Commentary and analysis to persuade people to become socialist and to act for themselves, organizing democratically and without leaders, to bring about a world of common ownership and free access. We are solely concerned with building a movement of socialists for socialism. We are not reformists with a programme of policies to patch up capitalism.
Thursday, December 24, 2020
Wednesday, December 23, 2020
Uganda's Aid to be Cut
Over 1 million refugees in Uganda will face reduced food rations as a lack of international funding forces the UN World Food Programme to cut its relief program.
"COVID-19 must not be an excuse for the world to turn its back on refugees at this terrible time," said WFP Country Director El-Khidir Daloum. "We appreciate that donors fully funded our refugee operation in Uganda in 2019 but right now we are unable to keep up even basic food assistance and the poorest will suffer the most as we have to cut still further."
Uganda hosts the largest number of refugees of any country in Africa, including thousands who have fled conflicts in the Congo, the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Burundi. However, the WFP, the world's largest humanitarian aid organization has only secured half of the money it needs to support them.
WFP spokesperson Tomson Phiri said the organization immediately needs another $95.8 million (€78.7 million) to avoid slashing refugee caloric intake and other aid. If the WFP is forced to take this step, it would be the second cut in Uganda since April.
Refugees in Uganda: Funding shortfall forces cut to UN food rations | News | DW | 22.12.2020
More Foreign Troops for CAR
The Central African Republic is suffering re-newed violence days before voting set for 27 December. The violence comes following a major spike in political tensions exacerbated by the decision of the country’s Constitutional Court to block former President Francois Bozizé from running in elections. As the election draws closer, several armed groups entered the fray in what now looks like an attempt to halt the elections and depose Touadéra.
CAR has witnessed continuous fighting of varying intensity for decades and has been in a protracted crisis since 2013. In that year, a mostly Muslim rebel coalition known as the Seleka from the country’s north east rose against Bozizé’s government and briefly held power until regional countries pushed it to stand down. Non-Muslim “anti-balaka” forces sprang up to defend non-Muslims against the Seleka’s predation. Since this crisis, both former Seleka and anti-balaka factions have splintered, while new ones have formed. These armed groups have been responsible for widespread insecurity across the country as they battle each other and government forces for influence.
Russia will deploy 300 military "instructors" to the Central African Republic (CAR) to deal with what its foreign ministry calls a "sharp degradation of security".
Russian mercenaries have already been working in CAR providing security for the government and helping safeguard key economic assets.
Rwanda, which has troops serving in the UN mission in CAR, has also announced it is bolstering their numbers in support of the government. At least 750 Rwandan soldiers and police officers have been operating under the UN peacekeeping force Minusca. The newly deployed forces will have "different rules of engagement which will enable them to protect our forces from being attacked, and protect civilians", Rwandan President Paul Kagame said.
The CAR is one of Africa's poorest and most unstable countries, even though it is rich in resources like diamonds and uranium. The UN estimates that half of the population are dependent on humanitarian assistance and up to a fifth have been displaced.
Russia sends 300 military instructors to Central African Republic - BBC News
Thursday, December 17, 2020
The Locust Plagues Persist
The swarms of locusts have not disappeared even if the headlines have from the media.
Despite an "intense" international effort to combat a major, climate crisis-fueled invasion of desert locusts in Eastern African communities since January, a new generation of locust swarms is threatening the food security of millions of people in the Horn of Africa and Yemen, a United Nations agency warned.
FAO, which has been coordinating the global response, said in a statement that pest control actions across 10 countries costing about $200 million have prevented the loss of an estimated 2.7 million tonnes of cereal, worth nearly $800 million—enough food to feed 18 million people for a year.
"However, favorable weather conditions and widespread seasonal rains have caused extensive breeding in eastern Ethiopia and Somalia," FAO explained. "This was worsened by Cyclone Gati which brought flooding to northern Somalia last month allowing locust infestations to increase further in the coming months. New locust swarms are already forming and threatening to re-invade northern Kenya and breeding is also underway on both sides of the Red Sea, posing a new threat to Eritrea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Yemen."
"For Kenya, the threat is imminent, it could happen any time now," Keith Cressman, the FAO's senior locust forecasting officer, told BBC News, which pointed out that this year had already featured the region's worst locust invasion in 70 years—and in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. "It could be as bad as what we've seen in the past year because the area of breeding ground in these countries is as big as 350,000 sq. km. (135,000 sq. miles)."
Noting that pest control efforts could slow or halt early next year without additional funding, FAO is seeking $40 million to increase its locust-related activities in Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen in 2021. The agency warned that over 35 million people in total are already acutely food insecure across those five countries—a number that could rise by 3.5 million in the absence of urgent action.
"We have achieved much, but the battle against this relentless pest is not yet over," said FAO Director-General Qu Dongyu. "We must not waiver. Locusts keep growing day and night and risks are exacerbating food insecurity for vulnerable families across the affected region."
