Global Info Network - Africa News (2025)

22/04/2024

TWO AFRICAN STUDENTS OF THEATER WIN MAJOR SOROS AWARD

Apr. 22, 2024 (GIN) - Winners of a generous prize from the Paul & Daisy Soros fund this year include Zimbabwe-born Ruva Chigwedere and Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr. from Sierra Leone. Both are in graduate theatre programs in their respective schools.

The fellowship winners are children of immigrants, pursuing graduate studies in the U.S. The program draws more than 1,800 applications annually for just 30 awards.

Each of the recipients was chosen for their potential to make significant contributions to the U.S. and will receive up to $90,000 in funding over two years.

The winner from Zimbabwe, Ruva Chigwedere, was born in Harare and is a Mwenewazvo of the Tsoko-Mukanya totem in the Shona culture. Before joining her parents in the U.S. at age four, Ruva lived on her grandparents’ farm in Marondera, Zimbabwe.

At Harvard College, Ruva studied Shona language and did coursework on the Black diaspora. She performed with the Kuumba Singers of Harvard College and Harvard College Opera, trained at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts and worked at the acclaimed American Repertory Theater.

As president of Black Community and Student Theater at Harvard, she worked to ensure institutional memory. For her undergraduate thesis, Ruva wrote “For Daughters of Ezili; A Meditation on Black Women, Subjectivity, and Romantic Love"
Ruva graduated with a joint degree in theater, dance, media, history and literature. She was the granddaughter of the late Aeneas Soko Chigwedere, Mashonaland East governor and historian and a former education minister whose career was stymied by the political situation in Zimbabwe.

She is currently pursuing a Master of Fine Arts in acting at the University of California, San Diego and hopes to work in theater, TV and film.

Among her received awards are the Jonathan Levy Award for the Most Promising Undergraduate Actor; the Philippe Wamba Prize for Best Senior Thesis in African Studies; and the Kwame Anthony Appiah Prize for Most Outstanding Thesis Relating to the Harvard University African Diaspora.

Saidu Tejan-Thomas Jr. was born in Freetown, Sierra Leone to Aminata Sumah and Saidu Tejan-Thomas. After the Sierra Leonean civil war in 2001, he migrated to the U.S., just as the U.S. was on the brink of its own war.

After earning a degree in public relations, Saidu cofounded an organization called Good Clear Sound to help others write and perform their work. He appeared in various theatrical productions and trained under Dr. Tawnya Pettiford-Wates in the African methodology of Ritual Poetic Drama.

Saidu is committed to amplifying the voices of Black and Brown people. In 2016, he studied audio storytelling at the Transom Story Workshop after which he interned at National Public Radio and Gimlet Media, a national podcast production studio. There he coproduced Uncivil, a Peabody Award-winning podcast that told the story of the American Civil War from the perspective of marginalized people.

In 2020, after the murder of George Floyd, Saidu co-created Resistance, a show about people refusing to accept things as they are. He documented the stories of everyday Americans fighting for justice—a teacher turned agitator, a designer turned politician, a student turned movement leader.

Resistance was the recipient of a Columbia University Dart Award. His work has been featured by The New York Times, This American Life, among others.

He is currently studying acting at the Terry Knickerbocker Studio. His MFA will go towards developing a practice that combines journalism and theatre to support communities through the arts.

Daisy Soros, co-founder of the program, declared: “As we welcome these impressive new Fellows to our community, I am filled with pride and hope for the bright futures they will have professionally and as they give back to our country. Their stories demonstrate the strength and vitality inherent in the immigrant identity—they aren’t afraid to take risks and think big. Congratulations to the new Fellows!”

08/04/2024

NEW LEADERSHIP IN SENEGAL INSPIRES A CONTINENT SEEKING CHANGE

Apr. 8, 2024 (GIN) - A firebrand politician and a young tax inspector opposed to French colonialism have taken the government of Senegal by storm, say journalists inspired by the electoral victory of Bassirou Diomaye Faye, 44, and Ousmane Sonko, 49, on a platform of major reform.

