December 2021. In March 2022, the European Commissioner for the Environment, Oceans, and Fisheries, Virginijus Sinkervicius reiterated in a response to a question in the EU parliament that “the Commission confirms its commitment to the EU-Morocco Fisheries Partnership Agreement.”

Fadel said that the “EU fishing fleets are still finding ways to continue the illegal fishing in the Sahrawi waters with the complicity of the occupying power.”

The United Kingdom High Court of Justice (UKHCJ) had also upheld CJEU’s reasoning in 2019 while ruling in favor of the Western Sahara Campaign UK (WSCUK). The court ruled that the WSCUK “has been completely successful in its litigation” that the preferential treatment given by UK’s Revenue and Customs Service to goods coming from Western Sahara under the EU’s agreement with Morocco went against the international law. The court also concluded the same about the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ granting quotas to British vessels fishing in Sahrawi waters.

On October 5, 2022, the High Court held the first hearing of the WSCUK’s case against the Department for International Trade and the Treasury over the UK-Morocco Association Agreement (UKMAA), which was signed in October 2019 post-Brexit.

Three of the five permanent seats with veto power in the UNSC are held by the US, UK and France, all of which have worked against the Sahrawi liberation struggle. Under the watch of the UNSC, “self-determination and decolonization were replaced with a peace process that has given Morocco veto power over how the Sahrawi people fulfill their internationally recognized rights,” observed Lovatt and Mundy.

“We can only ask the UNSC to stop its pretense about human rights and democracy; to stop its hypocrisy,” Hamza Lakhal, a dissident Arabic poet from Laayoune, the largest city in occupied territory, told Peoples Dispatch. “They will move NATO for Ukraine because they hate Russia, but occupation of Western Sahara against all international laws and resolutions is okay because the occupying power here is a friend.”

‘A collective Shame’
Morocco’s ‘friendship’ with the West has not necessarily won support for its occupation from fellow African countries. Its attempt to get Kenya’s new President William Ruto to withdraw the country’s decade-long support to the Sahrawi cause and endorse Moroccan claims of sovereignty over the occupied territory back-fired last month, embarrassing both Ruto and Morocco’s foreign ministry.

Read: Morocco fails to get Kenyan endorsement for its colonial occupation of Western Sahara
Subsequently, when it raised issue with South Sudan’s decision to resume diplomatic relations with SADR on September 20, Morocco was put down in a statement by the former’s foreign ministry, simply clarifying that it will not take a position contradicting that of the AU and UN.

In a judgment on the same day, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights reiterated that “both the UN and the AU recognize the situation of SADR as one of occupation and consider its territory as one of those territories whose decolonization process is not yet fully complete.”

Stating that “although Morocco has always laid claim on the territory it occupies, its assertion has never been accepted by the international community,” the court reiterated the ICJ’s 1975 advisory opinion.

Describing Sahrawis’ right to self determination as “inalienable, non-negotiable, and not subject to statutory limitations,” Algeria’s Foreign Minister Ramtane Lamamra, in his address to UNGA on September 27, called on the UN “to assume their legal responsibilities towards the Sahrawi people.”

The UN-promised “organization of a free and fair referendum in order to enable these courageous people.. to decide on their political future cannot forever be taken hostage by the intransigence of an occupying state, which has failed several times with regards to its international obligations,” he said.

Namibian President Hage Geingob said in his address to the UNGA that the “lack of progress in implementing UN resolutions to resolve the question of Western Sahara should be something we must all have a collective shame for.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/10/10/ ... onization/
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Fri Oct 14, 2022 2:13 pm

When Will the Stars Shine Again in Burkina Faso?: The Forty-First Newsletter (2022)

OCTOBER 13, 2022

Image
Wilfried Balima (Burkina Faso), Les Trois Camarades (‘The Three Comrades’), 2018.


Dear friends,

Greetings from the desk of Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research.

On 30 September 2022, Captain Ibrahim Traoré led a section of the Burkina Faso military to depose Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had seized power in a coup d’état in January. The second coup was swift, with brief clashes in Burkina Faso’s capital of Ouagadougou at the president’s residence, Kosyam Palace, and at Camp Baba Sy, the military administration’s headquarters. Captain Kiswendsida Farouk Azaria Sorgho declared on Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina (RTB), the national broadcast, that his fellow captain, Traoré, was now the head of state and the armed forces. ‘Things are gradually returning to order’, he said as Damiba went into exile in Togo.

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This coup is not a coup against the ruling order, a military platform called the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration (Mouvement patriotique pour la sauvegarde et la restauration or MPSR); instead, it stems from young captains within the MPSR. During Damiba’s brief tenure in power, armed violence increased by 23%, and he failed to fulfil any of the promises that the military made when it overthrew former President Roch Kaboré, an ex-banker who had ruled the country since 2015. L’Unité d’Action Syndicale (UAS), a platform of six trade unions in Burkina Faso, is warning about the ‘decay of the national army’, its ideological disarray manifested by the high salaries drawn by the coup leaders.

Kaboré was the beneficiary of a mass insurrection that began in October 2014 against Blaise Compaoré, who had been in power since the assassination of Thomas Sankara in 1987. It is worth noting that in April, while exiled in Côte d’Ivoire, Compaoré was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia for his role in that murder. Many of the social forces in the mass uprisings arrived on the streets bearing pictures of Sankara, holding fast to his socialist dream. The promise of that mass movement was suffocated by Kaboré’s limited agenda, stifled by the International Monetary Fund and hindered by the seven-year jihadist insurgency in northern Burkina Faso that has displaced close to two million people. While the MPSR coup has a muddled outlook, it responds to the deep social crisis afflicting the fourth-largest producer of gold on the African continent.

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Adokou Sana Kokouvi (Togo), L’un pour l’autre (‘For One Another’), 2020.

In August 2022, French President Emmanuel Macron visited Algeria. As Macron walked through the streets of Oran, he experienced the anger of the Algerian public, with people yelling insults – va te faire foutre! (‘go f**k yourself’) – forcing him to hurriedly depart. France’s decision to reduce the number of visas provided to Moroccans and Tunisians fuelled a protest by human rights organisations in Rabat (Morocco), and France was forced to dismiss its ambassador to Morocco.

Anti-French feeling is deepening across North Africa and the Sahel, the region south of the Sahara Desert. It was this sentiment that provoked the coups in Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), Guinea (September 2021), and then in Burkina Faso (January 2022 and September 2022). In February 2022, Mali’s government ejected the French military, accusing French forces of committing atrocities against civilians and colluding with jihadi insurgents.

Over the past decade, North Africa and the Sahel have been grappling with the detritus produced by NATO’s war on Libya, driven by France and the United States. NATO emboldened the jihadi forces, who were disoriented by their defeat in the Algerian Civil War (1991–2002) and by the anti-Islamist policies of Muammar Qaddafi’s administration in Libya. Indeed, the US brought hardened jihadi fighters, including Libyan Islamic Fighting Group veterans, from the Syria-Turkey border to bolster the anti-Qaddafi war. This so-called ‘rat line’ moved in both directions, as jihadis and weapons went from post-Qaddafi Libya back into Syria.

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Inoussa Simpore (Burkina Faso), Rue de Ouaga (‘Ouaga Road’), 2014.

Groups such as al-Qaeda (in the Islamic Maghreb) as well as al-Mourabitoun, Ansar Dine, and Katibat Macina – which merged into Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (‘Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims’) in 2017 – swept from southern Algeria to Côte d’Ivoire, from western Mali to eastern Niger. These jihadis, many of them Afghanistan War veterans, are joined by common cause with local bandits and smugglers. This ‘banditisation of jihad’, as it is called, is one explanation for how these forces have become so deeply rooted in the region. Another is that the jihadis used older social tensions between the Fulani (a largely Muslim ethnic group) and other communities, now massed into militia groups called the Koglweogo (‘bush guardians’). Drawing various contradictions into the jihadi-military conflict has effectively militarised political life in large parts of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger. France’s involvement through Operation Barkhane, a military intervention into Mali in 2014, and its establishment of military bases has not only failed to contain or root out the insurgencies and conflicts; it has exacerbated them.

The Union d’Action Syndicale has released a ten-point plan that includes immediate relief for the areas facing starvation (such as Djibo), an independent commission to study violence in specific areas (such as Gaskindé), the creation of a plan to deal with the cost of living crisis, and an end to the alliance with France, which would include the ‘departure of foreign bases and troops, especially French ones, from national territory’.

