Nigeria Turns Against Youth Protesting Police Brutality

Young people staged the biggest anti-government uprising in a generation, triggered by relentless police brutality. Rattled, politicians are promising reforms, but using repressive tactics, large and small.

Protesters in Lagos last month. The demonstrations against police brutality had brought the country to a standstill.Credit...Temilade Adelaja/Reuters

LAGOS, Nigeria — Nigeria’s leaders have made a show of responding to the demands of a massive youth-led uprising over police brutality that recently brought the country to a standstill and captured global attention.

The government has commissioned panels of inquiry into police brutality, and the presidentpromised to disband the notoriously abusive police unit known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS.

But at the same time, protesters say that the government is conducting a targeted campaign against people associated with the uprising in order to harass, impede and break up the movement — destroying any good faith the government had hoped to build.

“They are persecuting peaceful, and actually quite patriotic young people,” said Chidi Odinkalu, senior manager for Africa at the Open Society Justice Initiative.

Nigeria — Africa’s most populous nation — was turned upside down last month by an uprising that grew into the largest popular resistance the government has faced in years. The demonstrations began as an outcry against the SARS police unit, but evolved into a larger protest over bad governance.

The government has adopted a two-pronged strategy to try to put a stop to the uproar. It has tried to persuade people that it is listening to the protesters — commissioning panels of inquiry and announcing that SARS is being disbanded. But it is simultaneously using its power to repress and intimidate activists by throwing many people in jail, and harassing others in ways large and small.

One example of the government’s two-faced approach was on display last week in a packed hearing room in Lagos overlooking the ocean, where a panel was supposed to be holding a hearing on police brutality.

Two young activists had been invited to join the panel to represent the protesters. But the youth panelists boycotted the hearing because Nigeria’s Central Bank had just frozen a bank account belonging to one of them, claiming it was linked to terrorists. In recent weeks, at least 20 activists and organizations have had their accounts frozen by the Central Bank.

“How can I be asking as a citizen of my country for better government, for an end to police brutality,” said Bolatito Olorunrinu, one of the youth panelists, a 22 year old student at Lagos State University, “and my government turns around to tag me a terrorist? It’s saddening.”

Warned of threats to their safety, some high-profile activists with the movement, known by the hashtag #EndSARS, have gone into hiding or left the country. There was a public outcry when Modupe Odele, a lawyer helping the protesters, said that her passport was confiscated at the airport. She says was prevented from traveling, but recently was given her passport back.

Nigeria’s top police official said his officers had arrested over 1,500 people suspected of taking part in violence.Credit...Benson Ibeabuchi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The country’s top police official said earlier this month that his officers had arrested over 1,500 people during and after the protests suspected of taking part in violence.

The government has moved to use its authority to shut down the movement. Lagos, Nigeria’s biggest city, banned demonstrations. Powerful state governors in the country’s north last week called for censorship of social media, which had played a decisive role in mobilizing the marches.

Like the Black Lives Matter movement in the United States, #EndSARS was triggered by viral videos of police brutality that documented a decades-long pattern of violence. And similar to the protesters behind the Arab Spring, young people used social media to coordinate protests on a scale that frightened authorities accustomed to being in control.

These days, Muhammadu Buhari is Nigeria’s democratically elected civilian president. But in the 1980s, he was the country’s military ruler, with a fondness for discipline — famously forcing civil servants late to work to perform frog jumps.

Despite trying to reassure young people last month that their voices had been heard “loud and clear,” his pronouncements have come across as highhanded and disingenuous. Nigerians are wary that his authoritarian tendencies, his General Buhari side, is showing through.

On Oct. 20, the military was deployed to the site of a long-running peaceful #EndSARS protest in Lekki, an affluent area of Lagos, shortly after sunset. Floodlights were turned off. Then the soldiers began to shoot.

A demonstration outside of Alausa, a government building in Lagos, after the governor of Lagos State declared a 24-hour curfew.Credit...Benson Ibeabuchi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 It is still not known how many people died that night, though a popular disc jockey who broadcast the shooting live on her Instagram — Obianuju Catherine Udeh, known as DJ Switch — said she saw at least 15 dead bodies, and that security forces took them away. Amnesty International said police and soldiers killed at least 12.

Abuses by Nigerian security forces are nothing new. In the northeast, home to the terrorist group Boko Haram, women have been raped by soldiers and babies and children locked up. In the capital, Abuja, and the nearby city of Kaduna, minority Shiite protesters have been killed.

But #EndSARS had attracted social media influencers, musicians, Nollywood actors and reality TV stars. The Lekki incident drew international condemnation, including from President-elect Joseph R. Biden and Beyoncé.

“It’s one thing to shoot protesters in the relative backwaters of Kaduna,” said Mr. Odinkalu. “It’s another thing to shoot protesters under the clear gaze of upmarket Lagos. The political ramifications are higher.”

The Lekki shooting was one of the things the Lagos inquiry has been investigating, before it was boycotted over the frozen bank account. Adesina Ogunlana, a lawyer who appeared at the hearing and said that he represented the #EndSARS movement, compared the Lekki shootings to tinko, a kind of Nigerian sun-dried meat.

“Looks small. But when you put it in your mouth and chew, it gets bigger. Gets bigger. Gets bigger,” said Mr. Ogunlana, who carried a well-thumbed copy of Malcolm Gladwell’s “David and Goliath” to the hearings last week, and nibbled bitter kola to fortify himself.

 

A demonstration outside the Nigerian High Commission in London last month. The #EndSARS movement had garnered international attention on social media.Credit...Ben Stansall/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Lekki was just one case of abuse, “but it involves the military, it involves the Lagos state government,” he said. “And of course it involves thousands and thousands and thousands of young Nigerians.”