Faye and his mentor and now prime minister Ousmane Sonko have pledged to oppose corruption and elitism. "We'll spare no efforts to reach the objectives we promised the Senegalese people, which is a break with the past, progress, and a definitive change," Sonko said upon his appointment to the second-in-command government post.

In their campaign manifesto, the duo promised to renegotiate mining, oil and gas contracts.

Both men had been jailed by the incumbent, Macky Sall, seeking to unlawfully extend his term in office. The two were freed just 10 days before the March 24 vote.

Diomaye Faye and Sonko, highly favored by young voters, have inspired comparisons with aging autocrats in neighboring countries.

In Cameroon, 91-year-old Paul Biya has been in power for more than 40 years.

"Faye was two years old when Paul Biya became president" is a favorite line on social media, often accompanied by photos of the youthful Faye next to an aging Biya.

In Uganda, President Yoweri Museveni is 79 and looking to pass the post of top army commander to his son.

In Chad, transitional President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno died at age 69 after three decades in command. He sent warm congratulations to the Senegalese people for “having given a real lesson of maturity and democracy to the rest of the world" but in truth, he cared little for democracy or human rights.

His leading opponent, Yaya Dillo, was assassinated by soldiers at the end of February, reportedly at close range.

Other “golden age” leaders are Alassane Ouattara of Ivory Coast at 81; Teodoro Nguema Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, 81; Emmerson Dambudzo Mnangagwa of Zimbabwe, 80; Nana Akufo-Addo of Ghana, 79; and Abdelmadjid Tebboune of Algeria, 77.

"Congratulations to the Nelson Mandela of Senegal! They left prison and directly won the election," wrote an impressed Chadian on Facebook.

"Everyone dreams of doing the same in our countries," said Nourou Dine Saka Saley of ''Les Démocrates of Benin'', in a video posted on TikTok.

Once a thriving multi-party democracy, Benin’s President Patrice Talon, 65, has become increasingly authoritarian after nearly eight years in office.

From Togo: "I am sure the people of Togo will be free one day like in Senegal, but we will have to fight," said 30 year old Akouwa Avligan in the capital, Lome.

Faye's triumph is a strong reminder that Africa needs a young generation of leaders,” added popular Ugandan musician and opposition leader Bobi Wine. “Not the Museveni generation of tired despots.”

08/04/2024

KENYAN DOCTORS’ STRIKE ENTERS THIRD WEEK AS GOV’T STONEWALLS TALKS

Apr. 8, 2024 (GIN) - Kenya’s health sector, underfunded and understaffed, is closed for business until the government makes good on salary arrears and agrees to hire badly needed trainee doctors as promised to the union.
The Kenya Medical Practitioners, Pharmacists and Dentists Union (KMPDU), also want the government to address frequently delayed paychecks and compensation for doctors who work in public hospitals as part of their higher degree courses.

The crippling strike, now in its third week, involves some 4,000 public sector doctors or approximately half of the country’s 9,000 registered doctors. The question of salary arrears stems from a 2017 collective bargaining agreement that, among other things, set medical interns’ pay at 206,000 Kenyan shillings ($1,566) per month and fast tracks their clearance to work at health facilities upon graduation.

Qualified medical graduates in Kenya struggle to get jobs, striking workers say, despite staff shortages at public hospitals. The union wants the government to hire over 3,000 medical interns who are currently unemployed. But the health ministry said it lacks the resources to recruit them.

Despite a policy requiring the government to place medical interns within 30 days of completing their studies, graduates remain jobless long after qualifying to practice medicine.

Talks between the two sides aimed at ending the strike have been unsuccessful and other health workers, helping to keep hospitals running in the absence of doctors, have now joined the strike, local media is reporting.

"The strike will take as long as it takes the government to wake up," said Dr. Onyango Ndong'a on Citizen Television.

But government seems unlikely to budge, hoping to wait out the doctors. Kenyan President Ruto recently declared there would be no additional monies for interns above the monthly $538 (70,000 Kenyan shillings) claiming the government was “struggling with a high tax bill.”

The impact of the 3-week strike is being felt across the country with many patients left unattended or being turned away from hospitals across the East African nation.