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Françoise Huguier (France), Pays Lobi, Burkina Faso (‘Lobi Country, Burkina Faso’), 1996.

A recent United Nations report shows that 18 million people in the Sahel are on ‘the brink of starvation’. The World Bank notes that 40% of Burkinabé live below the poverty line. Neither civilian nor military governments in Burkina Faso, nor those in other Sahel countries, have articulated a project to transcend this crisis. Burkina Faso, for instance, is not a poor country. With a minimum of $2 billion per year in gold sales, it is extraordinary that this country of 22 million people remains mired in such poverty.

Instead, the bulk of the revenue is siphoned off by mining firms from Canada and Australia – Barrick Gold, Goldrush Resources, Semafo, and Gryphon Minerals – as well as their counterparts in Europe. These firms transfer the profits into their own bank accounts and some, such as Randgold Resources, into the tax haven of the Channel Islands. Local control over gold has not been established, nor has the country been able to exert any sovereignty over its currency. Both Burkina Faso and Mali use the West African CFA franc, a colonial currency whose reserves are held in the Bank of France, which also manages their monetary policy.

The coups in the Sahel are coups against the conditions of life afflicting most people in the region, conditions created by the theft of sovereignty by multinational corporations and the old colonial ruler. Rather than acknowledge this as the central problem, Western governments deflect and insist that the real cause of political unrest is the intervention of Russian mercenaries, the Wagner Group, fighting against the jihadi insurgency (Macron, for instance, described their presence in the region as ‘predatory’). Yevgeny Prigozhin, a founder of the Wagner Group, said that Traoré ‘did what was necessary… for the good of their people’. Meanwhile, the US State Department warned the new Burkina Faso government not to make alliances with the Wagner Group. However, it appears that Traoré is seeking any means to defeat the insurgency, which has absorbed 40% of Burkina Faso’s territory. Despite an agreement with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) made by Damiba and continued by Traoré that Burkina Faso will return to civilian rule by July 2024, the necessary conditions for this transfer seem to be the defeat of the insurgency.

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Francis Mampuya (Democratic Republic of Congo), Sankara, 2018.

In 1984, President Thomas Sankara went to the UN. When he took power in his country the previous year, its colonial name was Upper Volta, solely defined by its geographical status as the land north of the Volta River. Sankara and his political movement changed that name to Burkina Faso, which means the ‘Land of Upright People’. No longer would the Burkinabé hunch their shoulders and look at the ground as they walked. With national liberation, the ‘stars first began to shine in the heavens of our homeland’, Sankara said at the UN, as they realised the need for ‘revolution, the eternal struggle against all domination’. ‘We want to democratise our society’, he continued, ‘to open up our minds to a universe of collective responsibility, so that we may be bold enough to invent the future’. Sankara was killed in October 1987. His dreams have held fast in the hearts of many, but they have not yet influenced a sufficiently powerful political project.

In the spirit of Sankara, the Malian singer Oumou Sangaré released a wonderful song, Kêlê Magni (‘War Is a Plague’), in February 2022, which speaks for the entire Sahel:

War is a plague! My country might disappear!
I tell you: war is not a solution!
War has no friends nor allies, and there are no real enemies.
All people suffer from this war: Burkina, Côte d’Ivoire… everyone!


Other instruments are needed: new stars in the sky, new revolutions that build on hopes and not on hatred.

Warmly,

Vijay

https://thetricontinental.org/newslette ... faso-coup/

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This file photograph shows Thomas Sankara as he reviews troops in a street of Ouagadougou, during celebrations of the second anniversary of the Burkina Faso’s revolution. Photo by Daniel Lane/AP.

Thomas Sankara remains a global icon
Originally published: Canadian Dimension on October 9, 2022 by Owen Schalk (more by Canadian Dimension) | (Posted Oct 12, 2022)

“We encourage aid that aids us in doing away with aid,” asserted Thomas Sankara, president of Burkina Faso from 1983 to 1987. “But in general welfare and aid policies have only ended up disorganizing us, thus beguiling us and robbing us of a sense of responsibility for our own economic, political and cultural affairs.”

In order to restore that sense of responsibility, Sankara implemented a socialist, anti-imperialist agenda aimed at cultivating a self-sufficient economy run by the Burkinabè people, for the Burkinabè people. His agenda included, among other things, refusal to pay Burkina Faso’s debts to Western-run institutions on the grounds that, one, it was illegitimately accrued, and two, constant debt serving was anathema to African development.

As ideologically void military coups rock Burkina Faso and the debt crisis across the African continent grows more urgent by the year, the Burkinabè people are readying to commemorate Sankara on the thirty-fifth anniversary of his assassination. Sankara’s four years in power proved that alternative development models that do not subscribe to the imported precepts of neocolonial institutions are not only possible, but necessary if underdeveloped nations want to develop in endogenous and sustainable ways.

When Sankara seized power in 1983, his government represented a radical break from the past. Named “Upper Volta” by the French and underdeveloped in a classic colonial fashion, formal independence brought little material change to the country. A series of puppet rulers kept the country in France’s neocolonial dominion, while the majority of Upper Volta’s population remained undereducated and undernourished. When Sankara, a military captain who espoused the tenets of Marxism-Leninism, took power in a coup, continent-wide hopes for African socialism were reinvigorated. The Zanzibarian socialist A.M. Babu summed up the hopeful feeling:

Captain Thomas Sankara… can be instrumental in reviving that post-colonial enthusiasm which most people had hoped would be rekindled by [Mugabe’s] Zimbabwe but was not; the enthusiasm that cleared bushes, built thousands of miles of modern roads, that dug canals on the basis of free labour and the spirit of nation-building.

A man of informal style and modest values, Sankara nevertheless espoused an ambitious development program for the African continent. Firstly, he renamed his country from Upper Volta to Burkina Faso⁠—“the land of upright people”⁠—and nationalized the majority of its resources, most importantly the farmland and mineral reserves. He launched a series of “commando” operations to build a nation-spanning railroad (the people constructed almost 100 kilometres of railway in two years), increase literacy in the countryside (tens of thousands were taught to read), and vaccinate children against measles, meningitis, and yellow fever (two million children were vaccinated in two weeks, saving 18,000 to 50,000 kids who usually died in the yearly epidemics). All these initiatives were undertaken without accepting funds from international financial institutions or encouraging foreign investment.

“We don’t want anything from anyone,” said Foreign Minister Basile Guissou. “No one will come to develop Burkina Faso in place of its own people.” At a time when Africa’s debt was around $200 billion and 40 percent of the continent’s export earnings were going toward debt payments, this was a brave stance to take. Sankara went one step further when, in 1987, he urged the rest of Africa to reject its foreign debt and follow Burkina Faso’s successful model of self-sufficiency.

Sankara’s goal was to ensure the population’s access to food and clean drinking water, a basic but demanding ambition on a continent where hunger and thirst were enforced on whole peoples through the financial institutions and foreign policy agendas of the “civilized” Western world. “Our economic ambition,” he said, “is to use the strength of the people of Burkina Faso to provide, for all, two meals a day and drinking water.”

His policies bore fruit. Between 1983 and 1986, cereal production rose 75 percent and the new Ministry of Water helped many communities dig wells and water reservoirs. Journalist Ernest Harsch recalls: “Ordinary Burkinabè seemed to readily embrace Sankara’s approach, as they mobilized in their local communities to quickly build new schools, health clinics, and other facilities that had once seemed but a remote fantasy.”

Sankara’s independent development policies, combined with a non-aligned foreign policy that saw him enjoy good relations with Cuba, Libya, and the Soviet Union, led the Europeans (and particularly the French) to turn against the revolutionary government. Much like other revolutionary processes in Cuba and Venezuela, Sankara’s government was successfully implementing a new development strategy that spurned the racist paternalism and interventionist austerity of Western financial institutions in favour of a model of self-sufficiency rooted in popular mobilization. Moreover, Sankara demanded respect from the Global North, and especially from Burkina Faso’s former colonizer. “What is essential,” he stated, “is to develop a relationship of equals, mutually beneficial, without paternalism on one side or an inferiority complex on the other.”

The French government’s attitude toward Sankara grew increasingly negative during his time in power. For example, during a brief border war between Mali and Burkina Faso in 1985, France sold weapons to Mali. Overall, Sankara had deprived France of influence in West Africa, and the success of his alternative path portended an even greater diminishment of French influence as other peoples in the region would likely realize that self-sufficiency was possible. As such, the French retained close ties with conservative governments in neighbouring Togo and Côte d’Ivoire, especially the Ivorian president Félix Houphouët-Boigny, whose country was home to many Burkinabè exiles who opposed the Burkinabè revolution.

