More than 7,000 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo since January, Prime Minister Judith Suminwa Tuluka said on Monday.

Armed members of the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, who have seized large swathes of the mineral-rich eastern DRC, including the main eastern cities of Goma and Bukavu, have met with the limited resistance of the fleeing Congolese armed forces.

“The security situation in eastern DRC has reached alarming levels,” Tuluka warned, addressing the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

She said the fatalities include “more than 2,500 bodies buried without being identified” and 1,500 bodies were still in the morgue.

The prime minister said “for the moment… we have not yet been able to identify all of these people.” She noted, however, that “there is a significant mass of civilians who are part of these dead.”

According to UN reports, the rebels, backed by some 4,000 Rwandan troops, have made rapid advances, sending thousands of people fleeing from the region.

Protesters have attacked the embassies of the United States and France in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

The rebel forces took control of the South Kivu provincial capital Bukavu recently, after first capturing Goma, the capital city of North Kivu province.

Congo’s prime minister said more than 3,000 people had been killed in Goma alone.

The M23 is the most potent of the many armed groups vying for a foothold in Congo’s east, which has trillions of dollars of mostly untapped mineral wealth such as lithium, which is used in technology for batteries in devices such as mobile phones and laptops.

In related news, Kaja Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, said Congo’s territorial integrity was “non-negotiable.”

The EU’s top diplomat said Brussels defense consultations with Rwanda have been suspended while their memorandum of understanding (MOU) on critical raw materials production is under review.

The EU and Rwanda had signed the MOU to “nurture sustainable and resilient value chains for critical raw materials,” she said.

The African country “produces tin, tungsten, gold and niobium, and has potential for lithium and rare earth elements,” she said.

Source: Presstv

Disturbing videos have emerged showing the dire situation at a disused gold mine in South Africa where scores of illegal miners have reportedly been living underground for months.

They have been there since police operations targeting illicit mining started last year across the country.

In one of the videos, which the BBC has not independently verified, corpses wrapped in makeshift body bags can be seen. A second shows the emaciated figures of some miners who are still alive.

A long-delayed rescue operation, that last week a court ordered the government to facilitate, began on Monday.

Last year, arguing that the miners had entered the shaft in Stilfontein deliberately without permission, the authorities took a hard line, blocking food and water supplies.

In November, one government minister said: “We are going to smoke them out.”

More than 100 of the illegal miners, known locally as “zama zamas”, have reportedly died underground since the crack down began at the mine some 145km (90 miles) south-west of Johannesburg.

The authorities however, have not confirmed this figure as it is yet to be “verified by an official source”, a spokesperson told the BBC.

Hundreds are thought to be still in the mine while more than 1,000 have surfaced in the past few months.

In one of the videos released by a trade union, the General Industries Workers of South Africa (Giwusa), dozens of shirtless men can be seen sitting on a dirty floor. Their faces have been blurred. A male voice off camera can be heard saying that the men are hungry and need help.

Source: BBC

Niger on Thursday announced it was suspending BBC radio for three months, with the British broadcaster joining the growing list of Western media sanctioned by military juntas in the Sahel.

The ban on the BBC – accused of airing “erroneous information likely to destabilise social peace and undermine the morale of the troops” fighting jihadists – will come into force “with immediate effect” countrywide, the leadership said.

Popular BBC programmes including ones in the Hausa language are broadcast in Niger via local radio partners.

Since seizing power in a July 2023 coup, the military government has banned several Western media outlets.

Besides the BBC, two French broadcasters, Radio France Internationale (RFI) and France 24, have been banned there since August 2023.

On Thursday evening, the junta also said it was “filing a complaint” against RFI.

No programme in particular was mentioned in the decisions taken concerning the BBC and RFI.

But on Wednesday both broadcasters reported that jihadists had killed 90 soldiers and upwards of 40 civilians in Chatoumane, in the western Tera region bordering Burkina Faso teeming with armed fighters.

Although AFP was unable to verify those numbers from an independent local source, a Western security source told AFP that 90 to 100 people died in Tuesday’s attack.

‘Baseless assertions’

But on Wednesday Niger’s junta denied the attack happened, describing reports of the atrocity as “baseless assertions” and a “campaign of intoxication”.

