French President Emmanuel Macron is due to start a five-day trip to Africa on Wednesday, with stops in Gabon, Angola, Congo and Congo-Brazzaville, the Élysée Palace announced.
Mr Macron plans to attend a UNESCO conference on the protection of forests, the One Forest Summit in Gabon’s capital Libreville.The president also plans to open a new French embassy in the city.
In Angola, the main topic for discussion is expected to be cooperation in the agricultural sector, likely to increase the country’s security of supply and help farmers prepare for climate change.
In the two Congo republics, the focus is expected to be on cultivating relations with France.Mr Macron’s trip to Africa came when France, as a former colonial power, is under pressure in several African countries.
Anti-French resentment is being expressed, for example, in the countries of the Sahel, where France has troops stationed in the fight against terrorism.
Russia is also trying to gain influence in the region with the help of the mercenary force Wagner.
On Monday, before the start of his trip, Mr Macron announced the withdrawal of more soldiers from Africa.
“The troop strength is to be visibly reduced,” said Mr Macron.
Mr Macron also held out the prospect of a law to return looted art.
Ghanaian music star, Wendy Shay has said that her countrymen in the music industry should thank their Nigerian counterparts for bringing the world’s attention to Africa.
Wendy stated that Nigerians did this through afrobeats. She added that Ghanaians must wake up.
The United States of America’s Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, has said that the US government is strategically interested in Nigeria because the country practices democracy and is the sole decider in the growth of the African continent.
Ambassador Nuland said this during a press briefing with selected media correspondents on Thursday at the US Ambassador to Nigeria’s residence, Maitama, Abuja.
She said, “The way Nigeria goes is the way the continent goes. Concerning our strategic interest in the country, there’s always a war between authoritarianism and democracy, and considering the fact that Nigeria is the largest democracy in Africa, if Nigeria can become increasingly stable and secure, empower its population, diversify its economy and empower the next generation, it will be a powerful engine not only for itself but for the African continent and all democracies across the world.”
The Under Secretary, who also met with the Vice-President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, and the Chief of Staff to the President, Ibrahim Gambari, at the State House, said the focus of her visit was concerning the issues of security, free, fair, credible and peaceful elections.
Nuland said, “We have been focusing on the issues of security, free, fair, credible, and peaceful elections. We also talked more broadly about our security relationship, but at the high end in terms of the holistic approach to security, earlier we delivered some Tucano jets, and we are about to have a new delivery of helicopters as well.
“Concerning our cooperation, we talked about the fact that security needs to be about countering terrorism at the high end, however, it also needs to be about what comes behind it – such as better governance, employment, and better opportunity, which would drive out the ability of terrorists and terrorism to return to communities.”
She noted that it was one thing to root out terrorists from communities, but the government must also provide sustainable policing, community security, better services, and good governance, otherwise, the terrorists would always be back.
“The way terrorists get into communities and destroy the fabric of the nation is ‘an evil thing.’ We think that Nigeria, with our support, needs to address this in a holistic way. However, what we are trying to do now in our collaboration with the government is to integrate the air and ground approach to security.”
Commending Nigeria for its leadership in the Economic Community of West African States, she said, “We need a regional approach to this problem because these terrorists are running across borders, and we all need to work together. Nigeria plays a huge role not only for its own security but also for the security of the region, through the ECOWAS.”
Nuland, who also met with some members of civil society organisations to discuss the forthcoming 2023 general election among other issues, noted that the U.S. was very pleased with the new Electoral Act and also the longer period for campaigns towards the elections.
She said, “We’re very pleased with the new Electoral Act and also the longer period for campaigns towards the elections. The United States will support the Independent National Electoral Commission, and the police, to provide security because we know there is quite a bit of anxiety about that.”
The Under Secretary also stated that the United States was interested in having investors in Nigeria, but there was a need to have an enabling environment considering the issue of corruption.
“The United States government would love to see more investors in Nigeria but there is a need for an enabling environment as corruption remains an obstacle.” She said.
The PUNCH had, on Wednesday, June 15, reported Ambassador Nuland’s visits to Djibouti, Mozambique, and her expected visit to Nigeria.
Her visit to the African continent began on Saturday, June 11, and ended on Friday, June 17, 2022.
In Djibouti, Nuland and an interagency met with government counterparts to advance US-Djibouti relations and the two countries’ close security cooperation.
While in Mozambique, she met with government officials and civil society members to discuss ‘the full range of bilateral and regional issues, including opportunities to advance stability and economic recovery in conflict-affected areas in support of her government’s new partnership’ under the US ‘Strategy to Prevent Conflict and Promote Stability.
Ambassador Nuland was sworn in as Under Secretary for Political Affairs in April 2021. Before that, she was a Senior Counselor at the Albright Stonebridge Group, a global strategic advisory and commercial diplomacy firm based in Washington DC. She was also a non-resident Senior Fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Distinguished Practitioner in Grand Strategy at Yale University, and a Member of the Board of the National Endowment for Democracy.
