News Briefs 14 April 2023
Southern Africa Focus
Mozambique
Over 50 Law Officers Dismissed
The president of Mozambique’s Supreme Court, Adelino Muchanga, revealed on Tuesday that over 50 law officers have been dismissed from the Mozambican public administration for being involved in illegal practices over the last five years.
“It is not a secret for anybody. We have been facing cases of professionals with bad behaviour, we have colleagues whose conduct has deviated from the norms’, Machanga said, in the central city of Beira, at the opening of a National Meeting of Law Officers and Court Assistants.
Muchanga stressed the need for a code of conduct to guide law officers in their work.
“The number of officers dismissed has reached a total of 57 in the last five years. The servant of justice must give relevance to ethical values, since they are crucial for the construction of the rule of law, which assures individual and social rights, freedom, security, well-being and equality’, he said.
AllAfrica 12 April 2023
Cabo Delgado: two years since the Palma invasion
For nearly two years, Mozambique resisted the call for foreign military intervention in Cabo Delgado to help fight the insurgency that started in 2017. But when militants stormed the town of Palma in March 2021, forcing construction on the US$20 billion liquefied natural gas project to stop, Maputo had to accept foreign boots on the ground.
President Filipe Nyusi said in December 2020 that offers of help had been received from many countries, highlighting the need to carefully manage this mix of interventions. But two years on, domestic and international security forces in Mozambique are still fragmented.
Rwanda has the largest military and police contingent in Cabo Delgado – about 2 800 personnel. The Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) has about 1 900. These forces technically ‘support’ Mozambique’s security forces. Local militia and several private military companies have helped restore stability, mainly around gas exploration and liquefaction projects.
ISS 3 April 2023
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwean Exemption Permit: Minister acted outside his powers; court told
The home affairs minister acted outside his powers in deciding to discontinue the Zimbabwean Exemption Permit (ZEP) system in 2021, advocate Tembeka Ngcukaitobi told the Pretoria High Court on Thursday.
Ngcukaitobi is counsel for the Zimbabwe Immigrants Forum (ZIF), which represents about 1 000 ZEP holders.
“We are sleepwalking into a catastrophe of monumental proportions,” he told a full bench of the court.
The decision to discontinue the ZEP system, which allows Zimbabweans to live, work and study in SA, means 178 000 ZEP holders and their families will be declared illegal foreigners on 1 July 2023, the day after the ZEP system will be deemed to have come to an end.
The ZIF is asking the court for an interim interdict to prevent the ZEP system ending on 30 June 2023, so that ZEP holders will not be at risk of being declared illegal foreigners.
News24 13 April 2023
In Zimbabwe, a struggling media is a target for capture
A recent exposé, alleging that Wisdom Mdzungairi, the immediate former editor-in-chief at NewsDay, the leading private daily owned by Trevor Ncube’s Alpha Media Holdings (AMH), was on the government’s payroll, has stunned the local media fraternity.
Outed on social media by presidential spokesman, George Charamba, Mdzungairi is said to have been summoned by his employer to clarify the allegations. Instead, he reportedly elected to resign. His ignominious departure from one of the most influential editorial positions in the country, exposes the precarious state Zimbabwe’s media finds itself. With many media houses in financial distress, this could further expose the profession to manipulation by politicians. Speaking to Carte Blanche in 2020, Njabulo Ncube, of the National Editors Forum revealed that some journalists were earning as little as US$50 per month, barely enough for transport.
It turns out that Mdzungairi, who had built a reputation as a fierce critic of both the Mugabe and Mnangagwa governments, was moonlighting as the deputy communications director in the Ministry of Local Government and Public Works. His decision to take up secretly a very public position may have been motivated by financial difficulties. By the time of his resignation from AMH in January, staff had not been paid their December salaries.
African Arguments 11 April 2023
eSwatini
Eswatini govt preparing for protests during the king’s birthday celebrations
The government of Eswatini activated surveillance mechanisms in anticipation of protests on King Mswati III’s 55th birthday next week as well as on National Flag Day at the end of April.
The king’s birthday is on 19 April.
National Flag Day is on 25 April – and it commemorates the anniversary of the kingdom’s flag being hoisted for the first time in 1967.
Flag Day differs from the country’s independence day, which is celebrated on 6 September.
Deputy Prime Minister Themba Masuku said the government was aware of plans to disrupt celebrations linked to the two important days.
“Government has observed and not taken lightly the circulating social media reports and general talk about a planned disruption of the economy through petition delivery marches and border blockades,” he said.
News24 13 April 2023
Trade unions and civil society organizations call for national dialogue on democratic reforms in Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, amid repression by the police and state security.
In support of the trade unions and civil society organizations, the ITUC is calling for Eswatini Global Day of Action on 12 April.
Unions say there appears to be no political will on the part of the Government of Eswatini to start dialogue. Instead, unions say that their leadership and that of civil society organizations live in fear following the assassination of prominent human rights activist and lawyer, Thulani Maseko, who was shot dead on 21 January allegedly by hired “mercenaries.”
