Drought is not new to the Horn of Africa, but experts say the record one killing crops and cattle across Ethiopia, Kenya, and Somalia has underscored the increasing frequency of drought due to climate change.

In Ethiopia, the U.N.’s World Food Program is not just feeding those affected but also working to help drought-proof communities for the longer term.

Hawo Abdi Wole has lived through many droughts in her 70 years of life. But until now, she said she had never seen four consecutive rainy seasons fail. Wole said she has seen a big difference. In early years, she said, people used to see more rains and animals produced more milk. There is a big, big difference now.

The World Food Program is helping her village not only survive the crisis but rebuild for the long term.

The group is digging meter-wide, semi-circular holes in the barren soil to capture runoff water when rains return so that grass can grow more effectively and people feed their surviving livestock.

Forward-looking interventions are desperately needed. Scientists say climate change is the culprit for these more frequent, severe conditions.

“The climate in this region is driven by what is happening in the neighboring ocean,” said Abubakr Salih Babiker, who is with World Meteorological Organization in Ethiopia. “There are studies that indicated that this is the world’s fastest warming part of the tropical ocean system. So, it is warming rapidly during the past 100 years. And this warming, as I said…it was… it is associated with the dryness of the March-June season.”

It also results in flooding when the rain does return. These events aren’t just examples of climate change, but inequality, said Habtamu Adam, a climate policy expert in Addis Ababa.

“When you compare from the emission level from our contribution to the climate change, it is very incomparable because most of the emissions are emitted from developed countries,” he said.

Yet developing countries like Ethiopia don’t have the funds to fight the effects.

The World Meteorological Organization estimates that sub-Saharan Africa will need up to $50 billion annually to adapt to climate change. Without it, the number of people displaced and in need of aid will only continue to rise, said Ali Hussein, who is with the World Food Program in the Somali region.

“We need to build the community resistance to these shocks and in that line, we want to put more emphasis on these regreening activities, such as half-moons, to regenerate this dry desert area to become a green land in the future, which can be more useful to both communities and as well as livestock,” he said.

These projects around the Somali region are showing success and could be replicated to help more people.

Ibrahim Kurbad Farah is an elder of a village that saw its land restored with the construction of a channel that is effectively diverting streams and rainwater. He said they have experienced numerous advantages. They’re now able to farm and use the grass for livestock, as well as thatches for their houses. He said they also use the water for drinking, especially for the livestock.

While adaptation is crucial to communities’ health and survival, climate scientists warn reducing emissions remains a priority in preventing even worse conditions in the future.
…

Somalia’s parliament has reelected former President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud following marathon voting in Mogadishu on Sunday.

The voting took place in the heavily guarded Mogadishu airport with African Union forces securing the tent inside a hangar, where the secret balloting took place. In a joint session of the two houses of the parliament, the Upper House and Lower House, 327 lawmakers cast ballots for 36 presidential candidates in three rounds of voting.

Outgoing President Mohamed Abdullahi Farmaajo and his immediate predecessor, Mohamud, competed in the final round of voting, needing a simple majority to win. It was a rematch of the 2017 election when Farmaajo beat Mohamud to become president.

“Out of 327 parliamentarians who voted the final round, Hassan Sheikh Mohamud got 214 (votes), while President Farmaajo got 110, three votes spoiled,” Speaker Adan Mohamed Nur said. “He is the legitimate president from this hour.”

Farmaajo congratulated Mohamud during a live broadcast on national television.

“Thanks to Allah for allowing us to complete our election tonight. I thank those who voted for me and those who voted against me,” Farmaajo said. “I want to welcome my brother, the new president. Congratulations.”

Mohamud was immediately sworn in.

In a brief speech, Mohamud thanked Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble for leading the election process.

Mohamud said he would not be looking to go against Farmaajo supporters. “There will be no revenge,” he said. “If we have differences, we will use the country’s laws to settle it.”

Voting

The voting went into the third round after no candidate won the two-thirds (220) majority required for a candidate to win outright in the first and second rounds.

In the first round, Mohamud finished third, with 52 votes. But he finished on top in the second round with 110 votes. Farmaajo finished second in the first round with 59 votes, and 83 in the second round.

The president of Somalia’s semi-autonomous Puntland region, Said Abdullahi Dani, and former Prime Minister Hassan Ali Khaire finished third and fourth in the race, respectively.

Mohamud was president from September 2012 to February 2017. In his previous administration, he led with a “six pillar policy” plan topped by stability and the rule of law, peace-building, reconciliation, economic recovery and national unity. When he left power in February 2017, the main challenge to Somalia’s stability was the insurgent group al-Shabab. His successor failed to remove the al-Shabab threat, too.

Earlier this month, the militant group attacked an Africa Union military base in the town of El-Baraf, killing at least 30 Burundian peacekeepers.

Mohamud was born in the town of Jalalaqsi in the Hiran region in 1955. He graduated from Somali National University with a bachelor’s degree in technology and received a master’s in technical education from Barkatullah University. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the same school in 2015.

In 1999, he cofounded the Somali Institute of Management and Administration Development (SIMAD) in Mogadishu, which later became one of the biggest universities in Mogadishu.

