Africa

22, July 2021

Madagascar says several people arrested over foiled plot to kill president ⁰

Prosecutors in Madagascar said Thursday they had foiled an attempt to assassinate President Andry Rajoelina and made several arrests.

“Several foreign and Madagascar nationals were arrested on Tuesday, July 20, as part of an investigation into an attack on state security,” prosecutor Berthine Razafiarivony said in a statement released overnight.

There was “a plan to eliminate and neutralise various Madagascan figures, including the head of state,” Razafiarivony said.

“At this stage of the investigation, which is ongoing, the prosecutor-general’s office assures we will shed light in on this case,” she added.

Two French nationals are among those who were arrested on Tuesday, diplomatic sources told AFP.

The two suspects are reputedly retired military officers, according to the Taratra, a local news agency operation to the Communications ministry.

During the country’s Independence Day celebrations on June 26, the gendarmerie announced that they had foiled an assassination attempt on their boss, General Richard Ravalomanana, who is also Rajoelina’s right-hand man.

Rajoelina, 47, first seized power in March 2009 from Marc Ravalomanana with the backing of the military.

He won the last vote in December 2018 beating his main rival and predecessor Ravalomanana in an election beset by allegations of fraud.

The former French colony has had a long history of coups and unrest since gaining independence from France in 1960.

The island is internationally famed for its unique wildlife and vanilla but is heavily dependent on foreign aid. Nine out of 10 people live on less than $2 a day.

The country has been under a lockdown since the Covid-19 pandemic hit last year and its southern region is in the grips of a famine.

Source: AFP

20, July 2021

Mali: Interim president Goïta ‘safe and sound’ after assassination attempt at Bamako mosque ⁰

Mali’s interim president Colonel Assimi Goita was “safe and sound”, his office said, after an assassination attempt by two men, one wielding a knife, during prayers at a mosque in Bamako on Tuesday.

An AFP journalist who witnessed the attack said the assailants lunged at Goita, who was quickly whisked away by security.

The journalist also said he saw blood at the scene, though it was not clear who had been wounded.

An official in the president’s office later said Goita was “safe and sound”, after what was labelled an assassination attempt.

Goita arrived at the military camp of Kati, outside the capital, “where security has been reinforced”, the official added.

Security had subdued one attacker, and “investigations are ongoing”, the presidency added in a statement.

The incident occurred after prayers for the Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha in the great mosque of Bamako.

Assailants went for the president as an imam was directing worshippers outside the mosque for a ritual animal sacrifice.

Religious Affairs Minister Mamadou Kone, who was at the mosque, told AFP that a man had “tried to kill the president with a knife” but was apprehended.

The mosque’s director, Latus Toure, said an attacker had lunged at the president but wounded someone else.

Later, a security official who requested anonymity said that two people had been arrested and were now in detention.

Political turmoil

The shocking attack follows months of political turmoil in Mali, which is also battling a jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes.

Goita was sworn into power in June, after leading the country’s second coup in less than a year.

The colonel had already led a putsch last August, when he and other army officers ousted elected president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita after weeks of mass protests over corruption and the long-running jihadist conflict.

The second coup in nine months sparked diplomatic uproar, prompting the African Union and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to suspend Mali, calling for the appointment of a civilian prime minister.

Jihadist insurgency

France, which has thousands of troops stationed in the war-torn country, also suspended military cooperation with Mali.

The former colonial power followed by announcing that it would wind down its 5,100-strong Barkhane force that has battled jihadists in the Sahel since 2013.

The military junta handed power to a civilian-led transitional government, which promised to restore civilian rule in February 2022.

In June it unveiled its new government, appointing military figures in key roles.

Goita vowed at the time that the government would “uphold all its commitments”, pledging to stage “credible, fair and transparent elections”.

A large majority of the 15-nation UN’s Security Council later called for free and fair elections to go ahead in the country without the participation of its current leaders.

Mali also faces unrest outside the political arena.

It has been struggling to contain an jihadist insurgency that first emerged in the north of the country in 2012, and has since spread to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled their homes.

The conflict has also been mirrored by political instability in the capital.