Maseko was the chairperson of the MultiStakeholders Forum which together with the Political Parties Assembly and other organizations are calling for democratic reforms through dialogue facilitated by the Southern African Development Community.
Industrial All 6 April 2023
Democratic Republic of Congo
Conflict in eastern DR Congo forces thousands of schools to close
Thomas Tumusifu Buregeya wishes he were studying for his final school exams. Instead, he scrapes a living doing odd jobs in a displaced people’s camp in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo after a wave of rebel violence upended his life yet again.
Buregeya fled the town of Kibumba with his family in October amid a renewed offensive by the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group – the third time in 15 years he has been forced to escape his home – and has not been able to study for a whole year. He is now 22 and still waiting to complete school.
“When from this camp I see … finalists like me, it makes my heart ache, I wonder when I will finish my studies, the years are going by,” he said.
He is one of the 750,000 young Congolese whose schooling is currently disrupted by insecurity caused by multiple armed groups in the eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, the United Nations children’s agency (UNICEF) estimated in late March.
Aljazeera 12 April 2023
Swiss President pledges to advocate for east DR Congo conflict victims at UN
Swiss President Alain Berset, whose country will preside over the UN Security Council in May, pledged on Thursday in Kinshasa to work for the civilian population victims of the conflicts in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo.
“We want to focus on those who are the first victims of insecurity,” said the president of the Swiss Confederation at a joint press conference with his Congolese counterpart Felix Tshisekedi.
Alain Berset has been visiting the DRC since Wednesday evening, where, after the capital Kinshasa, he plans to go to the East, which has been plagued by violence from armed groups for nearly 30 years.
He will visit camps for displaced persons in Goma, capital of North Kivu province, where the M23 rebellion has displaced hundreds of thousands of people since the end of 2021. In Bukavu, in the neighboring province of South Kivu, he will meet with renowned doctor and Nobel Peace Prize winner Denis Mukwege.
Africa News 13 April 2023
East Africa and the Horn
Somalia
UN chief sounds alarm on Somalia’s ‘massive’ need for aid
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appealed for “massive international support” for Somalia, which is facing the worst drought in decades.
During a joint news briefing with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on his visit to the country, Guterres told reporters in the capital Mogadishu on Tuesday that he was in Somalia “to ring the alarm” on the country’s need for significant international support.
Five successive failed rainy seasons in parts of Somalia, as well as Kenya and Ethiopia, have led to the worst drought in four decades, wiping out livestock and crops and forcing at least 1.7 million people from their homes in search of food and water.
While famine thresholds have not been reached in Somalia, the UN has said about half its population will need humanitarian assistance this year, with 8.3 million affected by the drought.
Aljazeera 11 April 2023
At Least 3,500 AU Soldiers Killed in Somalia Since 2007
Thousands of African Union peacekeepers have been killed and hundreds more injured in Somalia since the forces began their work in that country in early 2007, the head of their mission told VOA Somali. The peacekeepers were deployed to help protect the government and installations from al-Qaida-affiliated al-Shabab militants.
Mohamed El-Amine Souef, the special representative of the chairperson of the African Union Commission for Somalia, disclosed the casualty figures during an interview last week with the “Investigative Dossier,” a VOA Somali radio program.
“The troops were not well-prepared, and the administration was not even in Mogadishu. Many cases were not properly documented,” Souef said via the WhatsApp messaging platform.
Originally known as the African Union Mission in Somalia, the operation’s first deployment in Mogadishu came in March 2007 with troops from Uganda. In April 2022, the African Union Mission changed its name to the African Union Transition Mission, or ATMIS, with a view to withdrawing from Somalia by December 2024 after Somali forces assumed security responsibilities in the country. ATMIS currently has around 19,000 peacekeepers operating in Somalia.
Voice of America 11 April 2023
Central African Republic
Why Russia Can Circumvent Sanctions Using the Central African Republic
As Ukraine marks one year since Russia’s invasion, a 10-year war halfway around the world, in the Central African Republic, is providing Russian President Vladimir Putin with access to precious minerals that allow him to circumvent Western sanctions.
The Central African Republic (CAR) may seem remote from the war in Ukraine, but in partnering with Russia it has made itself instrumental to Russia’s ability to continue its war. CAR is a former French colony that for decades has been dependent on Western aid and military assistance, but it is now taking distance from its old Western allies, even at the cost of fueling the conflict in Ukraine.
The Nation 12 April 2023
Ten years of atrocities and violence in Central African Republic
Ten years after the start of the third civil war in the Central African Republic, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teamed up with photographer Adrienne Surprenant to meet Central African families to capture the consequences of these years of violence.
By way of 15 first-hand accounts collected in Bangui and Carnot, the photographic and audio documentary The Events highlights the immense destruction within families, their homes and their memories.
This is the story of a country bled dry and of the people who live there, of the familes hit by the repeated extreme violence sweeping across the Central African Republic. It is the story, among others, of Joseph, whose son was murdered on Christmas Eve; of Tatiana, who had to flee her home when she was heavily pregnant; of Louise, who underwent an amputation following a gunshot wound; and of Louison, traumatised by the death of a man he tried in vain to save.