In 2008, Mohamud was appointed as the CEO of Telecom Somalia.

In 2011, he entered politics and established the independent Peace and Development Party (PDP), which elected him as the party’s chair. In August 2012, Mohamud was selected as a member of parliament. The following month he was elected president of Somalia.

Marathon election process

Mohamud was elected by an indirect election as the country’s leaders could not agree on an election model.

On February 20, 2020, Farmaajo signed a landmark election law that allowed popular voting. But it immediately hit a snag because the government did not control the entire country. Key Somali regional leaders and opposition politicians resisted the initiative, accusing Farmaajo of concentrating power at the center of the country and weakening the role of other regions.

In June 2020, National Independent Election Commission (NIEC) chair Halima Ismail Ibrahim ruled out holding direct elections by Nov. 27, 2020, as scheduled, the date the parliament’s mandate expired. Halima gave the parliament two options: An electionbased on biometric registration that she proposed to take place in August 2021; and a manual-based registration that could have been held in March 2021.

She cited that buying voting machines and election equipment, securing election centers and enacting a mass awareness campaign would take months to complete.

That sparked a long political tussle that forced a return to the indirect election where clans and regional leaders played a role in who is elected to parliament. On Sept. 17, 2020, the sides agreed that elections would take place in two towns in each of the federal member states, and in Mogadishu. They also agreed that 101 electoral delegates would elect each lawmaker.

The September 17 agreement faced a setback on April 12, 2021, when the Somali parliament controversially extended the mandate of the parliament and the president by two years. This led to violence in Mogadishu and condemnations by the international community.

On May 1, the Somali lawmakers retreated from the controversial term extension plan and accepted a return to the Sept. 17 agreement. On that same day, Farmaajo handed over the security and management of the election process to Prime Minister Roble.

On July 29, 2021, the first MP was elected. On May 6, 2022, the last MP was elected.

Allegations of voter irregularities overshadowed the election process. The election results of at least four seats were nullified amid fraud concerns, two were later approved, one was recontested and one remains nullified. Roble himself admitted the election was not taking place as scheduled and fired several members of the election disputes resolution team.

Challenges

The new president faces the same challenges that has impeded the country’s progress. In addition to ongoing droughts and al-Shabab, the country’s federal system is not functioning properly.

Ibrahim, the chair of the National Independent Electoral Committee, says key among the challenges is settling the constitution. “We have a federal system but it’s incomplete, the constitutional is incomplete,” she said.

She also said the new president needs to work on making sure the Somali people directly elect the next president. She said the election model the country is going to adopt must be stated in the constitution.

The other key challenge is tackling the country’s security problems. Al-Shabab has been fighting the Somali government for nearly 15 years.

Jihan Abdullahi Hassan, former director of the Somali Ministry of Defense, said the new president must restore discipline among the military. “The army has mingled in politics,” she said. “The first task is to separate the army from the politics.”

Jihan said the country needs a clear national security policy, better-equipped army and a unified front against al-Shabab.

“Al-Shabab can be defeated,” she said. “The important thing is to have a well-defined overall national security policy between the federal government and the federal member states.”
…

Authorities in Nigeria’s Sokoto state are enforcing a 24-hour curfew, imposed Saturday to quell protests demanding the release of suspects in the killing of college student Deborah Yakubu. Yakubu was beaten and burned by fellow students Thursday for alleged blasphemous comments about the Muslim Prophet Muhammad in a WhatsApp group.

The curfew imposed by state authorities held firm Sunday. Major streets in Sokoto state were calm and deserted. Churches and businesses were also closed.

Police and military patrols were on the streets to enforce the curfew.

The curfew followed Saturday’s protests at which hundreds of residents demanded the release of two suspects arrested by the police the day before in connection with the murder of Yakubu.

The protesters attacked two Catholic churches, destroyed vehicles and damaged many shops in the metropolis before security officials dispersed them with tear gas.

Yakubu was a 200-level student of the Shehu Shagari College of Education. She was stoned to death and her body was burned near the school Thursday amid accusations of blasphemy by fellow students.

The killing has since been criticized by many religious and rights groups, including Amnesty International which described the incident as “sad and very disturbing.”

It highlights division along religious lines in Africa’s most populous country, which strikes a delicate balance between its Christian and Muslim populations.

“When impunity continues in a country, you’ll definitely see a repeat of such crimes or acts and conducts,” said Seun Bakare, an Amnesty International spokesperson. “This is not the first time that we’ve read or heard that things like this continue to happen in the 21st century.”

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has strongly condemned the murder of Yakubu and demanded an impartial probe into her death. 

Yakubu was buried Saturday in her hometown of Tunga Magajiya in Nigeria’s Central Niger state.

But security intelligence groups are warning of a possible spike in violence across many more northern states.

Authorities in faraway Kaduna State prohibited protests in relation to religious activities Saturday to prevent the violence from escalating.

On Sunday, the security consulting group EONS Intelligence warned of possible protests in northeastern Borno state over another alleged blasphemous comment posted on Facebook. The group advised residents to avoid travel within the state.