Despite the President’s claims of insufficient funds, Kenya only spends around 3.7% of its budget on health - less than the 5% recommended by the World Health Organization for low and middle income countries to achieve universal health care, or the 15% it committed to spending on health as part of the Abuja declaration.

“It’s not just health,” Anderson Njuki, a Nairobi-based economist told the online publication Semafor, “because the country is spending much of its revenues on servicing debt, social spending and development.”

Without jobs or decent wages, qualified Kenyan medical professionals would accelerate their migration abroad, Njuki added, severely weakening Kenya’s already troubled public health system.

Nurses have not joined the striking doctors despite pressure to do so from some members.

“The issues doctors are pushing are genuine and should be implemented,” said Kenya National Union of Nurses Secretary General Seth Panyako. “The government is supposed to release funds to hire interns. But we’re not going on strike, we’re going to the courts.”

08/04/2024

A FLAME OF REMEMBRANCE FOR RWANDA’S GENOCIDE VICTIMS

Apr. 7, 2024 (GIN) - Rwandans are marking the 30th anniversary of a genocide that took the lives of an estimated 800,000 mostly ethnic Tutsis over 100 days, between April and June 1994.

Wreaths were laid at the Kigali Genocide Memorial by President Paul Kagame and first lady Jeannette Kagame. The President then lit the "Flame of Remembrance", before making a speech at an arena in Kigali, capital of Rwanda.

The Flame will be lit for seven days at four genocide memorial sites which were inscribed on the World Heritage List of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in September.

Other commemorative activities will be conducted across the country, including a Walk to Remember in Kigali, which will be followed by a night vigil.

A senior program advisor on transitional justice at the Kenya Human Rights Commission, Martin Mavenjina, emphasized the significance of remembering the genocide.

“It's not just as a moment of remembrance,” he said, “but an opportunity for victims and survivors to reflect, heal, and look towards the future.

"It reassures the world that never again will such an event happen anywhere on this continent or even anywhere (else) in the world.”

Supporters of Kagame’s rule applaud him, saying that without his firm grip on power, Rwanda could slide back to the chaos that could ignite another genocide.

But human rights leaders and activists differ with that view. Kagame, they say, has oppressed his opponents, killed and imprisoned his critics. Dissidents are jailed, free speech is curtailed and political opponents often die in murky circumstances, even those living in the West.

Ethnic divisions persist under the authoritarian president who has ruled for just as long, writes New York Times reporter Declan Walsh. Soldiers under President Kagame have been accused of massacre and plunder in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

This view was supported by the transitional justice advisor. He urged Kagame to loosen his grip on power and allow for more freedom.

For decades, Western leaders have looked past Mr. Kagame’s abuses, comments Walsh. “Some have expressed guilt for their failure to halt the genocide when Hutu extremists massacred people mostly from Mr. Kagame’s Tutsi ethnic group.”

Kagame took that view a step further, blaming the inaction of the international community for allowing the 1994 genocide to happen.

“It was the international community which failed all of us, whether from contempt or cowardice,” Kagame said in a speech after laying a wreath at a memorial site holding the remains of 250,000 genocide victims in Kigali.

The killings were ignited when a plane carrying then-President Juvénal Habyarimana, a Hutu, was shot down over Kigali. The Tutsis were blamed for downing the plane and killing the president and became targets in massacres led by Hutu extremists that lasted over 100 days. Some moderate Hutus who tried to protect members of the Tutsi minority were also killed.

Some Western leaders have now expressed regret.

Bill Clinton, after leaving office, cited the Rwandan genocide as a failure of his administration. French President Emmanuel Macron, in a prerecorded video, said that France and its allies could have stopped the genocide but lacked the will to do so. Macron’s declaration came three years after he acknowledged the “overwhelming responsibility” of France — Rwanda’s closest European ally in 1994 — for failing to stop Rwanda’s slide into the slaughter.

But in truth, few voices were heard in opposition to the U.S. -- few, at least, with the will and means to back up their arguments with substantial commitments of their own.

