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http://www.jeuneafrique.com/400016/politique/tchad-idriss-deby-reporte-tenue-elections-legislatives-manque-de-moyens/ a écrit:

Tchad : Idriss Déby Itno reporte la tenue des élections législatives « par manque de moyens »

Le président tchadien Idriss Déby Itno a annoncé ce jeudi lors d'une conférence de presse le report des élections législatives à une date inconnue. Le chef d'Etat a justifié cette décision par un manque de moyens pour les organiser.

« Quand je dis que nous ne pouvons pas faire des législatives, c’est par manque des moyens. En période de vache maigre, on ne peut rien faire. Quand nous aurons des ressources, on pourra organiser des élections législatives », a-t-il précisé jeudi 02 février devant la presse.

Les élections législatives devaient se dérouler courant 2016 rappelle la FIDH. Aucune nouvelle date n’a été fixée. C’est donc le statu quo pour l’instant à l’Assemblée nationale, où le Mouvement patriotique du Salut (MPS), le parti du président Déby, occupe 133 des 188 sièges depuis les dernières législatives en février 2011.

Appel au dialogue avec l’opposition

De retour du sommet d’Addis Abeba où il a fait élire son ministre des Affaires étrangères, Moussa Faki Mahamat, à la tête de la commission de l’Union africaine (UA), Idriss Déby Into a lancé un appel au dialogue en direction de l’opposition.

« Qu’elle n’ait pas peur de dialoguer avec moi, je suis Tchadien comme eux », a-t-il insisté, ajoutant que « l’opposition doit cesser de cultiver la haine qui a pour conséquence la déchirure du pays. Le Tchad n’a pas besoin de cela ».

L’opposition, emmené par l’ancien ministre Saleh Kebzabo, a contesté la réélection d’Idriss Déby pour un cinquième mandat en avril dernier avec près de 60%. L’opposition n’a recueilli que 12, 80 % des voix. Une réélection dès le premier tour donc qui marquait néanmoins un recul de presque 30 points par rapport à la présidentielle de 2011 (88%).

« Boko Haram est terminé »

Idriss Déby Itno a également profité de cette conférence de presse pour témoigner de son optimisme sur l’issue de la lutte contre les terroristes de Boko Haram, très dans la région du Lac Tchad. Le Tchad est un allié majeur de l’Occident en Afrique sub-saharienne contre les jihadistes dans la région. « Boko Haram est terminé, dans le cas contraire il est très affaibli. En plus des efforts faits par notre armée, la force mixte (composée du Tchad, du Niger, Nigeria et du Cameroun) a réduit la capacité de nuisance de Boko Haram », a-t-il assuré, avant d’ajouter « nous parviendrons à endiguer totalement Boko Haram ».


Pour rappel, Idriss Déby Itno avait déjà déclaré que Boko Haram était « décapité » en août 2015. L’organisation jihadiste continue de semer la terreur dans le nord Cameroun et du Nigéria où elle a pris d’assaut un convoi sous escorte militaire, faisant au passage 15 morts.

Citation :

African Union to set up infrastructure fund for the continent

4 minutes

Fri Feb 19, 2021 / 3:41 AM EST

NAIROBINAIROBI (Reuters) - The African Union is setting up a fund to finance the construction of much-needed roads, railways and power plants on the continent, its infrastructure head said, turning to new sources of cash due to donor fatigue and higher debt levels.

The continent has an estimated annual infrastructure financing deficit of $60 billion-$90 billion, the AU says, making it hard for the body to advance its goal of integrating the disparate individual markets into a single, free trade area.

"Africa is financially starved as far as the need for infrastructure development is concerned," Raila Odinga, who is the AU's high representative for infrastructure, told Reuters.

The 55-nation AU is now turning to sovereign wealth funds, insurance and retirement funds in countries like South Africa, Angola, Nigeria Morocco, Egypt and Kenya, to raise the cash.

The funds will be invited to invest about 5% of their holdings, Odinga said, "which is actually going to be more lucrative for those institutions, rather than having funds lie idle".

Talks with the funds are going on and the AU's experts are setting up the legal and financial structure for the infrastructure fund, which will be administered by the newly formed African Union Development Agency, Odinga said.

The move bucks the past trend of dependence on wealthy donor nations and borrowing from financial markets.

China, which has been one of the biggest funders of infrastructure projects on the continent over the past decade, has cut back on lending due to high debt levels among individual nations like Kenya.

"We are now trying to think out of the box," Odinga said.

The drive to find new ways of funding the construction of roads and railways and other utilities comes as Africa seeks to bring together 1.3 billion people in a $3.4 trillion economic bloc known as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA).

"This infrastructure is urgent for the realization of the AfCFTA, otherwise it is just going to remain on paper," Odinga said.