After 33 years as a U.S. diplomat, she served as Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs from September 2013 until January 2017 under President Barack Obama.
She served as Special Envoy and chief negotiator on the Treaty on Conventional Arms Control in Europe from 2010 – 2011, and as Deputy National Security Advisor to Vice President Cheney from 2003-2005. In addition to two tours at NATO in Brussels, she had served overseas in Russia, China, and Mongolia, and various assignments at the State Department in Washington.
She was also State Department’s spokesperson during Secretary Hillary Clinton’s tenure, and U.S. Ambassador to NATO during President George Washington Bush’s second term, between 2005 and 2008
A Nigerian man identified as Kunle Adeyanju who began a London to Lagos ride with his powerbike has landed in Africa after traveling for five days.
CorrectNG reported earlier that he embarked on the cross-country trip from London, UK on April 19 as he noted he is is expected to last on the road for 25 days and cover 12,000kms.
Kunle took his Twitter account on April 25 to announce that he has reached Africa. He shared a photo of himself at the Casablanca boundary in Morocco.
According to him, the charity ride is aimed at raising funds which will be dedicated to primary healthcare, Polio plus project, water and sanitation.
Nigerian Dancehall and Afrobeats star, Damini Ogulu, known professionally as Burna Boy, has demanded the unity of African countries.
The Grammy winner made this call in a recent interview with CNN, noting that African countries may only achieve the respect they seek if they band together.
Burna also said that he wished every country on the continent were using a single passport for international travels.
He added; “It cannot be achieved by the way it’s been going, we’ve been falling for a long time so why not try something new?
“It’s just a wish, maybe a farfetched wish. I wish we had one passport which would make it easier for Africans to travel outside the continent. I wish we could be considered as the United States, like the way America is … (Let’s say) me and you want to go to Spain or wherever on a commercial flight — let’s see who gets in first.”
When asked who should be on the currency of this “United Africa,” Burna said; “On the currency should be people who have had these ideas for generations, who have died with these ideas and have been killed for these ideas. People like Moammar Gadhafi [former leader of Libya who was overthrown and assassinated in 2011] whose everything was about uniting Africa and having one currency, backed by gold.”
The World Health Organization (WHO) has approved the rollout of the first malaria vaccine in Africa.
The WHO Director-General, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who confirmed the development at a media briefing on Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland, said the rollout of the vaccine aimed at reducing infant mortality arising from malaria across the continent.
He said the RTS,S vaccine would be made available to countries after successful pilot programmes in Ghana, Kenya, and Malawi.
The RTS,S vaccine, also known as Mosquirix, was developed by the British pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
Ghebreyesus said: “I started my career as a malaria researcher, and I longed for the day that we would have an effective vaccine against this ancient and terrible disease. And today is that day, a historic day. Today, the WHO is recommending the broad use of the world’s first malaria vaccine.
Using this vaccine in addition to existing tools to prevent malaria could save tens of thousands of young lives each year.
“It is safe. It significantly reduces life-threatening, severe malaria, and we estimate it to be highly cost-effective.
“Malaria has been with us for millennia, and the dream of a malaria vaccine has been a long-held, but unattainable dream. Today, the RTS,S malaria vaccine, more than 30 years in the making, changes the course of public health history. We still have a very long road to travel. But this is a long stride down that road.”
The World Health Organisation (WHO) said on Tuesday the third wave of COVID-19 was stabilising in Africa.
The WHO Representative in Nigeria, Dr. Walter Kazadi Mulombo, disclosed this to journalists at a media briefing in Abuja.
He, however, added that the number of new cases was still very high with 248, 000 reported in the past week.
The WHO official stressed that trend in Africa was that each new wave struck the continent “faster and harder, reaching a higher number of new cases, more rapidly than the previous wave.”
He said: “This puts an increasing strain on already stretched health facilities and health workers.
The good news is that, increasing vaccine supplies raises hope that the continent will meet the target of vaccinating 10 percent of the population by the end of September.”
He noted that equitable access to safe and effective vaccines was critical to ending the COVID-19 pandemic in Nigeria.
Mulombo added: “However, to understand the recent upward trend that Nigeria is experiencing, we must remind ourselves that weak observance of preventive measures, increased population movement and interaction had heightened the risk of COVID-19 resurgence in many states.
These factors can contribute to increased case numbers. This ebb and flow in the pandemic’s transmission dynamics is expected and is likely to continue until a sizeable proportion of the Nigerian population is vaccinated.
“We have also been asked, at what point would WHO reconsider its position on booster doses”?
“The answer is, first, WHO is looking carefully at the outcome, which is of most relevance from a public health perspective, that is the severe disease, hospitalization and death outcomes.
“The second consideration is the consistency of the findings. Acting on a single study is just not a sound policy basis. So, we are including the entirety of the evidence.
The third consideration is around the issue of the risk groups. Recommendations around the use of booster doses will very much be tailored to risk groups which may experience some change in the performance of the vaccines over a period.”
