New Israeli Government Faces Tension With Palestinians

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June 14, 2021

Benjamin Netanyahu handed over power in Israel on Monday to new Prime Minister Naftali Bennett but remained defiant as the government faced tensions with Palestinians over a planned Jewish nationalist march.

Minutes after meeting Bennett, Netanyahu repeated a pledge to topple the new government approved on Sunday by a 60-59 vote in parliament.

In public remarks to legislators of his right-wing Likud party. Netanyahu who spent a record 12 straight years in office, said It will happen sooner than you think.

Instead of the traditional toasts marking Bennett’s entry into the prime minister’s office, Netanyahu held a low-key meeting there with the former defence chief, who heads the nationalist Yamina party, to brief him on government business.

The government was already facing a sensitive decision over whether to approve a flag-waving procession planned for Tuesday by Jewish nationalists through the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem’s Old City.

Meanwhile, Palestinian factions have called for a “day of rage” against the event, with memories of clashes with Israeli police still fresh from last month in contested Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

The Hamas Islamist movement that rules the Gaza Strip warned of the possibility of renewed hostilities if the march goes ahead, less than a month after a ceasefire ended 11 days of cross-border hostilities with Israeli forces.

Kenya To Reopen Its Embassy In Somalia

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Zoe Maven

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June 14, 2021

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Nairobi authorities announced on Monday said the country will reopen its embassy in Somalia “as soon as possible”, responding favorably to a proposal from their neighbour for the normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

The Somali Minister of Foreign Affairs had sent a letter this weekend to his Kenyan counterpart inviting him to reopen the Kenyan diplomatic representation in Mogadishu, which was closed since December after Somalia broke off diplomatic relations between the two states.

The unilateral decision according to Mogadishu came “in response to Kenya’s recurrent and blatant political violations against Somalia’s sovereignty”.

The situation led to the expulsion of the Kenyan ambassador in Mogadishu while the Somali ambassador in Nairobi was recalled.

In a letter published Monday on its Twitter account, the Kenyan Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the Government of the Republic of Kenya acknowledges and welcomes the invitation of the Federal Government of Somalia to restore diplomatic relations between Somalia and Kenya.

The Kenyan government “will proceed to reopen its embassy in Mogadishu as soon as possible” and “invites the ambassador of the Federal Republic of Somalia to return to Nairobi and resume his duties,” it added.

On May 6, the Somali government announced the resumption of diplomatic relations with Kenya.

The authorities in Nairobi had simply indicated that they would “take note” of this initiative and “look forward to the continued normalization of relations by the Somali authorities.

The two East African neighbors, who share a 700-kilometre border and are in theory allies in the fight against the Shebab Islamists, have had tumultuous relations.

Residents Of Gbagbo’s Hometown Ready For His Return

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Zoe Maven

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June 14, 2021

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Local villagers in Ivory Coast could be seen shouting and dancing as they ready for the return of Laurent Gbagbo to his hometown of Mama.

After ten years of legal procedures, the former president is expected to arrive in Ivory Coast on Thursday.

He should soon make the trip to the Western town of Mama, where his supporters, whilst awaiting his return, are already celebrating.

In Mama, some even showed their devotion to the former ruler, by repainting his father’s house.

Without Gbagbo there will be no reconciliation. We prayed for Laurent Gbagbo to come back to us. Thank God he is coming back to us alive. We are so happy. We are ready to welcome him, to send him to his village. Without Gbagbo there will be no reconciliation,”

‘Gbagbo or nothing’ activist Béatrice Kragba says, as she steps off a bus coming from Gagnoa, a town located at a thirty minutes drive from which buses keep bringing Gbagbo supporters.

Many of Laurent Gbagbo’s supporters hope he will go back to politics after his return this Thursday. A possibility, that has angered victims of the 2010-2011 crisis, who still demand justice.

France To Invest $4.6 Billion In Egypt’s Infrastructures

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Zoe Maven

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June 14, 2021

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French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has signed agreements with Egypt to invest $4.6 billon in the most populous Arab country’s public transport and renewable energy sectors.

The first tranche will be for transport giant Alstom to supply 55 underground trains for Cairo Metro’s Line 1, for a total of $969 million financed by a loan from the Treasury.

The line used by over a million commuters daily has dilapidated carriages that are over three decades old.

Speaking to reporters in Cairo, Le Maire said Cooperation has been expanded to cover renewable energy, water purification and public transport as well funding for universities and social safety nets,.

Cairo, with a population of over 20 million renowned for its gridlocked roads, suffers from a dire lack of safe and efficient public transport.

The Metro has three lines which are currently being extended and three other connecting lines are expected to be built.

Egypt has also been one of France’s biggest arms clients since President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi took power in 2014. In December, French President Emmanuel Macron awarded Sisi the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour, the country’s highest award, sparking outrage among human rights critics

Ethiopia’s Abiy Vows To Hold A “Peaceful, Democratic” Election

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Zoe Maven

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June 14, 2021

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Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says the government wants a “peaceful, democratic” election and urges for unity during the inauguration of the rebuilt Meskel Square ahead of the country’s approaching election.