It was critical to connect landlocked nations to ports on coastlines, and complete missing links for transcontinental highways, to facilitate the free flow of goods under the AfCFTA and lift people out of poverty, he said.

"Africa needs to trade with itself," Odinga said, citing figures which show intra-African trade is just 15%, compared with intra-European trade levels of 70% and 50% in Asia.

The New York Times a écrit:

In a Dangerous Game of Cat and Mouse, Iran Eyes New Targets in Africa

Fifteen people arrested in Ethiopia were part of what American and Israeli officials said was a foiled Iranian plot against diplomats from the United Arab Emirates.

When Ethiopia’s intelligence agency recently uncovered a cell of 15 people it said were casing the embassy of the United Arab Emirates, along with a cache of weapons and explosives, it claimed to have foiled a major attack with the potential to sow havoc in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.

But the Ethiopians omitted a key detail about the purported plot: who was behind it.

The only clue was the arrest of a 16th person: Accused of being the ringleader, Ahmed Ismail had been picked up in Sweden with the cooperation of friendly “African, Asian and European intelligence services,” the Ethiopians said.

Now American and Israeli officials say the operation was the work of Iran, whose intelligence service activated a sleeper cell in Addis Ababa last fall with orders to gather intelligence also on the embassies of the United States and Israel.

They say the Ethiopian operation was part of a wider drive to seek soft targets in African countries where Iran might avenge painful, high-profile losses such as the death of Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, Iran’s top nuclear scientist, said to have been killed by Israel in November, and Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the Iranian spymaster killed by the United States in Iraq just over one year ago.
Citing Western intelligence sources, Rear Adm. Heidi K. Berg, director of intelligence at the Pentagon’s Africa command, said that Iran was behind the 15 people arrested in Ethiopia and that the “mastermind of this foiled plot,” Mr. Ismail, had been arrested in Sweden.

“Ethiopia and Sweden collaborated on the disruption to the plot,” Admiral Berg said in a statement.

Iran denied the accusations. “These are baseless allegations only provoked by the Zionist regime’s malicious media,” said a spokeswoman for the Iranian Embassy in Addis Ababa. “Neither Ethiopia nor the Emirates said anything about Iranian interference in these issues.”

The United Arab Emirates angered Iran when it normalized relations with Israel in September as part of a series of agreements brokered by the Trump administration in its final months and known as the Abraham Accords.

A spokesman for the Ethiopian police, which named just two of the 15 people arrested, declined to say why Ethiopia did not finger Iran for the plot. Several diplomats said that Ethiopia, as Africa’s diplomatic capital and home to the headquarters of the African Union, tries to avoid getting publicly embroiled in delicate issues involving major powers.
Even so, Ethiopia’s National Intelligence and Security Service said that a second group of plotters had been preparing to hit the Emirati Embassy in Khartoum, Sudan. A Sudanese official confirmed that account.

A senior United States defense official linked the arrests in Ethiopia to a failed Iranian plan to kill the United States ambassador to South Africa, which was reported by Politico in September. The American and Sudanese officials agreed to discuss the matter on condition of anonymity because of its diplomatic and intelligence sensitivity.

Still, much about the Ethiopian arrests and alleged Iranian role remained murky. The Ethiopian police have yet to formally charge the 15 plot suspects, only two of whom have been identified. Israeli officials say that as few as three of them may be actual Iranian operatives, with the others having been caught in the Ethiopian dragnet.

And the arrests in Ethiopia come at a time of heightened political sensitivity in Iran and the United States, as the Biden administration considers its posture toward Tehran and whether to revive the Obama-era nuclear deal with Iran that President Donald J. Trump scrapped in 2018.

Adding to the pressure on President Biden, Iran’s intelligence minister suggested last week that his country might seek to obtain nuclear arms if American sanctions were not lifted soon.

While Admiral Berg confirmed several details about Iran’s role in the Ethiopian arrests, other military and diplomatic officials in Washington declined to discuss it.
In contrast, officials in Israel, whose government is openly hostile to any thaw between Washington and Tehran, highlighted the purported plot as further evidence that Iran cannot be trusted.

For all its efforts, Iran has yet to deliver on its promises of vengeance for its high-profile losses, beyond a missile attack on American forces in Iraq in January 2020, days after General Suleimani was killed.

Any plan to hit the U.A.E., as suggested by the arrests in Ethiopia, would be a curious choice, given its potential to undermine Mr. Biden’s putative nuclear diplomacy with Iran, said Aaron David Miller, a foreign policy expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

Other analysts, though, said that the U.A.E. was high on Iran’s list of enemies and that the embassy in Ethiopia might present an unchallenging target at a time when Ethiopia is distracted by a war that has been raging in its northern Tigray region since November.

“Africa is a relatively easy place to operate, and Ethiopia is preoccupied with other issues,” said Bruce Riedel, a former C.I.A. officer now with the Brookings Institution.

