Africa News blog
African business, politics and lifestyle
Al Qaeda and France raise the stakes in the Sahara
Al Qaeda’s North African wing has been creeping up the radar with an increase in attacks in the Sahara. But some have still sought to play down any strategic threat, citing the lack of key interests in the desert.
Westerners were at risk – a couple have also died in the hands of the Islamists – but incidents had mostly ended with in some sort of agreement involving a mix of prisoner swaps and, say experts, cash being passed to the right people.
There has also been intense debate over how loyal to al Qaeda-central the fighters are, as opposed to a bunch of bandits taking advantage of little government control.
Then five French nationals and two other foreigners – all of whom worked in Niger’s uranium mines where French nuclear giant Areva has vast investments – were plucked from their houses as they slept.
Despite the efforts of Nigerien and Malian security forces, it appears the hostages are now safely stashed in an Islamist hideout in the Malian mountains. Al Qaeda has claimed responsibility for the attack and vowed to issue demands soon.
France, in reaction, also seems to have torn up the rules books.
Like the United States and other allies fretting about an Islamist threat in the Sahara, Paris has long advocated a more discreet approach, supporting local armies and encouraging regional collaboration. But President Nicolas Sarkozy has now embarked on a more direct approach. French commandos took part in a botched raid to free a previous hostage in July and officials in Niger say French troops have been dispatched there.
Ill health hung over Yar’Adua presidency from start
By Estelle Shirbon
No sooner was Umaru Yar’Adua named in late 2006 as the Nigerian ruling party’s presidential candidate than people started asking whether he would survive four years at the helm of Africa’s most populous nation.
The answer to that question came on Wednesday night, when Yar’Adua died a year before the end of his term — a sad end for a quiet man who had been in poor health since well before he was catapulted into one of the world’s toughest jobs.
I was a Reuters correspondent in Nigeria at the time and I remember the bewilderment when rumours surfaced that outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo had selected the frail governor of Katsina, a backwater northern state, as his successor.
To find out more about this little-known figure, I travelled to Katsina in January 2007 to examine his record.
It is an arid state where most people live in shocking poverty and mortality rates for infants and mothers are among the worst in the world. I headed to the general hospital in the state capital to see what was being done to tackle these issues.
The hospital was no better or worse than many others in Ngeria. It was crowded and disorganised, with power cuts, little medical equipment available, too few beds, a dearth of medication, and wards that looked in need of a good clean.
Your write ups was trying to pass some vital information but you failed to bring it out properly.
Why.
Hotter in the long run?
Ethiopia’s long-distance runners are among the best in the world, winning seven medals at last year’s Olympic Games. Generations of athletes have trained in the cool highlands of Asella but the weather there is changing, apparently as a result of climate change. There are now worries that this could have an impact on the country’s future runners.
For many young Ethiopians, this is where dreams are made. Internationally famous athletes like Haile Gebrselassie and Kenanisa Bekele have trained in these very parts.
Runners attend a training camp named after Tirunesh Dibaba who is the current holder of the world 5000 metres record. But the trainees’ future will depend greatly on the weather. Athletes require no more than 20 C when training and because it’s generally cool, Asella used to be perfect.
Not so lately. Temperatures rapidly increase as the day progresses and now runners have to get up earlier before training becomes almost impossible.
Tefere Alamerew is the squad’s coach. He told Reuters Africa Journal: “The temperature has changed — it’s hotter and hotter — so it will be difficult to train the athletes for the future here because the climate is changed.”
Like some other top Ethiopian runners, marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie was also born in Asella.
“Three weeks ago I was in Asella and I had the chance to jog 3km – around 9 o’clock – 9.30. You don’t believe it – I mean I was sweating, I asked myself, and I was running with Darata Tulu, we were struggling: ‘is this Asella, the place where we were training before? Yes it is.’ It’s amazing. My worry right now, what it will be like after 20 years?”
Sweet potatoes to beat climate change?
A major obstacle to producing enough food has been the dry weather which hit many African countries last year, including Kenya, where 10 million people urgently needed food when rains failed. Now Kenyan farmers have been asked to grow drought tolerant crops to help prepare for the effects of climate change.
Nancy Opele has been growing sweet potatoes on her farm in Kenya’s western Trans Nzoia district. She started growing the potatoes in 2003 after researchers approached farmers and introduced them to the crop.
“We have discovered that these potatoes just need a small place to grow and they do very well. You harvest a lot of potatoes, Opele told Reuters Africa Journal.
Nancy is part of a group of women in the Bahaso self help group who are planting alternative crops to Kenya’s staple food, maize. Sweet potatoes do well in the region, are hardly attacked by pests and need minimal rainfall to grow. The crop also takes about 5 months to mature, half the time needed by maize.
