Tag: AFRICA

The situation is particularly dire in countries that have suffered from war, instability and armed conflict for years…reports Asian Lite News

The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has warned that almost 350 million people in Africa, nearly a quarter of the continent’s population, do not have enough food to eat, media reported.

Some 346 million people do not have enough to eat, new agency DPA quoted ICRC as saying.

“We face an urgent and rapidly deteriorating global food security situation, especially in parts of Africa and the Middle East. Armed conflict, political instability, climate shocks and the secondary impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have weakened capacities to withstand and recover from shocks,” ICRC Director-General Robert Mardini said.

“The knock-on-effects of the armed conflict in Ukraine have made an already critical situation even worse.”

“The situation is urgent, and the window of time left to act is narrowing. Without concerted and collaborative efforts, this risks becoming an irreversible humanitarian crisis with an unimaginable human cost,” he said.

ALSO READ:Tanzania pays Tributes to Nyerere

The situation is particularly dire in countries that have suffered from war, instability and armed conflict for years, including Syria, Yemen, Mali, Somalia, Afghanistan and Ethiopia, he said.

The rise in food prices as a result of the Ukraine war hit those who were already vulnerable, particularly hard, he said, noting that Somalia, for example, received more than 90% of its wheat from Russia or Ukraine.

In Yemen, half the population did not have enough to eat. The situation is made worse by the fact that parts of Africa are suffering from the worst drought in 40 years.

When the African Union was launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), its founders pledged a shift to a more realistic and pragmatic stance on political cooperation

The African Union marked its 20th anniversary last week. In the two decades since it was officially founded, the organization has accomplished much, especially when it comes to amplifying Africa’s voice on the global stage and breaking down the continent’s trade barriers.

But, critics say, the African Union needs to better deal with the conflicts and undemocratic changes of government that are threatening the continent’s prosperity, as well as to find a unified voice to tackle climate change.

When the African Union was launched in 2002 as a successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), its founders pledged a shift to a more realistic and pragmatic stance on political cooperation.

“Time has come that Africa must take her rightful place in global affairs,” the first AU chairperson, Thabo Mbeki, declared at his inauguration speech in Durban, South Africa.

Analysts agree that this has often been achieved — with the bloc’s 55 member states managing to engage collectively on many global issues, giving Africa a greater say in the international arena.

“African countries are following Europe’s lead at becoming more successful at drafting, negotiating and presenting common positions to advance and defend our own interests,” Ghana’s Ambassador to Belgium and Luxembourg Siaw-Boateng said at a public webinar about the AU hosted by the Institute for Security Studies, a South Africa-based think tank.

When Africa acts as one, Siaw-Boateng said, “the world sits up and takes notice.”

Most recently the African Union has received praise for its role in coordinating the continent’s pandemic response and lobbying for vaccine access and COVID-19 debt relief.

At the same time, several analysts are critical of the AU’s failure to develop a common position on climate change, given Africa’s increasing vulnerability to global warming.

The bloc has also been unable to find a unified stance on Russia’s influence in Africa and the invasion of Ukraine.

“We need to stop being selfish,” Siaw-Boateng said. Africa needs to discuss its place in the world and project its interests outwards, she added.

The AU is loosely based on the European Union model, and like the EU, one of its founding pillars is economic integration.

The start of the African free trade agreement, or AfCFTA, on January 1, 2021 saw the AU inject new dynamism into this objective.

AfCFTA, which aims to create a single market for goods and services, is expected to boost intra-Africa trade by about $35 billion (€34.4 billion) and also make it easier to attract large-scale infrastructure investment because of the bigger size of the market. The African Union is coordinating the agreement’s negotiations and implementation.

Germany’s agency for international cooperation, GIZ, sees AfCFTA as a “huge diplomatic and political success given the short timeline, the ambitious liberalization goals set, and the heterogeneity and large number of 55 member states negotiating the Free Trade Area.”