Zimbabwe’s Foreign Affairs Minister, Sibusiso Moyo, has died, with details on the circumstance around his death unclear.
President Emmerson Mnangagwa eulogised Mr Moyo as a “devoted public servant and a true hero”:
Mr Moyo, a major general, was the face of the military takeover which ousted former President Robert Mugabe.
On the night of the coup d’etat, he appeared on television, in uniform, to ask Zimbabweans to remain calm and assure them that only “criminals” were being targeted.
Two cabinet ministers, Ellan Gwaradzimba and Perrance Shiri, have died over the last six months. Mr Shiri died from Covid-19.
Sibusiso Moyo
President Mnangagwa took to Twitter and said: “It is with a heavy heart that I announce Foreign Minister Dr SB Moyo has died.
“Zimbabwe has lost a devoted public servant and a true hero, and I have lost a friend. He fought his entire life so that Zimbabwe could be free.
The internet shutdown in Uganda that had entered its fifth day on Monday has ended, with reports suggesting social media is still blocked and only be accessed through VPN.
The Internet was shut down on Wednesday night, a few hours to go before polling stations opened for Thursday’s general elections.
This was shortly after Facebook apparently suspended hundreds of pro-government Ugandan accounts.
President Yoweri Museveni while commenting about Facebook’s decision said there was no way anyone would come to Uganda and decide what was good or bad.
Prime Minister Ruhakana Rugunda, however, told NBS television that government was still assessing the level of threat before a decision can be taken to restore internet services.
President Yoweri Museveni
Meanwhile, offices, where agents were gathering material for an election petition, were raided by military officers, the spokesman for Uganda’s biggest opposition party, National Unity Platform (NUP) has said.
Joel Ssenyonyi told the BBC that the party was in the process of collecting election results forms that show evidence of irregularities in last week’s election.
“Each presidential candidate is provided with the DR [declaration results] form, why doesn’t he want to present the DR forms that were given to us by his electoral commission?”, Ssenyonyi questioned.
The opposition said they had photos and video evidence too.
“Mr Museveni knows we have those things that is why he is shutting down the internet; he doesn’t want us to put those things out there for the whole of Uganda and the international community to realise how much of a fraudster he is,” he said.
President Museveni said the poll could be the “most cheating-free” in the history of the African nation.
The EU, the United Nations and several rights groups have raised concerns. Aside from an African Union mission, no major international group monitored the vote.
Former Nigerian Finance Minister, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, on Saturday, highlighted six economic opportunities for Nigeria and other African countries as they strive to recover from the negative shocks of the pandemic.
She made this known today at the 15th Convocation of Bowen University in Iwo, Osun State.
Okonjo-Iweala, who is the leading candidate for the job of director-general of the World Trade Organization, spoke on ‘Revisiting Africa’s Economy Post-COVID-19’.
The convocation lecturer said the impact of the pandemic on Africa’s economy has been devastating, urging African leaders to look inwards and grow capacities for their respective economies.
The former World Bank director said, “As Africa recovers from the health and economic impacts of COVID-19, it must learn from the pandemic.
“COVID-19 has highlighted the existing structural and institutional weaknesses of Africa’s economy but it has also cast a light on existing opportunities and opened up new ones. Africa must seize all these factors to re-fashion its economy and build it with more resilience.
“Let me highlight six opportunities and approaches for re-fashioning a post-COVID-19 African economy.”
According to her, increasing the industrialization on the continent will provide more jobs for Africa’s youthful population.
“COVID-19 brought into relief Africa’s undiversified commodity-dependent economy. The lack of diversification relates to both products and sources of revenue.
“Africa must manufacture more through value-addition to the raw materials it exports. The transformation of cocoa into delicious Ivorian chocolate provides a good example.
“There is no doubt that African countries need to make the requisite investment in infrastructure, skills, and a conducive business environment,” she said.
The former Economy Minister also harped on more digitization of economic, health, and educational activities in Africa going forward.
One of the opportunities highlighted by the pandemic is the potential of the digital economy including e-commerce, e-learning, e-health, she said.
She noted that African governments must grow the continent’s about 90 million Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises through free registration, access to grants, soft loans, amongst others to ensure business owners grow and create jobs.
A post-COVID-19 African economy cannot grow unless there is continuous investment in Africa’s infrastructure, she stated, adding that investment in human development especially education and health is also key to Africa’s emergence post-pandemic.
Okonjo-Iweala added that African governments must improve governance, transparency and accountability.
“A post-COVID-19 modern African economy must be anchored on these values of open, transparent and accountable governance; governance that gives youths, women and other marginalized people increased voice,” she stated.
MAURITIUS Mauritius is a country in East Africa, known for its beaches, lagoons and reefs. This is Ganga Talao , a place in Mauritius known to be a tourist attraction for Indians.
Baobab Tree hotel & spar, Mahajanga , Madagascar.
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Movenpick Ambassador hotel , Accra , Ghana.
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