The murky episode seemed destined to become the latest in a series of cat-and-mouse episodes between Iranian and Israeli operatives on African soil in recent years.

During the 1990s, Iran enjoyed close ties with Sudan under the autocratic ruler Omar Hassan al-Bashir, and in the next decade it was able to dock its warships in Eritrea.
Israel struck back in 2009 with airstrikes against a convoy of smuggler trucks in Sudan that aimed to stop Iranian-supplied weapons from reaching the Gaza Strip, American officials said.

But Iran’s ties to the Horn of Africa have withered in recent years, and Israeli and Emirati involvement has grown.

The Emirates helped mediate a landmark peace deal between Ethiopia and Eritrea in 2018, and now it is Emirati warships that are docked in Eritrean ports.

In November, following a call between the Ethiopian prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, and Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, a team of Israeli drone pilots arrived in Ethiopia to help eliminate the locusts that have plagued the country’s farmers.

Weeks later, Yossi Cohen, the chief of the Mossad, Israel’s covert intelligence service, met with his Ethiopian counterpart to discuss what they termed “counterterrorism operations.”

Elsewhere in Africa, Israeli intelligence officials say they frequently tip off friendly countries about suspected Iranian activity.
In Kenya, two Iranians arrested in 2012 and charged with possession of 15 kilograms of explosives are now serving 15-year prison sentences. Kenyan officials said the men were members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps Quds Force. Their lawyers said they had been interrogated by Israeli intelligence while in Kenyan custody.

Four years later, in 2016, Kenya deported two Iranians who had been arrested outside the Israeli Embassy with video footage of the facility. Iran said the men, who had been traveling in an Iranian diplomatic car, were university teachers.

Iranian agents have been suspected in attacks or thwarted attacks in countries including Georgia, Thailand and India. On Feb. 4, a Belgian court stripped an Iranian envoy of his diplomatic status and sentenced him to 20 years in prison for having organized a thwarted bomb attack aimed at an Iranian opposition rally in France in 2018.

That failed plot and another in Denmark prompted the European Union in 2019 to impose sanctions on Iran’s external spy service, the Ministry of Intelligence and Security. Israeli officials say the same agency orchestrated the operation in Ethiopia.

Sofia Hellqvist, a spokeswoman for the Swedish Police Authority, referred questions about the arrest of Mr. Ismail, the alleged ringleader, to the authorities in Ethiopia.

A spokesman for the United Arab Emirates did not respond to a request for comment.

Given the stakes, it was unclear why the Iranians might risk a rapprochement with the Biden administration by mounting an operation now.

Farzin Nadimi, a specialist on the Iranian armed forces with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said Iran may wish to send a message to the Biden administration officials that “unless they reach a deal with Iran quickly this is what they get: a dangerous neighborhood.”

Citation :

Justice ministers discuss third states’ accession to ECOWAS Treaty

- MyJoyOnline.com
4 - 5 minutes

The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Regional Integration-designate, Madam Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey has opened a meeting of ECOWAS Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Justice to discuss the accession of third (non-member) states to the ECOWAS Treaty, in Accra.

The Accra meeting will afford the ministers of the Committee of Five Member States the platform to deliberate on the conclusions of the study on the accession of third states to the ECOWAS Treaty.

Following accession requests from Morocco, Tunisia and Mauritania, the Authority of ECOWAS Heads of State and Government, at its 52nd Ordinary Session held in Abuja, Nigeria on 16th December, 2017 was directed by the ECOWAS Commission.

They undertook a study that constituted a High-Level Committee, comprising the Presidents of Ghana, Togo, Ivory Coast, Guinea and Nigeria, to address the legal and institutional requirements for third-country accession to the ECOWAS Treaty.

Madam Ayorkor Botchwey said over the last three days, a multi-sectoral meeting of experts was held in Accra to consider the conclusions of the study, which would be submitted to the Ministers for their comments and, hopefully, endorsement before they were referred to the Heads of State for a final decision.

“The duty entrusted to us by the Heads of State is a solemn one. Indeed, we cannot purport to effectively carry out the duty without deeply reflecting on the reasons behind the growing interest of third states in our Community.

“We should also be minded by the geopolitical considerations, and its underpinnings,” she said.

Mrs Ayorkor Botchwey stated that observing developments keenly in the ECOWAS, the single market that the region offered and its attractiveness for trade and investment, including the fact that its population was youthful and increasingly educated, were certainly some of the reasons for the high interest in the sub-region.

“We should and must seize the opportunity, guided by the principles of complementarity, and our shared values to leverage these interests for the benefit of the citizens of the Community,” she said.

She expressed the hope that the Accra Meeting would bring finality to the unresolved question of third country accession to the ECOWAS Treaty.

Minister of Justice-designate, Mr Godfred Dame recalled that Morocco had requested to join as a full member of ECOWAS, whilst Mauritania and Tunisia wanted to join as associate member and observer, respectively.