"We lost so much of our pastures and vegetation because of the locusts and as a result we are still losing a good number of our livestock," Gonjoba Guyo, a pastoralist in North Horr, Kenya, told the BBC.
"Most of the farms in Jowhar town have been destroyed by floods in the last six months now. The water is stagnant on the grounds and no one can farm in this state. On top of this flood problem, we have had locusts destroying the few vegetables and fruits remaining," said farmer Yusuf Ahmed.
Tuesday, December 15, 2020
Hunger in Zimbabwe
Acute malnutrition cases are on the rise in Zimbabwe, as food shortages continue to take their toll. Statistics show that one in three children in Zimbabwe suffers from malnutrition. By the end of 2020, projections indicate that the number of hungry Zimbabweans will have risen by almost 50% to 8.6 million.
A Zimbabwe Vulnerability Assessment (ZimVac) report shows that the percentage of children receiving the minimum acceptable diet necessary for growth and development declined from 6.9% in 2019 to 2.1% in 2020.
Matabeleland, in the south-west of the country, has the highest cases of global acute malnutrition, with an estimated 74,267 children under the age of five affected, including at least 38,425 with severe acute malnutrition.
The declining situation in Zimbabwe, with both prolonged drought and the coronavirus lockdown, is now characterised by high stunting rates, and maternal and child mortality.
ZimVac says there is real concern around infant and young child malnutrition. Only 19% of women of childbearing age ate a diet that met the minimum nutritional limit this year, down from 43% in 2019. This has led to high maternal death rates, according to humanitarian agencies.
As the food crisis worsens in Zimbabwe, the World Food Programme (WFP) has been providing food supplements for malnourished children.
Last week, however, the WFP Zimbabwe director, Francesca Erdelmann, announced that the UN agency is facing a funding gap. “For our portfolio in Zimbabwe between now and the next six months we are short by about $240m [£180m]. These are not amounts of money that are easy to mobilise, and for most of our donors, it’s tough for them too,” Erdelmann said.
“So we really have to try and make sure that we can reach our targets and deliver the support to the people. But if we can’t, we are going to have to make some tough choices and target only the most vulnerable groups.”
Saturday, December 12, 2020
Chocolate and Capitalist Competition
The 100,000 cocoa farmers of Ghana’s Kuapa Kokoo co-operative eke out hardscrabble lives despite producing the raw material for a global chocolate industry worth an annual $100bn in retail sales.
The world’s two largest cocoa producing countries, Ivory Coast and Ghana, which account for 60 per cent of global production, have added a supplement to the sale price in an effort to alleviate poverty. But a dispute over whether global buyers were prepared to pay illustrates how hard it will be for the two nations to control and lift prices in an industry dominated by millions of smallholders.
“We are not asking too much from industry, just meet our cost of production and help us get something small to live,” said Mr Okyere aa representative of the co-operative. “I don’t think it’s too much to ask, because once they do that they can still make big profits.”
Antonie Fountain of the Voice Network said some of the confectionery groups were putting profits ahead of farmers’ wellbeing.
The disagreement centred on a $400-a-tonne “living income differential” (LID) added to the price of cocoa harvested from this crop year, bought from Ivory Coast and Ghana. In the past few years they have collaborated to try to raise the share farmers earn — just 6.6 per cent of the sale price of a bar of the confectionery.
The Ivorian Conseil du Café-Cacao and the Ghana Cocoa Board this month accused the chocolate producers of trying to avoid the LID after US group Hershey took the rare step of sourcing cocoa beans from the futures market in New York. Analysts said this meant it did not have to pay the supplement. It demonstrated the limited leverage held by producers.
Kobi Annan, Accra-based consultant at Songhai Advisory, a business intelligence firm asked, “...why do countries who produce 60 per cent of a commodity have no real power in setting its price?”
A Ghanaian official commented: “Your negotiating position is not that strong, so you’re entirely dependent on public sentiment, environmental sustainability concerns, child labour concerns, income inequality concerns, to make the other party feel a little guilty so they contribute more.”
“If you want prices to rise, you do not produce considerably more than the market needs,” said Derek Chambers, former head of cocoa at French trader Sucden, remarked.
Part of the problem is that rising farmgate prices — set by the government — and an increase in sustainability programmes have encouraged millions of small farmers who are desperate for cash to produce more, weighing on market prices. This year, an election year in both countries, governments jointly raised the price by about 20 per cent to $2,600 a tonne, still $500 less than the Cocoa Barometer estimates farmers need to earn a living wage. Global cocoa output has grown 18 per cent over the past five years to 4.7m tonnes, with top producer Ivory Coast producing 2.1m tonnes in the last crop year, up almost a third, according to the International Cocoa Organisation of producing and consuming countries. Ghana produced 800,000 tonnes, up 3 per cent.
There is now rising concern that Ivory Coast and Ghana will be left holding unsold cocoa in a year when the harvest is expected to be at record levels, analysts say.