The AU has also managed to deepen its peace and security cooperation with the United Nations over the past two decades.

Before the AU was founded, and in the early years of its existence, the United Nations was the main security actor on the continent and the main provider of peacekeeping forces.

This was largely because the AU’s predecessor, the OAU, lacked the legal means to become involved in domestic conflicts.

The African Union, however, took a different approach. Embracing the principle of “nonindifference,” it has a mandate to intervene in a member state in the face of war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

The African Union has since developed significant peacekeeping operations, both working together with UN forces in places such as Mali and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as deploying operations of its own in countries like Burundi and Sudan and currently in Somalia.

The lack of coordination between the organizations’ main political organs — the UN Security Council and AU Peace and Security Council — during major crises “signal an uncomfortable future for inter-council cooperation,” finds a 2019 analysis of AU-UN cooperation by the independent International Crisis Group.

ALSO READ:African anti-corruption day

The African Union has also had a “positive influence” within the continent, Tieku said.

It has done this by spreading liberal values of democracy, including free elections, transparency and anti-coup norms, he added.

“Prior to the formation of the AU, the word democracy was very controversial, very contested, and a number of African elites associated it with colonialism and the colonial legacy,” he said.

Tieku said the AU could also be credited with boosting the perception that coups are an illegitimate means of acquiring power in Africa.

Most recently, the African Union suspended the membership of Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea and Sudan after military coups.

Coup leaders in all of these countries, however, have ignored the African Union’s calls for a return to democratic government.

Tunisia witnessed a noticeable rebound in Covid-19 cases as the test positivity rate has risen to 50 per cent from about 21.75 per cent over the past two weeks, private radio station Mosaique FM reported…reports Asian Lite News

“The health situation in Tunisia is worrying but remains under control,” Samia Ayed, spokesperson for the Tunisian scientific committee for the fight against the coronavirus, was quoted by Mosaique FM as saying on Monday.

The spokesperson also said that a week of compulsory confinement would be imposed on the pilgrims returning from Saudi Arabia, Xinhua news agency reported.

ALSO READ:Israel Ministry announces Covid-19 vaccination for kids under 5

According to the latest figures released by Tunisian Health Ministry, Tunisia reports 48 fatalities, 13,947 infections in the week from June 27 to July 3, raising the total tally of infections to 1,066,127, and the death toll to 28,748 in the North African country.

Since the start of the national vaccination campaign on March 13, 2021, a total of 6,377,304 Tunisians have been fully vaccinated against the virus.

Since the end of March, the March 23 Movement (M23) has been on the offensive in the eastern DRC province of North Kivu, causing thousands of civilians to be displaced. The DRC authorities accused Rwanda of secretly supporting the rebels to destabilize the east part of the country, while Rwanda has denied the allegation.

 President Felix Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, agreed on a de-escalation process after the resurgence of a rebel group had fuelled tensions between the two countries.

The consensus was reached after a tripartite meeting brought together the two leaders and Angolan President Joao Lourenco as a mediator in Angola’s capital Luanda, which was convened at the request of the African Union. The meeting was aimed at helping restore confidence between Kinshasa and Kigali, according to a statement released by the DRC presidency.

Since the end of March, the March 23 Movement (M23) has been on the offensive in the eastern DRC province of North Kivu, causing thousands of civilians to be displaced.

The DRC authorities accused Rwanda of secretly supporting the rebels to destabilize the east part of the country, while Rwanda has denied the allegation.

At a press briefing on Wednesday, the leaders confirmed that the Rwanda-DRC Joint Permanent Commission, which had not met for several years, will be revived, as part of the de-escalation process they have agreed upon.

The commission will hold a meeting on Tuesday in Luanda over such issues as the normalization of DRC-Rwanda diplomatic relations, an immediate cessation of hostilities and an unconditional withdrawal of the M23 rebels from the DRC, said the statement of the DRC presidency.