At the Lagos inquiry last month, the panel listened to a businessman testify that in 2018, SARS police threw him from a two-story building, breaking his spine. They heard a father of five describe having been tortured for 47 days by SARS operatives accusing him of theft.

Lawyers who have worked on many such cases are unable to name a single case in which a perpetrator in the security forces has been disciplined or prosecuted.

Where it can, experts say, the government has gone after #EndSARS protesters instead. But this has not been straightforward, because the movement has few easily identifiable leaders.

“There is no oga,” or big boss, said Jola Ayeye recently on the popular podcast she co-hosts.

As the #EndSARS protests waned, word began to spread that state governments were hiding food donated by some of Nigeria’s wealthiest individuals, which should have been distributed to its poorest to sustain them during the pandemic lockdown.

Many Nigerians suspect that governors had been holding onto the supplies in order to hand them out when they were in need of political support.

This sent more waves of people into the streets across the country. Crowds of people broke into warehouses, carrying off sacks of rice and cartons of noodles. In some places, people destroyed property.

 

Police fired tear gas at a crowd of people looting a warehouse that had food supplies that were not distributed during lockdown in Abuja.Credit...Kola Sulaimon/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

 Then came arrests.

“They just rounded up people on the streets with no evidence, no anything. Lots of people in jail,” said Yemi Adamolekun, executive director of Enough Is Enough Nigeria, a nonprofit promoting good governance and accountability. “Police brutality has increased significantly.”

Now that the protests have ended the streets are pretty much back to normal.

In Surulere, an old suburb of Lagos, traffic jams have replaced the crowds of demonstrators flapping the national green and white flag. Hawkers are back outside the market, selling strings of mock coral beads and books promising the secrets to amassing great wealth. Residents are no longer terrified of venturing out lest they catch a bullet.

But in a country where mostly older, wealthy men govern a population with a median age of 18 and an average annual income of $2,200, now that the youth have discovered the power of their protest muscle, they say they very well might use it again.

“You never can tell what is going to trigger another protest,” said Ariyo-Dare Atoye, the convener of the Coalition in Defence of Nigerian Democracy and Constitution.

“People will have justification to do it again,” he said, because the government has been given enough time to respond to the issues.

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Family of Ugandan activist killed at US park files $270 mn claim

 The newlywed couple had travelled to the park to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their first date.

 

Esther Nakajjigo was hit by a metallic gate of the Arches National Park. (File photo)

The family of a  Ugandan activist killed in an accident over the summer at one of America's top national parks has filed a $270 million wrongful death claim.

Esther Nakajjigo, 25, was visiting Arches National Park in Utah with her French husband Ludovic Michaud in mid-June when an unsecured gate swung into the road, decapitating her as she sat in the passenger seat of their car.

The newlywed couple had travelled to the park to celebrate the one-year anniversary of their first date.

Michaud is seeking $240 million in damages from the National Park Service, while Nakajjigo's family is seeking $30 million, US media reported Friday.

"For want of an $8.00 basic padlock, our world lost an extraordinary warrior for good; a young woman influencer who was destined to become our society's future Princess Diana, philanthropist Melinda Gates or Oprah Winfrey," the claim, which is a precursor to a lawsuit, stated.

In an interview carried by CBS4 television station in Denver this week, Michaud, who lives in Colorado, said he still has flashbacks of the accident and is "trying to figure out how to move forward, how to wake up in the morning."

"What he saw and experienced that day, I cannot even imagine," Deborah Chang, an attorney representing Michaud and the Nakajjigo family, told local media. "The end of the gate impaled the car like a lance, and literally beheaded his newlywed bride right in front of him."

Nakajjigo had a huge following in her native Uganda and was involved with numerous philanthropic projects.

She was especially interested in reducing teenage pregnancy and created a reality television show to empower women.

She had come to the United States to further her education and met Michaud in June 2019 through a dating app.

The couple married in March and planned to throw a big wedding party in Uganda once the Covid-19 pandemic was over.

The National Park Service did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday, nor did Michaud's attorney.

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Trump Issues Order to End Investments in Chinese Military Companies

President Donald Trump observes Veterans Day at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., on Nov. 11, 2020. (Patrick Semansky/AP Photo)

President Donald Trump on Nov. 12 issued an executive order to stop investments in Chinese companies that are tied to China’s military, citing threats to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States.

The order came in response to rising concerns over pension and retirement fund flows into foreign companies that support China’s totalitarian regime. It targets China’s military companies, including those designated by the Pentagon in June and August of 2020.

Beijing “is increasingly exploiting United States capital to resource and to enable the development and modernization of its military, intelligence, and other security apparatuses,” the order states.

The Chinese Communist Party, through its aggressive national strategy called “Military-Civil Fusion,” uses Chinese companies to strengthen the People’s Liberation Army (PLA).

“At the same time, those companies raise capital by selling securities to United States investors that trade on public exchanges both here and abroad,” the order reads.

The Department of Defense this year designated 31 Chinese firms as Chinese military companies operating directly or indirectly in the United States, including those owned or controlled by the PLA.

Many of these companies are publicly traded on stock exchanges around the world, and millions of U.S. investors, through their pension funds, are unwittingly transferring wealth from the United States to these entities.

The Pentagon’s list includes companies such as Aviation Industry Corp. of China, Huawei, and Hangzhou Hikvision.

Two of the companies on the list, China National Chemical Corp. (ChemChina) and China Three Gorges Corp. (CTG), for example, had raised a combined $3.4 billion in U.S. dollar-denominated bond offerings in September, according to a report by RWR Advisory, a Washington-based research and risk consultancy.