When Sankara traveled to Côte d’Ivoire in May 1984, he was initially banned from visiting Abidjan, the largest city, because Ivorian authorities were worried he would be welcomed more enthusiastically than the country’s own president.

Everything fell apart on October 15, 1987, when former Sankara compatriot Blaise Compaoré launched a coup of his own. His soldiers murdered Sankara and his closest allies and unceremoniously buried their bodies in a mass grave. Harsch reported that, when word of Sankara’s death spread, mourners flocked to the mound to lay flowers and weep.

Compaoré ruled until 2014. Some of his earliest actions included reversing the state monopoly on the mining industry and allowing the International Monetary Fund and the World to return to the country. “Without shame, we must appeal to private investors,” he announced in a clear break from Sankara. “We need to develop capitalism… We have never considered socialism.”

In further contrast to his predecessor, Compaoré built an opulent presidential palace and purchased a luxury jet once owned by Michael Jackson. The West’s immediate embrace of Compaoré and the new leader’s closeness to France (and particularly French ally Félix Houphouët-Boigny) have fed theories that the coup was launched at the behest of Burkina Faso’s former colonizer. To this day, the French government refuses to open its archives on Sankara.

By the late 1990s, foreign exploration teams had discovered huge gold reserves in Burkina Faso. Canada, with its growing investments in gold, was especially interested. By 2003, the following Canadian companies were exploring or developing mines in Burkina Faso: Axmin, Orezone Resources, Etruscan Resources, St. Jude Resources, SEMAFO, and High River Gold. Within fewer than twenty years, Canadian interests would own the majority of gold operations in the country, dominating Burkina Faso’s most profitable export.

In 2014, a popular uprising overthrew Compaoré, bringing an end to decades of openly neocolonial rule. However, the political process that followed failed to break with the past as Sankara would have advised. Canadian pressure was instrumental in preventing substantial reform. As Business Monitor Online explained, “Burkina Faso is heavily dependent on foreign aid, much of it from Canada, the home jurisdiction of most of the miners that would be hurt by significant review.” Former Prime Minister Stephen Harper further protected Canadian investments by finalizing a Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA), negotiated with the Compaoré regime, while the unelected transition government was in power.

A 2015 meeting between Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré revealed the continuing prevalence of Canadian capital in the country today. As Canadian mining investments in Burkina Faso and all West Africa continued to rise, Kaboré shook hands with Trudeau and “underscored the importance of Canadian investments to Burkina Faso’s economy.”







This year, Burkina Faso has been the site of two military coups. The first, on January 24, overthrew Kaboré and brought officer Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba to power, and the second, on September 30, dislodged Damiba and elevated officer Ibrahim Traore to the head of the military regime. Neither of these coups impacted Canadian investment in the country. An October 3 article in Canadian Mining Journal notes that operations owned by Canada’s Endeavor Mining and IAMGOLD “have not been affected by spreading social unrest following an internal coup d’état.”

Sankara’s vision of an independent, socialist, pan-Africanist model of development⁠—one in which wealth produced in Africa remains in Africa to develop the majority of the population⁠—was not buried with him. He remains an inspiring symbol for people in Africa and beyond. In a recent interview with Democracy Now!, Aziz Fall, coordinator for the International Campaign Justice for Sankara, explained that Sankara “symbolized for most African youths the hope of a sovereign Africa. He actually gave his life for that… And so he’s an icon, I think.”

https://mronline.org/2022/10/12/139539/

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The world’s longest conveyor belt in Boucraa, a Moroccan controlled region of Western Sahara. (Photo: Reddit)

Double standards on full display with Western Sahara occupation
Originally published: Canadian Dimension on October 13, 2022 by Owen Schalk (more by Canadian Dimension) | (Posted Oct 14, 2022)

When it comes to Western Sahara, the West’s collective silence can be called nothing but a double standard.

Western Sahara is a founding member of the African Union and a full member state to this day. It is also Africa’s last colony. Occupied by Spain until 1975, the Sahrawi Democratic Republic was then ceded to Morocco, with U.S. support, despite the fact that the “position supporting the Sahrawi peoples’ right to self-determination has since been upheld by the UN, the AU, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU), and the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (AfCHPR),” and the International Court of Justice (ICJ).

This October, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is holding three meetings to discuss the conflict in Western Sahara. Numerous African countries including South Sudan, Algeria, and Namibia have been vocal in their support for the implementation of a solution to the conflict, including through “a free and fair referendum,” but Western countries have mostly remained silent.

While staying mum about the occupation and its abuses, many Western countries profit from the illegal exploitation of Sahrawi resources. For example, every year the European Union imports tens of thousands of tonnes of fish illegally caught in Sahrawi waters. Pavan Kulkarni writes, “When the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled in 2018 that the fisheries agreement with Morocco cannot extend to Sahrawi waters over which Morocco had no sovereignty, the EU simply renegotiated the agreement specifying the inclusion of Sahrawi territory.”

Currently, Morocco occupies 80 percent of Sahrawi territory.

In April 1991, the UNSC established the United Nations Mission for the Referendum in Western Sahara (MINURSO) with the mandate to organize a referendum on the self-determination of the Sahrawi people. With the help of the U.S. and France, Morocco has been able to extend the timeline on the referendum 47 times, giving authorities the chance to send more settlers into Sahrawi territory. Since 1975, Morocco has encouraged 200,000 of its citizens to settle in Western Sahara, a “mass transfer of Moroccan citizens [which is] undoubtedly an effort to affect ‘facts on the ground’” in the colonized territory.

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Part of MINURSO’s mandate was the enforcement of a ceasefire between the Moroccan military and the national liberationist Polisario Front. The ceasefire lasted for 29 years, but fell apart on November 13, 2020 when Morocco sent soldiers into a UN-controlled town to remove unarmed Sahrawi protestors blockading a road built illegally on their land.

One month later, outgoing U.S. President Donald Trump gave the Moroccan authorities a parting gift by recognizing their sovereignty over Western Sahara. Biden has yet to reverse this decision. Therefore, both the Republican and Democratic parties have lent their support to the illegal occupation and colonization of Western Sahara, a clear refutation of the position supported by the United Nations, the African Union, the Court of Justice of the European Union, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and the International Court of Justice.

By refusing to reverse Trump’s recognition, Stephen Zunes writes that “[t]he Biden administration is effectively recognizing the invasion, occupation, and annexation of one recognized African state by another.” At the same time, the U.S., Canada, and other Western states are the ones leading the calls to punish Russia for its invasion, occupation, and annexation of four of Ukraine’s eastern provinces. This clear hypocrisy is likely one reason why the African continent has not joined the collective West in its unconditional support for Ukraine and its efforts to isolate Russia economically.

Canada is also complicit in the invasion, occupation, and attempted annexation of Western Sahara by Morocco. Ottawa does not recognize the government of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), and Canadian potash companies have invested in the exploitation of Western Sahara’s phosphate resources, “a trade which is instrumental in paying for Morocco’s costly occupation of the territory.”

While other countries like the U.S. and Norway excluded resources from occupied Sahrawi territory from free trade negotiations with Morocco, Canada did not. Multiple international investors even divested from Canada’s PotashCorp and Agrium over their economic interests in occupied Western Sahara, but that did not stop Ottawa from giving taxpayer funds to the companies profiting from the occupation of the SADR.

“Further soiling Canada’s reputation” wrote Mitchell Anderson in 2017,

is the fact that companies importing phosphate from Western Sahara also enjoy the support of Export Development Canada (EDC), a Crown corporation. Potash Corp and Agrium have received more than $200 million in loans, despite EDC’s vague one-page statement on human rights. The Crown corporation also hosts a webpage promoting its activities in Morocco, including a map that, despite a cryptic dotted line, shows Western Sahara as part of Moroccan territory where Canadian companies can profit with EDC assistance.

In 2018, Nutrien, the company formed from the merger between PotashCorp and Agrium, finally announced that it was ending its purchase of phosphates from the occupied Western Sahara. The following year, however, MiningWatch noted that Nutrien continued to profit from the export of phosphate from Western Sahara through its 22 percent ownership of the Chinese company Sinofert, which Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) reported as being involved in the trade of phosphate from the occupied territory.