Even after the storm broke, the U.N. reaction was to retreat, to reduce rather than increase its forces in the riven country.

Some Rwandans fear that nothing has been learned -- that the outside world will intervene too late, with too little, elsewhere.
Rwanda also has had troubled relations with its neighbors.

Recently, tensions have flared with Congo, with the two countries’ leaders accusing one another of supporting armed groups.

Relations have been tense with Burundi as well over allegations that Kigali is backing a rebel group attacking Burundi. And relations with Uganda are yet to fully normalize after a period of tensions stemming from Rwandan allegations that Uganda was backing rebels opposed to Kagame.

08/04/2024

GAMBIAN WOMEN FURIOUS OVER VOTE TO RESTORE FEMALE CIRCUMCISION

Apr. 1, 2024 (GIN) - ‘Over my dead body!’

That was how one Gambian woman expressed her frustration with a vote by the country’s majority male legislators to end the prohibition of female ge***al mutilation (FGM). The practice has been on the rise in recent years despite activist campaigns to outlaw it.

Lawmaker Almameh Gibba presented the repeal bill earlier this month, arguing the ban violates citizens' rights to practice their culture and religion. Gambia is an overwhelmingly Muslim country.

If the bill is passed, Gambia would become the first country to reverse a ban on FGM.

The vote comes just a month after the International Day of Zero Tolerance for FGM, observed annually on Feb. 6. This year it was observed with the theme “Her Voice, Her Future.”

Gambian lawmakers have already voted to advance the measure that removes legal protections in effect since 2015 for millions of girls.

Ndeye Rose Sarr, head of the local United Nations Fund for Population Activities, shared some of the historical background: “From the age of 10, girls begin to be looked at as a potential bride for an older man. And if she has not yet undergone FGM, there will be those in her community who will want to make sure that she does.”

The rate of FGM in The Gambia is around 76 per cent of women in the 14 to 49 year age range, and about 51 per cent for girls up to the age of 14. “That means that, on average, every other young girl you see in The Gambia has undergone this mutilation,” Sarr said.

Globally, over 200 million women and girls are estimated to have undergone some form of ge***al mutilation and girls aged 14 and younger account for about 44 million of those who have been “cut.”

The practice is almost universal in Somalia, Guinea and Djibouti, with levels of 90 per cent or higher, while it affects no more than 1 per cent of girls and women in Cameroon and Uganda.

Contrary to popular perception, female ge***al mutilation is also practiced in the U.S. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, more than half a million women and girls have either undergone, or are at risk of undergoing the procedure in the future. Most, but not all, are immigrants to the U.S.

The ban was put in place during the tenure of former Gambian President Yahya Jammeh, whose government opposed the practice.

Isatou Keita, writing for the online publication Semafor, had this to say about FGM. “From my perspective as a Gambian woman, banning FGM is highly commendable… As a staunch advocate for human rights and gender equality, I firmly believe that every individual has the right to live free from violence, coercion, and discrimination, including harmful cultural practices like FGM.”

“The ban against FGM signifies a step towards empowerment and autonomy, granting us agency over our bodies.”

World leaders overwhelmingly back the elimination of female ge***al mutilation by 2030 as one of the U.N.'s Sustainable Development Goals. The U.N. considers it achievable if nations act now to translate that commitment into action.

08/04/2024

DROUGHT GRIPS SOUTHERN AFRICA, HUNGER CRISIS FORESEEN

Apr. 1, 2024 (GIN) - A severe dry spell in southern Africa linked to the El Nino weather pattern is crippling the nations of Malawi and Zambia.

Zimbabwe has seen much of its crops decimated, underlining concerns by the U.N. World Food Program that numerous nations in southern Africa are on the brink of a hunger crisis.

Malawi has declared a state of disaster over the drought in 23 of its 28 districts. President Lazarus Chakwera says they urgently need more than $200 million in humanitarian assistance, less than a month after neighboring Zambia also appealed for help.

According to the World Food Program, nearly 50 million people in southern and parts of central Africa are facing food insecurity as one of the driest spells in decades devastates the region.

Mozambique and parts of Angola have also had severe rainfall deficits.

