Redesigned AU conflict intervention force suits African needs but requires funding
Inevitably money is the key issue. The last large AU missions, launched in Mali in 2013 and the Central African Republic in 2014, were quickly passed wholesale to the UN. The AU’s Peace Fund – moribund for years – only recently reached its $400 million target (actually surpassing it by $208 million following a pledge in July by the African Export-Import Bank). But to put that figure in perspective, AMISOM is estimated to have cost $1.2 billion a year.
Irony of UN missions: UN deploys where there’s peace to keep, while African-led PSOs deploy where there’s no peace at all
Eighteen years on, al-Shabab remains a potent presence in Somalia’s south-central countryside. AMISOM found itself hamstrung by inconsistent financing, shortages of equipment, poor coordination and the complexity of Somalia’s domestic politics.
Biden ends African tour with $600m additional pledge for railways project
The corridor, which likely will take years to complete, gives the US better access to cobalt, copper and other critical minerals in Congo and Zambia that are used in batteries for electric vehicles, electronic devices and clean energy technologies that Biden said would power the future.
With a month left of his tenure, Biden is uses visit to Angola to push US interests in African
Joe Biden has long had the nickname Amtrak Joe for the 36 years he spent commuting by US train from his home in Delaware to Washington while in the Senate. He said the Lobito Corridor constituted the largest US investment in a train project outside the country.
Vice President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah wins Namibian presidential election
A mood of change has swept across the region, with parties that led their countries out of white minority or colonial rule in neighbouring South Africa and Botswana both losing their long-held political dominance.
Militarisation of Chinese foreign policy is expressed in establishment of bases in Africa
China benefits from the low priority accorded Africa by the global media and major powers. This has made it easier for the PLA to build up its military footprint in Africa without attracting attention.
Scramble for Africa’s natural resources ushers in militarisation of China’s foreign policy
China’s expanded African engagements follow its global ambitions. When FOCAC was launched in 2000, China had no peacekeepers in Africa and lagged far behind the United States and Europe in the training of African students, civilian and military professionals. Chinese security assistance was non-existent, and China was absent in African security debates.
Biden arrives in Angola to highlight US investments in southern Africa, visit slavery museum
The US has for years built relations in Africa through trade, security and humanitarian aid. The 800-mile (1,300-kilometre) railway upgrade is a different move and has shades of China’s Belt and Road foreign infrastructure strategy in Africa and other parts of the world.
Yuck to profits: Zimbabwe resorts to maggot farming to survive drought, thrive
In Uganda, the maggots helped plug a fertiliser crisis caused by the war in Ukraine. In Nigeria and Kenya, they are becoming a commercial success.
It was ‘massacre’, France’s Macron admits 1944 killings of West African troops demanding wage was a crime
The win granted newly elected President Faye a clear mandate to carry out ambitious reforms promised during the campaign, which include more economic independence from foreign companies, including French ones, which are heavily invested in the country.