For years Niger – along with its two neighbours Burkina Faso and Mali – has been plagued by jihadist violence.

The frontier lands straddling the three states – where Tuesday’s attack is said to have taken place – have long been a hideout for jihadists linked to the Islamic State group and Al-Qaeda.

All three of those Sahel countries have experienced military coups in recent years, and Niger’s fellow juntas have likewise suspended foreign media outlets.

With the three turning their backs on former colonial ruler France, many French media outlets have been suspended on accusations of being propaganda mouthpieces for Paris.

Other voices deemed critical of the military authorities have been silenced.

All three juntas have turned towards Russia for their security needs and expelled French troops stationed in the Sahel to fight against jihadists.

Niger’s army occasionally releases official reports on some of the jihadists’ attacks, which it says are carried out by “terrorists”.

On Wednesday it announced the death of 10 soldiers in an attack the previous day in the west of the country.

Near the borders with Chad, Cameroon and Nigeria, Niger’s far southeast also faces attacks from Boko Haram and the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWAP) group.

Jihadist attacks have killed at least 1,500 civilians and troops in Niger in the past year, according to conflict monitoring group ACLED – more than double the 650 killed from July 2022 to July 2023.

Source: AFP

Chad announced Thursday that it was ending military cooperation with former colonial power France, just hours after a visit by French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot.

“The government of the Republic of Chad informs national and international opinion of its decision to end the accord in the field of defence signed with the French republic,” foreign minister Abderaman Koulamallah said in a statement on Facebook.

Chad is a key link in France’s military presence in Africa, constituting Paris’s last foothold in the Sahel after the forced withdrawal of its troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

“This is not a break with France like Niger or elsewhere,” Koulamallah, whose country still hosts around a thousand French troops, told AFP.

At a press briefing after a meeting between President Mahamat Idriss Deby and Barrot, Koulamallah called France “an essential partner” but added it “must now also consider that Chad has grown up, matured and is a sovereign state that is very jealous of its sovereignty”.

Barrot, who arrived in Ethiopia on Thursday evening, could not immediately be reached for comment.

‘Historic turning point’

Chad is the last Sahel country to host French troops.

It has been led by Deby since 2021, when his father Idriss Deby Itno was killed by rebels after 30 years in power.

The elder Deby frequently relied on French military support to fend off rebel offensives, including in 2008 and 2019.

The landlocked nation faces a potent threat from Boko Haram and other militant groups.

It borders the Central African Republic, Sudan, Libya and Niger, all of which host Russian paramilitary forces from the Wagner group.

Deby has sought closer ties with Moscow in recent months, but talks to strengthen economic cooperation with Russia have yet to bear concrete results.

Koulamallah called the decision to end military cooperation a “historic turning point”, adding it was made after “in-depth analysis”.

“Chad, in accordance with the provisions of the agreement, undertakes to respect the terms laid down for its termination, including the notice period”, he said in the statement, which did not give a date for the withdrawal of French troops.

The announcement comes just days after Senegal’s President Bassirou Diomaye Faye indicated in an interview with AFP that France should close its military bases in that country.

“Senegal is an independent country, it is a sovereign country and sovereignty does not accept the presence of military bases in a sovereign country,” Faye told AFP on Thursday.

Source: AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered what he called “total support” for Africa, including in the struggle against terrorism and extremism.

The speech was read out at a summit in the Black Sea resort of Sochi by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to his African counterparts.

Several African governments have cut ties with traditional Western allies and are looking to Moscow for help in tackling frequent attacks by jihadists.

During the summit, Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister Karamoko Jean-Marie Traoré said Russia was a more suitable international partner than the former colonial power, France.

It is a view shared by several of France’s former colonies – and was reiterated by Mali’s Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop, who contrasted the Kremlin’s “sincere” partnership to the “neo-colonial” relationship of Western powers.

He said that as well as military co-operation, Mali was exploring other joint projects in the energy, telecommunications, technology and mining sectors.

“Russian companies are working in all these areas with the Malian government and [private] partners in Mali to provide solutions to the challenges facing the Malian people. The two parties have agreed to step up the pace to ensure rapid results,” he said on the second and final day of the conference of African foreign ministers.