Humans aren't the only ones affected. Conservation officials in Zimbabwe are reporting the rare occurrence of at least 100 elephants dying in a national park late last year because of waterholes drying up in the drought.

Malawian President Chakwera said he had been on a tour of his country to discover the extent of its drought crisis, and a preliminary assessment by the government found about 44% of Malawi's corn crop had failed or been affected, and 2 million households were directly impacted.

Malawi has been repeatedly hit by weather extremes in recent years, emphasizing how some of the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries are feeling the worst effects of climate change even as they contribute the least to global emissions.

With this year’s harvest scorched, millions in Zimbabwe, southern Malawi, Mozambique and Madagascar won’t be able to feed themselves well into 2025. USAID’s Famine Early Warning System estimated that 20 million people would require food relief in southern Africa in the first few months of 2024.

Many won’t get that help, however, as aid agencies also have limited resources amid a global hunger crisis and a cut in humanitarian funding by governments. w/pix of drought in Zimbabwe

08/04/2024

WEST AFRICAN PHILOSOPHER WHO CHALLENGED COLONIALISM LEAVES MAJOR LEGACY

Apr. 1, 2024 (GIN) - Paulin Jidenu Hountondji of Benin, West Africa - considered one of the founding fathers of modern African philosophy - has recently passed away. He was 82 years of age.

His work “On African Philosophy” (1976) greatly contributed to clarifying the debate over African philosophy - freeing it from the colonial perspective that considered African metaphysics a set of mythological beliefs.

Hountondji was the first African admitted as a philosophy student at the most prestigious school in France - the École Normale Superieure. His work shaped the study of philosophy in Africa and became a kind of second declaration of independence for Africa in the view of the African philosophers who followed him.
After the passing of renowned Ghanaian philosopher Kwasi Wiredu in early 2022, Hountondji was considered “Africa’s greatest living philosopher”.
A modest man who spent his career teaching in African universities, mostly at Benin’s national university, Hountondji believed there was something amiss in efforts by Europeans to tell Africans how they should think about their place in the universe.

He rebelled against efforts to force African ways of thinking into European concepts, developing a critique of what he called “ethnophilosophy.”

Hountondji was an early critic of the book “Bantu Philosophy” by the Belgian missionary Placide Tempels which for nearly 30 years had set the tone for African philosophy.

Tempels’ book, published in 1945, was seen by a first generation of pre-independence African intellectuals as groundbreaking - restoring intellectual dignity to a continent viewed as “primitive” in the colonialist worldview.

But in a series of essays collected in the book “African Philosophy: Myth and Reality” (published in 1976 in French and in 1983 in English), Mr. Hountondji demolished the Belgian priest’s work as no more than ethnographic racist musings that ultimately bolstered colonialism.

“Indeed,” wrote Hountondji, “Bantu Philosophy did open the floodgates to a deluge of essays which aimed to reconstruct a world view attributed to all Africans… But on closer scrutiny it is clear Father Tempels’ work is not addressed to Africans but to Europeans, particularly missionaries… for whom he closes his book with a chapter titled ‘Bantu philosophy and our mission to civilize.’

“In effect, (with Tempel’s book) we are back to square one: Africans are, as usual, excluded from the discussion and the Black man remains a topic, a voiceless face under private investigation, an object to be defined and not the subject of a possible discourse.”

Among the many tributes and condolences since his passing on Feb. 2 at his home in Cotonou, Benin, was this from the Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) where he served as vice president:

“Born on April 11, 1942, Professor Hountondji became a towering intellectual figure and distinguished scholar who shaped the discipline of philosophy by advancing unparalleled insights and elaborating new thinking in the field of African philosophy.

“Even after achieving academic and intellectual acclaim, and long after obtaining a doctorate from the University of Paris-Nanterre in 1970, Professor Hountondji remained a lifelong student, continuing on to earn his doctorat d’Etat at l’Université Cheikh Anta Diop under the supervision of Professor Souleymane Bachir Diagne.”