Analysts said efforts by Ivory Coast and Ghana to collaborate and control prices would struggle — partly because of smallholders’ desire for cash and rival producers’ ability to expand market share.
West Africa vs Big Chocolate: Battle over price sours relations | Financial Times (ft.com)
Coronavirus Vaccine Shortage
Dr John Nkengasong, director of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), called on developed countries to “show global cooperation” and “global solidarity”, warning that the continent of 1.3 billion people might not receive any vaccinations until April next year.
Dr Nkengasong said that rich countries had purchased “in excess of their needs while we in Africa are still struggling with the Covax facility.”
Most African countries are relying on the Covax facility - a global alliance of countries and institutions that seek to provide developing nations equitable access to vaccines. The Oxford-AstraZeneca partnership is currently the only vaccine-developer that has a deal to provide vaccines to the facility.
The People’s Vaccine Alliance estimated that around 90 per cent of the people in poorer countries will not be vaccinated next year. Around 70 poor countries will only be able to vaccinate one in 10 people, it said.
Africa’s top health official slams unequal distribution of Covid-19 vaccines (telegraph.co.uk)
Friday, December 11, 2020
Nigeria's Wealthy Migrants
Every year poor Nigerians flee poverty and unrest at home. Now, rich Nigerians are planning their escape too. And they’re taking their money with them. Golden visas are the lesser-reported side of the Nigerian migration story. Every year thousands of Nigerians make their way to Europe via perilous crossings over the Sahara and Mediterranean. Now their wealthier counterparts are also making their way to Europe but via a different route.
Dapo has had a “backup plan” for getting out of Nigeria for some time. “I have Maltese citizenship. I can leave for there any time.” Maltese citizenship can be acquired for a minimum investment of 800,000 euros ($947,180) through the Malta Citizenship by Investment Programme. He describes it as his “Plan B’’.
A rapidly growing number of Nigerians who have bought so-called “golden visas” or foreign citizenships-by-investment this year. 92 countries around the world now allow wealthy individuals to become residents or citizens in return for a fee, sometimes as low as $100,000 but often several million dollars.
“Flying out” of Nigeria is hard and not just because of the coronavirus pandemic. Just 26 countries allow Nigerian passport holders visa-free entry, many of them part of West Africa’s ECOWAS arrangement. Both the United Kingdom and Europe’s Schengen zone require Nigerians to obtain visas ahead of travelling.
For the wealthy, this is too much hassle. They don’t want to be queueing for visas for any EU country or whatever. Instead, why not purchase the citizenship of a country with visa-free access to Europe?
'Bimpe', a wealthy Nigerian, has three passports. One Nigerian, which she says she never uses, and two from Caribbean nations: St Kitts and Nevis; and Grenada. The St Kitts and Nevis passport, which cost her $400,000 via a real estate investment programme, was useful when she travelled between London and New York on business as it allows for visa-free travel to the UK and Europe. Her investment to gain a Grenada passport for herself and her sons took the form of a $300,000 stake in the Six Senses La Sagesse hotel on the Caribbean island, which she bought in 2015 through a property development group called Range Developments. Like most countries offering their citizenship for sale, Grenada allows real estate investments to qualify for a passport. Bimpe has never been to Grenada. In fact, since there is no obligation for citizenship investors to ever visit Grenada.
Investing in a foreign citizenship is not illegal for Nigerians, but the issue of wealthy citizens moving their assets overseas is a thorny one in Nigeria, where about $15bn is lost to tax evasion every year, according to the country’s Federal Inland Revenue Service. Much of that money finds its way to the Caribbean.
The tax benefits of an overseas citizenship are undoubtedly attractive. Citizens can become tax residents of countries like Dominica, where there is no wealth or inheritance tax, or Grenada which offers “corporate tax incentives”. In Europe, Malta has long been courting hedge funds with its light-touch regulations.
The loss of wealth from Nigeria has severe implications for levels of employment in the country. With wealthy businesspeople investing their capital outside Nigeria rather than in it, there is less funding for local businesses or government projects which might otherwise generate employment. This, in turn is causing more poorer Nigerians to want to move overseas as well, in search of better work opportunities. The more wealth taken out of Nigeria, the fewer jobs available to its poorest.
The wealthy Nigerians buying citizenship overseas | Nigeria News | Al Jazeera
Kenya's Over-Paid Politicians
The High Court in Kenya has ordered the country's 416 lawmakers pay back 1.2bn shillings ($10m; £7.5m) after ruling that the money had been unlawfully given to them as housing allowances, local media report.
The Parliamentary Service Commission (PSC) had encroached on the mandate of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) by granting the lawmakers the allowance, it ruled.
Each lawmaker would be required to repay 2.8m shillings to the government within the next year, Kenya's Star newspaper reported.
Kenyan MPs are among the highest paid in the world, and have often been accused by non-governmental organisations of fleecing taxpayers.