The report states that major U.S. banks Goldman Sachs and Bank of America were involved in ChemChina’s bond offering. JPMorgan Chase and Morgan Stanley were among the underwriters of CTG’s bond offering.

The executive order prohibits investment in the stocks or bonds of these Chinese military companies “beginning 9:30 a.m. Eastern standard time on January 11, 2021.”

“The President’s action serves to protect American investors from unintentionally providing capital that goes to enhancing the capabilities of the People’s Liberation Army and People’s Republic of China intelligence services,” Robert O’Brien, White House national security adviser, said in a statement.

As of Oct. 2, there were 217 Chinese companies listed on U.S. exchanges, with a total market valuation of $2.2 trillion, according to the U.S.–China Economic and Security Review Commission.

In recent years, Beijing has also lobbied global index providers and funds to increase the weighting of Chinese stocks and bonds in their benchmarks or portfolios. A dominant index provider, MSCI, for example, last year substantially increased the weighting of Chinese shares in its indexes, leading billions of dollars to flow into Chinese companies.

China hawk Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) welcomed the executive order and urged Congress to follow suit.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s exploitation of U.S. capital markets is a clear and ongoing risk to U.S. economic and national security,” he said in a statement.

“We can never put the interests of the Chinese Communist Party and Wall Street above American workers and mom and pop investors.”

It will be very difficult for subsequent administrations to reverse Trump’s policy, according to Roger Robinson, president and CEO of RWR Advisory Group.

“In my forty years looking at the nexus between national security and global finance, I don’t recall the use of capital markets penalties of this kind. In short, it’s an historic first in my book, particularly with regard to a huge market player like China,” he said in an email.

Robinson is also a former chairman of the Congressional U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

“It will no longer be possible to put the genie of capital markets sanctions back in the bottle,” he said.

Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) also applauded the action. In June, Banks introduced a bill, the Stop Funding the PLA Act, that is similar to the executive order.

“This is one of the wisest and most significant foreign policy decisions President Trump has made since he entered office,” he said in a statement.

“It’s ridiculous that the U.S. ever allowed the funding of our chief global adversaries’ rise, and it’s a mistake we can’t make again.”

 

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French troops said they killed commander of al-Qaeda-linked group in Mali

Bah Ag Moussa was killed in an operation involving ground troops and helicopters, French Defence Minister Florence Parly said.

A French soldier stands inside a military helicopte

French troops have killed a top commander of an al-Qaeda-linked armed group in Mali this week, French Defence Minister Florence Parly announced on Twitter.

The target of the attack was identified as Bah Ag Moussa, the military head of the Group to Support Islam and Muslims (GSIM), and was believed to be behind multiple attacks on both Malian and international forces.

Parly said he was killed on Tuesday in an operation with ground troops and helicopters in eastern Mali, near Menaka.

“A historic figure of the jihadist movement in the Sahel, Bah ag Moussa is considered responsible for several attacks against Malian and international forces,” Parly said in a statement.

Moussa, also known as Bamoussa Diarra, was a former Malian army colonel and figured on the US terrorism list.

He was considered to be a right-hand man of Iyad Ag Ghali, the leader of Mali’s most prominent armed group, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).

The group has repeatedly attacked soldiers and civilians in Mali and neighbouring Burkina Faso.

France has deployed about 5,100 soldiers to the Sahel region, which runs through Mali, to fight armed groups, some allied with al-Qaeda, the others with the ISIL (ISIS).

Moussa’s killing came after a series of operations that have seen French forces kill dozens o armed fighters in recent weeks.

“This is a major success in the fight against terrorism,” Parly said.

Mali has been plagued by an eight-year conflict that began as a separatist movement in the north but soon devolved into a multitude of armed groups jockeying for control in the country’s central region.

The insecurity has spilled into neighbouring Burkina Faso and Niger, with groups exploiting the poverty of marginalised communities and inflaming tensions between ethnic groups.

Several missions, including France’s 5,000-strong Operation Barkhane and UN peacekeeping force, have failed to help authorities to regain their foothold in the restive region.

 

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Ivory Coast jittery after disputed election

After a turbulent election, life is yet to return to normal in Abidjan, Ivory Coast's economic capital. Several instances of election-related violence risked plunging the country into the crisis of 2010.

 

On November 9, the Constitutional Council announced that President Alassane Ouattara had won his highly controversial bid for a third term of office (in line with all expectations). Ouattara took 94% of the vote, according to official results.

Sporadic violence continued, with the political capital Yamoussoukro a particular flashpoint. On November 10, the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, stated that it had registered 8,000 people as having fled the country  — half of them to neighboring Liberia — and the rest to Ghana, Guinea, and Togo.

The mass exodus may well have been precautionary measures, similar to those taken by Abidjan residents, who left the metropolis in droves before election day but said they would be back as soon things were back to normal. Voting was not among their priorities.

Waiting for a return to normalcy

But when will this normality return? First off, Ouattara's win will continue to be rejected by many of the opposition. It came about after the Constitutional Council had rejected 40 out of the 44 presidential hopefuls who had deposited their dossiers, leaving only four.

Two candidates who could have potentially challenged Ouattara's candidacy, former president Laurent Gbagbo and former rebel leader Guillaume Soro, were excluded following fraud convictions and allegations of destabilizing the state.

Out of the four remaining candidates, two (Affi N'Guessan, who lost massively against Ouattara in 2015, and former president Henri Konan Bedie, ousted in a coup in 1999) decided not to take part at all.

