Africa

Photo: François Loucény Fall, Special Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), briefs the Security Council on the situation in the Central African region. UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Kazakhstan Pleads For Coordinated International Response To Security Challenges In Central Africa

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – Underlining interest in cross-border security challenges in Central Africa, as during UN Security Council presidency at the beginning of the year, Kazakhstan has stressed the importance of the United Nations Regional Office for Central Africa (UNOCA), its work in the field of preventive diplomacy and mediation, as well as the support it provides to regional and sub-regional organizations in achieving durable and long-term peace.

Kazakhstan is the first Central Asian country to have been elected to the Security Council as a non-permanent member for the two-year period 2017-2018. Beginning of 2018, Indonesia will step in its toes on behalf of the Asia-Pacific region.

: J Nastranis; CENTRAL ASIA; 17 June 2018

Photo: Ramon Esono Ebale María. Credit: ED Justice

Campaign Frees Famous Cartoonist In Equatorial Guinea Prison

By Lisa Vives

Global Information Network

NEW YORK (GIN) – If you’ve ever received a request to step up for a jailed author, artist or journalist, you might have wondered later: Was he ever freed?

In the case of Ramon Nse Esono Ebale – he certainly was and he thanks you.

In a moving letter published under the title “Artist, Finally Free, Leaves Country,” artist Ramon Esono Ebale confirms he was released after six months in prison on apparent false charges and then a three month wait for travel documents.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 12 June 2018

Photo: Eritreans fleeing the country first have to risk their lives crossing the border, whose guards are authorised to shoot on sight. Those who try to reach Israel must cross the Sinai Peninsula. Many don’t make it. Credit: Gan-Shmuel archive

Security Council Backs Dutch Sanctions Against Eritrean and Libyan Traffickers

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK (IDN) – For the first time ever, the UN Security Council has put human traffickers on an international sanctions list by imposing sanctions on six leaders operating networks in Libya. Four are Libyans, including the head of a regional coast guard unit, and two Eritrean nationals.

By resolution 1970 (2011) and resolution 1973 (2011), the Security Council decided to impose individual targeted sanctions (a travel ban on individuals and an assets freeze on individuals and entities, as listed in the Annexes to the resolutions or designated by the Council's special Committee).

: J Nastranis; THE WORLD; Africa; 10 June 2018

Photo: Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara. Credit: Togo Tribune.

Ivory Coast President's Agenda 2030 Evokes Protests

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YOK (IDN) - In a recent interview with a French magazine, Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara revealed his vision of two more terms in office despite having repeatedly said he would step down at the end of his second term in 2020.

The news throws cold water on the plans of the opposition and even members of Ouattara’s own coalition who had been lining up to run for the powerful job.

But it’s hardly a surprising move in Africa, which is home to many of the world’s longest-ruling heads of state. A phenomenon which had its start under colonialism has taken a life of its own. The trend of entrenched leadership can be seen across the continent, feeding corruption, instability, societal fractures and economic stagnation.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 June 2018

Photo: Cyril Ramaphosa (L) and Jacob Zuma before his ouster. Credit: Face2FaceAfrica

Infighting Delays a ‘New Dawn’ in South Africa

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK (IDN) – South Africa’s former leader Jacob Zuma is among those said to be impeding efforts by his successor, President Cyril Ramaphosa, to create a “new dawn” for citizens and foreign investors – free of corruption and cronyism which became associated with the Zuma regime.

Zuma was ousted as president of South Africa three months ago. It was a humiliating end to his nine-year rule. Now Zuma’s shadow is looming large over the Ramaphosa era as his allies launch a fight back within the ANC."There is bad blood there, and Zuma is feeling betrayed – it is an open secret," political analyst Somadoda Fikeni from the UNISA university in Pretoria told the French news service.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 05 June 2018

Mamadou and Ramatoulaye Opt Out Of Migrating To Europe

Following is the text of an epilogue in Chapter 6, titled 'recommendations and conclusions' of Economic Development in Africa Report 2018: Migration for Structural Transformation, published on June 1, 2018 by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). – The Editor.