He said Morocco’s application was endorsed in principle at the summit of ECOWAS Heads of States in June, 2017 but same had since stalled.

“Indeed, the absence of rules within the revised ECOWAS Treaty and Supplementary Protocols addressing the subject matter of the accession of new countries to the Community, respective of the status; that is full member, associate member or observer, has accounted for the failure to decide on their applications for different membership status by the countries mentioned above,” he said.

“Our Economic Community lacks specific legal texts, standards or procedures governing the situation, which hitherto was novel to it. There is, thus, an urgent and a pressing necessity for the lacuna to be filled.”

Mr Baba Gana Wakil, the ECOWAS Resident Representative in Ghana, said it was gratifying to note that several countries had taken keen interest in the activities of the sub-region to the extent that some of them had expressed various capacities.

These include full membership, associate membership, and as observers.

“This is, indeed, an interesting development that should attract our attention and scrutin,” Mr Wakil said.

MAP a écrit:

Mohamed Bazoum élu président du Niger

mardi, 23 février, 2021 à 21:57



Niamey – Le candidat du Parti nigérien pour la démocratie et le socialisme (PNDS-Tarayya, au pouvoir), Mohamed Bazoum, a remporté le second tour de la présidentielle avec 55,75% des suffrages face au candidat de l’opposition Mahamane Ousmane (44,25%), a annoncé, mardi soir,
la Commission électorale nationale indépendante (CENI).

Ces “résultats sont provisoires et doivent être soumis à l’analyse de la Cour constitutionnelle”, a souligné le président de la CENI, Issaka Souna.

Citation :

Plongée au coeur des relations mouvementées entre le Niger et l'Algérie

-


Les rumeurs sur une tentative de corruption de Mohamed Bazoum, qui a toutes les chances de devenir président du Niger en février, ne doivent pas masquer les relations difficiles du Niger avec avec leur puissant voisin algérien.

Une enquête de Jeremy H. Keenan

A la plus petite critique sur les abus commis contre ses citoyens, comme l’adoption récente par le Parlement européen, par 669 voix contre 3, le 26 novembre 2020, d’une résolution d’urgence condamnant le régime pour ses pratiques liberticides et la répression continue des droits de l’Homme, l’Algérie réagit instantanément par le rejet, au prétexte qu’il s’agirait là d’ingérence extérieure dans ses affaires intérieures souveraines.

Le mantra éternel du régime algérien est, en effet, de ne jamais s’ingérer dans les affaires des autres pays. C’est pour cette raison que la récente tentative de corruption du favori de l’élection présidentielle au Niger par le général Mohamed Bouzit (alias général Youssef) peut être regardée comme maladroite, voire même hypocrite.

En décembre dernier, quelques jours avant le premier tour de l’élection présidentielle, des émissaires du chef de la Direction de la documentation et de la sécurité extérieure (DDSE) auraient proposé à Mohamed Bazoum de financer sa campagne à hauteur de 2 millions de dollars en échange d’un service : le futur alignement diplomatique du Niger sur l’Algérie à propos du Sahara Occidental et de la Libye.

Un avion militaire algérien transportant les fonds aurait atterri le 25 décembre à l’aéroport de Tahoua, le fief du parti rose au pouvoir, sans qu’on possède les preuves d’un tel vol

L’un des enjeux de l’accord était que Bazoum invite officiellement à son investiture Brahim Ghali, le Président de la République arabe sahraouie démocratique (RASD). Une telle réhabilitation de la RASD après des mois d’échecs diplomatiques de l’Algérie, y compris le blocus provocateur par le Polisario de la route vers la Mauritanie au poste frontière de Guerguerat, la violation qui s’en est suivie de l’accord de cessez-le-feu avec le Maroc, et la reconnaissance par la Maison Blanche de la marocanité du Sahara Occidental, aurait été un bon coup et un moyen de se racheter pour Bouzit, qui, en tant que chef des services de renseignement extérieurs, était tenu pour responsable de la calamiteuse série de reculs de la diplomatie algérienne.

Un avion militaire algérien transportant les fonds aurait atterri le 25 décembre à l’aéroport de Tahoua, le fief du parti rose au pouvoir dans le centre du Niger, avant de poursuivre son vol vers Niamey.

L’Algérie n’est pas le voisin préféré du Niger et Mohamed Bazoum a toujours considérée ce pays avec méfiance.

Sans parler de ses implications éthiques et juridiques, ce marchandage, s’il a existé, était à la fois imprudent et téméraire.  D’un point de vue algérien, cette opération était à très haut risque.  L’Algérie n’est pas le voisin préféré du Niger et Bazoum l’a toujours considérée avec méfiance. Pire, le probable futur président était connu pour poignarder l’Algérie dans le dos.

