Migrants die off coast of Senegal as states crack down on living
France24, 11/8–A small boat carrying migrants sank off northwestern Senegal killing 34 people in the latest tragedy along the dangerous Atlantic Ocean route from Africa to Europe, the authorities said Sunday. It was the latest disaster on a route where thousands have died in recent years trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands from West Africa…Senegal, Mauritania and Morocco have stepped up maritime patrols around departure points for small boats, forcing them to head further south towards the coasts of Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, and Guinea, which prolongs the duration of the already hazardous crossing.
Analysts argue that terrorism is connected to poverty and lack of hope
Foreign Affairs, 11/9–Africa’s entanglement with terrorist and jihadi groups is hardly new. Al-Qaeda’s 1998 attacks on U.S. embassies in Dar-es-Salaam and Nairobi were planned from Sudan…These developments prompted a number of Western-led antiterrorism campaigns, often supported by African forces. Most notable were the military interventions in the Sahel led by the French and other Western special forces and the initial U.S.-supported intervention force in Somalia, the so-called Somali Warlord Alliance…fragile or collapsing state institutions have been crucial enablers: states’ inability to ensure the welfare and security of their citizens…to alleviate the widespread poverty, unemployment, and disease that have created openings for extremism.
ANC releases results of 32-year experiment showing that capitalism sucks
The Guardian, 11/6–The African National Congress is on course to suffer a bruising defeat in South Africa’s local elections, with the once dominant party of Nelson Mandela falling to under a third of the vote nationally…Wednesday’s fragmented vote marks another stage in the decline of the ANC, which has led national governments since the end of white minority apartheid rule in 1994. High unemployment, crime, corruption and poor local service delivery have all contributed to voters turning away from the party…In Johannesburg, South Africa’s commercial capital and biggest city, with 4.8 million people, voters have had to contend with regular water and power cuts, uncollected rubbish and potholes.
Emirates fights for control of Africa using Colombian mercenaries
New York Times, 11/5–The United Arab Emirates hired Colombian mercenaries to fight alongside a notorious Sudanese paramilitary group that has been accused of genocide, United Nations investigators have found. A confidential report…details how an Emirati security company with close ties to the government moved the Colombians into Sudan through territory controlled by Emirati proxies in Libya and Somalia. The report is the most detailed accounting…of the Emirati role in Sudan’s civil war, in which the Emirates is accused of supplying drones, weapons and mercenaries to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, or R.S.F.
Fighting in Ethiopia and Tigray targets civilians
Al Jazeera, 11/2– Fighting and drone strikes in northern Ethiopia are pushing the country’s fragile health system towards collapse, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) has warned…the conflict between rebels from the northern Tigray region and the government in Addis Ababa had killed several civilians in recent days and strained medical facilities. At least 15 people, several of them children, died in a series of drone strikes that hit a camp for displaced civilians in Ethiopia’s Amhara region…Renewed fighting between an alliance of rebels from the northern Tigray region and the government in Addis Ababa has all but shattered the November 2022 peace agreement between the two groups…
Fight for DR Congo’s metals continues
Reuters, 11/5– Residents living near a major Chinese-controlled cobalt mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo have sued the mine’s operator for $6.3 million, alleging that pollution harmed their health, according to UK-based corporate watchdog RAID…COMMUS is 67%-owned by Zijin Mining, with state miner Gecamines and the Congolese government holding minority stakes. It has production capacity of more than 120,000 metric tons of copper and 2,000 tons of cobalt per year, according to the company. Congo is the world’s largest cobalt producer and second-largest copper producer.