A call to 'civil disobedience'

The violence still being witnessed results from the call by N'Guessan and Bedie to engage in what they termed "civil disobedience." For many of the country's youngsters, unemployed and with little prospect of a better life, this means only one thing: smashing things up.

And so "les casseurs"  — violent protestors  — made their appearance on the streets of Abidjan. Young men whose main occupation appeared to be to burn down a few municipal buses ferrying passengers around town.

Schools, too,  that acted as polling centers were targeted by the mob, which meant that children could not take classes after the election.

More worrying, the violence in places like Daoukro (Bedie's hometown), Toumodi, Dabou, Divo, and elsewhere took on a communal hue, pitting one community against another.

Accusations about who started it flew back and forth. Still, a pattern emerged: it would almost always be the "local community" that was pitted against "the Dioula," generally believed to be from the north of the country or beyond and generally believed to be firmly behind Ouattara and his political movement.

This guilt-by-association thinking fed into acts of local score-settling, and it may have cost the lives of at least 80 people, sometimes in truly gruesome ways.

Read more: Opinion: Ivory Coast needs new men — or a woman

Politicians the 'real culprits'

Let's be clear: the violence that has currently engulfed Ivory Coast is fomented by the political class who now seem eager to dampen it. Hence the announcement of an unexpected meeting, on Wednesday, November 11, between the two men currently at the heart of the confrontations: president Ouattara and former president Bédié.

They emerged from their meeting with a brief joint declaration, in which they said little beyond that "the ice had been broken," and they would meet again soon. The two men had not seen each other for two years.

The venue for their talk could not have been more symbolic: the Golf Riviera Hotel in Abidjan's upmarket Cocody suburb, where the same two men, then allies, had been holed up in early 2011 as they waited for then-president Laurent Gbagbo to be dislodged from the highest office of the land after he had refused to admit defeat in the 2010 presidential poll.

The five-month political crisis led to the deaths of at least 3,000 people. More than 100,000 fled to neighboring Liberia, according to the UN.

 Time to calm tensions

Will Ouattara and Bédié be able to reign in their rank-and-file? Probably. When the political leadership tells their following to stop the violence, supporters tend to listen.

Will they manage to bring the others on board? That, too, is likely. Bedie's political party (the PDCI, Parti démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire) insists that the government must release all who have been jailed (including Nguessan and many high-level PDCI operatives).

Such a move could offer President Ouattara a chance to make a grand political gesture, which must then be reciprocated. The overwhelming wish is for calm to return.

Gbagbo and Soro unpredictable

Whether the exiled leaders (including Gbagbo and Soro) will go along with the lowering of tensions is less clear. Soro, in particular, called on the army to revolt on November 4, a call that was largely ignored. 

Ouattara and Bedie were once allies but later fell off politically

But he still has a network of loyal soldiers and commanders in the armed forces dating back to his days as a rebel leader, and the Ivorian army has a history of staging mutinies.

The West of the country, traditionally Gbagbo's support base, has been mostly quiet.

Another of his stronghold, the sprawling Abidjan suburb of Yopougon, has been turned into a no-go zone by machete-wielding gangs.

The first signs are promising, but more highly visible actions are needed to ensure that the violence indeed ebbs away, and the country can breathe a sigh of relief. And then, maybe, finally, the Great Three Dinosaurs of Ivorian politics  — Bedie (86), Ouattara (78), and Gbagbo (75)  — can finally agree on an exit strategy.

Their decades-old deathly love-hate relationship has utterly dominated Ivorian politics and today's widespread political apathy indicates that their time is finally up.

 

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War crimes feared in Ethiopia's Tigray conflict

Members of Amhara region militias head to face the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, named by some as being responsible for the killings. Photograph: Tiksa Negeri/Reuters

Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Fighting between Ethiopian government forces and rebellious northern leaders could spiral out of control and war crimes may have been committed, the United Nations said on Friday, as repercussions spread around the volatile Horn of Africa.

The 10-day conflict in Tigray region has killed hundreds, sent refugees flooding into Sudan, and raised fears it may draw in Eritrea or pressure Ethiopia's commitment to an African force opposing al Qaeda-linked militants in Somalia.

 

It may also blemish the reputation of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who won a Nobel Peace Prize for a 2018 peace pact with Eritrea and had won plaudits for opening Ethiopia's economy and easing a repressive political system.

"There is a risk this situation will spiral totally out of control," said UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet, adding a massacre of civilians reported by Amnesty International would amount to war crimes if confirmed as committed by a party to the conflict.

Abiy accuses the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which rules the mountainous region of more than five million people, of treason and terrorism.

Federal troops say the TPLF rose against them last week but that they have since survived a siege and recaptured the west of the region. With communications cut and media barred, there has been no independent confirmation of the state of the fighting.

The TPLF says Abiy's government has persecuted Tigrayans and purged them from positions since he took office in April 2018 after a TPLF-led government. It terms the offensive an "invasion."

Federal troops have been carrying out air strikes and there has been fighting on the ground since Wednesday of last week.

Refugees described bombing by government jets, shooting on the streets, killings with machetes and civilian deaths.

"The bombing has demolished buildings and killed people, and I escaped, part running on foot and part in a car," said Hayali Kassi, 33, a driver from Tigray who reached the Sudanese border town of Al-Fashqa, now hosting more than 7,000 refugees.

Abiy, who comes from Ethiopia's largest ethnic group the Oromo, said parliament named former Addis Ababa university academic and deputy minister for science and higher education Mulu Nega, 52, as the new leader of Tigray.