Martin Obono, a human rights lawyer, faults the Nigerian penal code which criminalizes blasphemy.

“One of the things causing religious crisis in Nigeria is the fact that people feel that blasphemy is a criminal offense, and they also feel like the law is slower to take its cause,” he said. “If we expunge that from our laws, people will begin to think and realize that Nigeria is a secular state and people have the freedom to express themselves.”

Nigeria’s secular law punishes blasphemy by up to two years in prison under the section known as religious insult.  

But in the north, where a more conservative population favors the religious or Sharia law, blasphemy is punishable by death.
…

The northern Ethiopian town of Lalibela, a U.N. World Heritage site just a few miles from the Tigray region’s border, was a tourist hotspot before the war. Known for its rock-hewn churches, tourism came to a halt with fighting that saw the town change hands several times. For VOA, Henry Wilkins reports from Lalibela.
…

Zimbabwe’s government says religious beliefs, topography and school closures are hampering efforts to contain a measles outbreak which has claimed at least 20 lives and infected hundreds of other people in the eastern part of the country. As The World Health Organization says the country must intensify its surveillance system and vaccinate all children.

Dr. Cephas Fonte, the Mutasa district medical officer where the measles outbreak was discovered last month, says more than 100 children are being treated for the infectious viral disease which causes a fever and a red rash. Fonte says logistical factors have impacted the response time.

“Mutasa is a mountainous area, so some areas are hard to reach. We have some of our friends who are religious objectors, so it has been hard to break through to them, though they are slowly responding now. I think by the end of next week, we would have achieved something,” he said.

He also says school closures have posed a challenge but that with schools reopening now…

“We are now reaching those children while they are clustered at one place, which becomes faster for us,” he said.

Dr. Alex Gasasira heads the World Health Organization’s country office in Zimbabwe. He says the U.N. body has been working with the government to ensure that the disease is contained through immunization.

“The vaccine is the best prevention. We are also strengthening surveillance, ensuring parents, community members are aware and they report any child who has any symptoms suggesting measles. We are also ensuring that opportunities for vaccination are enhanced. This we should do throughout the country not just in the affected communities because we know that measles is very, very transmissible; it spreads very, very fast,” he said.

Tariro Mhando, a public health officer from the University of Zimbabwe, has been deployed to investigate why there is an outbreak of the measles, a disease which was last recorded in the country more than 10 years ago.

“What we found out is most cases, the deaths that were recorded are not vaccinated and we have most cases in unvaccinated as well. And only the few that have [been vaccinated] have mild symptoms,” he said.

The government says it hopes to conduct immunizations for measles throughout Zimbabwe in the coming weeks to contain the disease.
…

Rebels killed 10 civilians during an attack hundreds of kilometers northeast of the Central African Republic capital of Bangui, the spokesperson for the U.N. peacekeeping force in the country told AFP.

“Armed elements of the Union for Peace in Central Africa (UPC) have committed abuses on populations, killing 10 people” in the village of Bokolobo last Monday, said Lieutenant Colonel Abdoul Aziz Ouedraogo, spokesman for the Minusca force.

They had previously attacked security force positions, he added, without elaborating.

“In response to these atrocities, the force immediately deployed Mauritanian blue helmets to protect the populations,” Ouedraogo added.

He said a second patrol from the Nepalese contingent had been dispatched to the scene, which is more than 400 kilometers northeast of Bangui.

In a statement released on Friday, Ali Darassa, military leader of the UPC and chief of staff of the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), an alliance of rebel groups created in December 2020 to overthrow President Faustin Archange Touadera, condemned a massacre on Monday in the same village of “30 civilians of the Muslim faith, including 27 Fulani … by (Russian) mercenaries from the Wagner company, the FACA and the anti-balaka militia of the Touadera wing.”

The Central African Republic, the second least developed country in the world, according to the U.N., has been the scene of a civil war since 2013.

At the end of 2020, the most powerful of the many armed groups that then shared two-thirds of the territory had launched an offensive on Bangui shortly before the elections and Touadera sought help from Moscow for his impoverished army.

Hundreds of Russian paramilitaries then joined hundreds present since 2018 and made it possible, in a few months, to repel the rebels’ offensive and then to push them back from a large part of the territories and cities they controlled.

But they were unable to re-establish the authority of the state everywhere.

On March 30, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, condemned “serious human rights violations” in CAR including “murders and sexual violence” against civilians, committed by the rebel groups but also the armed forces of the regime and their Russian allies. 
…

South Africa is experiencing a surge of new COVID-19 cases driven by two omicron sub-variants, according to health experts.

For about three weeks the country has seen increasing numbers of new cases and somewhat higher hospitalizations, but not increases in severe cases and deaths, said professor Marta Nunes, a researcher at Vaccine and Infectious Diseases Analytics at Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital in Soweto.

“We’re still very early in this increase period, so I don’t want to really call it a wave,” Nunes said. “We are seeing a slight, a small increase in hospitalizations and really very few deaths.”