Morocco and America - Tit for Tat
Morocco has become the latest Arab League country to agree to normalise relations with Israel which for all practical purposes was simply legitimising an existing relationship between the two nations. Back in 2017, The Economist carried an article that 50,000 Israelis feel safe enough to visit an Arab country, Morocco, every year. 110 synagogues have been refurbished there. Morocco also issues hundreds of passports each year to Israeli Jews of Moroccan descent, of whom there are almost half a million live in Israel —“the better to travel in the Arab world,” says a recent recipient. It takes a month, no security questions asked.
But to get Morocco to formally establish normal relations with Israel, the USA has now recognised Morocco's claim over the disputed Western Sahara territory.
Sidi Omar, the Polisario Front's representative to the UN, said Western Sahara's "legal status is determined by international law and UN resolutions".
"The move shows that Morocco's regime is willing to sell its soul to maintain its illegal occupation of parts of Western Sahara," he wrote.
Morocco latest country to normalise ties with Israel in US-brokered deal - BBC News
Saturday, December 05, 2020
Nigeria's Baby-Factories
Police have rescued six women and four children from a “baby-making” factory after raiding the unlawful premises in the Mowe area of Ogun, a state in southwestern Nigeria. The women told police they had been forcibly detained and raped before their newborn children were illegally sold on the black market.
Children born in so-called baby factories are typically put up for adoption, forced into child labour, trafficked into sex work, or even killed as part of rituals. One of the enslaved women told reporters newborn boys were sold for 250,000 Nigerian naira (£491) and girls are sold for 200,000 naira (£393).
Tsitsi Matekaire, at Equality Now, a non-government organisation which promotes the rights of women and girls, told The Independent so-called baby factories have been operating in Nigeria for many years. The campaigner added: “As far back as 2006, UNESCO reported the first cases. This phenomenon is prevalent in many parts of Nigeria and has been previously reported in the states of Abia, Lagos and Ebonyi. The ‘baby factories’ are often disguised as orphanages, maternity homes, or religious centres, and involve large networks of operators. There is no doubt that this is a form of sexual exploitation and abuse." Matekaire went on to explain, “The victims are extremely vulnerable women and girls, who are trafficked or coerced to these places. They are held against their will, raped, forced to carry pregnancies and then have their babies sold to profit their exploiters.”
She said Equality Now and local women’s organisations in Nigeria flagged this issue to the government and the African Union Committee on the Rights and Welfare of Children back in 2019.
Wednesday, December 02, 2020
Tigray and the Eritrean Refugees
The United Nations has sounded the alarm over the severe effect of food shortages on the thousands of Eritrean refugees sheltering in camps in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, requesting “urgent access” to be able to deliver badly needed aid.
Communications and transport links to Tigray have been severed, and the UN and humanitarian agencies have pleaded for access to provide food, medicines and other supplies in the camps that sheltered nearly 100,000 Eritreans before the hostilities began.
“We, as humanitarians, have lost access and contact with the refugees since the last month that this fighting has been ongoing, and now there are worrying reports of attacks, of abductions and also of recruitments in and around these refugee camps,” UN refugee agency spokesman Babar Baloch told Al Jazeera. “The camps will have now run out of food supplies – making hunger and malnutrition a real danger, a warning we have been issuing since the conflict began nearly a month ago.”
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was last year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner, and he has rejected the idea of dialogue with the TPLF rebel leadership.
Tuesday, December 01, 2020
Will Biden Benefit Africa
Democrat and Republican presidents have approached Africa primarily for access to, and control of extractive industries and for counter-terrorism operations. This approach, under the influence of the cold war, translated into the US supporting Africa’s strongmen.
The most prominent of these strongmen, including but not limited to Equatorial Guinea’s Teodoro Obiang Nguema, in power since 1979; Uganda’s Yoweri Museveni, head of state since 1986; Djibouti’s Ismail Omar Guelleh, in post since 1999; Rwanda’s Paul Kagame, ruling since 1994, and Eritrea’s Isaias Afwerki, in power since 1993 have been responsible for more than 22 million deaths on the continent since independence in 1960. That is almost twice as many people forcibly transported from Africa during the transatlantic slave trade. Yet it seems no US president has found this troubling. The bloodiest killing field has been the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where brutal US-backed strongmen killed more than 5.4 million Congolese people over access and control of minerals between 1998 and 2008, and sparked outbreaks of disease, famine and the use of rape as a weapon of war.
Obama delivered almost nothing meaningful; not because of a Russian or Chinese veto at the UN security council but because in the first few years of his presidency some in his team sought to protect people such as Joseph Kabila, former president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, whose security forces were linked to killings and torture, and Paul Kagame, whose tight grip on the Rwanda presidency has earned him the tag of “benevolent dictator”. The result? Tragic. During the Obama presidency, 11 African strongmen clung to power, killing thousands of their citizens and displacing millions more. Yet almost not a single one of them faced a serious tit-for-tat consequences from the US – and this has been a colossal disaster for democratic forces across the continent.