“To this day, his contributions within the CODESRIA and the broader epistemic community remain immeasurable.” w/pix of P. Hountondji

08/04/2024

PINEAPPLE FARM IN KENYA LINKED TO VIOLENCE AGAINST WORKERS

Mar. 25, 2024 (GIN) - Del Monte Kenya, a vast pineapple farm in Thika, Kenya, is facing serious claims of human rights abuses in the wake of killings and violence against workers allegedly by its security guards.

The Guardian newspaper of London first broke the story in June 2023 with its expose of multiple deaths by the private security apparatus employed by Del Monte to safeguard its crop from thieves. Locals accused the guards of killing nine men aged twenty-two to fifty-two, as well as five rapes, plus allegations of head wounds, broken bones and cuts from blades requiring stitches.

The British law firm Leigh Day is representing 134 people who say they were abused by Del Monte's guards. The accusations include beatings with no regard for the lives, wellbeing or human dignity of their victims, the law firm maintains.

The company has denied the charges. A Del Monte Kenya spokesperson said the case filed in the Kenyan high court was “an opportunity for all parties to present evidence – rather than unsubstantiated allegations – in a public forum and we trust that those proceedings will reveal the truth and vindicate our good name”.

A report by the Kenya-based Partner Africa called on the company to immediately provide remediation to those whose rights were violated. It also recommends that the company set out a human rights action plan. Partner Africa’s nonprofit mission is to improve the working conditions and livelihoods of vulnerable workers and producers in Africa.

Peter McAllister, executive director of the Ethical Trading Initiative which represents shops, charities and unions to improve human rights in supply chains, commented: “We believe any company of the size and scope of Del Monte should have human rights expertise in their team to advise management, help the company stay abreast of best practice, work with wider stakeholders and deliver on a company’s commitments to customers.”

The company with headquarters in Walnut Creek, California, employs 6,000 people in Kenya but also operates in North and South America, Europe, the Middle East and Asia with products sold in more than 80 countries.

Five of the company’s former guards alleged in interviews with the Guardian that a lack of training and Del Monte’s poor relationship with local people had fueled violent clashes with trespassers on the farm. Since the Guardian and TBIJ’s initial investigation was published in June, there have been another five deaths allegedly linked to guards at the farm.

Four of those were men went to steal pineapples from the plantation near Thika. Their bodies were recovered from a river on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day last year after they were allegedly chased by guards. Del Monte Kenya said the men had gone into the river themselves and that there had been “no foul play”.

Following the Guardian’s reports, major UK supermarkets Tesco and Waitrose have removed Del Monte’s Kenyan pineapples from their shelves.

08/04/2024

RESCUE OF KIDNAPPED NIGERIAN CHILDREN REPORTED

Mar. 25, 2024 (GIN) - The nightmare is over for some of the 287 Nigerian schoolchildren seized from their school and marched into the forests by an armed group.

Nigeria’s military said in a statement that 76 girls and 61 boys had been freed in the northern state of Zamfara, and were being taken back to Kaduna. The military did not confirm the total number of children abducted on March 7, or provide further details about the operation.

The children were abducted by motorcycle-riding gunmen on March 7 from their school in Kuriga, a small town in the state of Kaduna. Terrified families watched helplessly as the children, aged 12 or younger were driven away.

It was the latest in a long series of kidnappings that have plagued Africa’s most populous nation.

President Bola Tinubu had vowed to rescue the children “without paying a dime” as ransom. But ransoms are commonly paid for kidnappings, often arranged by families, and it is rare for officials in Nigeria to admit to the payments. According to Sahara Reporters, the kidnappers were seeking one billion naira for the students’ release.

Since the 2014 abduction of 276 schoolgirls in Borno state, town of Chibok, by Boko Haram, an armed group, many of the girls were released, reportedly in exchange for ransoms, but 98 of them are still missing, according to Amnesty International.

The latest abduction comes days after some 200 people were kidnapped in Nigeria’s Borno state - at the center of the Boko Haram insurgency. The victims, who had ventured into the countryside to collect firewood, have not been rescued yet.

The armed men on motorbikes - referred to locally as bandits - had been menacing the community for some time, with the security forces said to be unable to deal with the threat. Kuriga had been persistently attacked by gangs seeking to kidnap people and make money from ransom payments.

