Paul Biya, Tshisekedi-Macron, Algeria-Brics, murders at Fesci, Zlecaf: the 5 news you shouldn’t miss

Hello everyone,

Welcome to this new edition of the Brief Young Africa. Here we offer you a selection of the five most notable articles of the week. You can subscribe to this weekly newsletter below.

On the program for this edition:

1 – Health of Paul Biya: Yaoundé prohibits “any debate” on the subject

2 – OIF summit: Tshisekedi gets angry, Kagame wins

3 – Why Algeria renounces Brics but not its bank

4 – Murders at Fesci: is the powerful and feared Ivorian student union living its last hours?

5 – The Zlecaf coin toss – our series on challenges

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1 – Health of Paul Biya: Yaoundé prohibits “any debate” on the subject

Rumors and speculations. For almost a month, rumors concerning the state of health of Paul Biya have ignited social networks and the Cameroonian political class. The reason? The leader of the State canceled his appearance at three events he had planned to attend: the United Nations General Assembly, the summit of the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF) and a gathering on sustainable development in Germany. In Paris, members of the diaspora organized a demonstration on October 6 in front of the Percy military hospital in Clamart, where a rumor claimed that Paul Biya had been placed in an artificial coma.

Out of silence. While part of the Cameroonian opposition is now demanding that a “vacancy of power” be noted, the presidential services and the government only broke the silence on October 8. The government spokesperson formally denied what he described as “rumors[ant] of the fantasy and pure imagination of their authors.” As for Samuel Mvondo Ayolo, director of Paul Biya’s civil office, he denounced “malicious people [qui] have undertaken to do believe that the president would be seriously ill, or even passed away”, adding that he wanted to “reassure all our compatriots about the excellent state of health of the head of state”.

Return to silence. Thursday October 10, in a surprising reversal of communication strategy, the Ministry of Territorial Administration decreed a “ban” on any debate on the state of health of the president. And this, specified the press release signed by the hand of the minister, Paul Atanga Nji, “during the week or on weekends” (sic). From now on, will omerta prevail? While waiting to know more, while the Cameroonian political sphere is lost in conjectures, the markets are showing signs of feverishness in the face of the risks of instability.

2 – OIF summit: Tshisekedi gets angry, Kagame wins

A (false) good start? A secret diplomatic battle took place between Kinshasa and Kigali, on the sidelines of the summit of the International Organization of the Francophonie (OIF), which was held in Villers-Cotterêts et Paris, October 4 and 5. The summit had, however, apparently started under the best auspices, if we consider the state of current relations between the DRC and Rwanda. As proof, the handshake between Louise Mushikiwabo, former Rwandan Minister of Foreign Affairs and now Secretary General of the OIF, and Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi.

Congolese expectations. Before this very symbolic image, Félix Tshisekedi had spoken for more than an hour with his French counterpart and discussed Kigali’s support for the M23, which is raging in the east of the DRC. Emmanuel Macron then “condemned Rwanda”, according to a person close to the Congolese presidency, adding that Kinshasa asked the French president to “take sanctions” against Kigali, report Romain Chanson and Jeanne Le Bihan, who covered the event for Young Africa.

Diplomatic misstep. Except that, a few hours later, during his opening speech, Emmanuel Macron launched a vibrant appeal for “a diplomacy which defends sovereignty [et] territorial integrity”, before citing the conflicts raging on the planet. All, except one: the DRC. This is the diplomatic incident. Anger of Félix Tshisekedi, who shortens his presence at the summit and boycotts the closed session of heads of state. Kinshasa judges that Emmanuel Macron wanted to satisfy Paul Kagame, to the detriment of the DRC.

3 – Why Algeria renounces Brics but not its bank

No to Brics. Abdelmadjid Tebboune does not want Algiers to join “a group in which she is not wanted”. This group is the Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa, Argentina, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Ethiopia and Iran). Algeria has indeed knocked on their door, without much success so far: in June 2023, its application was officially rejected – for the moment. A decision considered as a humiliation by Algiers, which therefore decided to purely and simply stop trying to join the organization.