MSF 20 March 2023
Sudan
Sudanese politicians blame Bashir loyalists for discord
Sudan’s main pro-democracy coalition said loyalists of former strongman Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in a coup in 2019, were fuelling a rift between the armed forces and a powerful paramilitary group that has jeopardized a transition to civilian government.
The army on Thursday warned of a possible confrontation between its troops and fighters of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), bringing long-bubbling disagreements to the surface.
A flurry of mediation offers quickly emerged, with local and international actors meeting army leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and RSF head General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, who have served as Sudan’s head of state and deputy head of state since they took part in the coup that ousted the Islamist Bashir.
“The ongoing events are the plan of loyalists of the former regime, aiming to destroy the political process,” the Forces of Freedom and Change (FFC), a coalition of pro-democracy parties, said in a statement.
Reuters 14 April 2023
Sudan’s army says paramilitary mobilisation risks confrontation
Sudan’s army warned on Thursday of a risk of confrontation after mobilisations by a powerful paramilitary group, underlining growing strains between the rival forces and a potential complication in moves to restore civilian rule.
It could spell prolonged strife across a vast country already dealing with economic breakdown and flare-ups of tribal violence.
The mobilisation by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) headed by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo represented a “clear violation of law,” the army said in a rare comment on a dispute that has hampered a planned transition to democracy.
“These movements and deployments happened without the agreement of the leadership of the armed forces or even coordination with it,” the army spokesman said.
Reuters 13 April 2023
South Sudan
South Sudan MP warns over plot to impeach assembly speaker
The information committee chairperson in South Sudan’s Transitional National Legislative Assembly (TNLA), John Agany on Wednesday warned opposition MPs against plot to impeach the speaker.
A group of opposition lawmakers on Tuesday threatened to impeach Jemma Nunu Kumba after the TNLA speaker recently made a trip to India.
The speaker’s trip, according to the lawmakers, was an expensive venture given that ordinary South Sudanese are currently languishing in poverty.
But speaking to reporters after a parliamentary sitting on Wednesday, Agany said the opposition lawmakers had no right to impeach the speaker.
“Let me remind those ignorant MPs, let me use that language because they are really ignorant about the law and they should know that in some parts of the world, South Sudan does not exist and it is we to sell the good image of the country and to go to them and tell them South Sudan exists and we are here,” he explained.
Sudan Tribune 13 April 2023
SSUF/A urges “immediate” release of officers arrested in Unity State
South Sudan United Front/Army (SSUF/A) leadership has urged “immediate” release of four officers arrested in Unity State over alleged links to the SSUF/A Nairobi Declaration under Gen. Dickson Gatluak Jock Nyuot.
The group, in a statement on Thursday, said those arrested allegedly on orders of the armed opposition (SPLM-IO) area commander are Major Gen. Puok Ngueny Koh, Major Gen. Kew Kuol Riek, Col. Thai Gattiek Turoal and Cde. Guong Kew.
“SSUF/A leadership calls on the actors (SPLM/A-IO)across Unity State to cease from intimidating our members in the state for the sake of peace to hold in South Sudan since it’s a partner to the ongoing interim government in Juba,” it noted.
The opposition faction appealed to the regional bloc (IGAD), Saint Egidio Community and the ceasefire monitoring body (CTSAMVM) to exert pressure on the SPLA-IO to immediately free the detainees to diffuse the escalating situation.
Sudan Tribune 13 April 2023
North Africa and the Sahara
Western Sahara
Brazil Maintains Support for UN Political Solution for Western Sahara
Brazil is supporting a political solution for Western Sahara in the Security Council and is maintaining a “legalistic and wise” position on the dispute, Morocco’s Ambassador to Brazil, Nabil Adghoghi, said on Saturday.
“Brazil, with a legalistic, wise and highly respected position, has never recognized this fictitious entity [the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic] and continues to defend a political solution in the Security Council,” Adghoghi said in a column published by Brazilian newspaper Correio Braziliense.
The diplomat added that the South American country sees the UN-brokered process as a way out of the “artificial dispute” in the region, also highlighting how the UN supports Morocco’s Autonomy Plan.
Morocco World News 3 April 2023
UN Resupplies Mission in Western Sahara for First Time Since 2020
The United Nations has sent an overland convoy to resupply its peacekeeping mission in separatist-controlled Western Sahara for the first time since 2020. The UN says its presence in the field is key to finding a way to resolve the disagreement over what to do with the territory.
Two sites hosting UN peacekeepers as part of the Minurso mission were resupplied from April 5 to 7, said Stephane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, on Monday.
Since November 2020 and the resumption of hostilities between separatists and the Moroccan government, ground convoys have been limited, and supplies arrived via plane and helicopter. This limited what could be brought in, notably fuel.
The sites in Tifariti and Mehaires are both east of the 2,700-kilometre-long sand wall separating the Moroccan-controlled part of the former Spanish colony from that controlled by the Polisario Front, an armed separatist movement that has been fighting for independence since the 1970s.
AllAfrica 11 April 2023