South Africa’s new cases have gone from an average of 300 per day in early April to about 8,000 per day this week. Nunes says the actual number of new cases is probably much higher because the symptoms are mild and many who get sick are not getting tested.

South Africa’s new surge is from two variations of omicron, BA.4 and BA.5, which appear to be very much like the original strain of omicron that was first identified in South Africa and Botswana late last year and swept around the globe.

“The majority of new cases are from these two strains. They are still omicron … but just genomically somewhat different,” said Nunes. The new versions appear to be able to infect people who have immunity from earlier COVID infections and vaccinations, but they cause generally mild disease, she said. In South Africa, 45% of adults are fully vaccinated, although about 85% of the population is thought to have some immunity based on past exposure to the virus.

“It looks like the vaccines still protect against severe disease,” Nunes said.

Nunes said that the BA.4 and BA.5 strains of omicron have spread to other countries in southern Africa and a few European countries, but it is too early to tell if they will spread across the globe, as omicron did.

The increase in COVID cases is coming as South Africa is entering the Southern Hemisphere’s colder winter months and the country is seeing a rise in cases of flu.

At a COVID testing center in the Chiawelo area of Soweto, many people are coming in to be tested for COVID but are learning they have the flu.

“Now we’re in flu season … so it’s flu versus COVID-19,” said Magdeline Matsoso, site manager at the Chiawelo vaccination center. She said people come for testing because they have COVID symptoms.

“When we do the tests, you find that the majority of them, they are negative when it comes to COVID, but they do have flu symptoms,” said Matsoso. “So they get flu treatment and then they go home because the majority is related to flu and not COVID.”

Vuyo Lumkwani was one of those who came to get tested.

“I wasn’t feeling well when I woke up this morning. I woke up with body pains, a headache, blocked (nose), feeling dizzy, so I decided to come here,” she said.

“I was terrified about my symptoms because I thought it might be COVID-19, but I told myself that I’d be OK because I have been vaccinated,” said Lumkwani. She said she was relieved to be diagnosed with the flu. She was advised to go home with some medications and get some rest.
…

Hundreds of people in Nigeria’s northwestern city of Sokoto demonstrated Saturday over the arrest of two students following the murder of a Christian student accused of blasphemy, residents said.

Africa’s most populous country is roughly divided between Muslims and Christians, but religious tensions and deadly clashes are not uncommon, particularly in the north.

Deborah Samuel, a student of Shehu Shagari College of Education was stoned to death Thursday and her body was burnt by a mob of Muslim students at the college after she posted something on social media they deemed insulted the Prophet Muhammad.

Police said they made two arrests following the incident and that they had begun a search for other suspects who appeared in footage of the gruesome murder which circulated on social media.

In the early morning of Saturday, Muslim youths took to the streets of the city, lighting bonfires and demanding the release of the two detained suspects despite the earlier deployment of police officers to maintain order, residents said.

Some of the protesters besieged the palace of the Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar, the Sultan of Sokoto and the highest spiritual figure among Muslims in Nigeria who condemned the killing and demanded those involved face justice.

“It was more of a riot by a mob of young men and women who were demanding the release of the two people arrested over the killing of the Christian student,” Sokoto resident Ibrahim Arkilla told AFP.

“The crowd which made bonfires on the streets were also demanding the police stop the manhunt for those identified to have taken part in the killing,” said Arkilla who witnessed the protests.

Protesters besieged the palace of Abubakar chanting “Allahu akbar” or God is Great, said resident Bube Ando who lives near the palace.

“Some among the security men deployed to protect the palace tried to ask the protesters to leave but they became unruly,” Ando said.

“Policemen and soldiers who stood outside the palace hurled tear gas canisters and fired into the air and succeeded in dispersing the crowd,” he said, without giving details about whether anyone was hurt.  

The irate mob retreated downtown where they attempted to loot shops belonging to Christian residents but were dispersed by security patrol teams, said another resident Faruk Danhili.

Saturday afternoon, the Sokoto Governor Aminu Waziri Tambuwal urged the protesters to return home and announced a curfew.

“Following the sad incident that happened at the Shehu Shagari College of Education on Thursday and sequel to the developments within (Sokoto) metropolis this morning till afternoon… I hereby declare, with immediate effect, a curfew… for the next 24 hours,” he said in a statement.

“Everyone should, please, in the interest of peace go back home.”

Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari has “strongly condemned” the murder of Deborah Samuel.

“No person has the right to take the law in his or her own hands in this country. Violence has and never will solve any problem,” Buhari said in a statement Friday.
…

Human Rights Watch (HRW) says Cameroonian security forces are not protecting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex, or LGBTI, people from violent attacks and are instead arresting victims.

HRW said in a report this week that there has been an uptick in violence and abuse against LGBTI people in Cameroon as authorities continue to arrest and detain LGBTI and suspected LGBTI persons.

The report said since March 9, security forces have arbitrarily arrested at least six LGBTI people and detained 11, and that all of those arrested and detained were victims of group attacks for alleged consensual same-sex conduct and gender nonconformity. Officers beat two of those in detention, HRW said in the report.