The result? Tragic. During the Obama presidency, 11 African strongmen clung to power, killing thousands of their citizens and displacing millions more. Yet almost not a single one of them faced a serious tit-for-tat consequences from the US – and this has been a colossal disaster for democratic forces across the continent.
Will the Biden-Harris administration end the US’s longstanding but shortsighted and destructive support for Africa’s strongmen? How may President Biden respond to #EndSars, a movement against police brutality in Nigeria, or #CongoIsBleeding, a campaign against exploitation in the mines of the DRC? What will he do to de-escalate growing tensions inside Ethiopia or in Eritrea.
Many are wondering whether or not Biden will refocus US policy and push for peace in Somalia, Libya, Cameroon or Mozambique? Will he support the creation of an international criminal tribunal for Congo to end the continuing killings and use of rape as a weapon of war and, simultaneously, jump-start development in Africa’s great lakes – a region that seems pitifully prone to strongmen and mass killing?
Answers to these questions are unclear.
Monday, November 30, 2020
Gabon's Oil Woes
In Gabon, the petrol sector is the largest contributor to GDP, representing upwards of 20% of revenue, according to the World Bank. Most of the country’s petrol reserves – estimated at about two billion barrels – are concentrated in the area south of Port Gentil. A string of different oil companies have operated in the region since 1956. Total was the first company to drill and extract petrol in the area, before selling to Perenco in 2018. Perenco, which has an important presence across the African continent, is the primary producer of crude oil in Gabon and the second largest French oil company after Total.The structures on these sites are old and haven’t been properly maintained. The ocean, the land, the forests and the lakes in the area have all become increasingly polluted over the past three or four years. Sometimes you find petrol, its derivatives or acid in the lakes, sometimes you find it in the middle of the forest.
Residents of Étimboué in western Gabon have faced multiple oil spills over the past two years. This is ancestral land. People have been living here since well before independence in 1960. Some people have left because of the pollution but most people want to stay. They think that Perenco is letting the situation get worse in order to push them to leave. Exhausted and angry, they are speaking out against Perenco, an independent Anglo-French oil company with headquarters in Paris and London, which is currently extracting petrol from about fifty different oil fields in the area. Locals report that Perenco’s equipment is poorly maintained and out of date, likely causing the spills. This contamination has had wide-ranging effects on the local population, including health problems, water pollution, poisoned crops and fish. They haven’t carried out the clean-up operations properly and aren’t planning on paying out any damages to residents affected by the spills.
A group of locals first spoke out in October 2020 about the growing problem with pollution in the region. They pointed the finger at Perenco, which extracts 95,000 barrels per day in this area alone. The old pipelines, which were installed about 40 years ago, are constantly developing holes. Some of the pipelines are under water, others are underground. Some are even above ground. There are also very old oil wells, which are in poor condition, and they leak and cause spills as well.
They use lake water for washing and cooking but it is polluted both upstream and downstream from the village, which means they can’t drink it. There are also all of the industrial plants that emit gas. There is one plant near the bridge, north of Lake Nkomi where they have flare stacks, which are used to burn off flammable gas. The process, called gas flaring, creates a lot of pollution. It is a means of getting rid of the gas that is extracted alongside the petrol. That pollutes the air, which then negatively affects health and the environment. Also noticed more and more respiratory problems among younger children, especially asthma.
George Mpaga, coordinator of an organisation called ROLBG, a French acronym meaning Free Network of Organisations for the Good Governance of Gabon, says that he is also worried about the effects of the pollution on the animals who live in the area, including antelopes, crocodiles and turtles. He is also worried for the fishermen, whose hauls are diminishing.
Officials tend to just close their eyes to the problem. So do many of the national media outlets. There are only a few independent websites that have published the testimonies and complaints of locals living in this area. Perenco is often described in the media as an opaque organisation with close ties to the Gabonese government. Perenco doesn’t disclose its annual revenues or its internal governance structure. It has also been mentioned in several investigations by independent media outlets into matters of corruption.
Gabonese citizens raise the alarm over oil spills by French company Perenco (france24.com)
Saturday, November 28, 2020
Zimbabwe Miners Dead
Dozens are feared dead and others still trapped underground after an abandoned goldmine collapsed in Zimbabwe. According to officials, nearly 30 miners remain unaccounted for. Six miners have been rescued. Support pit props had apparently been damaged by blasting.
The mine collapse comes weeks after six miners died in Esigodini, southern Zimbabwe, while five others died in Chegutu when mines collapsed. Last year 24 miners died at Battlefields, Kadoma, 125km from Harare, when the shaft they were working was flooded following heavy rains.
Friday, November 27, 2020
Children pay the costs for chocolate
Child labor remains a problem in cocoa farming. For years, the chocolate industry has promised to end the practice, but a new study shows it has actually increased. Despite decades of promises, success is still a long way off, as a new study by the NORC research institute at the University of Chicago shows.
