Ethiopia weighs options after exclusion from AGOA
Ethiopia is scrambling to find new export markets after being shut out of the lucrative US market over human rights concerns.
The country’s eligibility for the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA), a trade program that provides tariff-free access to the US market for African manufacturers, was formally revoked on January 1st.
Addis Ababa’s industrial parks which have grown on the back of exporting textiles to the US now face the prospect of shutting down, along with tens of thousands of jobs.
Kenya, South African Airways eye merger
The national flag carriers of Kenya and South Africa will partner to form a new airline expected to launch in 2023.
In his new year’s eve address, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta announced that the companies will combine operations to form what he called a ‘Pan-African Airline’.
The deal is thought to have been agreed during Kenyatta’s visit to South Africa last November.
Both airlines are loss-making, depending on cash injections from state coffers to stay afloat.
Brawl erupts in Kenya parliament over political parties bill
A brawl erupted in Kenya’s parliament on Wednesday as lawmakers were debating a controversial bill governing political parties ahead of next year’s election.
The speaker suspended the session briefly after the chaotic scenes, which saw at least two rival MPs exchange blows, according to images broadcast on local media.
One lawmaker, Bernard Koros, was injured during the fracas, and was seen with blood dripping down his face, while another was expelled from parliament by the speaker.
“I cannot accept to be injured in the national house like this Mr Speaker,” said Koros, a supporter of Deputy President William Ruto.
The fighting broke out after hours of heated debate over the bill, which contains amendments to laws governing political parties and the registration of coalition groupings for elections.
The legislation would allow a coalition of parties to field a candidate in the poll, a departure from the current law that requires a candidate to belong to a party or be independent to vie for a seat.
Opponents of the proposals argue that President Uhuru Kenyatta and his erstwhile foe Raila Odinga will use them to build a formidable coalition ahead of the August 9 vote.
Although Odinga is ostensibly opposition leader, he and Kenyatta declared a truce with a headline-grabbing handshake in 2018 after deadly post-election clashes the year before.
The pact stoked speculation that Odinga, a veteran politician who has made four unsuccessful bids for the presidency, would succeed Kenyatta.
The two had sought to expand the executive through proposed constitutional changes that could have allowed Kenyatta — who is in his second term and cannot run for the presidency again — to stay in power as a prime minister.
Kenya’s top court ruled against those amendments in August but the alliance has endured, with Odinga often attending official government functions with Kenyatta.
The truce has left Ruto, whom Kenyatta had initially anointed as his 2022 successor, out in the cold and he is expected to run against Odinga in the August poll.
18 Militiamen killed in DRC-Congo war
The Congolese army announced on Wednesday that it had lost two soldiers and killed 18 militiamen during clashes in the eastern highlands of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Army representative, Major Dieudonne Kasereka told AFP on Tuesday morning that “A unit sent to reinforce the army was ambushed by militiamen from the Makanika-Twigwaneho coalition near the village of Kagogo in Uvira, in the Hauts Plateaux of South Kivu.”
“In the exchange of fire, the army killed eighteen militiamen, two soldiers of the Armed Forces of the DRC (FARDC) fell on the field of honour and five others were seriously wounded. “
The Makanika-Twigwaneho coalition, an armed group formed on a communal basis, claims to defend the interests of the Banyamulenge, Tutsi Congolese of distant Rwandan origin. Its commander, Colonel Michel Rukundo Makanika, deserted the army at the beginning of 2020 with a group of Banyamulenge soldiers and entrenched themselves in the territory of Fizi.
This territory, which is home to the Hauts Plateaux of South Kivu, is plagued by a communal conflict that essentially pits the Banyamulenge against members of the Bembe, Fuliro, and Nyindu communities.
The Genesis of this conflict is in the control of land and natural resources but also in disputes over local authority. There have been many reports of clashes between the coalition of Banyamulenge militiamen and the Congolese army have been.
A recent case is that which happened on December 28 where a colonel, three Congolese soldiers, and twelve militiamen were killed in fighting against the Makanika-Twigwaneho coalition in the Eastern Highlands of the DRC, a region that has been threatened for more than 25 years by dozens of local and foreign armed groups.
Congo’s Fayulu urges end of martial law in North Kivu and Ituri regions
Congolese opposition leader Martin Fayulu criticized what he called the shameless stealing of public funds under President Felix Tshisekedi’s government, reported French broadcaster RFI Friday.
In his end-of-year speech, Fayulu who controversially lost to Tshisekedi in the 2018 election singled out the missing funds intended for Covid-19 response and civil servants’ salaries.
The Democratic Republic of Congo is experiencing a surge in virus cases driven by the Omicron and Delta variants.
Congo is the least vaccinated country against COVID-19 in the world. A combination of vaccine hesitancy and weak state capacity has contributed to the low vaccine uptake.
Tshisekedi who took over from Joseph Kabila in January of 2019 has also been accused by the opposition of seeking to undermine the electoral commission’s independence ahead of the 2023 vote.
Fayulu slammed the presence of Ugandan troops on Congolese soil, saying Kinshasa was sub-contracting the security of the state to foreigners.
In December, Kampala sent soldiers to eastern Congo to carry out joint operations against the ADF rebel group, which it blamed for deadly bombings in November.