If Western countries want their geopolitical positions to be respected globally, they need to apply consistent principles to questions of invasion, occupation, and annexation, and condemn these acts as the aggressions they are, whether or not they are committed by allies or foes.

https://mronline.org/2022/10/14/double- ... ccupation/

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Libya: Dbeibah’s Desperate Bet on Turkey
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on OCTOBER 13, 2022

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Libyan Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush (R) and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attend a press conference in the capital Tripoli, October 3, 2022. (AFP)Libyan Foreign Minister Najla al-Mangoush (R) and Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu attend a press conference in the capital Tripoli, October 3, 2022. (AFP)

Libya has entered a new phase of polarisation that perpetuates the state of political and social division after the signing by the Abdulhamid Dbeibah government of two memoranda of understanding for gas and energy cooperation with the Turkish government.

Dbeibah’s move did not occur in a vacuum, but rather as part of a plan to confuse matters so as to block any agreement that could usher in an independent technocratic government to prepare for elections.

His intent is also to undermine any advantages that might come from the normalisation of relations between the House of Representatives and both Qatar and Turkey, especially after parliament speaker Aguila Saleh’s visits to the two countries and his meetings with the Turkish president and the emir of Qatar.

Dbeibah wants also to play on regional tensions and mobilise Islamists in his favour pretending to lead a legitimate authority that faces internal conspiracies involving parliament, the army top brass and the government of Fathi Bashagha as part of an illusory regional plot led by Cairo.

Dbeibah claims that he wants elections to be held in Libya. A few days ago he even called on the Independent High Election Authority to summon the voters to take part in the ballot, even though calling elections is not his prerogative. Dbeibah in reality sees elections as a threat to his authority, which he considers among the spoils he has won for himself.

If an international agreement is reached to hold elections, he prefers that they take place among political rifts. That would better serve his interests.

After being involved in a political showdown with Egypt, his government has displayed a lot of disdain towards Cairo. Whoever follows the statements made by this government after the signing of the two memoranda of understanding with Turkey, realises that the outgoing premier and his main supporters from the Islamists, warlords and the network of financial and economic barons tied to Ankara, individuals close to Algeria and the profiteers from his rule, are working to perpetuate the competition for regional and international influence in Libya.

Dbeibah is counting on his Turkish allies more than any other party, especially since Washington signalled its unhappiness about corruption in the ranks of his government and after US officials started talking about a new plan to divide oil revenues between the two Libyan administrations.

His alignment with Turkey is also linked to the signs of rising tensions between Ankara and Athens, as Erdogan’s regime is accusing Greece of militarising its islands in the eastern Aegean Sea, while Athens rejects these allegations, and repeatedly affirms its right to self-defence. This means that Dbeibah has thrust his government into the middle of a regional conflict.

The signing of memoranda of understanding with Turkey and the agreement to launch oil and gas exploration on the continental shelf between Libya and Greece has fuelled internal and external tensions.

Besides the parliament speaker’s rejection of the deals, the head of the Presidential Council also said agreements between countries cannot enter into force before they are approved by the legislative bodies. He made it clear that concluding agreements should have required prior consultation with him and that cooperation between countries is regulated by international charters and norms, as well as national laws.

Cairo, Athens and Nicosia rejected the Turkish deals, while the US State Department explained that they harm the stability of Libya’s foreign relations and impose long-term commitments on the country. The European Union considered that the agreements signed between Libya and Turkey require further clarification.

These and other positions, both at home or abroad, have placed Dbeibah and his government in a difficult dilemma. Rising pressures will put his administration in regional and international crosshairs.

In conjunction with the political and governmental divisions in Libya, there is a third mini-government working in the shadows. It was formed months ago by Libyan players from different regions. It has established lines of communication with Western capitals, especially Washington. Its main objective is to unify institutions, achieve reconciliation and ensure the right conditions for elections.

Dbeibah’s de facto government in Tripoli may remain in power for a few more weeks or months, but it will inevitably come to an end. Its leader will have no influence on any upcoming settlement formula and eventually will not be allowed to toy with the fate of Libyans.

Even if he won the approval of the Turks, Dbeibah has opened the gates of hell on himself from various sides. Ankara itself will not insist much on guaranteeing his survival as part of any new settlement, especially if it includes Egypt and is agreed upon by the European Union and the United States.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/10/ ... on-turkey/

For Peace in the Congo, Rwanda and Uganda Must Be Brought to Justice
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on OCTOBER 12, 2022



Last month, Uganda paid the first installment (USD 65 million) of USD 325 million in reparations to the Democratic Republic of the Congo following an order from the International Court of Justice. This is for the crimes committed by Uganda during its occupation of the Congo in the 90s. While this was a positive first step, there is a long way to go before justice is achieved. A key aspect is bringing Rwanda to justice for its crimes.

Kambale Musavuli of the Centre for Research in the Congo talks about this process of justice, the crimes of Rwanda and Uganda, and the responsibility of their partners such as the US and UK.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/10/ ... o-justice/
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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Wed Oct 19, 2022 2:23 pm

Charting the rise of anti-French sentiment across Northern Africa

Anti-French sentiment has increasingly been on the rise across the Sahel and North Africa due to its role in destabilizing the region with military interventions

October 17, 2022 by Vijay Prashad

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(2014) A French military helicopter flies over the Nigerien town Madama, which served as a forward operating base for the French, Niger and Chad armies. Photo: Thomas Goisque/Wikimedia

In November 2021, a French military convoy was making its way to Mali while passing through Burkina Faso and Niger. It did not get very far. It was stopped in Téra, Niger, and before that at several points in Burkina Faso (in Bobo-Dioulasso and Kaya as well as in Ouagadougou, the country’s capital). Two civilians were killed as a result of clashes between the French convoy and protestors who were “angry at the failure of French forces to reign in terrorism in the region.” When the convoy crossed into Mali, it was attacked near the city of Gao.

Colonel Pascal Ianni, French Chief of Defense Staff spokesperson, told Julien Fanciulli of France 24 that there was a lot of “false information circulating” about the French convoy. Blame for the attacks was placed on “terrorists,” namely Islamic groups that continue to hold large parts of Mali and Burkina Faso. These groups have been emboldened and hardened by the 2011 war on Libya, prosecuted by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and egged on by France. What Colonel Ianni would not admit is that the protests that followed the convoy revealed the depth of anti-French sentiment across North Africa and the Sahel region.

Coups d’états in the region have been taking place for more than two years—from the coup in Mali in August 2020 to the coup in Burkina Faso in September 2022. The coups in the region, including the coup in Guinea in September 2021 as well and the two other coups in Mali (August 2020 and May 2021), and another coup in Burkina Faso (January 2022), were driven in large part due to the anti-French sentiment in the Sahel. In May 2022, the military leaders in Mali ejected the French military bases set up in 2014, while France’s political project—G5 Sahel—flounders in this atmosphere of animosity. Protests against the French in Morocco and Algeria have only added weight to the anti-French sentiment spreading across the African continent, with French President Emmanuel Macron showered with insults as he tried to walk the streets of Oran in Algeria in August 2022.

Animosities

“The situation in the former French colonies (Burkina Faso, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Niger, and Mali) is different from the situation in northern Africa,” Abdallah El Harif of the Workers’ Democratic Way Party of Morocco told me. “The bad relations between the regime in Morocco and France is due to the fact that the Moroccan regime has developed important economic, political, and security relations with the regimes of West Africa at the expense of the French,” he said. About the former French colonies along the Sahel in particular, El Harif said that “many popular insurrections” had taken place against the continued French colonial presence in these countries. With Morocco distancing itself from France, Paris is angered by its growing ties with the United States, while in the Sahel region people want to eject France from their lives.

Morocco’s monarchy has reacted quietly to the coups in the Sahel, not willing to associate itself with the kind of anti-French sentiment in the region. Such an association would call attention to Morocco’s close relationship with the United States. This US-Morocco relationship has provided the monarchy with dividends: military equipment from the United States and permission for Morocco to continue with its occupation of Western Sahara, including the mining of the region’s precious phosphates (in exchange for Morocco opening ties with Israel). Each year, since 2004, Morocco has hosted a US military exercise, the African Lion. In June 2022, 10 African countries participated in the African Lion 2022, with observers from Israel (for the first time) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. Morocco, El Harif told me, “has enormously developed its military relations with the United States.” France has been sidelined by these maneuvers, which has annoyed Paris. As he left behind the jeering crowds in Oran, Algeria, President Macron said that he would visit Morocco in late October.