GENEVA (IDN | UNCTAD) – The news on the radio about Libya goes on. Mamadou listens again. The news report is about migrants who make it to Libya – only to get trapped into slavery.

His mind goes back to the sounds of the radio at his parents’ modest home one fateful day in early August 1999. Two Guinean boys, Yaguine Koïta and Fodé Tounkara, from Conakry had been found in the undercarriage of a plane in Brussels. They were dead. Lying next to them, in a plastic bag, were their birth certificates and a letter. Mamadou can still hear the voices of despair, commenting on the fate of those boys who had written of their hopes and of their anguish living in Africa in that letter.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Africa; 02 June 2018

Photo: Families of massacre victims, in Kumasi Ghana, April 2018. © 2018 Reed Brody/HRW

Gambia Ex-President Tied to 2005 Murders of Refugees

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | ACCRA (IDN) – Strong evidence has been gathered linking the former president of The Gambia, Yahya Jammeh, to the murder of 44 West African migrants mostly from Ghana by operatives of the ex-president.

The sole survivor of the mass killing, also from Ghana, promised himself not to rest until Jammeh was brought to justice. ''It is my mission, on behalf of my friends, we want justice,'' Martin Kyere, now age 37, told the BBC.

Kyere was selling shoes in Ghana and the Ivory Coast when he decided to use his savings to travel to Senegal and then to Europe. His plan fell apart when the boat used by migrants ran out of fuel and beached in the Gambia. The group was arrested, detained for a week in Banjul and beaten.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 29 May 2018

Photo: Rwandan President Kagame with the President of Niger and Champion of the CFTA Process, Mahamadou Issoufou, and the Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Moussa Faki Mahamat. Credit: The New Times Rwanda.

Me Too Movement Challenges African Halls Of Power

By Lisa Vives, Global Information Network

NEW YORK | JOHANNESBURG (IDN) – A promised investigation into gender discrimination at the African Union appears to be idling on the back burner, according to the South African Mail & Guardian.

Some 37 women employees at the African Union Commission (AUC) have complained of “ill-treatment and humiliation”, investigators at the South African paper found.

The women, who work at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, appealed to Moussa Faki Mahamat, the new AUC chair, and Rwanda President Paul Kagame, the AU chair, in a signed letter obtained by the paper.

: Global Information Network; THE WORLD; Africa; 29 May 2018

Governments Do Little as West African Countries are Plundered

By Will Fitzgibbon

In the region’s largest-ever journalism collaboration, reporters from 11 countries expose the financial secrets of some of West Africa's most powerful politicians, moguls and corporations. The following article first appeared on the website of International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) on 22 May 2018 with the headline WEST AFRICA LEAKS: How Officials, Businesses and Traffickers Hide Billions from Cash-Starved Governments Offshore. Contributors to this story: Moussa Aksar and Alloycious David. – The Editor.

WASHINGTON, D.C. (IDN | ICIJ) – Government officials, arms merchants and corporations have spirited away millions of dollars from destitute West African nations through offshore tax havens, an investigation by journalists from the region and the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists has found.

: IDN-INPS UN Bureau; THE WORLD; Africa; 24 May 2018

Photo: A glimpse of the Continental Conference on Access to Justice for Children in Africa. Credit: The African Child Policy Forum and Defence for Children International.

Conference Calls for Action on Access to Justice for Children in Africa

By J Nastranis

NEW YORK | ADDIS ABABA (IDN) – The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child obliges all members of the world body to respect and ensure the rights of each child "within their jurisdiction without discrimination of any kind". While some progress has been made to fulfil the objectives set out in the Convention, too many commitments remain unfulfilled. This is particularly true for children deprived of liberty, who often remain invisible and forgotten.

Most countries lack data on the number of children deprived of liberty, on the reasons, length and places of detention. Judicial, administrative or other bodies, including the police, military authorities, immigration officials, child protection or welfare bodies, health professionals, and non-state actors, including in situations of armed conflict, decide children's detention.