Ilaria Allegrozzi, Human Rights Watch central Africa researcher, said Cameroon police are failing to protect LGBTI people from mob violence, conducting arbitrary arrests and detentions, perpetrating violence against LGBTI people and failing to bring perpetrators of mob violence on LGBTI people to book.

“The law criminalizing same-sex relations is [a] repressive, draconian backward law which does not only violate Cameroon’s obligation under national and international laws, but also contributes to create a climate of violence, to institutionalize an atmosphere of hate against LGBTI people,” Allegrozzi said. “And the criminalization of same-sex conduct renders LGBTI people vulnerable to violence at the hands of ordinary citizens as well as law enforcement officials.”

The HRW report said that on April 10 a crowd of about eight men armed with machetes, knives, sticks, and wooden planks, attacked a group of at least 10 LGBTI people attending a party at a private home in Messassi, a neighborhood in Cameroon’s capital, Yaounde. 

HRW said in the report that a local official took two of the victims to gendarmeries for protection from the mob but that the gendarmes beat and humiliated the LGBTI persons and released them after a $24 bribe was paid.

The other victims remained in the hands of the violent crowd for at least two hours. Some were injured and their money and phones were seized by the mob, HRW said.

Shashan Mbinglo, a solicitor and member of the Cameroon Bar Council, an association of lawyers, said abuses of LGBTI people’s rights are rampant in Cameroon because the central African country criminalizes same-sex relations.

“They (HRW) will say our law is discriminatory, unfair but they forget that our laws are founded not just on principles of justice, fairness, equality as obtains globally, but on traditions and customs peculiar to us, Mbinglo said. “The laws do not permit, the laws do not accommodate, the laws are against what the LGBTI stand for. Most of them (LGBTI persons) think it is normal to come out on social media forgetting that they expose themselves to assault and attacks.”

On state broadcaster CRTV, Cameroonian police denied HRW’s allegations that they abuse LGBTI persons’ rights. The police said they are there to enforce the laws and protect all civilians from violence and brutality.

Under Cameroon’s penal code, people found guilty of same-sex relations risk up to five years in prison. 

HRW said by criminalizing LGBTI relations, Cameroon not only violates its obligations under national and international law but condones an atmosphere of violence and hate against LGBTI people.
…

The military junta ruling Guinea has banned political protests after announcing a three-year transition period before civilian rule is restored.

“All demonstrations on public roads, whose nature is to jeopardize social tranquility and the correct implementation of activities in the (transition) timetable are banned for the moment until the period of electoral campaigns,” the National Rallying Committee for Development (CNRD) said in a statement late Friday.

“The CNRD invites all political and social actors to contain all forms of political protest and gatherings to their headquarters,” added the committee set up by the junta and headed by Colonel Mamady Doumbouya.

Failure to comply will entail legal consequences, it said.

Army officers led by Colonel Doumbouya ousted elected president Alpha Conde in the impoverished former French colony in September last year.

Conde, now aged 84, had drawn fierce opposition after he pushed through a new constitution in 2020 that allowed him to run for a third presidential term.

Guinea earlier this month opened a judicial investigation into Conde and several other former top officials for murder, torture, kidnappings, looting and rapes.

Guinea’s legislative body on Wednesday announced a three-year transition period before the return of civilian rule, defying regional partners in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which had called for a swifter timetable.

The West African bloc suspended Guinea’s membership after the coup.

U.N. chief Antonio Guterres this month called for the military juntas in Burkina Faso, Guinea and Mali to hand power back to civilians as soon as possible.
…

Executives at Canada-based Trevali Mining Corp. said the company was caught unawares by a torrential downpour during the dry season last month in Burkina Faso that left eight men trapped underground in its Perkoa zinc mine.

Rescue efforts have continued since the flood on April 16, but there has been no communication with the missing miners, and it is not known whether any survived.

“Given the dry season obviously we do not expect rain and we had an absolute torrential downpour,” said Hein Frey, vice president of operations at Trevali, adding that the water crossed a bridge and broke safety barriers.

“It’s not only us that have been affected, it’s also the communities around us that are affected by completely unexpected rain,” he said in an interview with Reuters at the site.

The company called for help immediately and by the next day other mining companies in Burkina Faso had sent rescue teams and pumps, said Frey. Water is still being pumped out of the mine.

While most workers were able to safely evacuate, the eight missing were below Level 520, which is 520 meters (1,706 feet) from the surface, at the time of the flooding, the company said.

There are two safety chambers stocked with food and water below that level, but it is not known if any of the men were able to reach them.

“There’s always hope, but we also have to be realistic,” Trevali CEO Ricus Grimbeek said in a separate interview with Reuters.

“Those chambers are not designed to be submerged in water. The chambers are designed for falling ground accidents and when there’s toxic environments like smoke,” he said.

The company and Burkina Faso’s government have launched investigations into what caused the accident.