Source: AFP

20, July 2021

South Africa: Zuma’s corruption trial to resume August 10 ⁰

Jacob Zuma’s long-running corruption trial will resume on August 10, a South African judge ruled on Tuesday after the ex-president sought to have the case postponed because of the pandemic and recent unrest.

“The trial is adjourned to 10 to 13 August,” Judge Piet Koen said.

Zuma on Monday appeared in court via a video link from his prison, where he is serving a jail term for contempt of court on an unrelated matter.

His lawyers had applied to have the case postponed by up to three weeks because of the unrest and the Covid pandemic to allow time for the trial to resume physically.

The 79-year-old faces 16 charges of fraud, graft and racketeering related to the 1999 purchase of fighter jets, patrol boats and equipment from five European arms firms when he was deputy president.

He is accused of taking bribes from one of the firms, French defence giant Thales, which has been charged with corruption and money laundering.

Both Zuma and Thales have entered pleas of not guilty.

His foundation immediately lauded the decision, tweeting: “The Constitution has prevailed at last!”

“There can be NO virtual criminal proceedings in the absence of an accused person who is unable to consult with his lawyers,” it said.

Zuma, once dubbed the “Teflon president”, began serving a 15-month jail sentence for contempt on July 8.

He was arrested for disobeying a Constitutional Court order to testify before a panel probing the plunder of state coffers during his nine-year presidency

Source: AFP

12, July 2021

Six killed, scores arrested in S.Africa protests after Zuma jailing ⁰

A South African government intelligence body said on Monday that six people had been killed in violent protests in the KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces since last week, following the jailing of former president Jacob Zuma.

The unrest erupted shortly after Zuma started serving a 15-month sentence for contempt of court on Wednesday night.

9, July 2021

South Africa: Jacob Zuma confirmed to be in jail at Estcourt prison facility ⁰

Former South African president Jacob Zuma has been confirmed to be in jail at the Estcourt Correctional Centre.

The embattled former president was brought to the fairly new correctional facility to start his 15-month sentence in the early hours of Thursday morning.

Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola told journalists that he had seen Zuma. “I have seen him, he is in very good spirit and he has taken his breakfast, he’s taking his medication. And then he is, as I said, we spoke and I also told him that I’m going to tell the nation that he is here in this facility. And he said it’s important that this country must know. So he’s in very good spirits.”- Lamola said.

The Estcourt Correctional Center is located in KwaZulu-Natal province about 200 kilometers (124 miles) from his rural home in Nkandla. The facility, which opened about two years ago, consists of two units, and has a capacity to accommodate 512 inmates.

It also has a hospital section, training centre, maintenance workshop, logistics and other support structures.

“If we wanted the former president to stay in a hotel and in a highly privileged area, we would have taken him to the hotel. In Carradine, there in the south coast, or we would have taken him to one of our beautiful guest houses, breathtaking in the Western Cape where you can even see the sea. But the policies and the Correctional Services Act is clear. He must be incarcerated where is declared and in a correctional facility, in terms of incarceration.” the Minister of Justice and Correctional Services Ronald Lamola explained.

79 year old Zuma was convicted and sentenced for defying a court order to testify before a judicial commission investigating widespread allegations of corruption during his 2009-2018 presidency.

Source: Africa News

3, July 2021

At least 43 missing after migrant boat sinks off Tunisian coast ⁰

At least 43 people were missing off the southeastern coast of Tunisia after a boat carrying more than 120 migrants sank, the Tunisian Red Crescent said on Saturday.

“Eighty-four migrants were rescued and 43 others disappeared after a boat carrying 127 migrants sank off the coast of Zarzis” on Friday night, Mongi Slim of the Red Crescent told AFP.

The vessel had set off from Libya’s coast, he added, citing the accounts of survivors.

The Tunisian navy rescued “84 illegal migrants of various nationalities” including from Bangladesh, Chad, Egypt, Eritrea and Sudan, the defence ministry said.

The survivors picked up off Zarzis were aged between three and 40, the ministry said, without giving any number for those missing.

It said that the boat had departed the port of Zuwara, in northwestern Libya during the night between Monday and Tuesday.