There was no immediate response to Mulu's appointment from current Tigray leader Debretsion Gebremichael, who won a local election in September despite central government orders to cancel it. A dissertation by Mulu, on the website of Twente University in the Netherlands where he obtained a doctorate, states his birthplace as Tigray.

Thousands flee Tigray fighting

News also came on Friday that the African Union (AU) had dismissed its security head, an Ethiopian national, after Abiy's government accused him of disloyalty.

The bloc's chair Moussa Faki Mahamat ordered the removal of Gebreegziabher Mebratu Melese in a November 11 memo seen by Reuters after Ethiopia's defense ministry wrote with concerns.

Horn of Africa expert Rashid Abdi said Gebreegziabher was Tigrayan and his departure from the AU post was part of the Abiy government's efforts to sideline prominent Tigrayans. "It also plays into the notion that this is essentially an ethnic war masked as a center-periphery power struggle," he said.

However, Abiy this week exhorted Ethiopians to ensure Tigrayans are not targeted. "We all must be our brother's keeper by protecting Tigrayans," he said.

His opening of political space since taking office in 2018 uncorked ethnic frictions in Africa's second most populous nation of 115 million people.

An internal UN security report said Ethiopian police visited an office of the UN World Food Programme in Amhara region to request a list of Tigrayan staff.

The local police chief told them of "the order of identifying ethnic Tigrayans from all government agencies and NGOs," it said. Amhara borders Tigray and its rulers back Abiy.

The United Nations told the police they do not identify staff by ethnicity, according to the report. There was no immediate comment from Amhara police or government.

Rights group Amnesty International has said scores and possibly hundreds of civilians were stabbed and hacked to death in the region on November 9, citing witnesses who blamed the TPLF.

Debretsion denied that to Reuters.

More than 14,500 Ethiopian refugees -- half of them children -- have gone to Sudan since fighting started and aid agencies say the situation in Tigray is becoming dire. There are also concerns about a mass displacement of thousands of Eritrean refugees at a camp in Ethiopia.

In Sudan, a Reuters witness said the thousands in al-Fashqa, which lies along the banks of the Tezeke river, are mostly women and children, forced to quarrel over scarce quantities of food and water provided by the Sudanese army.

Ethiopia's national army is one of Africa's largest. But its best fighters are from Tigray and much of its hardware is also there, under the Northern Command.

Nearly 4,400 Ethiopian troops serve in the AU's Somalia peacekeeping force.

Redwan Hussein, spokesman of a new State of Emergency Task Force for Tigray, told Reuters the offensive would not lead Ethiopia to withdraw peacekeepers abroad. "No, we are even sending troops to Darfur," in Sudan, he said.

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Turkey condemns deadly terror attack in Burkina Faso

14 soldiers killed in attack on military convoy in West African nation

 

Turkey on Friday condoled with Burkina Faso where a terror attack on a military convoy left over a dozen soldiers dead earlier this week.

“We are saddened by the news that 14 soldiers lost their lives and a further eight wounded in a terrorist attack against a military convoy in the town of Tin-Akoff of Burkina Faso on 11 November 2020,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

The statement read that Turkey “condemned” the “heinous terrorist attack” and extended its sincere condolences to the families of the fallen soldiers, wishing a speedy recovery to the injured.

 

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ECONOMIST: The arrest of Ace Magashule is good news for South Africa

A ruling-party bigwig who stood in the way of graft-busting reform

The residents of the township in Bloemfontein call it Dark City. The area was one of many segregated neighbourhoods built during apartheid. Today it is a microcosm of the failures of the ruling African National Congress (anc): pockmarked roads, sporadic electricity, erratic rubbish collection and house after house of people unable to find work. And, on the top of most, roofs made of asbestos.

These should be long gone. In 2014 the regional government awarded a contract worth 255m rand ($23.5m) to survey and remove the health hazards. But in Dark City, as in most of Free State province, there is nothing to show for it. Geelbooi Mzaza, who has lived in the area since 1995, says that nurses have told him that asbestos is worsening his tuberculosis. “They said I had to move, but I have nowhere to go.”

Corrupt procurement deals are ubiquitous in South Africa. So much so that the country coined the term “tenderpreneur” to describe politically connected winners of public contracts. Under Jacob Zuma (pictured, centre), president from 2009 to 2018, the corruption reached such kleptocratic levels it became known as “state capture”.

One of the former president’s closest allies was Ace Magashule (pictured, left). Today Mr Magashule is the secretary-general of the anc, one of the most powerful people in the party and the locus of internal resistance to Mr Zuma’s successor, Cyril Ramaphosa (pictured, right). For several years there has been speculation that Mr Magashule would be brought to book for corruption in Free State, where he was premier during the Zuma presidency. On November 10th he was issued with a warrant for his arrest on corruption charges related to the asbestos case. (He denies any wrongdoing.) The move by the country’s National Prosecuting Authority (npa) and the Hawks, a police unit, may therefore prove good news not just for people like Mr Mzaza, but also for Mr Ramaphosa.

Mr Magashule’s alleged role in the asbestos deal was described in “Gangster State” by Pieter-Louis Myburgh, a journalist. The book, published in 2019, drew on leaked documents and a spreadsheet used by Igo Mpambani, one of two businessmen given the contract (and who was murdered in his Bentley in broad daylight in 2017). Last month the other businessman, Edwin Sodi, was arrested. “Gangster State” alleged that Mpambani shared the proceeds of the tender with various insiders, including Mr Magashule, whom Mr Myburgh placed close to the businessman soon after the latter made large withdrawals of cash. The author later estimated that just 3% of the funds went to the clean-up.