20 years ago, major chocolate manufactures like Mars and Nestle have promised to end the worst forms of child labor. They even set themselves clear goals and deadlines by signing the Harkin-Engel Protocol in 2001.
When the targets were missed, they were repeatedly postponed and adjusted. "In 2005, the deadline was extended to 2008, and then in 2008 to 2010," said Johannes Schorling from Inkota, a development policy network based in Berlin.
In 2010, a revised target was announced to reduce child labor by 70% come 2020. "That hasn't happened either, on the contrary child labor has actually increased over the last 10 years," Schorling told DW. According to the NORC study, the use of child labor is now at 45%, an increase of 14% points. Given the goal of a 70% reduction, such an increase might well be termed a complete failure.
1.6 million children in the two largest cocoa-growing countries, Ivory Coast and Ghana, work in cocoa farming, the study reports. Together the two nations produce around two-thirds of the world's cocoa beans.
On every second cocoa farm there, children as young as five have to pitch in instead of going to school because their parents are too poor to hire farm hands. Children are even used for more dangerous work, such as weeding or harvesting with machetes.
A big problem for farmers is the low price cocoa fetches on world markets. In recent years, a ton of cocoa beans brought in just over $2,000 (€1,680), only half of the price it fetched in the 1970s. The farmers must therefore be more productive. Market forces alone seem unable to ensure that farmers can actually secure a livelihood. It takes years for cocoa trees to produce good yields, so farmers cannot just grow something else when prices fall.
Farmers receive only a tiny fraction of what customers pay for a bar of chocolate. Most of the money goes to the chocolate companies and retail chains, which are mostly based in the US and Europe, and increasingly in Asia. Cocoa farmers in Ivory Coast earned only $0.78 a day on average, according to a study by Fairtrade, an NGO, compared with a living wage of $2.51.
Thursday, November 26, 2020
Africa Needs To Be Powered By The Sun
Access to electricity has fallen for the first time in seven years in sub-Saharan Africa. An increase of 13 million people across sub-Saharan African countries did not have electricity this year, bringing the total figure to about 600 million people.
This means that fewer people have been able to access air-conditioning across countries where “it is getting hotter”, Dr Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, explained. “Air con is a key issue. Look, for example, to Japan. Nine out of 10 households have air con. In the United States, again, almost every household has air con. But when it comes to sub-Saharan Africa, it is one out of 20 households that have air con.”
Growing populations across sub-Saharan Africa are suffering from increasing extreme heat as the climate crisis worsens. The African continent has so far warmed at a faster rate than the global average. This is leading to an increase in deadly heatwaves.
More development of solar power across sub-Saharan African countries will be key to boosting access to electricity, according to Dr Birol.
“Sub-Saharan Africa has the richest potential for solar energy,” he said. “It gets back about 40 per cent of the world’s solar radiation and yet houses less than 1 per cent of solar electricity.”
The amount of solar electricity generated across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa is currently around three times smaller than the amount in the UK, which receives a fraction of the sunshine.
Dr Birol said: “It is the cheapest source of electricity generation in sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world. I can see that solar power could well become the continent’s top electricity source..." Dr Birol said: “I don’t expect coal to play a key role in Africa’s energy future. Solar is the king of the global electricity markets, and soon it will be king of the African electricity sector.”
Zambia Defaults on Debt Re-payment
Zambia missed a $42.5m (£32m) coupon payment on its bonds in October and then missing another payment on 14 November meant it has become the first African country to default on its debts since the pandemic, leading to fears that a “debt tsunami” could engulf the continent’s most heavily indebted nations as the financial impact of coronavirus hits.
Zambia’s finance minister, Bwalya Ng’andu, blamed the banks and asset and fund managers who wanted to see more transparency over an estimated $3bn debt to China, but who refused to sign the necessary confidentiality agreements, he said.
“The position of the Chinese banks is: ‘You’re not going to give anybody any information without the confidentiality agreements in place’.”
Even before the pandemic, Zambia was due to pay $1.7bn to service its debts this year – equating to more than 8% of the country’s GDP for 2020. But coronavirus plays a key role in the recent default. As financiers negotiate with finance ministers over repayment terms, the virus is depleting Zambia’s already fragile healthcare resources. So far Zambia has recorded almost 18,000 cases of the virus.
“It is simply immoral for bondholders to demand full repayment and to make huge profits on Zambia’s debt while the country struggles with Covid-19, a major economic crisis and spiralling poverty levels,” said Sarah-Jayne Clifton, director of the Jubilee Debt Campaign, which estimated that some financial institutions will make a 250% profit on their Zambian bonds.
“At a time when hospitals and healthcare systems are buckling under the strain of Covid-19, it is perverse that poor countries are having to pay $3bn a month in debt repayments to rich banks, investment funds or the World Bank, while their populations fall further into poverty and destitution,” said Chema Vera, Oxfam International’s interim executive director. “Debt needs to be cancelled, postponing it is futile.”