Sweet potatoes can be stored in the soil for up to 8 months but once harvested they don’t stay fresh for long. Nancy and her friends usually preserve the potatoes by grating them and drying the flakes out in the sun. The flakes are then ground into flour.
The potatoes are gaining popularity after four failed rain seasons led to a drought last year. Experts say it was the worst seen in the country since 1996. Many farmers lost their maize crop but the sweet potatoes did well.
One way to build food security is to promote use of drought tolerant foods like sweet potatoes. The Kenya Agricultural Research Institute, or KARI, is training farmers to plant improved varieties of the crop.
Thank you for airing the story which was not only captivating, but also very educative. It is true that Africa has been severely hit by the drastic effects of climate change leading to unending droughts which are replaced by floods whenever it rains, as it is being witnessed all over the continent.
It is such initiatives like the introduction of drought tolerant food crops such as sweet potatoes which are nutritious and more importantly cost effective, as a result of continuous research, that would help Africa mitigate the effects of climate change, and here is where African governments’ support together with that of international donors should be geared to.
Also, changing our eating habits by adopting different kinds of food crops which are not necessary our staple food such as sweet potatoes will further help to survive the dry periods.
EDWIN MBAYA.
NAIROBI, KENYA.
Out of Africa — and into China
At a meeting in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh this month, China promised to double the aid it gives to Africa and even forgive the debt of some of the continent’s poorest countries.
We’ve known for some time that Chinese are migrating to Africa to exploit business opportunities. But it’s perhaps less known that growing numbers of Africans are also moving to China to live and work.
One of the most visible is Vimbayi Kajese, a 28-year-old Zimbabwean who reads the news on China Central Television – or CCTV – and is the country’s first African news presenter.
CCTV 9, also known as CCTV International, is China’s state-run English language channel. As well as China, it’s available in more than 80 countries, of which six are in Africa — an increasingly important audience.
“I’ve been in China for over 3 years now,” Kajese told Reuters Africa Journal. “I came after I graduated from the U.S., and the reason why I came to China was because China is the next upcoming emerging market and definitely is the place to be.”
Kajese is one of an increasing number of young Africans heading to China, where a booming economy and ever-closer ties with Africa are creating opportunities as tempting as any in the West.
Tebogo Lefifi left her job as the CEO of a South African mining and property development firm and came to China. Now on a Chinese-funded scholarship to study Chinese economics, the 34-year-old wants to make sure Africans make the most of China’s growth. But some of that may have to wait until she’s mastered the language. Lefifi is setting up an organisation for China-Africa discussion and networking in Beijing. Young African Professionals and Students, or YAPS, will eventually help African professionals and companies trying to get ahead in China.
dont doubt henok if the african-chinese partnership will last, because where else can they get the supplies they need? asia does not anymore, and the eyewatch of the americans, africa is less problematic to china than asia, and that is why they are staying, so the question is, will africa be strong enough to negotiate tough with the chinese, or they will divert this privilege to corrupt paths?
I am only a teenager but I think that this art is great for this girls age.
If rape is used as a weapon of war and terror, why are the South African rape-statistics the highest of the entire continent? Just asking – isn’t South Africa supposed to be a ‘peaceful country without any enemies”? So why are so many of its citizens subjected to organised rapes by large crime-gangs?
Who is actually aiding whom? Is the West actually aiding so-called poor African countries or is it the other way round?For each £1 or $1 received by the so-called poor country, the donor rich West country gets £10 or $10 in return!You tell me who benefit the most?
Western action will always fall short of its commitments to Africa. They are to busy trying to keep there own big heads above water. Even if they did keep to agreed amounts of Aid, compensations or whatever you like to call it, the African leaderships milk these cash cows for all it there worth and whats left is not enough to do what is needed.
Islamists have indeed grown bolder with more cash. Freeing islamists in exchange for hostages also set a very bad precedent. Another point is the inefficient coordination between Sahelian states, with Mali and Algeria accusing each other of not cracking down on rebels, Morocco and Algeria not cooperating (Sahraoui crisis), and lack of means. Despite international cooperation (USA with Flintlock, France military assistance), islamists are able to escape due to their excellent knowledge of the local environment and ties to local communities which probably depend on them for their own safety. There are no real borders in the area and the notion of the state can be questioned. Sahelian states often combine poorly paid armies with lack of means, and their leaders’ political legitimacy is challenged at home(Aziz in Mauritania, Déby in Chad, and Compaoré in Burkina). Finally, increased poverty in the Sahel and Sahara is likely to make it easier for islamists to recruit the young unemployed. A perceived injust immigration policy (France and Italy) is not likely to make people in the region sympathetic to Western woes and to some extent.
Regarding the security situation in France while terrorist threats are a reality, it cannot be ruled out that Sarkosy will use the crisis to look like he is more than ever in charge. StrategiCo, http://www.strategico.org specialises in risk analysis in Africa.