The case is one of many scandals from Mr Magashule’s time as premier. Others include a taxpayer-funded trip to Cuba for him and fellow “comrades”, and shoddily completed contracts for low-cost housing that involved Thoko Malembe, his daughter. Then there is the other major case being aggressively pursued by the npa: a state-subsidised dairy costing hundreds of millions of rand linked to Mr Zuma’s close allies, the Gupta brothers, for whom Mr Magashule’s son, Tshepiso, worked.

That much is known about state capture is testament to many of South Africa’s institutions. Investigative journalists, ngos, civil servants such as Thuli Madonsela, the former public protector, and dogged opposition politicians, especially from the Democratic Alliance, have all helped reveal the extent of the graft. But whether anyone goes to jail will depend on a criminal-justice system eviscerated in the Zuma era.

Upon taking office, Mr Ramaphosa pledged to revive organisations like the npa, the Hawks and the South African Revenue Service. He has replaced party hacks with competent leaders and let them get on with their jobs. South Africans are understandably impatient. But prosecutors are finally racking up arrests. And if the state wins its case against Mr Magashule, it would be the clearest sign yet that the president’s anti-corruption drive is serious.

History suggests that a successful prosecution will not be easy. No anc politician has so far been convicted for taking part in state capture. For 15 years Mr Zuma has been in and mostly out of court for his alleged part in a corrupt arms deal dating back to the late 1990s. Mr Magashule may try to copy the mix of denial and delay that has served the former president well. And although the relevant law defines corruption fairly broadly, it may be hard to prove Mr Magashule’s involvement; his former colleagues note that he had a habit of using other people’s mobile phones.

Mr Ramaphosa should benefit from having his rival occupied, even if Mr Magashule refuses to step down from his post while he is facing charges. Since Mr Ramaphosa took office his (over)cautious reformism has been hobbled by internal opponents. Though these include more than just allies of Mr Magashule, the secretary-general’s arrest should give the president greater power in negotiations with party factions and trade unions, for example concerning his efforts to slow the growth of the public wage bill.

Mr Ramaphosa nevertheless has much to do to convince increasingly sceptical South Africans that the anc can change. State capture was about more than just individuals, however powerful. It was about an entire system of corruption, deployment of party members and patronage.

Back in Dark City, the residents’ mood is also sombre. Most scoff at the notion that arrests would signal a change in their fortunes. The best some people hope for is to be next in line for the spoils of a rotten system. Approaching your correspondent, a young man calls out: “Write it down—we want the next tender!” 

 

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Nigeria has ratified Africa’s historic free trade agreement—but its land borders remain closed

Buying rice at Wurukum Rice Mill in Makurdi, Nigeria

The world’s largest free trade area since the World Trade Organization has taken one step closer to becoming a reality.

Nigeria has ratified the free trade agreement which will now come into effect on Jan 1 2021. It’s a key move for the ambitions of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) given Nigeria’s status not just as one of the continent’s largest economies but also as its most populous country.

When it comes into effect, the AfCFTA aims to create a single market for goods and services in Africa. By 2030, the market size across the continent is expected to include 1.7 billion people with over $6.7 trillion of cumulative consumer and business spending—if all African countries join the agreement. Yet, despite these prospects, and Nigeria’s positive outward stance, the country still poses a major red flag to hopes for free trade across the continent.

For over a year,  Nigeria’s land borders with Benin, Niger, and Cameroon have been closed as the government aimed to stop the smuggling of food items which it says undermines local agricultural businesses. It’s a protectionist move that’s in line with previous policies under the current Buhari administration despite little evidence of efficacy.

 

Nigeria’s deserted border with Benin Republic.

For instance, despite a hike in rice tariffs aimed at boosting local production, a lack of capacity to meet local consumption levels mean market gaps are still being plugged by illegal rice imports.

The biggest impact is felt by informal traders—most of them small and medium enterprises that operate along the Nigeria-Benin border. Nigeria’s high level of protection on products like rice has made smuggling from neighboring countries very lucrative. The World Bank has estimated 80% of imports into Benin are destined for Nigeria.

“Nigeria’s ratification of the AfCFTA is a welcome development, but the country’s commitment to intra-African trade should also be materialized in reality by the re-opening of its land borders,” says Landry Signé, a Brookings Institution senior fellow. “Re-opening the borders will send a strong signal about Nigeria’s intentions…to boost intra-African trade.”

Cause and effect

While the border closure was imagined as crackdown on a food imports, it translated into blockade on all imports and exports as well. The move has had far-reaching, cross-border implications from paralyzing supply chains to impacting import and export-based businesses. Kobo360, a logistics startup that matches businesses with freight trucks for cross-country haulage, says, in recent statement, that demand fell by nearly 30% within the first months of border closure.

Regular Nigerians are also paying a big price for the policy as food inflation has reached a 31-month high last month. Despite the Nigerian government’s best intentions, the country still remains far from being self-sufficient as local food consumption far outstrips production. SBM Intel, a Lagos-based market intelligence firm, predicts the spike in food prices “will worsen in the coming months if the borders remain closed,” especially ahead of the busy festive season.

As it turns out, Dangote Cement and BUA Group—two of Nigeria’s largest businesses—have recently been granted exemptions to the border closure and will now be allowed to resume exports. But the exemptions have resulted in public criticism and accusations of favoritism, especially given Dangote’s long-running close links with successive Nigerian governments.

For his part however, Obi Ozor, Kobo360 CEO is hoping the exemptions ultimately result in “broader and seamless re-opening of the borders.”