“We need to understand … what do we need to do in future so that what happened here never happens again,” Grimbeek said.
…

Somalia holds its long delayed presidential election on Sunday. Thirty-nine candidates paid $40,000 each to be eligible for the elections. In a highly conservative and patriarchal society, only one woman, Fawzia Yusuf Adam, is on the list of politicians aspiring to be the next president of Somalia. A past foreign minister, Fawzia has her supporters, as Mohamed Sheikh Nor reports from Mogadishu.
Videographer: Mohamed Sheikh Nor
…

A top World Food Program (WFP) official has urged Zimbabwe and surrounding countries to increase food production in light of the Russia-Ukraine war that has caused shortages and a spike in food prices.

WFP Southern Africa Director Menghestab Haile told reporters after meeting with President Emmerson Mnangagwa in Harare Friday that the World Food Program is worried the Russia-Ukraine war has increased food insecurity across southern Africa. The region, he said, should make a concerted effort to grow more of its own food.

“SADC region has water, has land, has clever people, so we are able to produce in this region,” Haile said. “Let’s diversify and let’s produce for ourselves. The governments of the region are working together, the executive secretary of SADC is coordinating the efforts. We are aware there are challenges, but we are aware that through a cocktail of policies and interventions, we will get through this.”

President Mnangagwa did not talk to reporters after meeting Haile.

Zimbabwe was once the breadbasket of the region but in recent years agricultural production has been well below the levels of the last century. The government said it will increase production this year, starting with wheat, so the country can regain its food exporter status.

Just outside Harare, Ephraim Pasipanodya is among the farmers the Zimbabwe government has asked to increase wheat crop hecarage this season. The aim is to have enough wheat by October of this year to achieve self-sufficiency.

“Basically for the last two years, I had 200 hectares of wheat,” Pasipanodya said, “and this year I am planning to do about 300 hectares of wheat (because) wheat crop, which is one our major crops and one of our crops which is actually imported.”

Ministry of Agriculture officials are visiting farms, teaching farmers how to increase production and providing seed to farmers. Obert Jiri, chief director in the Ministry of Agriculture, said the government has activated four programs that will target 75,000 hectares of wheat production.

“So we are going on a blitz to train farmers to be able to grow the wheat because we understand that wheat is a technical crop,” Jiri said.

The Zimbabwean government has adopted the theme of “wheat self-sufficiency at all costs,” saying it has a solution to the wheat shortage the world is facing because of the Russia-Ukraine war.

Next, officials will target the country’s staple corn crop come October-November. If the plans work out, that will be good news to organizations like the WFP, which have been feeding hungry Zimbabweans for years.
…

Plans are underway in Malawi to start administering the cholera vaccine in some southern districts, as the number of cholera cases has been rising since an outbreak began in January.

According to a daily update released Thursday by the Ministry of Health, Malawi has registered more than 200 cases, with seven deaths and 26 hospital admissions. 

The update says the outbreak that started in Nsanje district in January has spread to four other areas in southern Malawi: Neno, Chikwawa, Machinga and Blantyre. 

Records show that as of Thursday, Nsanje had 97 registered cases, Blantyre had 53, Neno had 38, Chikwawa had 12 and Machinga had two. 

Wongani Mbale, deputy spokesperson for the district health office in Blantyre, blames the outbreak on poor sanitation. 

“According to what we have gathered, it seems that a lot of people are using unprotected wells, which are a source of infections,” Mbale said. “The water is contaminated. So as a district, we think that the cause is the use of contaminated water.” 

Cholera is an acute diarrheal infection caused by ingesting food or water contaminated with bacteria. The disease affects both children and adults and, if untreated, can kill within hours. 

To contain the outbreak, Malawi’s government has announced plans to start administering the cholera vaccine this month in all affected districts. 

Health Ministry spokesperson Adrian Chikumbe told a local newspaper that the government has 2.9 million doses of vaccine to be administered orally starting May 23. 

Mbale of the Blantyre health office said his office has started taking measures to combat the vaccine hesitancy that hindered the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine. 

“Starting from next Monday, we are having some briefings to health workers to train HSAs (Health Surveillance Assistants) on how they can implement this activity,” he said. “After that, we will have orientation and sensitization meetings with the community so that they can receive the vaccine without any doubt, as you know that the majority are fearing the vaccine, saying that maybe it’s for COVID.” 

George Jobe, executive director for Malawi Health Equity Network, a health rights organization, said cholera aside, there is a need for the government to address sanitation problems in many rural areas in Malawi.   

“In Neno, for example, water has been a challenge. There was a time when [people in] Neno suffered typhoid because of water. And we also understand that the places that have been affected are relying on the Lisungwi River. In this case, there is a need for clean water to be made available even in hard-to-reach rural areas,” Jobe said. 

The government said it is distributing chlorine in affected areas for water treatment, as well as sending out cholera control information to people through various channels of communication. 

 
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Analysts say plans by Guinea’s transitional military government to prosecute former President Alpha Conde and 26 of his top officials will likely be marred by doubts over the fairness of their trials.

A 2019 Afrobarometer survey revealed that over 90% of Guineans consider the judiciary to be corrupt.

Jesper Bjarnesen, a senior researcher at Sweden-based Nordic Africa Institute, told VOA the trial is arguably a diversion.

”There are legitimate charges against the former president … [but] I think that a transitional government has the primary task to work towards free and fair elections,” he said.