Earlier, the government of the DRC has said that it welcomes the deployment of a new regional military force led by the East African Community (EAC), without the participation of Rwandan soldiers, to enforce peace in provinces targeted by the rebels.

Tensions continue running high in DRC’s northeastern North Kivu province with heavy fighting between Congolese soldiers and M23 rebels that have been on the offensive since late March and reportedly took control by force of multiple townships. Besides, relations between the two neighbors are now on thin ice over Kigali’s alleged hidden agenda to “occupy” Congolese resources by supporting the M23.

Since late March, M23 has been on the offensive in the North Kivu province, with thousands of civilians displaced by ongoing fighting. Bunagana, a key strategic town bordering Uganda, reportedly fell into the hands of rebels Monday. Late Friday, the M23 claimed to have taken control of two more villages within the province’s Rutshuru territory.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta, who currently chairs the EAC, called for the immediate deployment of a new regional military force to try to stop rebel violence in the eastern DRC, where dozens of armed groups have been active for more than two decades.

In an interview with the French media France 24 Friday, however, Rwanda’s top diplomat Vincent Biruta not only “supported” the deployment of the regional military force but also announced that Rwanda “is ready to send its men to this regional force.”

As the two neighbors accused each other of supporting rebels opposing respectively to each side, the two countries have gone from trading verbal blows to taking serious actions, and the bilateral relations are now on thin ice.

After shutting down all flights of RwandAir, the flag carrier airline of Rwanda, to the DRC soil, the DRC President Felix Tshisekedi decided Wednesday to ask its government to “suspend all protocol agreements, agreements and conventions” concluded with Rwanda.

The DRC closed its borders with Rwanda in the South Kivu province (eastern DRC) from 3 p.m. till 6 a.m. starting Friday after a Congolese soldier was shot dead by the Rwandan army inside Rwandan territory earlier that day. The Rwandan side accused the Congolese soldier of having fired indiscriminately at Rwandan security personnel and civilians.

ALSO READ:Rwanda Meet Sets New Agenda For C’Wealth

The two neighbors share complicated relations since the Rwanda genocide in 1994, as Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide arrived in eastern DRC. President Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame have attempted to mend the fences by signing three cooperation deals in 2021.

It is already an open secret that Kinshasa has been upset about Kigali’s alleged support of M23 for a long time, but President Tshisekedi has been cautious not to mention Rwanda by name. In early June, President Tshisekedi cut to the chase in his first public remarks about the alleged Rwanda-M23 collusion, asserting that there was “no doubt” that Rwanda was backing the M23 on the Congolese territory.

According to the Congolese government statement released Friday, President Tshisekedi went even further by stating that Rwanda is after DRC’s land and metal resources.

“The security situation in the east of the country continues to deteriorate, and fundamentally because Rwanda seeks to occupy our land, rich in gold, coltan, and cobalt, for their own exploitation and profit,” the statement quoted President Tshisekedi as saying. “This is an economic war for the battle of resources, fought by Rwanda’s terrorist gangs.”

Kigali has not yet made any direct comment on Kinshasa’s latest accusations.

Amid all the tiffs and tit-for-tat, regional mediation has been in motion with a possible tete-a-tete between the two presidents in Angola, under the mediation of the Angolan President Joao Lourenco, in an attempt to bury the hatchet and restore the fragile peace in eastern DRC.

To this day, however, the meeting is still pending as neither of the two countries has yet confirmed or announced any detail of the rendezvous.

“I commend The efforts of President Lourenco. The Rwandan government has accepted the principle of a meeting between the three heads of state in Luanda and a first proposal for the date. We are waiting for the DRC to confirm. It is a matter of weeks,” said Biruta, the Rwandan foreign minister, in an interview with the French magazine Jeune Afrique published Friday.

Members of the Comorian National Military Band perform during a celebration of the 47th anniversary of the country’s independence in Moroni, the Comoros. Comorian President Azali Assoumani (C) inspects the army (Xinhua)