The leader of the Lamuka coalition also demanded the lifting of martial law in the provinces of North Kivu and Ituri. The regions were placed under army rule last year after Tshisekedi announced an operation to counter armed groups.
Nigeria designates kidnapping gangs ‘terrorist groups’
The Nigerian government on Wednesday officially listed criminal gangs in the northwest as “terrorist groups”, including mass kidnappings.
Heavily armed criminal gangs have been terrorizing people in Nigeria’s northwestern and northern states for years, attacking villages, looting them and kidnapping their inhabitants for ransom, and the violence is only getting worse.
The government of President Muhammadu Buhari, which has also been battling jihadist groups in the northeast for a decade, is under pressure to stop the activities of these criminal gangs.
In Wednesday’s gazette, the Nigerian federal government referred to the activities of Yan Bindiga and Yan Ta’adda – the Hausa name for “bandits” as they are known locally – as “acts of terrorism”.
These activities range from cattle rustling to kidnapping, including of schoolchildren for ransom, to destruction of property.
This qualification implies harsher penalties under the Prevention of Terrorism Act for members of these gangs, their informers and supporters, such as those providing them with fuel and food.
Nigerian newspapers report daily raids by these “bandits” on villages and communities.
Security forces have announced operations against the gangs, including air raids and cutting off mobile networks in parts of northwestern Nigeria, in an attempt to root out the bandits from their dens in the region’s forests.
On Tuesday, the police announced that they had freed around 100 abductees in two raids on gang camps in the northwestern state of Zamfara.
In recent years, these criminal gangs have made international headlines with a series of large-scale attacks on schools and universities from which they have abducted dozens of students, some of whom are still being held hostage.
This criminal violence has its roots in conflicts between nomadic pastoralists and sedentary farmers over land and resources such as water. But the cycle of attacks and reprisals has become a criminal phenomenon over the years.
Nearly 100 hostages rescued in northern Nigeria
97 former hostages reached Gusau, the capital of Zamfara state, in the north of Nigeria on Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the police announced men, women and children abducted more than two months ago had recovered their freedom. It is the end of an ordeal for the nearly 100 hostages who had been taken from their homes and along highways in remote communities in Zamfara and neighboring Sokoto state.
Among the former captives were 19 babies and more than a dozen children. Looking malnourished, weary and wearing worn-out clothes they were used to living in abandoned forest reserves that served as hideouts for the gunmen.
Weary and malnourished captives
Police said the hostages were “rescued unconditionally” Monday in joint security operations targeting the camps of armed groups that have been terrorizing remote communities across the northwest and center of Africa’s most populous country.
The rescue brought a sigh of relief in Nigeria where armed groups have killed thousands and kidnapped many residents and travelers in Nigeria’s troubled north.
In this part of the country, a decades-long conflict opposes large bands of assailants who are mostly young men from the Fulani ethnic group to the Hausa farming communities resulting in insecurity.
Antigua – Barbuda And The Dominican Republic Forge Closer Relations:
ST JOHNS, Antigua – Prime Minister Gaston Browne fulfilled a promise made three years ago to the president of the Dominican Republic to transfer one acre of land for the construction of an embassy and residences for the Dominican Republic in St John’s, presented the land certificate to foreign affairs minister of the Dominican Republic, Chancellor Miguel Vargas who paid an official visit to Antigua and Barbuda over the weekend.
“The establishment of an embassy in St John’s signals the permanency and strength of our relationship. Three years of engagement has heightened our relationship which has a long history dating back to the 1920’s when Antiguans and Barbudans travelled to the Dominican Republic to cut cane and some stayed and established families. So, we are inextricably linked,” prime minister Browne told the Dominican foreign minister.
He also outlined that over the last few years, over ten thousand Dominicans have made Antigua and Barbuda their home, contributing to the diversity of the Antigua and Barbuda population. He stated that it is important for both countries to continue to collaborate in each other’s interest and continue to expand cooperation in the international community. He said that over the years, the friendship has been one of mutual beneficial cooperation and his government wishes to continue to build on the relations and values the Dominican Republic as a reliable partner.
Prime Minister Browne also noted that in the area of trade, there are several under and unexploited opportunities. “I wish for us to collaborate in order for Dominican enterprises to establish operations in our free trade zone, thereby providing markets for them in the wider Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) region,” he said.
The country’s leader also commended the Dominican official on the high level of its tourism product and outlined that there are opportunities for collaboration. He also commended the Dominican government for their demonstration of friendship in the offer of the construction of a new school in Barbuda.
Foreign Minister Vargas in his response to Prime Minister Browne, outlined that the establishment of an Embassy in Antigua and Barbuda is a signal of how much his government respects the friendship and are willing to continue the high level of cooperation. “This embassy will be a symbol of our friendship,” he said.
During the meeting, Foreign Minister of Antigua and Barbuda E.P. Chet Greene and foreign minister Vargas signed an Air Services Agreement and a Disaster Risk Management Cooperation Agreement; important to disaster mitigation and improved air services between both countries.
Prime Minister Browne and foreign minister Vargas pledged to continue discussions in the areas of trade, education, housing and aviation to include services to be provided by LIAT.