Source: AFP

2, July 2021

African leaders, Zambians pay respects to founding president Kenneth Kaunda ⁰

Mourners waving white handkerchiefs, Kenneth Kaunda’s trademark symbol, paid tribute Friday at a memorial service for Zambia’s first president, who died last month aged 97, as VIPs hailed him as one of southern Africa’s great statesmen.

Neatly distanced in compliance with Covid rules, scores of Zambians stood on the terraces of the National Heroes Stadium in Lusaka, swaying to dirges and solemn music played by a military band.

A hero of the struggle against white-minority rule, Kaunda died on June 17 at a military hospital where he had been admitted with pneumonia.

He always carried a white handkerchief – an item that he said symbolised love and peace, and which he started carrying while incarcerated during the struggle for independence.

Zambia’s founding father was given full military honours, including a 21-gun salute and an airforce jet display.

A casket draped in the Zambian flag was driven on a gun carriage into the 60,000-capacity stadium and placed under a white marquee.

Braving the coronavirus pandemic ravaging the southern African country, several foreign dignitaries and presidents flew to Lusaka to pay their respects.

Zambia is among Africa’s top three countries reporting the highest number of new cases over the past week, after South Africa and Tunisia, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC).

“Today is a passing of an era,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told mourners.

“Kaunda was the last surviving leader of the generation who lit the path to Africa’s freedom from colonial misrule.”

“We will never be able to pay back the debt that we owe you,” Ramaphosa said, while Zambia’s President Edgar Lungu lauded Kaunda’s record as an anti-imperialist who “believed that … Africans deserved to decide our own destiny as a people and that we could not be discriminated against”.

The African Union’s commission chairman, Moussa Faki Mahamat, described Kaunda as “a unifier”, a “giant among men”.

“Had it not been for the selfless efforts of his generation, I would not be before you today, as the African Union would not exist,” he noted.

‘Defeated Goliath of oppression’

Also present were the presidents of Malawi, Namibia, Mozambique, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Botswana, the prime minister of Lesotho, Britain’s Minister of African Affairs and Commonwealth Secretary-General Patricia Scotland.

“He was a warrior who defeated the Goliath of oppression,” said Scotland.

British junior foreign minister James Duddridge, representing Zambia’s former colonial ruler, said Queen Elizabeth II was saddened by Kaunda’s death and that “the world has lost a great man”.

In a message, the British monarch said Kaunda’s “maintaining Zambia as a bastion against apartheid has earned him a place in history”.

Kaunda, popularly known by his initials of KK, was president of Zambia for 27 years, taking the helm after the country gained independence in October 1964.

He headed the main nationalist group, the left-of-centre United National Independence Party.

He was nicknamed by some “Africa’s Gandhi” for his non-violent, independence-related activism in the 1960s.

He hosted many of the movements fighting for independence or black equality in other countries around the continent – sometimes at a heavy cost.

But his popularity at home waned as he became increasingly autocratic and banned all opposition parties.

Taxi tribute

Zambia declared a period of mourning after his death, with flags flown at half mast, while his body was taken around the country for the public to pay their respects.

He will be buried next Wednesday at the country’s presidential burial site situated opposite the cabinet office in Lusaka.

Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera said Kaunda’s burial would signify the “planting of a vibrant seed”.

“From this seed, let’s harvest a new African generation with new pan-Africanism… free from corruption,” he urged.

Some taxi drivers in Lusaka drove with their headlights on as a way of mourning the country’s founder.

“We have agreed here that we will be driving with our lights on as a way of mourning Dr Kaunda, shikulu (grandfather). The loss is too huge, not only here in Zambia but the entire world,” driver Lazarus Daka, 37, told AFP.

Sources: AFP, REUTERS

2, July 2021

Ethiopia: A regional capital falls, and so does the stature of leader and its military ⁰

The surprise fall of the Tigrayan regional capital, Mekelle, this week has put Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed in a tough spot, dealt a blow to the country’s military and placed the Tigrayan forces in a position of strength.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed may have won a Nobel Peace Prize, but on Monday, June 28, he seemed unable to grasp the difference between war and peace, ceasefire and defeat, and – more critically – the distinction between spin and the hard realities on the ground.