Le mauvais coup de Bazoum contre l’Algérie s’était produit lors d’une grande conférence internationale sur la sécurité à Alger en septembre 2011, organisée par les Etats-Unis pour mettre en avant la menace d’Al Qaida au Maghreb islamique (AQMI) dans le Sahel Sahara et pour promouvoir la position de leader de l’Algérie dans la lutte contre le terrorisme dans la région.

Bazoum était présent à la conférence en tant que ministre nigérien des Affaires Etrangères. Bien que nommé seulement cinq mois plus tôt à ce poste, il avait déjà servi en tant que ministre des Affaires étrangères dans les années 1990 et dans l’intervalle, il était resté une figure de premier plan dans le paysage politique du Niger. Pour faire court, il était très familier de l’Algérie, de son régime complexe et de sa duplicité dans la Guerre Globale contre la Terreur lancée par les Etats-Unis avec la complicité algérienne au Sahara en 2003. .

A l’occasion de la conférence, l’Algérie avait répandu sa propagande et ses fausses informations sur les circonstances dans lesquelles elle avait initié la création, en avril 2010, d’un commandement militaire conjoint, le Comité d’état-major opérationnel conjoint (CEMOC), dont le quartier général se trouvait à Tamanrasset. Ce commandement réunissait la Mauritanie, le Mali, le Niger et l’Algérie au sein d’un front militaire commun contre le terrorisme.

Le commandement militaire commun entre l’Algérie et le Sahel était une farce, malgré un énorme budget consenti par l’Algérie détourné par quelques généraux corrompus

En réalité, le CEMOC, bien que bien cité par les media internationaux, n’existait que de nom. C’était une farce, avec un énorme budget consenti par l’Algérie puis détourné par quelques généraux corrompus. Pourtant, à ce moment-là, le CEMOC apparaissait comme une composante clé de la campagne de désinformation américano-algérienne faisant la promotion de la Guerre Globale contre la Terreur – et consécutivement de l’instabilité – dans la région.

Le premier à siffler la farce du CEMOC fut le ministre nigérien des Affaires étrangères, Mohamed Bazoum, qui eut la candeur et le courage de déclarer aux journalistes présents à la conférence que la coopération entre les quatre pays avait été inexistante. « A ce jour », avait dit Bazoum, « le commandement militaire conjoint entre les quatre pays et basé à (…)Tamanrasset a été inexistant. Jusqu’ici, nous ne l’avons pas vu mettre en œuvre une seule opération concrète. »

L’intervention de Mohamed Bazoum, renforcée par d’autres protagonistes, notamment un responsable des services de renseignement français qui qualifiait la conférence d’affichage diplomatique et Mohamed Mahmoud Aboulmaaly, le responsable de publication de Nouakchott Info, également spécialiste d’AQMI, qui était informé de la propagande algérienne, n’est pas passée inaperçue de la presse internationale ni des allés occidentaux de l’Algérie. Associated Press (AP) et News24 se firent l’écho de sa déclaration sous le titre: ‘Un responsable nigérien met en doute les efforts antiterroristes. ’

L’intervention de Mohamed Bazoum fut décisive dans la mesure où elle amplifia la méfiance des services occidentaux face à l’Algérie

L’intervention de Bazoum ne fut pas sans conséquences. Les alliés occidentaux de l’Algérie, surtout les Etats-Unis et le Royaume-Uni, un peu moins la France, commençaient à prendre ombrage du soutien caché du Département du Renseignement et de la Sécurité (DRS) au régime de Kadhafi en Libye, ainsi que du soutien croissant du DRS à AQMI au Sahel et au Sahara. Le résultat fut une tension croissante dans les relations entre le DRS algérien et les Etats-Unis et le Royaume-Uni, ces derniers envisageant même de cesser toute relation avec le DRS. C’est cette détérioration rapide de la relation entre le DRS algérien et ses alliés occidentaux qui, comme expliqué dans Mondafrique, conduisit à la désastreuse attaque d’In Amenas en janvier 2013.

https://www.lemonde.fr/afrique/article/2021/03/05/senegal-un-mort-lors-de-manifestations-contre-l-arrestation-de-l-opposant-ousmane-sonko_6072035_3212.html a écrit:

JUST IN - Equatorial Guinea's largest city #Bata rocked by several massive explosions.pic.twitter.com/uhVaZ1g1BH

— Disclose.tv (@disclosetv) March 7, 2021

Footage from the aftermath of an explosion in the city of Bata in Equatorial Guinea. Reports say that the explosion came from inside a military barracks pic.twitter.com/hkQM7vZ10L

— Intel Air & Sea (@air_intel) March 7, 2021

WATCH: Significant devastation after multiple explosions in Bata, Equatorial Guinea. Number of dead unknown, hundreds injured pic.twitter.com/aiFDxyEv7g

— BNO News (@BNONews) March 7, 2021

Breaking: Multiple explosions rock Bata, Equatorial Guinea. pic.twitter.com/sPBs9McrxX

— PM Breaking News (@PMBreakingNews) March 7, 2021

LCI.fr a écrit:

Guinée équatoriale : des dizaines de morts et plusieurs centaines de blessés dans l’explosion d’un dépôt militaire

ACCIDENT – L’explosion d’un dépôt d’armes et munitions d'un camp militaire a fait au moins 20 morts et 600 blessés en Guinée équatoriale, dimanche 7 mars. La recherche de victimes est toujours en cours.