If Zambia has had to default, they could too. “Ghana looks very risky to me,” said Tim Jones, head of policy at the Jubilee Debt Campaign. He said Angola, Chad and Congo-Brazzaville were also at risk.
The Institute of International Finance warned of a “debt tsunami” as global indebtedness topped $277tn in the third quarter of this year. In emerging markets, which are more likely to default, debt has risen by more than a quarter.
Sunday, November 22, 2020
Ethiopia's Civil War
Confidential UN papers warn that, despite talk of success, the Ethiopian army faces heavy resistance and regional stability is at risk. Ethiopian government forces are meeting heavy resistance and face a protracted “war of attrition” in the northern region of Tigray.
The UN assessment, interviews and other international aid organisation analyses all suggest any expectation of a rapid and decisive victory is optimistic, and that resistance is likely to stiffen as Tigray troops fall back into mountains east of Mekelle.
Information has been difficult to obtain and confirm with communications cut to Tigray and journalists banned. Hundreds, possibly thousands, of people have been killed so far and many more have been displaced. More than 36,000 have fled into neighbouring Sudan, and large numbers are on the move within Tigray to avoid the fighting.
“Although Tigray regional forces may have initially been backfooted by the EDF’s swift advances, the terrain in eastern Tigray is easier to defend… and if they make a stand, they have the capability to stall the EDF advance,” one analysis reads, warning that this will then “change the dimension of the conflict from one of rapid movement into one of attrition”.
“After the EDF have reportedly ‘taken’ key towns such as Humera, Dansha, Shiraro, Alamata and Shire, and then pushed on with their advance, fighting has continued to be reported, or has subsequently erupted again in these locations,” one reliable account said. Well-trained and heavily armed frontline units from the Ethiopian army bypassing main towns to avoid costly urban fighting as they hurry towards Mekelle. But the militia and paramilitaries deployed in their wake are neither as well-equipped nor as disciplined and so are vulnerable to counter-attack. If Ethiopian forces continue to advance, their supply lines and rear areas will become more vulnerable to guerilla attacks and casualties will mount.
The reports depict a complex and dynamic conflict across much of Tigray, with major clashes in the west of the region – as Ethiopian forces sought to advance towards the strategic town of Humera – and in the south-west, along the main road to Mekelle. Heavy fighting has also been reported around the town of Alamata, six miles from the border with neighbouring Amhara province which is fiercely loyal to the central government. Ethiopian planes have launched air strikes, and Tigrayans have fired missiles into Amhara and Eritrea, which has supported the offensive to remove the TPLF. At least one massacre has been reported: it has been blamed on retreating Tigrayan militia targeting a community seen as loyal to the central government, but there is no confirmation of this.
“Even if the EDF are successful in their mission to take Mekelle,” the UN assessment warns, “this will not necessarily end the conflict. It is likely that a protracted asymmetric conflict and insurgency would continue. From a humanitarian perspective, the longer the conflict is drawn out, the more severe the crisis will become.”
Saturday, November 21, 2020
Girls in Africa
Girls in Africa are being “condemned to a lifetime of discrimination and inequality” due to government failures. Africa is home to 308 million girls aged under 18. Yet, in many countries, only one in five girls has access to secondary school. One third of primary schools and a quarter of all secondary schools have no sanitation facilities. Sexual harassment and emotional abuse against girls by both teachers and peers is commonplace, forcing many girls to drop out of school entirely, according to the report.
The advocacy group African Child Policy Forum (ACPF) found they were routinely denied education; made to marry too young; endured sexual, physical and emotional abuse at home, work and school; were excluded from healthcare; and were unable to own or inherit property.
Although “significant strides” have been made over the past 30 years for girls, including improved access to schooling as well as better protection from exploitation, FGM and child marriage, the report from the pan-African group underlined that “these efforts are simply not enough”.
“African girls have endured harmful cultural beliefs, patriarchal gender attitudes and discriminatory laws, policies and practices for far too long,” said ACPF executive director Joan Nyanyuki. “Despite slow progress in some areas, girls across the continent continue to wake up to the daily reality of injustice. An entire generation of girls and young women is being failed.”
High rates of child marriage and malnutrition, and very low levels of school enrolment made Chad and South Sudan the worst places in Africa to be born a girl, the report found. South Sudan and Chad are joined by Eritrea, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Central African Republic and Comoros at the bottom.In contrast, Mauritius was the best, being among the countries to have reformed their laws on girls’ rights, and harmonised them with international standards. The island nation has the highest rate of pre-primary education and all pregnant teenagers have access to antenatal care, the report found. Following Mauritius, the most girl-friendly countries in Africa are Tunisia, South Africa, Seychelles, Algeria, Cabo Verde and Namibia.
“Girls in Africa today are respected and valued far less than boys, and are denied the same life chances. Inequality and discrimination remains the norm. This has to change, and change now.”