The disconnect has threatened not just Abiy’s credibility, but the security of his country, the wider Horn of Africa region, and exposed the challenges confronting the African Union – based in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa – in its bid to deliver “African solutions to African problems”.

On Monday evening, reports started emerging from Mekelle, capital of war-ravaged northern Tigray province, that Ethiopian troops were suddenly withdrawing from the city. Before long, crowds gathered in Mekelle’s streets to celebrate the departure of Ethiopian government forces and welcome the arrival of Tigray Defense Forces (TDF) rebel fighters.

The Abiy administration, however, had an unusual spin on the latest development in the devastating eight-month-long Tigray conflict. The government had declared an “unconditional, unilateral ceasefire” in the province, according to a statement published by state media.

Tigrayan leaders offered a different narrative.

In a statement released Monday night, Tigrayan leaders asserted that Mekelle’s fall was due to a “lightning operation” by the Tigray Defense Forces, a rebel army composed of members of the region’s former ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) as well as non-members. The TDF was formed shortly after Abiy ordered a military operation on Tigray in November 2020, and this was their “victory” against “the invading forces”, the statement proclaimed.

“It’s clearly, without a doubt, a military defeat. You can’t have a situation where one party declares a unilateral ceasefire while fleeing areas it once controlled. They could have at least said they retreated for tactical reasons,” said Awol Allo, senior lecturer at Keele University in England.

Days later, the official narrative was starting to unwind and the ceasefire was in doubt.

“If it is required, we can easily enter Mekelle and we can enter in less than three weeks,” Redwan Hussein, spokesman for the Ethiopian government’s task force for Tigray, told reporters in Addis Ababa on Wednesday.

Abiy, meanwhile, acknowledged that government troops had left Mekelle, and that his army units had been ambushed and “massacred” while advancing through Tigrayan villages. But he attempted to downplay the fall of the Tigrayan regional capital, insisting it was not a defeat.

“It was the centre of a government. A centre for known and unknown resources. But by the time we exit, there is nothing special about it except that there are some 80,000 people, and those who loot people,” said Abiy in a videotaped address posted on his website, vastly underestimating the city’s population of around 500,000, according to demographers.

‘Monumental fall from grace’

From a globally fêted peacemaker to hawk overseeing a conflict that has seen mass killings, displacements and allegations of serious human rights violations by the UN, Abiy’s international stature has taken a sharp nosedive over the past eight months.

“For Abiy, it’s such a monumental fall from grace. This is somebody who came to power on the back of widespread popular protests. He was popular, his team was popular, and he received extensive international praise for establishing friendship with the Eritrean dictator,” said Awol, referring to the 2018 peace deal signed by Abiy and Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki.

Awol – who was among the experts who nominated the Ethiopian prime minister for the 2019 Nobel Peace Prize – believes Abiy’s credibility began to slide with his attempts to “consolidate power and enact his childhood ambitions on 100 million inhabitants of Ethiopia”.

Abiy’s rise from rural poverty to the country’s highest office is by now the stuff of legend in Ethiopia, a rags-to-riches tale that acquires a messianic quality with every retelling. As recounted in a 2018 interview with the New York Times, the story goes that his impoverished mother once whispered into the ear of a 7-year-old Abiy that he would “end up in the palace” and “serve the nation”.

Critics, however, question whether Abiy, now 44, is best serving his country and its military, the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF).

“This is a military that has a reputation for being tough. Unfortunately, with this particular defeat of a big national force being repulsed by a tiny region, the Ethiopian military no longer has the same standing,” said Awol.

Rebel ‘mastermind’ rises from forced retirement

The Ethiopian military’s loss of stature has been the TDF’s gain.

On November 4, 2020, when the Ethiopian prime minister ordered a military operation in Tigray following escalating tensions with his former coalition partner, the TPLF, military experts immediately warned of a tough fight between “battle-hardened” troops.

With a combined force of around 140,000 active personnel, mostly in the army, the ENDF is considered a military heavyweight in the Horn of Africa region, one that has conducted cross-borders campaigns in neighbouring Eritrea and Somalia, and has been the backbone of the UN-backed African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).