L’incident a soufflé plusieurs quartiers d’habitations autour du lieu de l’explosion. Au moins 20 personnes ont été tuées et 600 blessées après l’explosion accidentelle de dépôts d'armes et de munitions d'un camp militaire de Bata, la capitale économique de la Guinée équatoriale, dimanche 7 mars.

Le président Teodoro Obiang Nguema, qui détient le record mondial de longévité pour un président actuellement en vie avec 42 ans de direction du pays, a accusé fermiers et militaires de manque d’attention. "La ville de Bata a été victime d'un accident provoqué par la négligence de l'unité chargée de garder les dépôts de dynamite, d'explosifs et de munitions du camp militaire de Nkoa Ntoma, lesquels ont pris feu à cause des brûlis allumés dans leurs champs par les fermiers qui ont finalement fait exploser successivement ces dépôts", a-t-il détaillé.

Enfants, femmes, hommes et vieillards fuyaient un paysage de désolation encore enveloppé d'épaisses volutes de fumée et de poussière après au moins quatre terrifiantes déflagrations espacées de longues minutes. Dans un hôpital de Bata, de très nombreux blessés ont été accueillis, certains allongés à même le sol et sous perfusion.

Selon un tweet du ministère de la Santé, de nombreux habitants des quartiers environnants doivent encore se trouver sous les décombres de leurs maisons ou immeubles. Les recherches sont toujours en cours. Le chef de l'État a quant à lui ordonné une enquête et a "lancé un appel à la communauté internationale à soutenir la Guinée équatoriale dans ces moments rendus encore plus difficiles par la conjonction de la crise économique due à la chute des prix du pétrole et de la pandémie de Covid-19".

https://www.france24.com/fr/afrique/20210328-mozambique-la-ville-de-palma-aux-mains-des-jihadistes a écrit:

http://www.opex360.com/2021/03/30/apres-lattaque-jihadiste-contre-palma-le-portugal-annonce-lenvoi-de-60-militaires-au-mozambique/ a écrit:

https://ledesk.ma/encontinu/coup-detat-en-cours-au-niger-des-tirs-nourris-entendus-pres-de-la-presidence/ a écrit:

Middle East Eye a écrit:

Dubai, the business capital of Africa

Growing numbers of Africa-focused companies are basing themselves in the emirate

For hundreds of years, the business capitals of Africa were in Europe - in London, Paris, Berlin and Lisbon.

Despite decolonisation, money still flows from Africa to European financial hubs, but over the past decade business headquarters have geographically shifted. Not back to Africa, but to another former British colony: Dubai.

There are now more than 21,000 African companies in Dubai, which is part of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). It's a number that has increased by over a quarter since 2017, according to Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry figures.

The emirate has also attracted 45 Middle East and Africa headquarters of multinational companies - compared to just 26 in Africa, according to a 2018 report by Infomineo, a data and research outsourcing provider specialising in Africa and the Middle East.



The amount of capital and number of businesses dealing with Africa started to rise around the same time as the Arab Spring uprisings a decade ago.

“There were big inflows of Africans to Dubai from 2011 onwards. The Arab Spring actually helped open Dubai and the UAE to greater interest from African countries,” Theodore Karasik, a senior adviser to Gulf State Analytics, a Washington-based consultancy, told MEE.

The number of tourists from Africa has increased from just 6,954 in 1984 to 600,000 in 2016, reaching 810,000 in 2019, equivalent to 6% of all visitors, according to Dubai Tourism figures.

Overall trade with Africa also surged, from 3% of Dubai’s total trade at the turn of the century to 10% in 2018.



The African continent has become the third-largest trade region for Dubai after Asia and Europe, according to Dubai Customs.

“Years ago it was the Russians coming in, then the Chinese, and as that tapered off we were seeing Africans, with an explosion of wealth in this direction,” Scott Cairns, managing director of Creation Business Consultants in Dubai, told MEE. “It has slowed a little bit [over the past year, due to the Covid-19 pandemic] but once travel is allowed again we will see Africa re-emerge, as it is so close for building up business, and to commute [from Dubai] for projects.”

A ‘counterintuitive’ boom

The Gulf city, which sits on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula from Africa, did not intentionally become a hub for African business.