As for judicial credibility, Bjarnesen said, “I am not sure that a temporary transitional government is the best facilitator of a legal process against the former president” and his former officials.

”There might be room for reconstitution of the judiciary with the military takeover, but that’s still a very slim hope in a system where there’s systematic abuse of power,” Bjarnesen said. “What’s more likely is that you’ll have new people in power making use of a dysfunctional system.”

Although Conde’s junta-enforced house arrest ended on April 22, he has not departed the West African nation in light of the recent charges.

Documents filed last week by Guinean Attorney General Charles Alphonse Wright accuse the ex-president and his supporters of complicity in murder, abductions, disappearances, torture, and illegal detentions while in office. Other charges include assault, destruction of property, rape, sexual abuse, and looting.

Guinea’s electoral violence in 2020 killed at least 12 people in the capital and 50 people in other parts of the country, according to the documents.

Conde’s bid to extend his rule to a third term, after backing a constitutional referendum that altered the term limits, sparked violent demonstrations. He ultimately won another five-year term in October 2020 only to be ousted in September of last year.

Alix Boucher, at the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies, told VOA she doubts the interest of the military junta in ”upholding justice,” noting that the junta’s suspension of the constitution since the September 2021 coup would make such trials “highly ironic.”

Guineans are “still waiting for those responsible for the massacre and mass rapes committed by the previous junta at the stadium in Conakry in September 2009 to be prosecuted,” she said. “The lack of confidence that such trials would be free and fair reflects Guinea’s weak legacy of independent oversight institutions, even under Conde.”

In September 2009, troops under then junta chief Moussa Dadis Camara opened fire on opposition supporters rallying in a stadium in the country’s capital, Conakry, killing at least 157. More than 100 women were raped by junta soldiers. Conde’s administration — which came to office in 2010 — had long pledged to try the perpetrators but never followed through.

Boucher said that the current junta’s timeline for prosecuting Condé and the 26 others suggests it is set on hanging onto power. The military recently said it needed 39 months to transition back to civilian rule, rejecting demands by the Economic Community of West African States to do it much sooner.

“Such pronouncements [by the military regime] lack credibility and obscure the essential takeaway that the junta has no plans to relinquish power on its own,” Boucher said.

Neither spokespeople for the junta nor officials at Guinea’s embassy in Washington immediately responded to VOA’s request for comments.

Guinea has a long legacy of military and authoritarian governments. But 77% of Guineans prefer democracy to any other regime and want two-term limits for the presidency, according to an Afrobarometer survey published in September.

”Therefore, the junta’s aim to hold power is a direct effort to undermine Guineans’ deeply held aspirations for a democratic government,” Boucher said.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.

Correction: An earlier version of this story misidentified the location of the Nordic Africa Institute.

 
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Zimbabwe and the U.N. Refugee Agency, UNHCR, are piloting an effort to avert deforestation and benefit from waste management at the country’s biggest refugee camp. The Tongogara camp near Zimbabwe’s eastern border with Mozambique has installed machines for refugees to turn animal waste into biogas, which can be used as fuel for cooking, and fertilizer. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Chipinge, Zimbabwe. Video: Blessing Chigwenhembe
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Zimbabwe and the U.N. Refugee Agency, UNHCR, are piloting an effort to avert deforestation and benefit from waste management at the country’s biggest refugee camp. The Tongogara camp near Zimbabwe’s eastern border with Mozambique has installed machines for refugees to turn animal waste into biogas, which can be used as fuel for cooking, and fertilizer.

Dominic Katumbayi, one of the refugees at the Tongogara refugee camp about 400 kilometers east of Harare, now uses organic fertilizer from animal waste for his plants. He said life has changed for his garden and fields since he started using the product.

“Before it was a problem, because fertilize you buy, but this one is free,” he said. “Every day I can produce more than 300 liters of fertilizer. Now it’s easy, everybody can come and collect and put in the garden.”

The fertilizer is a byproduct from animal waste after it ferments in digesters. The biogas produced during the fermentation is also free to refugees. Some use it for cooking. Francine Kayumba, like Katumbayi, from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, said she uses biogas because it has the advantage of not producing smoke. If you put a pot on a biogas-burning stove, she said, it stays clean.

The Water, Sanitation and Hygiene unit of the UNHCR in Zimbabwe said it started the project after it saw that refugees were struggling to dispose of animal waste at the camp.

“We are now thinking of managing it in a good way and then we came up with an idea of the biogas from the piggery as part of the management (of animal waste),” said Yuhei Honda, an associate with that unit. “And this year, we started with a pilot project of this biogas system.”

The government hopes to secure more funding to expand the project at the refugee camp, which has about 20,000 people.

“The biogas project is a cost-saving initiative meant to ensure that refugees get clean energy,” said Johanne Mhlanga, Tongogara Refugee Camp Administrator. “Refugees are integrated into (a) modern way of having fuel or green energy. So for us it’s a shot in the arm for the population.”