He stressed the fact that the country was facing an election that will develop or destroy our country, build it or demolish it. We, Ethiopians, firmly know that the division that has been borne out of conflict is not a better option.

The reputation of the Nobel Peace Prize winner has been tarnished as he has waged a military campaign in the Tigray region, where the United Nations warned Friday that tens of thousands of children risk starvation.

The United States on Friday voiced alarm over conditions ahead of Ethiopia’s elections, saying that ethnic violence and detentions of opposition figures will raise doubts about the vote’s credibility.

Ethiopia’s elections are going ahead after two delays. Election authorities last year pushed back polls due to the coronavirus pandemic, and then delayed the vote from June 5 due to logistical concerns.

E’Guinea: Officer And Solider On Trial For Fiery Manslaughter

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Zoe Maven

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June 14, 2021

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An officer and a soldier of Nkoa-Toma military camp situated in the economic capital Bata, are on trial for negligent homicide in Equatorial Guinea

This is according to the indictment read on Saturday evening on state radio and television (TVGE) by the military prosecutor Alejandro Mitogo.

Camp base head Lieutenant-Colonel Valentin Nzang Ega and Corporal José Antonio Obama Nsue appeared in court before a military court for “homicide, damage, fire, negligence and punishable imprudence causing death.”

The charges arose as a result of at least three devastating explosions on the army base and its many surrounding residential areas that killed 107 people and injured 615 on March 7.

The powerful blasts, literally ravaged the Nkoa-Toma camp after a fire caused by a poorly controlled burning set the arsenal and armoury of the military compound ablaze.

Consequently, the blaze razed the buildings of the camp housing of the special forces soldiers and gendarmes, as well as their families — as it gutted and flattened countless houses within proximity

The prosecutor’s office wants a sentence of 70 years imprisonment and President Teodoro Obiang Nguema — who has ruled this small Central African country with an iron fist for nearly 42 years, announced the opening of an investigation.

The city of Bata is home to about 800,000 of the 1.4 million inhabitants of this small state, rich in oil and gas, but where the vast majority of the population lives below the poverty line.

South Sudan Blocks UN Peacekeepers From Volatile Areas

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Angel Gimalo

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June 14, 2021

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The new chief of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) says U.N. peacekeepers are being blocked from accessing some sensitive areas, despite an agreement by South Sudan’s government to cooperate with the mission.

Nicholas Haysom was appointed by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier this year to oversee the activities of 14,500 U.N. soldiers and 2,000 police in the country.

In an exclusive interview, Haysom said U.N. peacekeepers are not able to patrol in Western Equatoria and Western Bahr El Ghazal states, due to a lack of consent from the South Sudan government.

In September 2020, Chinese UNMISS troops were prevented from traveling to Lobonok village, east of the capital, Juba, where civilians were under attack from both government forces and the rebels of the National Salvation Front.

The government of South Sudan and the U.N. signed a status of force agreement on August 8, 2011, to allow U.N. peacekeepers to operate in the country. The agreement requires South Sudan to give consent to peacekeepers for their activities. But Haysom said getting a consent from the host country is still problematic in some cases.

‘’This has been an issue we have been engaging with the host country for some time. We now have a situation where we can more or less reach about 90% of the country provided we follow a particular route, which is not a permit-based approach, but a notification approach,” he said.

Ethiopian Holy City Reels From Tigray Crisis

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Angel Gimalo

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June 14, 2021

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For Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, who comprise more than 40% of their country’s population and most of the people in the Tigray region, the city of Axum is the holiest of places.

They believe it to be home to the Ark of the Covenant, or the original Ten Commandments, and the birthplace of Ethiopian Christianity.

“I would die to protect this church,” said Alem Gebreslase, a 24-year-old parishioner, on Sunday at the Church of Our Lady Mary of Zion, one of the oldest churches in Ethiopia and Axum’s center or worship. “But God will protect the Ark.”

In past years, pilgrims and tourists would flock to Axum to pray, visit historical sites and snap pictures. Last year, when the coronavirus pandemic swept the world, most stayed away. Then in November 2020, war broke out and visitors stopped coming almost completely.

The war, primarily between the Ethiopian National Defense Force and the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front, includes Eritrean forces fighting against the TPLF, and militias on both sides.

The violence began in November 2020 when TPLF forces attacked federal military bases in Tigray and Ethiopian forces swept through the region.

In the first month of conflict, Eritrean troops killed hundreds of civilians in Axum, according to Amnesty International.

In Axum, locals described those early days of violence, with details varying from mass shootings to house-to-house raids. Consistent in every person’s story, however, were descriptions of so many bodies.

“Besides the soaring death toll,” Amnesty International said in a February statement, “Axum’s residents were plunged into days of collective trauma amid violence, mourning and mass burials.”

In recent months, Axum has quieted, with violence mostly taking place in the countryside. The city has also begun hosting different kinds of visitors. Families displaced by war in their villages and small towns have come in droves, crowding into empty schoolhouses and on the grounds of the church.

“The situation has become reversed,” said Aygdu, a 57-year-old Axum merchant who gave only his nickname for security reasons. “People were fleeing from the city to the countryside. Now they are fleeing from the country to the city.”