But the northern Tigray province – with its well-armed regional paramilitary force led by former national army generals – could also put up a fierce resistance, analysts warned.

That resistance strengthened as Abiy’s controversial use of Eritrean troops and militias from the rival ethnic Amhara group united Tigrayans, including those who had fallen out with the TPLF.

Formed in the 1970s, the TPLF emerged as the biggest and most powerful armed rebel group in Ethiopia following the 1991 ouster of brutal dictator Mengistu Hailemariam. The party then dominated Ethiopian politics for over two decades, overseeing economic development in the impoverished nation, but also maintaining power through repression.

The TPLF’s excesses sparked several splits within the ranks, including a particularly acrimonious one in 2001, following the end of the end of Eritrea-Ethiopia war.

One of the casualties of the internal TPLF splits was Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, considered one of Ethiopia’s finest military strategists, who was fired from his post as Ethiopia’s chief of general staff.

When Abiy launched a military offensive in Tigray, Gen. Tsadkan was among several former TPLF senior military officers who joined the freshly minted TDF.

“The TPLF is a party with a contested legacy because it brutalised the Ethiopian public for nearly a quarter of a century,” explained Awol. So when the TDF emerged out of the TPLF last year, it attracted “all the Tigrayans who disagreed with the TPLF in the past and who saw no reason to reject the TDF,” he explained.

Gen. Tsadkan immediately assumed joint responsibility for the TDF’s military affairs, and spent months training new recruits before the latest offensive was launched, wrote leading Africa analyst Alex de Waal in a BBC column. Following the spectacular fall of Mekelle, the retired army general is being hailed as the Tigrayan “mastermind” in a recruiting coup for the TDF.

No African solution for this African problem

Ethiopia’s decommissioning of senior Tigrayan military commanders raised eyebrows in November, when the AU fired its security chief a day after the bloc’s chair, Moussa Faki Mahamat, received a letter from the Ethiopian defense ministry requesting the Tigrayan general’s dismissal, according to Reuters.

Gen. Gebreegziabher Mebratu Melese was on a list of military officials accused of treason for belonging to the TPLF “junta”.

Headquartered in Addis Ababa, the AU has faced criticisms over its inability to intervene in a conflict that has killed thousands of people, displaced over a million and has plunged the area to the brink of a humanitarian disaster, according to the UN.

“I think the AU’s credibility is in tatters, its prestige has been undermined by its failure to tackle the issue or even table a resolution on the Tigrayan crisis. There is a widespread belief among Tigrayans that the AU simply followed the Ethiopian government’s talking points,” said Awol.

Following a call by US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for the AU to do more to address the crisis, the bloc launched a commission in June to investigate alleged human rights violations in Tigray.

But like the UN, the AU is limited by the interests and actions of its member states, a fact underscored by the Ethiopian government’s call on the bloc to “immediately cease” the human rights commission leading the inquiry.

Eritrean troops, Amhara militias ‘sandwich Tigray’

The most serious implications of Abiy’s use of military force in Tigray, however, concern the future security and stability of his own ethnically diverse nation.

The Ethiopian prime minister’s use of Eritrean troops – which was officially denied as “fake news” for months – in northern Tigray and of Amhara militias in the southern and western regions was part of a “sandwich Tigray” strategy to isolate the recalcitrant province, according to analysts.

But by turning one ethnic group against another and inviting the involvement of a neighbouring country that has long been an enemy of the Ethiopian state, Abiy has played with fire. Those flames could engulf the nation and the region.

Traditionally, ceasefire declarations are welcomed as opportunities to try to bring warring camps to the table. But the Ethiopian government’s so-called ceasefire could spark an intensification of the conflict, many analysts warn.

“It’s difficult to bring the two parties to the table,” Awol explained. “Abiy invited the enemy country, Eritrea, and that’s really hard to reconcile. Barbaric crimes were committed, there’s been a polarisation of the populace and hatred fueled by propaganda. I find it very hard to see how the country can move on.”

On the domestic front, the Amhara “elites” have long contested pieces of territory in what is now Tigray province, particularly the Benishangul-Gumuz region near the eastern border with Sudan, where the massive Grand Renaissance Dam is under construction.