Wagner mercenary fighters – now rebranded under the Africa Corps banner by Russia’s defence ministry – were the preferred choice for the military leaders who ordered French and UN troops to leave.

Russia’s help, often in exchange for access to raw materials, also comes with a promise that there will be no meddling in a country’s internal affairs or lessons on how to run an election.

However, Russia’s military expeditions to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have helped protect the junta leaders there, but have failed to make much progress in the fight against Islamist militants.

Nonetheless, the Kremlin is trumpeting about these new-found friends, with foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova saying the conference had dashed Western hopes for Russia’s isolation.

The conference taking place on Saturday and Sunday comes after two Russia-Africa summits in 2019 and 2023

And Lavrov said Russia’s relations with Africa were strengthening “more and more” with progress “on all axes”.

Putin’s speech underlined this point.

“I would like to reiterate that our country will continue to provide total support to our African friends in different sectors: ensuring sustainable development, the struggle against terrorism and extremism, combating epidemics, food problems and the consequences of natural disasters,” it said.

Emanuela Del Re, the EU special representative for the Sahel region of West Africa, told the BBC the West needed to accept the shifting sands of allegiances.

While Russia was “certainly a very malicious actor”, the Italian diplomat explained it had a strong bond with Africa going back to before independence and was not alone in its interest in the Sahel.

“It’s largely a desert but in reality the region is very crowded: because at the moment you see Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Iran… all member states of the EU and the UK,” she said.

In fact, African leaders were pragmatic about their need to “diversify their partnerships”, Ms Del Re said, adding it was not a time for the EU to abandon what she called the “three difficult countries” of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, which have all experienced coups in recent years.

Her point was that it should not be seen as a competition.

Rwanda, which has strong ties with the UK and the West, is one of several African countries that have already signed deals with Moscow to get help building a nuclear power plant.

Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe, who is also in Sochi, told the AFP news agency hundreds of Rwandan students had graduated from Russian universities, including “those who specialise in nuclear science”.

“We hope to be able to train a certain number of scientific managers specialising in this field,” he added.

Five years ago, Putin promised to double trade with Africa – this has not happened.

But using other means, which the West sees as destabilising the continent, Russia’s influence has grown significantly.

Source: BBC

 A UN conference on climate diversity and desertification, held on the theme “Greening the African Horizon” took place in Nairobi, Kenya, on 17 September 2024 with Africa taking center stage in efforts to restore degraded landscapes, protect biodiversity and build sustainable livelihoods for its citizens.

Dubbed as the GLF Africa 2024 hybrid conference greening the African Horizon, the event brought together thousands of participants from local communities, indigenous peoples, youth leaders and policy makers, as well as innovators to showcase Africa’s immerse potentials.

Speaking at the event, the CEO of the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), Eliane Ubalijoro, said that the event was designed to showcase Africa’s immense potential to construct a resilient equitable future through its landscape.

 “Together, we have the power to green Africa and beyond- for food securing livelihoods, food security, climate resilience and biodiversity conservation. Land and community are the common denominators for achieving these goals. Though the climate crisis presents immense challenges, Africa holds immense potentials of rich and local indigenous knowledge, innovative solutions, youth leaders, brilliant minds and emerging technologies,” she said.

Also speaking at the event, Elijah Mboko, National Technical Specialist at FAO Kenya said that “As we bring in new tools and approaches, we should look at how to best integrate them into the existing functional systems so that we don’t start from zero to distort what is ongoing on the land. We don’t want to work in isolation; we want to strengthen that system.”

By integrating local knowledge with cutting-edge technology and the latest science, the GLF is creating an AI hub to promote community-driven AI solutions that challenge the status quo. It will connect landscape actors and create interdisciplinary alliances to foster collaboration, innovation and inclusive knowledge.

Catherine Nakalembe, Associate Research Professor at the University of Maryland and Africa Program Director at NASA Harvest, who also attended the event pointed out that Africa needed to design systems that fitted the African context.

“We need to design systems that are appropriate for the context of Africa. We need data from the places that we’re trying to understand to build better models. Let’s say, foe Western Kenya, we need a context-aware model that can interpret intercropping in small-scale practices,” she said.