Along the roadsides in remote areas outside of Axum, hundreds of Ethiopian and Eritrean soldiers could be seen in trucks, buses and cars over the weekend. In the city of Axum, Ethiopian federal forces patrolled the streets, enforcing a strict nightly curfew.

Soyinka Cautions Buhari’s Govt Against Reopening Old Cattle Grazing Routes

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Henry Williams

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June 14, 2021

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Africa’s literacy giant, Professor Wole Soyinka has frowned at the planned reopening of the old cattle grazing routes by President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration.

Speaking on Arise TV, Soyinka said the herders-farmers conflict needs pragmatic solutions, insisting that reopening the grazing routes won’t solve the decades-old problems.

Soyinka, who is the first recipient of the Nobel prize in Literature in Africa said this while criticizing the President for muting the idea of restoring the grazing routes created in the first Republic in a recent interview, which many believed would further encourage open grazing in the country.

Recall that the 17 Southern Governors in Nigeria had banned open grazing in their respective states. According to the governors, the decision was necessary to curb the infiltration of bandits into the southern region.

Rail Construction: Xray On Chinese Belt And Road Initiatives In Nigeria – Report

By

Elizabeth Williams

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June 14, 2021

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The Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) has announced that it will commence full commercial operations of the standard gauge railway service from Lagos to Ibadan on Tuesday, June 15, 2021.

This follows the formal commissioning of the 157-kilometre Lagos-Ibadan rail line by President Muhammadu Buhari on Thursday, June 10, 2021.

It is worthy of note that all the rail line constructions across the country is part of an initiative called the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

Since Nigeria joined the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and became a member at a summit in Beijing in 2018, Nigeria has recorded tremendous success for common development as Africa’s largest economy and the most populous nation on the African continent.

Chinese belt and road Initiatives projects in Nigeria

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is a Chinese proposal to build a Silk Road Economic Belt and 21st Century Maritime Silk Road in cooperation with related countries. It was unveiled by President Xi Jinping during his visit to Central and Southern Asia in 2013.

Although China and Nigeria are separated by thousands of kilometers, the impact of the Belt and Road Initiative will be felt by both sides with the generation of new exports, including raw materials, from Nigeria to China, and Chinese exports of goods and services to and funding for infrastructure projects in Nigeria.

Nigeria is the largest economy in Africa, and China is the second-largest economy in the world. Nigeria accords strategic importance to China because it recognizes China’s importance as an ascending power and the role China is destined to play in international relations in the future. China is Nigeria’s largest economic partner in Asia, and its investments in and transfer of technologies to Nigeria have been increasing.

On the benefits of the Lagos-Ibadan corridor as well as other ongoing railway projects across the country, President Buhari said:President Buhari Thursday inaugurated the commercial operations of Lagos-Ibadan railway project at the Mobolaji Johnson Railway Station, Ebute Metta, Lagos, describing the feat ‘‘as another milestone in the drive of this administration to revitalize the railway system and establish it as a choice mode of transportation for both passengers and freight.

In December 2020, the latest of China’s many industrial investments in Nigeria, the railway between Lagos and Ibadan, became operational. Running 156 kilometers long and costing some $1.5 billion US dollars (USD), its opening was accompanied by public fanfare and Chinese government tweets, celebrating it as another victory

for both Chinese-led development, and for China’s public image in sub-Saharan Africa.

Nigeria became a signatory to China’s international infrastructure development plan known as the Belt & Road Initiative in 2018. Since then, Chinese diplomats have framed the BRI investments as part of a larger mission of Beijing’s support for Nigeria as a nation.

One of the British colonial government’s greatest legacies was the construction of an extensive rail route in Nigeria. The country’s 3,505-km narrow-gauge rail network made it easier for the colonial government to transport agricultural produce from the hinterlands to the port, from where they were shipped abroad.

The British managed the rail lines from 1898 till Nigeria’s independence in 1960. However, the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) entrusted with the management and construction of rail lines in the country, ran this colonial legacy aground.

‘‘This vital line establishes an end-to-end logistic supply chain in railway transport within its short corridor, Lagos – Ibadan, as goods to the hinterland would now be transported by rail directly from the Apapa port Quayside straight to the Inland Container Depot located in Ibadan from where it can be distributed to other parts of the country.

Chinese investments in Nigeria are very substantial. According to a 2019 report issued by the Chinese embassy, Nigeria hosts 70 construction, 40 investment and 30 trading Chinese companies. In 2018 alone, Chinese companies were awarded 175 construction contracts in Nigeria, worth $17 billion USD, with 11,088 Chinese workers working in these projects.

Nigeria has benefited from a number of BRI projects. The popular ones include the Abuja/Kaduna Standard Gauge Rail Line linking the nation’s capital Abuja to Kaduna, a trade centre and transportation hub in north-western Nigeria, the Lagos/Ibadan Standard Gauge Rail Line linking Lagos, Nigeria’s economic capital to Ibadan, the former administrative capital of southwestern Nigeria, and the Lagos/Kano railway, which is an ambitious project connecting the two most populous cities in southern and northern Nigeria.