“It was not the Dubai government, but people in power in Africa that chose to do business in Dubai,” Martin Tronquit, managing partner at Infomineo, told MEE.

But capitalising on its geographical position, the Gulf city has transformed into the business hub of the Middle East and Africa (MEA) through laissez-faire policies, infrastructure and aviation networks.

The boom in MEA firms setting up shop in Dubai has contributed, in part, to the emirate successfully weaning itself off reliance on oil revenues. Non-oil trade with Africa has grown by 700 percent over the past 15 years, surging from $33bn in 2015 to $50bn in 2019, according to the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

While six regional HQs are in the energy sector, eight are involved in financial services, seven in motor vehicles and parts, and five in technology, followed by wholesalers, aerospace and defence companies, healthcare, and transportation, according to Infomineo.

“When we looked at where Fortune 500 decision-makers were based, almost half of total headquarters covering MEA were in Dubai, more than triple the number of Johannesburg [South Africa], which was ranked second, followed by Nairobi [Kenya], Casablanca [Morocco] and Lagos [Nigeria],” said Tronquit, citing data from Infomineo.

“It did feel counterintuitive as Dubai is not technically located in Africa.”

Dubai’s aviation links, tourism infrastructure and ease of access have also been a big driver in making the emirate such a hub for African business, said Cairns.

For a lot of them, said Isaac Kwaku Fokuo Jr, founder of Botho Emerging Markets Group, an investment advisory firm based in Dubai, “it is easier to go from Dubai to Africa than fly within Africa. And the ability to let people travel here freely is a big deal, compared to say London or New York, where there are multiple unnecessary barriers like the provision of bank statements to procure a visa just to attend a business meeting.

“Also, within the African continent, some countries such as South Africa, another business hub, have strict visa regulations,” he told MEE. “That means that visiting can be an onerous experience. In contrast, the hospitality on display in Dubai signals that Africans from across the continent are welcome.”

Capital by default?

Dubai has been helped, said Tronquit of Infomineo, by the fact that while “African business environments have massively improved in the last 20 years, [they] are not yet on par with the expectations of global companies - especially when it comes to international trade, like double taxation agreements, work visas for expats, corporate laws and tariffs.”

Lagos should logically be Africa’s business capital, he added. Nigeria has the continent’s largest economy. South Africa’s is second. However, “Lagos has been ranked as one of the world’s worst cities to live in, and personal safety is a massive issue, as it is in Johannesburg.

“It is also difficult to attract top executives and their families to countries where, for most of them, education, healthcare and safety are not up to global standards,” said Tronquit, based on criteria in an Infomineo report.

“Dubai is the business capital of Africa by default.”

While “Dubai locals have considered the emirate the business capital of Africa for over a decade,” said Karasik of Gulf State Analytics, to Africans the moniker does not always sit well.

“Dubai is a hub that plays a critical role for business into Africa, but it would be unfair to say that it is the business capital for an entire continent,” said Fokuo. “Cities such as Nairobi, Johannesburg, Cairo and Accra also play critical roles as hubs for business.”

He moved to Dubai from Nairobi four years ago, and has since seen an upswing in business, partnering with firms in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Egypt to help them expand into Africa. “I jokingly say there are now more African companies trying to work with us in Dubai than when we had a presence only in Kenya.”

A two-way street

Africa-UAE trade and business is set to increase as the Emirates look to expand ties with emerging markets. The UAE is the second-largest country investor in Africa after China, according to UNCTAD, investing $25.3bn between 2014 and 2018, while the Abu Dhabi Fund for Development, the emirate’s foreign aid agency, has been the biggest investor, at $16.6bn, in 28 African countries, according to the Financial Times’ fDI Intelligence.

Other countries in the region are also eyeing up the opportunities. “Africa is a central focus of the Gulf states due to Covid-19 and the need for economic recovery, with a focus on mining and green energy projects,” said Karasik. “They are competing on the continent.”

Israelis, too, are seeking business in Africa through Dubai, with consultancy firms in the emirate noting an uptick in contact from Israel since the recently signed Abraham Accords, normalisation deals between Israel and several Arab states.

This renewed interest in Africa is being bolstered by the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which came into effect in January. It brings together 1.3 billion people in a $3.4tn economic bloc of 54 African countries.

The UAE has been a strong proponent of the scheme.

“As African markets are very fragmented, consolidated projects [like the AfCFTA] make it easier to engage. Dubai is identifying opportunities,” said Fokuo.

Downsides

One disadvantage of being located in Dubai, however, is that firms are far-removed from their target markets.

“There are lots of ‘Africa’ HQs in Dubai, but that doesn’t allow you to get a sense of what is happening on the ground, as you’re not in Nairobi or Ghana,” said Fokuo.

With this in mind, the Dubai Chamber of Commerce & Industry has established four international offices in Africa over the past seven years – in Ethiopia, Ghana, Mozambique and Kenya.