A key aspect of restoring forest is planting trees, which in turn requires effective tree seed and seedling delivery systems. During a session hosted by CIFOR-ICRAF, panelists and participants emphasized the need to develop a market for demand-driven native tree species to engage communities through participatory approaches and to share knowledge and resources broadly through stakeholder networks such as the nascent Transformative Partnership Platform (TPP).

Also present at the event, the Senior Manager for the Youth Leadership Program at the African Wildlife Foundation, Simangele Msweli, underscored that youths made a critical mass of the population. “70% of the African population is under the age of 35. Youths make up a very critical mass of the population. The biodiversity and climate crisis requires a whole-of-society approach-everyone must take action,” he said.

“There is a need to decolonize how we do climate justice and land restoration. Whatever has happened on other continents, whatever the donors and the granters are saying might not be the solution for Africa. There is a need for Africa to come up with African solutions. There is a need for women to be involved in coming up with solutions to land issues that are upon them,” said Deborah Oyugi, English Countries Manager and Safeguarding Lead at Youth Initiative for Land in Africa (Yilaa).

 By Cecilia M. Manjang

A jihadist attack in the Malian capital targeting a military police training camp and airport left more than 70 people dead and 200 wounded, one of the highest tolls suffered by the security forces in recent years.

A security source speaking on condition of anonymity told AFP that 77 people had been killed and 255 wounded in Tuesday’s attacks in Bamako.

An authenticated confidential official document put the toll at around 100, naming 81 victims.

Thursday’s edition of Le Soir daily reported that the funerals of around 50 military police students would take place that day.

Mali’s military-led authorities have so far not released a precise death toll from the attacks, claimed by the al Qaeda-linked Group to Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM).

The operation was the first of its kind in years and dealt a forceful blow to the ruling junta, experts say.

The Malian capital is normally spared the sort of attacks that occur almost daily in some parts of the West African country.

The general staff admitted late Tuesday that “some human lives were lost”, notably personnel at the military police centre.

JNIM claimed that a few dozen of its fighters had killed and wounded “hundreds” from the opposing ranks, including members of the Russian paramilitary group Wagner.

The attack came a day after junta-led Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso marked a year since the creation of their breakaway grouping, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

The trio, which have been under military rule following a string of coups since 2020, have broken ties with former colonial ruler France and turned militarily and politically towards other partners including Russia.

The Sahel states in January said they were turning their backs on regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

Mali has since 2012 been ravaged by different factions affiliated to al Qaeda and the Islamic State group.

‘Condolences’ and condemnation

Volleys of gunfire interspersed with explosions broke out in Bamako at around 5:00 am (0500 GMT) Tuesday.

JNIM fighters attacked a military police school and stormed part of the nearby airport complex, where a military facility adjoins the civilian one.

The jihadist group broadcast images showing fighters strolling around and firing randomly into the windows of the presidential hangar and destroying aircraft.

Bamako has not seen such an operation since 2016, when gunmen attacked a hotel housing the former European training mission of the Malian army, with no casualties reported among the mission staff.

The flow of information is restricted under the ruling junta and details on how Tuesday’s attack was carried out and its impact are sketchy.

Mali’s neighbour Senegal and African Union Commission Chairman Moussa Faki Mahamat on Thursday condemned the attacks.

The French embassy in Bamako offered its “condolences to the government of Mali”.

Jean-Herve Jezequel, Sahel project director at the International Crisis Group, told AFP one possible hypothesis could be that “the jihadists are trying to send a message to the Malian authorities that they can hit them anywhere and therefore that the big cities must also be protected”.

He said the aim could be to force the state to concentrate its resources in populated areas and have fewer troops in rural areas “where these jihadist groups have established their strongholds”.

Experts say the attack undermines the junta’s military strategy and breakaway rhetoric, which claims the security situation is under control despite jihadists roaming the Sahel region for years.

Tuesday’s events have largely prompted condemnation and calls for unity within Mali.

Against a backdrop of severe restrictions on freedom of expression under the junta, virtually no public figures have spoken out against the apparent security lapse.

The daily Nouvel Horizon, a rare dissenting voice, wrote on its front page that it was “time to apportion blame at all levels”.

Many Malians have taken to social media to call for those responsible for the security breach to be punished.

The events have also raised fears that certain communities could be targeted in retaliation. 

Source: AFP