War in Sudan causes new influx of refugees into Chad, UN worries
Chad saw 25,000 refugees flock from neighboring Sudan to escape the war during the first week of October, a record in 2024, and the situation is far from stabilizing after 18 months of a conflict of rare violence , warns the UN. United Nations regional refugee coordinator Mamadou Dian Balde estimates that the threshold of three million people who have fled Sudan will be crossed in the next two to three weeks, he said in an interview with AFP , during his visit to Geneva this week. There are “almost three million”, a “disaster” which he explains by the intensification of the “brutality” of the conflict. AFP
In Guinea, relatives of two activists who have disappeared for three months point to the responsibility of the junta
According to the National Front for the Defense of the Constitution, Oumar Sylla and Billo Bah were kidnapped on July 9 by security forces. The Ministry of Justice says it has no record of their incarceration… The Ministry of Justice says it has no record of their incarceration. But for FNDC activists, who denounce a “kidnapping”, the defense and security forces are behind this disappearance. They base this on the testimony of Mohamed Cissé, released twenty-four hours later with “broken ribs”. His jailers feared, he said, that he would die in their hands. His story, filmed and published online after his exfiltration from the country, points to important officers, some of the special forces, the unit led by General Mamadi Doumbouya before his coup d’état… According to several sources, before the kidnapping, updates on guard had been sent by the presidency to the leaders of the FNDC. The World
Mali: how Wagner intensified its operations in the commune of Nampala
Tuesday October 8 and Wednesday October 9, 2024, Wagner’s men arrested, in front of witnesses, around twenty people in hamlets in the commune of Nampala, including traditional chiefs and even an old man unable to move around alone. Since then, their loved ones have had no news – some believe them to be dead. Two bodies were also found, one with its throat slit, the other charred, in Ndorgollé, and two people are missing. No fights were reported. The witnesses only mention the Wagner group, and not the Malian soldiers. Finally, several dozen cattle were killed – another form of condemnation for the Fulani herding communities… The sources joined by RFI deplore the jihadist presence, but perceive and describe Wagner’s incursions as acts of “revenge” hitting the populations without distinction, and not as anti-terrorist operations aimed at protecting residents. RFI
Niger: in Niamey, the junta renames streets and monuments bearing French names
Several historic places in the capital previously bearing names evoking France, a former colonial power, have been renamed in the names of Nigerien or pan-Africanist personalities… The French soldiers engaged in the anti-jihadist fight were chased out, the ambassador expelled, and the Franco-Nigerian cultural center ceased to operate as a binational establishment, being renamed Moustapha-Alassane, named after a Nigerien filmmaker. The regime, which makes its sovereignty a pillar of its policy, frequently accuses Paris of wanting to destabilize it. On Tuesday, in Niamey, a monument was even completely redone: the portrait of the French commander and explorer Perfect-Louis Monteil, engraved for decades in a stone monument, was replaced by a plaque bearing the effigy of Thomas Sankara. The World with AFP
In Africa, ten million children deprived of school by massive floods
Ten million children are being deprived of school by massive floods in West and Central Africa, says the children’s aid organization Save the Children in a press release published Tuesday October 15. The non-governmental organization (NGO) calls on donors to support assistance to affected populations…Since the start of the rainy season, deluges of water have fallen over vast areas, causing floods and floods which have caused hundreds of deaths and hundreds of thousands of displaced people in Chad, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Guinea and Cameroon. The World with AFP
Black supremacist Kemi Seba arrested in Paris
Beninese activist Kemi Seba was arrested in Paris, “in possession of a Nigerien diplomatic passport and a Schengen visa,” Le Monde learned from an official French source on Tuesday October 15. Chief critic of French policy in Africa whose activities were financed for a time by the Russian private security group Wagner, the president of the NGO Urgences panafricanistes was granted, at the beginning of August, a diplomatic passport by the general Abdourahamane Tiani in his capacity as “special advisor” to the head of the ruling Nigerien junta. A response provided, according to Kemi Seba, “to the procedure for forfeiture of [s]a nationality committed by Françafrique against [s]no one,” he announced on the social network Four months earlier, he had filmed himself in the Paris suburbs burning his French passport. The reason for his arrest remains unknown at this time. The World with AFP
In Senegal, the government presents its major development plan
One month before the early legislative elections of November 17 and six months after his presidential election, the head of state, Bassirou Diomaye Faye, and his prime minister, Ousmane Sonko, unveiled on Monday October 14 a program to “make Senegal , a sovereign, prosperous and just country”, baptized “Senegal 2050″… Like his predecessors before him, the new executive has multiplied the numerical objectives for the next twenty-five years: tripling the GDP per capita to establish it at 4 500 dollars (around 4,130 euros) or even reduce the poverty rate to 10% of the population, while nearly four out of ten Senegalese survive on less than 1,012 CFA francs (around 1.5 euros) per day, after the National Agency for Statistics and Demography (ANSD). The World
Alassane Ouattara and Nana Akufo-Addo, the inside story of a tête-à-tête between friends
The Ghanaian head of state, Nana Akufo-Addo, who has pledged to leave power at the end of his second term in December 2024, visited Ivory Coast on October 10 and 11. Although this trip had been planned for a long time, neither he nor Alassane Ouattara (ADO) had until then managed to make their agendas coincide…The two leaders have known each other for a long time. Their friendship dates back to the time when Alassane Ouattara was an opponent of Laurent Gbagbo, and Nana Akufo-Addo was John Kufuor’s foreign affairs minister (2003 to 2007). Nana Akufo-Addo was one of the mediators in the Ivorian crisis, which ended with the signing of the Accra Peace Accords in 2002, 2003 and 2004…On October 11, Alassane Ouattara and Nana Akufo-Addo discussed the Ghanaian presidential election, which is due to be held on December 7. Young Africa
Liberia signs agreement with Starlink to strengthen its internet coverage
Liberia announced this week the signing of a one-year agreement with American billionaire Elon Musk’s company, satellite internet provider Starlink, to boost coverage in the South African country. West…Internet coverage is currently around 60%, Liberia Telecommunications Authority (LTA) head Abdullah L. Kamara told reporters Thursday. According to him, the objective is to achieve 100% coverage with the help of the American company. “Every village, town and even your farm can have access to the internet,” thanks to this agreement, Mr. Kamara said during a press conference broadcast on the LTA Facebook page…Only 30% of Liberia’s population , of 5.3 million inhabitants, have access to reliable internet services, according to the LTA website. AFP
Eruption of the Nyamulagira volcano in the DRC: the strike of employees of the Volcanology Observatory worries the populations
In the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo, civil society in North Kivu denounces the government’s carelessness regarding the monitoring of volcanoes around Goma. Since last Sunday, the Nyamulagira volcano has been erupting with great intensity while agents of the Goma Volcanological Observatory (OVG) are on strike. The populations are worried, but the specialists are reassuring… On images taken by satellite we see three distinct lava flows emerging from the Nyamulagira crater, and the most advanced has already traveled approximately 7 kilometers into the park. If this situation arouses fear, it is out of fear of seeing the same effects as in 2021. The Nyiragongo volcano erupted while OVG agents were on strike. The agents went on strike in June but provided minimum service until September, when they ceased all activity. RFI