 

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NIGERIA: Restructuring Nigeria doesn’t depend on North, anybody ― PANDEF

The Apex Socio-cultural organization of the South-South geo-political zone, Pan Niger Delta Forum, PANDEF, has said it is not for the north or anybody to say whether Nigeria will be restructured or not. National Chairman of the Forum, Air Commodore Idongesit Nkanga (retd), made the assertion while reacting to the allegation by the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) that there was a plan to force restructuring on the north under the guise of ending the agitations against bad governance in the country. 

Nkaang who pointed out that restructuring of Nigeria was a sealed matter, reiterated that even if the country was not restructured, it would eventually restructure itself. He stressed that there was the need to still continuously educate them on what restructuring was actually all about, as they could be misinformed on the issue. His words, 

“How should they (NEF) come out to say people plan to force restructuring on them under the guise to end the agitation for bad governance? 

“By that statement, they have admitted that there is bad governance in the country. And must they be forced to do the right thing? 

“Well that is their opinion, but the truth is that everybody is looking for a way to have good governance and if there is bad governance and restructuring is what will end it, a sensible person will not go and do otherwise.

“However it is not for them to say whether there will be restructuring or not. It doesn’t depend on anybody; it doesn’t depend on the north. Restructuring will take place if Nigeria has to remain as a country. That one is a sealed matter. 

“We have said it many times that whether we like it or not, if we don’t restructure Nigeria, Nigeria will one day restructure itself. 

“Apparently, they don’t understand what restructuring is all about. I think we should try to continuously educate them because it is either they are misinformed, or maybe they are afraid of the truth. 

“But if they know that restructuring is what will bring good governance and they refused to do it, then I am sorry for them, I am also sorry for this country. That is mischief.” 

On the allegation of using EndSARS aftermath to weaken the north ahead of the 2023 presidential election, Nkanga expressed sadness that the northern elders were more concerned about power than the future of Nigerian youths. 

“It breaks my heart to hear people carry the EndSARS thing into the political arena. So power to them is more important than what the youths are asking for, they are asking for good future. 

“And nobody has come out to say that what they (Nigerian youths) are asking for is not genuine, but people are carrying that into the political arena. It means that power is more important to them than the future of our children. 

“But it cannot stand. The wheel of justice might grind very slowly, but justice will always prevail. We are not saying they should not pursue their interest but how that affects the other people’s interest is what is important; you cannot pursue your interest at the detriment of the other people. 

“I just pray that they will sit down and forget all about power-mongering. The life of our children is more important than the power they are looking for”, Nkanga stressed.

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Zimbabweans mend shabby dollar notes amid economic crisis

A currency trader mends an old and worn 2 dollar bill at a busy market in Harare, in this Monday, Oct, 26, 2020 photo. Worn out or shredded by rats, one dollar notes are king in Zimbabwe, beset by a continuing economic crisis. Crisp new notes are not coming into Zimbabwe, so enterprising traders are repairing old ones for desperate customers.( AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Albert Marombe takes a grimy, tattered $1 note and delicately, expertly glues it back into one piece, holding it up for inspection.

“I don’t care how torn it is. All I want to see is the serial number being visible on both sides,” said Marombe. He’ll sell that shabby $1 note for 80 cents and it will get back into circulation. Many shops will reject it but market traders will take it, although at a reduced value.

A currency trader inspects an old and tattered dollar bill before mending it, at a busy market in Harare, in this Monday, Oct, 26, 2020 photo. Worn out or shredded by rats, one dollar notes are king in Zimbabwe, beset by a continuing economic crisis, and enterprising traders are repairing old notes for desperate customers. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Worn out or shredded by rats, $1 notes are king in Zimbabwe, beset by a continuing economic crisis. One dollar bills are used by many people to buy their daily bread and other small purchases. Crisp new notes are not coming into Zimbabwe, so enterprising traders are repairing old ones for desperate customers.

Albert Marombe holds up a a grimmy, tattered $20 bill at a busy market in Harare, in this Wednesday, Oct, 21, 2020 photo. Worn out or shredded by rats, one dollar notes are king in Zimbabwe, beset by a continuing economic crisis, and enterprising traders are repairing old notes for desperate customers.( AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Formal businesses reject such notes, forcing people to sell them to traders like Marombe for a fraction of their original value. Informal street markets will usually - with some negotiation - accept the glue-patched notes that Marombe sells for transactions. Zimbabwe’s booming informal economy employs about two-thirds of the population, according to the International Monetary Fund, so there are lots of such dirty dollars in circulation.

A woman walks past a sign placed by currency traders buying old and worn out US dollar bills on the streets in Harare, in this Tuesday, Nov, 3, 2020 photo. Worn out or shredded by rats, one dollar notes are king in Zimbabwe, beset by a continuing economic crisis, and enterprising traders are repairing old notes for desperate customers.( AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

The U.S dollar has dominated transactions in Zimbabwe since the country’s hyperinflation soared to more than 5 billion percent and forced the government to abandon the local currency in 2009.

Last year the government re-introduced a Zimbabwe currency and banned foreign currencies for local transactions. Few took heed though and the black market thrived, while the local currency quickly devalued. In March this year, the government relented and unbanned the dollar. Now shortages of small denominations of the dollar are a nightmare.

Currency traders mend old and worn $1 dollar bills at a busy market in Harare, in this Monday, Oct, 26, 2020 photo. Worn out or shredded by rats, one dollar notes are king in Zimbabwe, beset by a continuing economic crisis, and enterprising traders are repairing old notes for desperate customers. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

The once-prosperous southern African country’s economy is so weak from de-industrialization, low investment, low exports and high debt that it does not generate an adequate inflow of fresh greenbacks needed for its largely dollarized local economy, Harare-based economist John Robertson said.