In the Sahel region, unlike in Morocco, there is a growing popular sentiment against the French colonial interference (called Françafrique). Chad’s former President Idriss Déby Itno, who died in 2021, told Jeune Afrique in 2019 that “Françafrique is over. Sovereignty is indisputable, we must stop sticking this label of French backyard to our countries.” “The French control the currency of these states,” El Harif told me. “They have many military bases [in the Sahel region], and their corporations plunder the natural resources of these countries, while pretending to combat terrorism.” When political challenges arise, the French have colluded in assassinating leaders who challenge their authority (such as Burkina Faso’s Thomas Sankara in 1987) or have had them arrested and jailed (such as Côte d’Ivoire’s Laurent Gbagbo in 2011).

Why is Françafrique over?

In a recent interview with Atalayar, France’s former ambassador to Mali Nicolas Normand blamed the rising anti-French sentiment on “the repeated anti-French accusations of Mali’s prime minister and the virulent media campaign carried out by Russia on social media, accusing France of looting Mali and actually supporting the jihadists by pretending to fight them, with fake videos.” Indeed, Mali’s prime minister before August 22, 2022, Choguel Maïga, made strong statements against French military intervention in his country. In February 2022, Maïga told France 24 that the French government “have tried to divide his country by fueling autonomy claims in the north.” Malian singer Salif Keïta posted a video in which he said, “Aren’t you aware that France is financing our enemies against our children?” accusing France of collaborating with the jihadis.

Meanwhile, about the accusation that the Russian Wagner Group was operating in Mali, Maïga responded in his interview with France 24 and said that “The word Wagner. It’s the French who say that. We don’t know any Wagner.” However, Mali, he said in February, is working “with Russia cooperators.” Following an investigation by Facebook in 2020, it removed several social media accounts that were traced back to France and Russia and were “going head to head in the Central African Republic.”

In an important article in Le Monde in December 2021, senior researcher at Leiden University’s African Studies Center Rahmane Idrissa pointed out three reasons for the rise in anti-French sentiment in the Sahel. First, France, he said, “is paying the bill in the Sahel for half a century of military interventions in sub-Saharan Africa,” including France’s protection of regimes “generally odious to the population.” Second, the failure of the war against the jihadists has disillusioned the public regarding the utility of the French project. Third, and this is key, Idrissa argued that the inability of the military rulers in the region “to mobilize the population against an enemy (jihadist),” against whom they have no real strategy, has led to this anger being turned toward the French. The departure of the French, welcome as it is, “will certainly not resolve the jihadist crisis, ” Idrissa noted. The people will feel “sovereign,” he wrote, “even if part of the territory remains in the hands of terrorist gangs.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/10/17/ ... rn-africa/

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Ethiopia and Tigray Cannot Agree on Peace
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on OCTOBER 14, 2022
Viktor Mikhin

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The Ethiopian government stated it had accepted an invitation from the African Union (AU) to hold peace talks with rebels in the Tigray region after another escalation of fighting in the nearly two-year war in the north. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s National Security Advisor Redwan Hussein wrote on social media that the government “has accepted this invitation which is in line with our principled position regarding the peaceful resolution of the conflict and the need to have talks without preconditions.” According to a letter written by AU Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat, both sides (Ethiopia and Tigray) have been invited to South Africa for talks. The statement said that the AU had set “both a date and a place” for the talks, but did not specify when.

However, there was disagreement over the negotiators who would be present at the talks and resolve all points of contention between the parties. So far, the “three negotiators”, comprising High Representative for the Horn of Africa Olusegun Obasanjo, former Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and former South African Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, have been reported. Earlier, the warring parties had disagreed on who should mediate in the talks, with Abiy Ahmed’s government insisting on Obasanjo and the Tigrayans wanting Kenyatta to mediate the dialogue. They also argued over the restoration of basic elementary services to the population, such as electricity, communications and banking. Tigray believes that this is their key condition for dialogue and they are not backing down on their demands. The region of eight million is facing severe shortages of food, fuel, medicine and other essentials, and the UN World Food Programme warned of rising malnutrition even before the latest fighting halted aid deliveries.

It is interesting that the United States, the chief “peacemaker” who has not resolved a single conflict, instantly announced that its Special Envoy Mike Hammer would make his second visit to Ethiopia in recent months to supposedly bring about a “cessation of hostilities”. The Department of State said Mike Hammer will visit Kenya, South Africa and Ethiopia as early as this month. The visit, which will include meetings with representatives of the Ethiopian government and the African Union, was said to be part of US efforts “to achieve an immediate cessation of hostilities in northern Ethiopia and support the launch of African Union-led peace talks.” Yet somehow, after all these visits of the special envoy and senators, the Ethiopian conflict is not resolved, but only escalates, causing irreparable damage to both the country and the people. But all this does not interest distant Washington, and it continues to create new conflicts, where it actively throws weapons. A prime example of this “peacebuilding” activity is the Ukrainian conflict, which is only being fueled and continues to gain momentum thanks to the efforts of “peacekeepers” from the US and the NATO “defensive” bloc.

The war that broke out in Africa in November 2020 killed untold numbers of civilians and caused a deep humanitarian crisis, and all parties to the conflict have been accused of grave abuses against civilians. The Tigrayans dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition for decades before Abiy came to power in 2018. After months of growing tension, he sent soldiers to Tigray to overthrow the government of that northern province, saying the move came in response to attacks on federal army camps. In the end, however, neither side won an uncontested victory, and it now appears that Ethiopia and Tigray are forced to sit down at the negotiating table in the hope of at least buying time to regroup their military units, if not reaching an agreement.

It is necessary to recall the reasons for the conflict between Addis Ababa and Tigray and to explain why the leadership of this northern province is so hostile to the current president personally. For three decades, the Tigrayans controlled the state, society and the military in Ethiopia through their leadership of the armed struggle against the Mengistu Haile Mariam regime (1974-1991), toppling it after several years of famine and civil war. In the past, some 36% of army and security officers were Tigrayan, although they make up only 7% of the population. They also controlled the offices of the civil bureaucracy, the local trade network and international aid. This, in turn, contributed to the collapse of the army when Abiy Ahmed tried to marginalize the Tigray when he came to power in 2018, prompting the government to use the Amhar and Afar militias to confront the Tigray and their well-trained military forces. Against this background, the Tigrayans cannot accept being on an equal footing with the rest of the ethnic groups. The facts on the ground indicate that they cannot manage other groups as they have done in the past. Incidentally, other Ethiopian ethnicities will not accept Amhar’s rule either, especially in the absence of promises of equality. These are some of the reasons why Ethiopia is at a critical stage of uncertainty, poverty and degradation.

Since the war began, the government has isolated Tigray from the rest of the world, and according to UN agencies operating in Ethiopia and the Horn of Africa, during the blockade the mountainous region, home to eight million people, is threatened with famine. The UN reports that the Horn of Africa region, which includes Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya and Sudan, faces food security challenges that will threaten many tens of millions of people. In this context, the UN has called for a ceasefire and invited the warring parties to start negotiations to establish a sustainable peace and to open routes for the delivery of humanitarian aid to the millions of affected people.

Ethiopia’s renewed civil war has dashed the cautious hopes for peace that had been inspired by the truce signed by both sides in March this year and the subsequent preparations for negotiations between Addis Ababa and Tigray. But the conflict is not the only cause of hostilities and tensions in this multi-ethnic country, which is home to more than 80 ethnic groups, most of whom have their own Liberation Front and are demanding greater autonomy, if not independence. According to government sources, a number of farmers from Amhara have been repeatedly attacked by the Oromo Liberation Front. The Oromo tribe is the largest ethnic group in Ethiopia, accounting for 34% of the population. The Amhara are the second largest at 27%, followed by the Tigrayans and Somalis, who make up six to seven per cent of Ethiopia’s 110 million population.