“It would also be great if more Dubai-Africa events took place in Africa instead of in Dubai," added Fuoko.

Another concern is that Dubai’s growing role as a tax haven is hurting African nations. According to UK-based advocacy group the Tax Justice Network, “Dubai is unquestionably one of the world’s best-known secrecy jurisdictions, built on an increasingly complex array of offshore facilities that include free-trade zones, a low-tax environment, multiple secrecy facilities and lax enforcement.” Such policies enable the illicit flows of capital out of Africa to Dubai.

Lakshmi Kumar, Policy Director at Global Financial Integrity in Washington DC, told MEE: “The African continent is losing valuable revenues it needs through companies avoiding paying taxable income. It is definitely a problem.”

Kumar noted that Dubai plays a key role as a tax haven, with the Dubai International Financial Centre having the largest cluster of financial institutions anywhere in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Dubai has also been criticised for its role in the illicit gold trade, with “blood gold” smuggled from Africa to the emirate.

Analysts said that Dubai has become an increasingly important hub over the past year for gold exports from Africa, while the Emirate’s low taxation rate continues to make it attractive to set up businesses, for African as well as European firms avoiding higher tax rates.

The city’s property market has also been fingered as an ideal outlet for ill-gotten gains, such as for Nigeria’s elite.

“Dubai is a key centre for almost every crime, which makes it a bit unique,” said Kumar.

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Africa is creating its own Great Wall - and it’s green

* The Great Green Wall initiative aims to restore an 8,000km strip of savanna along the southern edge of the Sahara desert.

* 100 million hectares of land are to be restored, 10 million jobs created and 250 megatonnes of carbon sequestered.

* The initiative has just received a funding boost from donors including France and the World Bank to help achieve its goals by 2030.

Green is not the first colour you typically associate with the arid Sahel region in Africa. But a pan-regional initiative could change this significantly by 2030, following a pledge for new funding of more than $14 billion.

Stretching coast-to-coast from Senegal to Djibouti, the Great Green Wall is aiming to regenerate one of the region’s most seriously affected by land degradation and desertification in the world.

It’s hoped the completed Wall would be a new Wonder of the World - overtaking the Great Barrier Reef to be the largest living structure on Earth.

The semi-arid Sahel, between the dry Sahara to the north and the belt of humid savannas to the south, suffers from recurrent droughts, lack of rainfall and deteriorating soil quality and biodiversity. Disease outbreaks, food, water and energy insecurities impede its development significantly.

Growing a green belt across Africa

These are set against the ramifications of geopolitical conflict in the region and an expected tripling of its population to more than 1.5 billion before the end of the century, the FT reports based on UN estimates.

Addressing these challenges is the goal of the Great Green Wall for the Sahara and Sahel Initiative (GGW), which launched in 2007.

It aims to restore and sustainably manage an 8,000km strip of savanna, including trees, grasslands, vegetation and plants, along the southern edge of the Sahara desert.

Along with restoring 100 million hectares of land and creating 10 million jobs in rural areas, the GGW vision for 2030 also includes sequestering 250 megatonnes of carbon, so the region can play its part in meeting global climate goals.

As Ibrahim Thiaw, the Executive Secretary of the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), told the World Economic Forum during Davos Agenda Week: “Anytime you restore land, you actually have it as a carbon sink. And it turns out that land is the largest carbon sink that we have right now on Earth.”

Making progress with land restoration

Progress so far has been slow, with the UN reporting last year that the initiative had only covered 16% of its target area. But it has already benefited close to 500,000 people, both through training and job creation.

In Ethiopia, 15 million hectares of land have been restored, while in Senegal, 12 million drought-resistant trees have been planted in less than a decade.

In January 2021, the project received a pledge for new funding from donors including the African Development Bank, the government of France and the World Bank.

The Great Green Wall Accelerator announced at the One Planet Summit for biodiversity will cover around 30% of the $33 billion needed for the GGW to meet its 2030 goals.

In 2020, the project received a cultural boost, when Malian musician Inna Modja and Oscar-nominated director Fernando Meirelles made a documentary about its ambition.



Given the expected population growth, putting the region on a more secure, equitable and sustainable footing is an opportunity not to be missed, according to Ibrahim Thiaw, the Executive Secretary of the UNCCD.

“There is room for public and private investments, there is room for large investors, there is room for small shareholders,” he told the Davos Agenda.

He added that securing the necessary funding for GGW will create opportunities for people “to stay home, to do business at home, to grow at home, to actually enjoy living with their families”, addressing pressing geopolitical issues including migration.

Tchad : le président Idriss Déby Itno réélu, selon des résultats officiels provisoires https://t.co/TUlwvZtrCj pic.twitter.com/tn8XRpTh60

— FRANCE 24 Français (@France24_fr) April 19, 2021

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