“If people do have a small denomination in U.S. dollars they don’t want to put those in the bank. They want to keep it to themselves,” said Robertson, explaining that banks generally do not pay account holders in cash.

Albert Marombe shows grimmy, tattered $1 bills at a busy market in Harare, in this Wednesday, Oct, 21, 2020 photo. Worn out or shredded by rats, one dollar notes are king in Zimbabwe, beset by a continuing economic crisis, and enterprising traders are repairing old notes for desperate customers.( AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Larger denominations are too big for many purchases. Traders such as Marombe fill the gap by patching up torn dollar bills of many denominations, but the $1 note is their main business.

“I am here by 6 a.m. daily and leave late … business is good. I am surviving,” said Marombe, popularly called “the money sanitizer” by other market traders.

He said he buys the $1 notes for between 40 cents and 60 cents each, depending on their condition, and sells them at a profit.

Marombe, 38, sold second-hand clothes until six months ago when he saw the opportunity to make money by patching up old dollar bills and selling them at a profit. He’s making enough to support his pregnant wife and two children, including one who is a teenager and writing final year secondary examinations this year.

Currency traders wait for clients on the streets of Harare, in this Tuesday, Oct, 22, 2020 photo. Worn out or shredded by rats, one dollar notes are king in Zimbabwe, beset by a continuing economic crisis, and enterprising traders are repairing old notes for desperate customers.( AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

In cities across the country, currency traders line the streets holding wads of both local currency and U.S dollars. The $1 notes that are in good condition go for a 10% premium. Traders said they buy the better-looking notes from retail shop owners and workers and from street vendors who hoard $1 notes paid by purchasers of small items.

The street traders also take larger bills and provide the equivalent amount in smaller denominations for a 10% fee.

A currency trader counts his money while waiting for clients in the middle of a busy road in Harare, in this Tuesday, Nov, 3, 2020 photo. Worn out or shredded by rats, one dollar notes are king in Zimbabwe, beset by a continuing economic crisis, and enterprising traders are repairing old notes for desperate customers. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

The government says the practice is illegal and the police sometimes raid the currency traders, seizing their precious dollar notes and issuing fines.

But there aren’t many choices for shoppers. If they buy goods at a supermarket that cannot provide change for their purchase, they are given paper coupons to be used at the same supermarket at a later date.

“At times they run out of these coupons so I am forced to take candy,” said Innocent Chirume, outside a supermarket in Harare. “It is very inconveniencing. I can’t take a bus into town using a coupon,” he said.

Albert Marombe holds a grimmy, tattered $20 bill at a busy market in Harare, in this Wednesday, Oct, 21, 2020 photo. Worn out or shredded by rats, one dollar notes are king in Zimbabwe, beset by a continuing economic crisis, and enterprising traders are repairing old notes for desperate customers.( AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)

Banks are encouraging electronic payments for transactions to resolve the problem of small change “given that U.S dollars are not produced in Zimbabwe and are imported at high cost,” Bankers Association of Zimbabwe president Ralph Watungwa said.

Bank customers can exchange soiled notes for “usable” ones, although “the process of exporting the soiled notes and importing fresh ones is a long and costly process” for banks, he said.

The shortage of dollar notes and people’s lack of trust in banks means that many stash their cash at home. This is a boon to currency traders like Marombe.

“One customer came with $100 dollar notes worth $1,000. He was saving for a car but the rats got to the money first,” chuckled Marombe, who said he charged to repair the gnawed notes. “It was a big payday for me!”

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Africa Calling EP4: Nigeria's social media, Angola & Senegal protests, Cameroon anglophone crisis

Africa Calling © RFI

Africa Calling podcast takes a look at the top stories for the week from the African continent, including reports from the field and analysis with regional experts. We’re talking about Nigeria’s anti social media bill, what the African continent would expect from a new US President, protests in Angola and Senegal, as well as what news of a possible Covid-19 vaccine means for Africa. Our correspondent in the Anglophone region of Cameroon speaks to people with mobility issues who have additional hardships.

In Nigeria, an anti social media bill is making headlines again after peaceful police protests, called the anti-SARS protests, turned violent. Some believe social media posts helped foment violence. RFI Hausa @RFI_Ha service Garba Aliyu Zaria speaks about what Hausa listeners say about this issue.

From Angola, protesters came out en masse on November 11th, their independence day, to protest against the government. RFI Lusophone @RFI_Pt service correspondent Francisco Paulo was there to speak to protesters.

How will the Africa continent fare with the new United States President Joe Biden after four years of insults by Donald Trump? Africa Calling speaks with analyst Sebastian Spio-Garbrah of @DaMina_Advisors who takes a peek at what is in store for Africa.

Some Senegalese Muslims came out to protest French President Emmanuel Macron. Correspondent Alpha Jallow was there to explain why people are burning French flags and photos of Macron.

While the Anglophone crisis in Cameroon has gone virtually unnoticed for four years, Anglophones continue to suffer. Correspondent Alphonse Tebeck @alphonse_tebeck in Bamenda speaks to those living with disabilities who are particularly vulnerable when their villages are being attacked.

Alison Hird @alisonsarahird makes the music pick this week with a soulful tune by veteran Angolan protest singer-songwriter Bonga. Starting out in the mid-60s, he used his songwriting as a form of activism, until he had to flee the country. His first album recorded in the Netherlands, Angola 72, is about being proud of being Angolan. Take a listen to “Mona Ki Ngi Xica” which roughly translates as ‘the child I left behind’, putting into words the longing for homeland.

SOURCE: RFI

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