Addis Ababa itself is located in the Oromo region, where periodic clashes take place between the Oromo and Amhara communities. The current president, Abiy Ahmed, is the son of an Oromo father and an Amhara mother. Politically and culturally, he leans more towards Amhara, causing enmity and tension among the Oromo. Despite their relatively smaller numbers, the Tigray people have long played a key role in Ethiopian history. Two centuries of cultural, religious and social unity between the Amhara and Tigray peoples since the late 18th century have created the modern state of Ethiopia. Tigray reached the height of its glory when it defeated Italian troops in 1898 at the Battle of Adwa, which is located in the Tigray region. They then played a pivotal role in liberating the country from Italian colonial control in the 1930s, when Italy was ruled by dictator Mussolini and his fascist party. Perhaps because of their central historical role, the Tigrayans have long felt unfairly treated in the modern state of Ethiopia, where the Amhara control the state and Amharic is the official language. Because of their large numbers, the Amhara manage the Ethiopian church, the army, the government bureaucracy and the treasury. The discontent of the Tigrayans culminated in several large-scale uprisings against the country’s last Emperor Haile Selassie, then against the socialist military rule of Mengistu Haile Mariam, and today against Addis Ababa to throw off Amharic control.

The Ahmed government and the Amhara militia allied to it have failed to defeat Tigray in more than 18 months of fighting. Since the start of the war, Tigray has allied with other regional militant fronts such as the Oromo Front (based in central Ethiopia), the Gambella Force (from the Gambella region near the border with South Sudan) and the Benishangul Force (based near the border with Sudan in the Benishangul Gumuz region). Moreover, although the Tigrayans have alliances with other ethnic groups, each has its own agenda. These fragile alliances are not fighting as one state, but rather to secede and create their own independent states. Nevertheless, many doubt that Tigray will be able to topple Ahmed’s government. The current situation in Addis Ababa cannot be compared to the late Mengistu Haile Mariam rule, as Ahmed is still popular among Amhara as well as some Oromo, while Mengistu lost his legitimacy and became highly unpopular by the end of his rule.

The conflict is also a source of concern for the international community. Ethiopia is surrounded by six other countries, two of which are involved in civil wars. In Somalia, the central state collapsed three decades ago, while South Sudan, the world’s youngest state, has experienced only a brief period of relative stability and calm since independence (from 2011 to 2013). According to UN agencies, a major famine could break out in these six countries by the end of this year, affecting tens of millions of people.

Eritrea has also largely cut itself off from the rest of the world, and is referred to in the Western media as “Africa’s North Korea”. The situation became a little clearer when Ahmed initiated a rapprochement after coming to power in 2018. Sudan is beset by a host of difficulties, including the struggle for political power following the October 25 coup last year, ongoing civil wars in the Blue Nile region in the south and Darfur in the west, and massive flooding affecting tens of thousands of people in central, eastern and northern parts of the country. In Kenya, Ethiopia’s southern neighbor, nerves are strained amid controversy over the results of the recent presidential election. Some fear that tensions could escalate into inter-communal violence and spiral out of control.

Ethiopia’s neighbors are concerned that unrest in the country could bring refugees to their borders, adding more problems to those states. Sudan has already received tens of thousands of refugees from Tigray and Benishangul because of the civil war, straining already overstretched Sudanese government institutions and their resources. But the most alarming scenario is the explosion of Ethiopia itself, as the consequences would inevitably extend beyond the country’s borders, possibly threatening the unity of some of its neighbors.

The numerous conflicts in the Horn of Africa once again hark back to a time in history when it was dominated by colonial powers that divided African territories at their own discretion. There is a revision of these colonial maps now, but it is often done on the battlefield rather than at the negotiating table. This further distances these countries from a just and peaceful solution to the many problems of long-suffering Africa.



Demonstrations in Support of Recent Coup in Burkina Faso Highlighted Solidarity with Russia
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on OCTOBER 17, 2022
Abayomi Azikiwe

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Protesters Hold Pro-Russian Rally in Burkina Faso After Military Takeover

Lessons for the Peace and Antiwar Groupings within the Imperialist States

West African state witnessed youth-led attacks on French embassy and installations amid security challenges

There have been two military coups in the West African state of Burkina Faso since January as attacks by rebel groupings are fueling anxiety over national security concerns.

The latest putsch was led by Capt. Ibrahim Traore, who with his fellow officers, deposed Col. Paul Henri Damiba on September 30.

Traore cited the failure of the Damiba administration to curb a jihadist insurgency which has destabilized large swaths of territory inside the country since 2015. France, the former colonial power in what was then known as Upper Volta, has military forces in Burkina Faso ostensibly to protect the interests of Paris and the local government.

However, in Burkina Faso and other former French colonies in West Africa, demonstrations have surfaced over the last year demanding the withdrawal of military units and diplomatic personnel from Paris. During the United Nations General Assembly in September, the interim Prime Minister of neighboring Mali, denounced French involvement in his country while accusing the administration of President Emmanuel Macron of attempts to utilize mercenaries from Ivory Coast to overthrow the military regime in the capital of Bamako.

After the recent change of government in the capital of Ouagadougou, the French embassy and other institutions were violently attacked by Burkinabe youth carrying their national flags along with that of Russia. These incidents are a reflection of the strain relations between Paris and the African continent.

These political developments on the African continent should not be a surprise to any serious observers in the current period. A legacy of enslavement and colonialism continues to hamper the capacity of the continent to gain its appropriate position within the broader context of world affairs.

Burkina Faso since its independence in 1960 has been subjected to the presence of economic and military interests from Paris. Other states within the Sahel and broader West Africa region have been targeted for destabilization for decades.

Since the formation of the United States Africa Command (AFRICOM) and its French counterpart consisting of the Foreign Legion and Operation Barkhane, the social situation throughout many areas within the West Africa region has deteriorated. Guinea-Conakry, also a former colony of France, has undergone persistent turmoil since the military overthrow of the founding Democratic Party (PDG), once headed by President Ahmed Sekou Toure from 1958-1984.

Guinean administrations since 1984 have abandoned the PDG’s concept of the African Democratic Revolution, Pan-Africanism and Socialism. Yet, the living conditions of the people have not benefited from this shift to the right in regard to domestic and foreign policy.

Mali also underwent a revolutionary experiment in popular democracy and socialist orientation under the first post-colonial administration of President Modibo Keita who ruled the country from 1960-1968, when he was deposed in a military coup. Mali in modern times has undergone two military coups since 2020. Plagued by the same rebel insurgencies as neighboring Burkina Faso, Niger, Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria, military and intelligence assistance from the U.S. and France have only resulted in the lessening of the capacity of these states to address their own security concerns.

Imperialist Research Centers and Continuing Military Interference in Africa

Western think tanks which serve to rationalize imperialist foreign policy in Africa and other geo-political regions are attempting to attribute the dramatic shifts towards the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China as it relates to economic and security issues to some nefarious tactics utilized by Moscow and Beijing. These centers of imperialist strategic planning can never own up to the abysmal failure of neo-colonialism in Africa which has maintained the continent in a dependent status within the world economic system.

The International Crisis Group (ICG) provides one such example of the dishonest justification for the growing antagonism even among military forces within West Africa. Their position closely aligns itself with the U.S. Department when spokesperson Vedant Patel said: “We have spoken clearly about the destabilizing impact of both rampant disinformation but also the Wagner Group’s activities globally. Countries where the group has been deployed find themselves weaker and less secure, and we’ve seen that in a number of cases in Africa alone.” (https://www.npr.org/2022/10/11/11279596 ... rkina-faso )

Nonetheless, the Russian-based military services company Wagner has only been operational on the continent for the last few years. This can easily be compared with the centuries of interference and destabilization efforts by the collective imperialism of the western capitalist countries in Europe and North America.

This same State Department official conveniently ignored the impact of AFRICOM and Operation Barkhane in West Africa. Many of the officers which have staged coups in West Africa over the last decade had close ties with Washington and Paris through military training colleges and joint maneuvers with the Pentagon, the European Union (EU) Forces, NATO and the French Foreign Legion.

This same article cited above also quotes the ICG deputy director for Africa, Rinaldo Depagne, as saying in response to the question as to whether Russia played a role in the recent changes in governance in West Africa: “This is very difficult to say and to prove. But Russia is certainly closer to now cut a deal with Burkina than ever and certainly that Russia was with president – former President Damiba, and this for several reasons. First one is President Traore’s statement. And President Traore, eight days ago, said that it could solicit diversified military assistance without naming Russia, but everyone was thinking about Russia. Second reason, Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of Wagner PMC Enterprise, offered to work with Traore. Third reason, we have now a legal act, and according to this act, the president negotiates and ratifies international treaties himself. So, it opened the door for him to decide whether he will work with Russia or not.”