The scale of this latest abduction and the fact that it involved children as young as seven has been overwhelming for many here.

"We watched them carrying our children away just right here and there's nothing we could do. We don't have military, we don't have police in the community," a mother was quoted to say through tears.

Kidnap gangs, known as bandits, have seized thousands of people in recent years, especially in the north-west.

Chris Ewokor of BBC News in Kuriga managed to get more of the story from 17 year old Musa Garba (not his real name). The teenager said he had to slither on the ground like a snake to avoid being detected by his kidnappers.

"We saw motorbikes on the road. We thought they were soldiers before we realized they had occupied the school premises and started shooting," Musa told the BBC reporter.

"We tried to run away, but they chased us and caught us.” Musa said he kept looking for ways to escape and tried to encourage others to join him but they were too afraid.

"After all was quiet, I started dragging myself like a snake on the ground." Once it was totally dark, he got up and walked off until he got to a village where he got help.

In the last decade and a half, people in northern Nigeria have come under intense attack by armed militant groups. A second force, linked to the Islamic State group, has also emerged.

08/04/2024

EXCITEMENT BUILDS AS SENEGAL VOTES FOR CHANGE

Mar. 25, 2024 (GIN) - It’s Sunday. It’s Ramadan when most people are resting at home, fasting during the day. But in the West Africa nation of Senegal, people are out in force, excitedly choosing a new president to bring economic growth, jobs and peace in this normally quiet West African nation.

Once seen as one of the fastest-growing economies on the continent, its financial benefits, many believe, have not been equally shared in what has been called “wealth hoarding by the political class.”

With about a third of the population living below the poverty line, a growing number have tried to leave the country on leaky wooden boats. Nearly 1,000 died in the first six months of 2023, according to the Spanish migration website covered with photographs, called “Walking Borders.”

More than 60 percent of Senegalese believe that the economic situation in the country is bad, nearly double compared with the previous year.

This time around, voters will choose among 19 candidates - starting with opposition leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye who replaced Ousmane Sonko, a popular leader but disqualified from running because of a questionable conviction for defamation by the nation’s amnesty court.

Both men are tax administrators who promise to tackle corruption, push for accountability and promote a fairer distribution of the country’s resources, including the renegotiation of mining and energy contracts.

The reputation of a tax inspector can be beneficial but also harmful, Guillaume Soto-Mayor, a nonresident scholar at the Middle East Institute, said skeptically. The job is seen as “the quickest way to become a millionaire”, and some see it as a corrupt position.

Pathe Thiam, a 22-year-old Senegalese student, told Al Jazeera that for him, tax inspectors represent a “certain elitism that is rife in the country because these inspectors were trained in the most prestigious schools and are often colleagues, friends and relatives”.

Further, they often refuse to declare their assets and explain the origin of their campaign funds.

Others running for the top office were former Prime Minister Amadou Ba, appointed by the outgoing president Macky Sall as the ruling party’s presidential choice and former Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, who has called himself the “president of reconciliation” and Idrissa Seck, a former prime minister from the early 2000s. Two-time mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall, is running for the fourth time.

Supporters of Mr. Ba called him a “safe pair of hands” who would continue on the same steady trajectory as outgoing President Macky Sall, whom many perceive as having overseen orderly progress.

Businesswoman Anta Babacar Ngom – the sole woman candidate - is a political newcomer who runs Senegal’s largest poultry company.

According to Alioune Tine, a political analyst and founder of the think tank AfrikaJom Center, the country’s institutions need reform. “Power is too concentrated in the hands of the president and this can cause institutional crises,” he said.

No candidate is expected to win more than 50% of the vote, which means a runoff between leading candidates is widely expected. These include Amadou Ba, a former prime minister, and Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who is backed by popular opposition figure Ousmane Sonko.

Meanwhile, Cheick Diara, a young Senegalese man interviewed by Aljazeera, commented: “Sonko represents hope for the entire nation. Look what is happening around the youth, they want change – we want Sonko in power.”

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