African governments failing girls on equality, report finds | Global development | The Guardian
Friday, November 20, 2020
Zimbabwe's Sex Trade and the Pandemic
When the first COVID-19 case was detected in March, Zimbabwe rapidly went into lockdown. The lockdown, followed by a curfew in July, forced traders off the streets, while the closure of Zimbabwe's borders for all non-essential travel cut off a lifeline for 1 million informal cross-border traders, said economist Victor Bhoroma. 6 million Zimbabweans who work in small businesses and informal trade were severely affected. The lockdowns in the tourism and hospitality sector, transport, aviation and leisure services, manufacturing, fast food and retailing and sports have resulted in massive layoffs.
The southern African nation is experiencing its worst economic crisis in a decade, with crippling hyperinflation, unemployment, strikes by public workers and shortages of food, medicine and foreign currency. Zimbabweans say life is difficult, with inflation above 700%, rocketing prices for basic goods, electricity and petrol, and lagging salaries - prompting teachers to refuse to return to work without a pay rise last month.
Sex workers and charities providing them with health care services said the number of women selling sex has increased, particularly young girls facing hunger at home.
"We have a lot of cases coming to us of girls who were now engaged in transactional sex because of the increase in the household poverty," said Beatrice Savadye, director of Roots Africa, a local charity supporting young people.
"Hunger drives us into sex trade," said Hazel Zemura, who has sold sex for a decade and works for Women Against All Forms of Discrimination, which runs health programmes for sex workers. "As our incomes, like the cross border trading - the importation of weaves and makeup kits from China for resale - got eroded during the lockdown, we had to turn to men for survival."
Coronavirus restrictions have made sex work riskier as women have been unable to get free condoms from their usual clinics and illegal brothels in residential areas and downtown nightclubs have closed. The closure of brothels has pushed sex workers into riskier places, like secluded fields and deserted buildings, said Charmaine Dube, programme coordinator for the sex worker rights group Pow Wow in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe's second largest city.
https://news.trust.org/item/20201029000615
Tuesday, November 17, 2020
Russian Eyes Are On Africa
Putin approved the creation of a Russian naval facility in Sudan capable of mooring nuclear-powered surface vessels, clearing the way for Moscow’s first substantial military foothold in Africa since the Soviet fall.
“Our base in Sudan will be another argument for others to hear us and take heed,” said an opinion piece in TASS about the new facility.
The new facility, earmarked to be built in the vicinity of Port Sudan, will be capable of accommodating up to 300 military and civilian personnel and improve Russia’s ability to operate in the Indian Ocean, expanding its influence in Africa. The hub would be used for repair and resupply operations and as a place where Russian naval personnel could take rest, it said. The new facility will make it easier for the Russian Navy to operate in the Indian Ocean by being able to fly in replacement crews for its long-range ships.
The land for the base will be supplied for free by Sudan and Moscow would get the right to bring in any weapons, ammunition and other equipment it needs through Sudan’s airports and ports to support the new facility.
Moscow is keen to increase its influence in Africa, a continent with sprawling mineral wealth, and potentially lucrative markets for Russian-manufactured weapons. It is jockeying for influence and a military foothold in Africa with other nations, including China.
It has also forecast that Russia will fortify its new African outpost with advanced surface-to-air missile systems, allowing it to create a no-fly zone for miles around.
Djibouti is home to Chinese, U.S. and French naval bases, while other navies often use its port.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-russia-sudan-navy/putin-extending-russian-footprint-approves-new-naval-facility-in-sudan-idUSKBN27W29A
Sunday, November 15, 2020
Africa's Debt Problem Returns
It is predicted that African countries will pay out more than $10bn to creditors this year and next year alone.
More than half will go to City asset management firms, like BlackRock, which employs former UK chancellor George Osborne on £650,000 a year, and Fidelity Investments. BlackRock, which is said to hold more than $1bn of African sovereign bonds,
Zambia, which like many African countries is spending more repaying debt than it is on health and primary education, looks set to become the first African country to default on its debts to bondholders since the pandemic began.
According to Save the Children, a failure to tackle the debt crisis will see child poverty numbers rise from 307 million to 354 million in the poorest countries covered by the initiative. It warns that millions more children will go unvaccinated, while untreated killer diseases, such as pneumonia, malaria and diarrhoea, could reverse gains in child mortality built up over the last two decades.
Kevin Watkins, chief executive of Save the Children, said, “Money that should be going into health clinics, nutrition programmes and schools is being siphoned off to repay unpayable debts to commercial creditors and China. To speak plainly, this is a violation of child rights.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2020/nov/15/world-poverty-rising-rich-nations-debt-covid-gordon-brown-child-mortality
Prosperity Preacher Absconds
The self-proclaimed prophet is known for his “miracles” and wildly extravagant lifestyle and has made huge investments in the mining, telecommunications and luxury sectors. His wealth comes from donations from followers of his Enlightened Christian Gathering church in the South African capital, Pretoria.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2020/11/14/prophet-wanted-for-fraud-flees-to-malawi-from-south-africa
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)