Such viewpoints are being articulated in conjunction with the failed attempts by the State Department and the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs to coax African governments into taking a position in support of NATO in the Russian special military operation in Ukraine. U.S. President Joe Biden has invited African Union (AU) heads-of-state to attend a White House summit in December in the aftermath of the Russia-Africa gathering in Ethiopia in November.

Interestingly enough, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba was forced to cut short a trip to Africa following Russian missile strikes across his country beginning on October 10. Kuleba had proposed a Ukraine-Africa summit as well.

An earlier attempt by the U.S.-backed President Volodymyr Zelensky to address the AU only garnered two attendees. On a mass level there has been noticeable solidarity with the Russian Federation as it relates to the Ukraine situation. Even outside of the West Africa region, in states such as Ethiopia and South Africa, two of the largest economies and population groups within the AU, youth have held demonstrations where Russian flags were flown.

However, the reality of racial discrimination and brutality displayed by Ukrainian authorities during the early days of the Russian intervention has not left the minds of African governments and their people. African students studying in Ukraine during February and March of 2022, reported numerous incidents of beatings, denials of admission to public places and transportation facilities, among other problems.

Since these incidents, the western corporate and government-controlled media outlets have attempted to erase these horrible occurrences from the minds of African people and the world community. The openly Nazi militias and political organizations which have existed in Ukraine for decades are ignored in the diplomatic language and media accounts of events inside the country.

Lessons for the Peace and Antiwar Groupings within the Imperialist States

Those mainstream peace and antiwar organizations in Western Europe and North America have taken a political line quite similar to the U.S. State Department. The Russian Federation are viewed as aggressors while the threat of fascism and NATO expansion is largely ignored.

This undoubtedly is related to the fact that there is a Democratic administration in the White House with an evenly split Senate and slight majority within the House of Representatives. Although this political configuration in the U.S. has not delivered on the promises made during the 2020 campaigns which committed to social spending to alleviate poverty along with voting rights, a lessening of police brutality and women’s equality, what is actually transpiring is the worsening plight of African Americans through police brutality, institutional racism and benign neglect.

Women in the U.S. no longer have a legal right to their reproductive freedom while the rapid accelerating rates of inflation in the key sectors of the economy is disproportionately impacting the impoverished, nationally oppressed and other marginalized groups. The Biden administration has failed to stem inflation while the Federal Reserve Bank has induced a global recession sending shockwaves of uncertainty among both the ruling class and the majority working and oppressed peoples on a global scale.

The western-based social justice and peace organizations would be served well to study developments in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Rather than viewing their interests as inextricably linked to the capitalist class dominated by finance capital and imperialist militarism, the declining standards of living in the West can only be addressed through the international solidarity of the people to end all wars and exploitation by the ruling class.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/10/ ... th-russia/
"There is great chaos under heaven; the situation is excellent."

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Re: Africa

Post by blindpig » Sat Oct 22, 2022 1:57 pm

Coups by African Military Leaders Linked to US Flintlock

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Fourteen percent of U.S. commandos sent overseas in 2021 were sent to Africa. Oct. 19, 2022. | Photo: Twitter/@USAfricaCommand

Published 19 October 2022

Since 2008, U.S.-trained African military officers have attempted at least nine coups in five West African countries.


According to a Rolling Stone report, eight such coups, which took place in Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Mauritania in different years, were successful. The failed coup was in Gambia in 2014.

Confirmation is reported from the U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) that several African military leaders who staged coups in their countries participated in AFRICOM's Flintlock exercises.

Since 2015, five coups have been carried out by military leaders who had previously participated in Special Operations Command Africa (SOCAFRICA) Flintlock exercises, according to the report.

The U.S. Department of Defense claims that these exercises, which were first conducted in Africa in 2005, are intended to strengthen the capacity of African countries to fight terrorism.


The US Africa Command UU. ( AFRICOM) has reportedly confirmed that several African military leaders who conducted coups in their countries participated in AFRICOM's Flintlock counterterrorism exercises.

"SOCAFRICA's Flintlock exercise may not be an incubator for insurrections, but recent coup plotters have been some of its most prominent participants," said Rolling Stone.

Burkina Faso officer Gilbert Diendere, Burkina Faso lieutenant colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, colonel Mamady Dumbua (Guinea) and colonel Assimi Goita (Mali) are some of the military personnel who participated in the U.S.-led exercise and later took part in the coups d'état in their countries.

In 2021, Elite U.S. troops were operating in nine African countries: Burkina Faso, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Somalia and Tunisia, according to retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, head of Special Operations Command Africa until 2017.


Fourteen percent of U.S. commandos sent overseas in 2021 were sent to Africa. However, Rear Admiral Milton "Jamie" Sands, head of Special Operations Command Africa, denied U.S. involvement in the strikes.

Sands said the U.S. had partnered with regimes that did not align "with the rights and will of their people" and ended up being overthrown.

https://www.telesurenglish.net/news/Cou ... -0020.html

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Two Al Shabaab attacks leave at least 21 dead in Somalia


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The cities of Bulobarde and Jalalaqsi are targets of the terrorist group for hosting the military offensive against them. | Photo: Latin Press
Published 20 October 2022

The recent attacks by the terrorist group in the cities of Jalalaqsi and Bulobarde left several injured among civilians and soldiers.

At least 21 people were killed in two attacks in the state of Hirshabelle, in central Somalia, whose authorship was claimed on Thursday by the terrorist group Al Shabaab.

According to press reports, a car bomb exploded at a checkpoint in the city of Jalalaqsi, attached to a local government building and an African Union military base.

As a result, at least 15 people were killed, including the city mayor and the district chief, as well as several wounded.


Meanwhile, an explosive motorcycle detonated on the bridge of the city of Bulobarde, an important strategic connection with the rest of the country, with a balance of six dead, including four civilians, indicate the media.

One of the men aboard the vehicle blew himself up in the action, while the other threw himself into the street before the impact and was shot by the security forces after the events occurred.

Al Shabaab later claimed responsibility for the attacks.


Bulobarde and Jalalaqsi, in the state of Hirshabelle, have been bastions of the offensive against this terrorist group, against which the Government declared a "total war".

The attacks occur a couple of days after the Somali Army and African Union troops retake control of several towns in the Middle Shabelle region, in the south, with heavy casualties for the extremist group.

https://www.telesurtv.net/news/atentado ... -0008.html

Google Translator

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Progressive forces in Morocco demand dignity for the working class

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Protests were held in over 30 cities across Morocco on October 17 to demand an increase in wages, a reduction in prices of basic necessities, and the release of all political prisoners.

October 19, 2022 by Tanupriya Singh

Protests were organized against the deteriorating economic conditions in Morocco. Photo: Moroccan Social Front
Protests were held in several cities in Morocco on October 17 to mark the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. The actions were organized by the Moroccan Social Front (FSM) in defense of socio-economic rights and freedoms, and against neoliberal policies that have led to rising costs of living. The Front was also joined by the Worker’s Democratic Way (WDW) party and the Moroccan Association of Human Rights (AMDH).

Monday was the culmination of three days of protests, beginning October 15, called by the FSM “in response to deteriorating social conditions” in Morocco, and to demand a “productive social dialogue conducive to responding to the demands of various segments of the Moroccan working people.”

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Photo: Moroccan Social Front

Speaking to Peoples Dispatch, FSM National Secretariat member Mouad Eljohri said, “At least two-thirds of Morocco’s population is living in poverty today, in conditions of vulnerability. This poverty has not fallen from the sky, it is a consequence of the class policy of the ruling class.”

“This is a policy based on rent, on monopoly, and on dependence— dependence on imperialist world capital. It is based on despotism.”

Eljohri added, “While poverty has risen and the purchasing power of the majority of citizens has suffered a serious blow, the fortune of the head of the government has doubled in two years!”

FSM activists in Rabat held a sit-in at Parliament Square on October 17 , denouncing the “policies of plunder, exploitation, and impoverishment of capitalism and imperialist aggression for which peoples around the world are paying the price” and the “economic and social policies of the state that are dependent on the imperialist political, economic, and financial decision-making centers, and which are hostile to the true and popular national interests”.

Eljohri stated that around 30 FSM branches heeded the call to protest and took to the streets on October 17. Actions were held in cities including Casablanca, Marrakesh, and Tetouan. In Khenifra, activists raised slogans and marched while being surrounded by police on either side. In a video shared by news outlet Aabbir, police could then be seen trying to forcibly escort away certain activists.