Yes to the NDB. Visibly angry, the Algerian president now judges that the page on his country’s entry into the Brics has “turned”. But he did not call into question Algeria’s accession to the New Brics Development Bank (NDB) in August. “Abdelmadjid Tebboune is trying to hide the failure of Brics membership with a seat in the NDB. But being satisfied with this seat is incoherent and politically less prestigious,” analyzes an Algerian economist, in the decryption signed for Young Africa Maher Hajbi on this strange positioning.

4 – Murders at Fesci: is the powerful student union living its last hours?

“Wizard General.” It is a very obscure affair which is shaking the Student and School Federation of Côte d’Ivoire (Fesci). On the night of September 29 to 30, the body of Mars Aubin Deagoué, alias General Sorcerer, summer deposited at the Cocody University Hospital. A murder which, for justice, would be linked to the powerful student union: the young man, in master’s degree, was in “perpetual conflict” with the secretary general of Fesci, Sié Kambou. The affair made all the more noise because a month earlier, on August 29, another student member of the union, Diomandé Khalifa, died after being beaten. Justice opened two legal proceedings. And Sié Kambou was placed in pre-trial detention.

Cocktails molotov et grenades. The Ivorian authorities have launched several operations on campus, aiming in particular to “liberate” student accommodation, part of which is managed directly by Fesci, which allocates rooms and collects rents. According to our information, in Abidjan alone, 432 rooms were emptied, 18 illegal buildings destroyed and 54 kitchens transformed into vacated rooms. And the police sometimes discovered real guerrilla arsenals. Machetes and others slingshots, but also motolov cocktails and, even, two offensive grenades.

Dissolution. Should the very powerful student organization be dissolved or not? The question is stirring debates in Ivory Coast. Fesci, extremely powerful, was notably one of Laurent Gbagbo’s armed arms during the politico-military crisis. In 1990, Alassane Ouattara, then Prime Minister, made the decision to dissolve Fesci. But this only had the effect of strengthening the organization, allowing it to gain strength in clandestinity, recalls Florence Richard, in the story she gives for Young Africa of this thorny issue. “The question of its dissolution is discussed with, in the opinion of the majority of us, the idea that we must move towards this while taking into account the fed up of the populations,” confided a government source.

5 – Zlecaf coin flip – our series on challenges

Analyse. This week, Young Africa offered you a series in three episodes which take stock of one of the most structuring projects launched by the African Union: the effective establishment of the African Continental Free Trade Area (Zlecaf), officially launched in 2018. In the first episode, Kanika Saigal, journalist at The Africa Reportanalyse the challenges facing the Zlecaf. Because if, “from a point of view historical, the Continental Free Trade Area in Africa is progressing faster than any other free trade area before it,” underlines Carlos Lopes, member of the Zlecaf advisory council, the challenges, internal and external, remain numerous.

Portrait. He is the face of the “largest free trade zone in the world”. The South African Wamkele Mene, secretary general of Zlecaf, has a lot to do to convince people of the merits of his strategy and remove all obstacles to make the “dream” of Zlecaf a reality. In the second episode of our series, Thaïs Brouck and Manon Laplace paints the portrait of this 44-year-old trained jurist, former lawyer on Wall Street, who notably worked for the World Trade Organization and the South African Ministry of Trade and Commerce. Industry.

Infographic. Where is the Zlecaf in concrete terms? In the third episode, Thaïs Brouck and Marie Toulemonde take stock of the progress made, particularly on the front of the ratification by the overwhelming majority of countries on the continent of the agreement signed in March 2018 in Kigali. The potential is gigantic: the objective is to achieve an increase in African GDP of 450 billion dollars by 2025, which should help lift no fewer than 30 million people out of extreme poverty. But the challenges are just as great: from the – costly – absence of a common currency to the infrastructure deficit, including fears of « dumping » intra-African.