Politically sidelined in recent years, the Amharas nevertheless consider themselves the country’s cultural elites. Critics say Abiy has stoked Amhara nationalism, including frequent references to Menelik I, the first Solomonic emperor of Ethiopia who is believed to be the ancestor of the last emperor, Haile Selassie.

The rise in the TDF’s military fortunes are a troubling development for the Amhara militias, noted Awol. “The biggest losers could be the Amharas because the Ethiopian National Defense Forces have left. Will Abiy now defend the areas the Amharas have taken and now control? There will be military, economic and ideological problems ahead,” he warned.

The only hope, according to Awol, is for the international community, specifically the Western powers, to bring the two sides to the negotiating table. But the seasoned Ethiopian analyst is not putting any bets on a peaceful outcome in the short term.

“This defeat puts the government, that until recently resisted any suggestion of peaceful negotiations, in a very weak position. If there are any negotiations, the TPLF will be negotiating from a position of strength,” Awol noted.

It’s a position Ethiopia’s Nobel laureate leader is unlikely to accept in the spirit of peace.

Source: France 24

27, June 2021

Mali: Protesters call for French troops to leave, some call for greater Russia cooperation ⁰

Activists in Mali stage protest against French military presence in Bamako, calling for the total withdrawal of French troops from the country.

Some waved Russian flags and held banners calling for greater cooperation between Mali and Russia.

The demonstration organised by political fringe group ‘Yerewolo Debouts sur les remparts’ was relatively subdued.

Numbers were lower than organisers had hoped for after heavy rains earlier in the day.

The demonstration came as Germany’s defence minister announced that 12 German troops and a soldier from another country were wounded following an attack on soldiers taking part in a United Nations mission in Mali.

“I would be so happy, like at a party, if France quit Mali today. Really. Ever since we trusted them with our security, everything has become worse.” stressed Bakary Coulibaly, a local resident.

The U.N. mission in the country, MINUSMA, had earlier said that 15 peacekeepers were wound ed when a temporary operational base in the Gao region was targeted with a vehicle bomb.

German y has hundreds of troops taking part in U.N. stabilization and European Union training missions in the West African nation.

“There are injured Germans, that has saddened us because Germany here is not seen as an occupying force. But they are being manipulated by the French, in fact. Germany came here with good intentions to protect us from terrorists, but today they find themselves inside the Machiavellian schemes of France,” according to Pape Diallo, spokesman for protest platform ‘Yerewolo – Debout sur Les Remparts’.

Mali has been trying to contain an Islamic extremist insurgency since 2012.

A military coup last year in Mali has complicated matters further, and the junta’s leaders have faced criticism from France and the African Union.

Source: Africa News

23, June 2021

Former Mauritanian president Aziz in jail over corruption charges ⁰

Mauritania’s former president, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, was on Tuesday jailed after a judge in charge of a corruption probe ordered his incarceration, his party and prosecutors said.

A prosecutor speaking on condition of anonymity and the spokesman of the former president’s party Djibril Ould Bilal confirmed his detention without citing the reason.

Aziz has twice gone before a magistrate investigating the case since the charges, including money laundering, were brought in March.

The move comes days after the former leader refused to continue reporting to police after being put under house arrest.

Aziz ruled the conservative West African state from 2008 to mid-2019, when he was succeeded by his former right-hand man and ex-defence minister, Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani.

The ex-president has said he is being persecuted in a bid to keep him out of politics, but has vowed he will not go into exile.

Aziz joined a small opposition party, Ribat National, in April in an attempt to salvage his political career after being expelled from the ruling Union for the Republic (UPR) party, which he had founded.

The 64-year-old former general who came to power in a coup already had to report to police three times a week and to seek approval before leaving the capital.

The charges followed a year-long probe initiated by parliament into the handling of oil revenue, the sale of state property, the winding up of a publicly owned food-supply company and the activities of a Chinese fishing firm.

A state prosecutor involved with the investigation in March said cash and assets worth the equivalent of about 96 million euros ($115 million) had been seized.

(AFP)