‘Poverty is a political crime’

The October 17 protests were organized against the backdrop of worsening economic conditions in Morocco. The country, which is heavily dependent on agriculture, is facing its worst drought in over three decades. The rate of inflation, which stood at 1.4% in 2021 is expected to reach 6.3% in 2022, after soaring to 8% in August. The country has also witnessed a rise in food prices.

A further increase in the cost of fuel also came into effect on October 17, as the government rejected calls for a cap on the price of diesel and gasoline. The price of diesel is expected to reach MAD 16 while the price of gasoline is set to exceed MAD 14.

“Poverty in Morocco is a political crime committed by the existing regime,” WDW proclaimed in a statement on October 19. It stated that over 25 million people in Morocco were living in poverty, some of whom below the extreme poverty line.

“Poverty is the result of the accumulation of wealth in the hands of a few monopolists of the parasitic bourgeoisie, large landowners, senior civil and military state officials, and the various components of the Makhzen [Morocco’s governing authority] mafia that employ political influence and social prestige to steal and rob the livelihood of the vast majority of the Moroccan people.”

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Photo: Moroccan Social Front

The WDW further condemned imperialist forces including France as well as institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank “that care for the interests of imperialism and keep people under control in order to facilitate the process of the robbery of the goods of their countries.”

“Poverty is a social condition that can be eliminated when the oppressed people gather to extract their rights from the thieves and their masters,” WDW declared.

Key demands

FSM has outlined a series of demands including an increase in wages and a reduction in the prices of electricity and water bills as well as food items including oil and flour. It has called for a reduction in fuel prices and to return to the people “looted funds, including 17 billion dirhams that were devoured by the fuel lobby”. Importantly, FSM has called for the nationalization of Morocco’s sole oil refinery— “this will contribute in a considerable way to security and national sovereignty in terms of energy,” Eljohri stated.

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Photo: Moroccan Social Front

FSM has also demanded the withdrawal of “retrogressive” measures related to laws on strike and trade unions, and an end to contract work. It has rejected the government’s proposed pension reforms which, Eljohri explained, will give way to an increase in the retirement age and reduce the salary after retirement.

Other key issues raised include ensuring free and quality public services for all, especially in health and education, providing adequate housing while “stopping the attack and robbery of the lands of the masses” by real estate mafias, guaranteeing the right to work, and providing unemployment compensation.

FSM has urged that rights including the freedom of union action, expression and association must be respected.

Eljohri added, “We came out to demand the immediate release of all political detainees in Morocco, those detained in the popular uprising of the Rif, and all journalists who have been detained in a completely illegal manner.”

https://peoplesdispatch.org/2022/10/19/ ... ing-class/

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Uganda Needs Equipment and Solidarity in the Face of Ebola Outbreak
Posted by INTERNATIONALIST 360° on OCTOBER 21, 2022
Denis Bukenya

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WHO and Ugandan health ministry officials train people in Bunyangabu and Madudu sub-counties on the risk of Ebola. Photo: WHO Uganda

The health system in Uganda has faced the Ebola outbreak without enough personal protective equipment or effective vaccines, leading to concern among activists and health workers alike


On October 15, the government of Uganda introduced a 21-day curfew in an attempt to curb the recent Ebola outbreak. The outbreak, caused by the Sudan strain of the virus, remains a huge global concern. Health workers and patients in Uganda also remain especially worried, as the number of deaths continues to rise.

Just weeks before, President Yoweri Museveni had claimed that the outbreak was under control and that there was no need for panic. But the state of the health system, burdened by the pressures of COVID-19, has cast doubts on his assurances. The health system in Uganda urgently needs refurbishments of essential personal protective equipment (PPE) and solidarity from other countries in Africa and the rest of the world.

The outbreak was declared on September 20 by the Ministry of Health, based on tests carried out on a patient from Ngabano village, Mubende District, in Central Uganda. It is the first outbreak of the Sudan strain in Uganda since 2012. As of October 20, 64 cases had been confirmed in the country according to the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Africa.

Cases were first detected among people living around a gold mine. Gold traders are highly mobile, particularly along the busy highway that runs between Kampala — a densely populated and globally-connected capital of 1.68 million people — and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This raised concerns about the virus’s ability to spread easily to densely populated areas, which would increase the number of reported cases and, likely, deaths.

It has been clear from the very beginning of the outbreak that the uneven distribution of resources within the health system, as well as its overall status, would impact the Ugandan response. For example, because diagnostic resources were not readily available in Mubende, tests were done 173 kilometers away at the Virus Research Institute in Entebbe, and so it took two days for test results to be available. This meant that more people could have been exposed while results were awaited.

There is no known vaccine for the prevention of the Sudan strain of Ebola, and no known treatment for it. Like all other Ebola strains, it is a serious disease with significant morbidity and mortality. Because it is spread through body fluids, it is not as easily transmissible as airborne viruses such as COVID-19. Still, it puts healthcare workers and family members of patients at significant risk.

Health workers at risk because of lack of PPE, staff shortages

Since there are no approved vaccines or treatments for this Ebola strain, part of the response to the crisis depends on using protective equipment and following hygiene guidelines. This is true among health workers as much as among the general population. The WHO has confirmed 25 deaths, five of which have been of health workers. Local reports indicate that at least seven health workers have contracted Ebola and dozens of health workers have been identified as contacts of the victims.

The deaths of health workers have raised questions about the ability of the health system, the government, and health facility management to protect essential workers from harm. Ministry officials have blamed infections among health workers on low vigilance, while other medical superiors say workers have not been provided with appropriate PPE.

Senior health officials, including Dr. Asaph Owamukama and Dr Samuel Oledo, president of the Ugandan Medical Association, warned that the need for PPE was growing by the day because of the outbreak. In a conversation with The Monitor, Owamukama and Oledo agreed that in any situation where Ebola is a possible diagnosis, health workers should be covered head to toe. “Ebola is not a joke,” Oledo stressed in the interview.

This does not only refer to health workers in hospitals, but also to Village Health Teams (VHTs). According to statements made by Minister of Health Jane Ruth Aceng, one of the main tasks of the VHTs is to remain vigilant when it comes to unexplained health events in their areas. In this case, it seems that the teams faced delays in recognizing the seriousness of the situation in Mubende. Yet, the minister recognized that the government does not pay VHT’s salaries and this likely impacts their ability to perform the work they have to do.

It should also not be ignored that Uganda is facing an overall shortage of workers. Not having enough nurses and physicians in the health system might have meant that cases of Ebola went unreported for weeks. This opinion was shared by the WHO Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, at the World Health Summit in Berlin. Moeti used this as an example of why the world should make it a priority to employ more health workers, ensuring that the capacity exists to react to outbreaks of communicable diseases.

Solidarity should prevail over securitization of health

Employing more health workers in Uganda is a necessity, yet it is not easy to achieve within the current financial and health framework. At the same time that it is managing this Ebola outbreak, Uganda is also facing a resurgence of malaria, tuberculosis, and HIV, as well as the burden of COVID-19. All this while relying on far fewer resources than countries in the West: 30% of Ugandans lived on less than USD $1.77 per person a day in 2020.

Health minister Aceng also called on other countries to donate essential equipment such as medical gowns, gloves, masks, face shields, surgical hoods, and long boot coverings to Uganda. In her statements, she made it clear that Uganda could not face the Ebola outbreak alone and that, if it was forced to do so, the risk of the disease spreading to neighboring countries would only grow.

Ugandan activists, including those from the People’s Health Movement, as well as the minister of health and public health officials, have launched requests for solidarity, but these have been met with silence by leaders across the world. Instead, other countries have already begun implementing stricter security measures.

The United States has started screening travelers from Uganda at five airports, and is monitoring them for 21 days to see whether symptoms develop. Neighboring countries like Kenya and Tanzania are also on high alert.

Ebola has always made global headlines, regardless of strain or country of origin, but it tends to disappear from the minds and imaginations of the West once the direct threat to high-income countries subsides. This has been true for all outbreaks until now and there is no evidence that this time will be any different.

Instead, what is needed is a response that is completely different from what has been experienced in the past. At this point in time, the Ugandan people and health workers need the solidarity and the support of high-income countries. These can come in the form of the donation of equipment, but also require the provision of due attention to research into Ebola as well as the development of vaccines. Failing that, future outbreaks will continue to cause unnecessary deaths in Uganda and other countries in Africa, as well as threaten the health of people in the rest of the world.

https://libya360.wordpress.com/2022/10/ ... -outbreak/
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