Zimbabwe says the project will help reduce deforestation near the Tongogara camp. According to officials, Zimbabwe is losing 330,000 hectares of forests annually, some of it through deforestation for energy use.
…

About 18.5 million children, the majority of whom are girls, do not have access to education in Nigeria, a figure up sharply compared with 2021, the U.N children’s fund says.

Last year, UNICEF estimated that 10.5 million children were out of school in Africa’s most populous country.

“Currently in Nigeria, there are 18.5 million out-of-school children, 60% of whom are girls,” Rahama Farah, the head of the UNICEF office in Kano, told reporters Wednesday.

The numerous attacks on schools by jihadists and criminal gangs in the north have particularly harmed children’s education, Farah said.

“These attacks have created a precarious learning environment, discouraged parents and guardians from sending their children to school,” Farah said.

Since the 2014 Boko Haram abduction of 200 schoolgirls from the northeastern town of Chibok, dozens of schools have been targeted in similar mass abductions.

Last year, around 1,500 students were kidnapped by armed men, according to UNICEF. While most of the young hostages have since been released for ransom, some still remain in captivity in forests, where  armed groups hide out.

In the predominantly Muslim north, Farah said, only one in four girls from “poor and rural families” completes middle school. Insecurity, he stressed, “emphasizes gender inequalities.”

Mass violence and kidnapping have forced the authorities to close more than 11,000 schools in the country since December 2020, according to UNICEF.

The U.N. agency has since warned of an increase in reported cases of child marriage and early pregnancy.
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Muslim students in northwest Nigerian city of Sokoto on Thursday stoned a Christian student to death and burned her corpse after accusing her of blasphemy against the Prophet Muhammad, police said.

Dozens of Muslim students of Shehu Shagari College of Education went on rampage after fellow student Deborah Samuel made a statement on social media that they considered offensive against the Prophet Muhammad, Sanusi Abubakar, a Sokoto police spokesperson said in a statement.

The “students forcefully removed the victim from the security room where she was hidden by the school authorities, killed her and burnt the building,” Abubakar said.

He said the students “banded together with miscreants” and blocked the highway outside the school before police teams dispersed them.

Abubakar said two suspects had been arrested.

Sokoto is among a dozen northern states where the strict Islamic legal system or Sharia is in operation.

State information commissioner Isah Bajini Galadanci in a statement confirmed the “unfortunate incident … in which a student at the college lost her life.”

A student who gave his name as Babangida, accused the murdered student of posting “the offensive remark on a students’ Whatsapp group which everyone saw.”

“Muslim students in the school who were infuriated by her insult mobilized and beat her to death,” he said.

His account was supported by three other students.

Footage from the rampage was shared on social media, and police said all suspects identified in the video would be arrested.

The state government has ordered the immediate closure of the school with a view to determining “the remote and immediate causes of the incident.”

Blasphemy in Islam, especially against the prophet, attracts death penalty under Sharia, which operates alongside common law in the region.

Two Muslims were separately sentenced to death in 2015 and 2020 by Sharia courts for blasphemy against the prophet.

But the cases are still on appeal.

In many cases, the accused are killed by mobs without going through the legal process.

Last year, a mob in Darazo district in northeastern Bauchi state burned to death a man accused of insulting the prophet.

In 2016, a 74-year-old Christian trader, Bridget Agbahime was beaten to death by a Muslim mob outside her shop in Kano after accusing her of insulting the prophet. 
…

Analysts say plans by Guinea’s transitional military government to prosecute former president Alpha Condé and 26 of his top officials will likely be marred by doubts over the fairness of their trials.

A 2019 Afrobarometer survey revealed that over 90% of Guineans consider the judiciary to be corrupt.

Additionally, Jesper Bjarnesen, a senior researcher at Denmark-based Nordic Africa Institute, told VOA that this trial is arguably a diversion.

”There are legitimate charges against the former president,” he said, but added ”I think that a transitional government has the primary task to work towards free and fair elections.”

As for judicial credibility, Bjarnesen said, “I am not sure that a temporary transitional government is the best facilitator of a legal process against the former president” and his cadre.

”There might be room for reconstitution of the judiciary with the military takeover, but that’s still a very slim hope in a system where there’s systematic abuse of power,” Bjarnesen said. “What’s more likely,” he said, “is that you’ll have new people in power making use of a dysfunctional system.”

Condé was ousted by the military last year and placed under house arrest, which the military regime lifted on April 22. But it’s clear he is not free to leave the country.

Charges filed against Conde and the others include acts of violence while in office, complicity in murder, and assault to destruction of property. Other charges include detention, torture, rapes, kidnapping, disappearances, other sexual abuse, and looting.

Alix Boucher, at the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Studies, told VOA she doubts the interest of the military junta in ”upholding justice’,” noting that the junta’s suspension of the constitution since the September 2021 coup would make such trials “highly ironic.”

Guineans are “still waiting for those responsible for the massacre and mass rapes committed by the previous junta at the stadium in Conakry in September 2009 to be prosecuted,” she added. “The lack of confidence that such trials would be free and fair reflects Guinea’s weak legacy of independent oversight institutions, even under Condé.”

Boucher said that the junta’s timeline for prosecuting Condé and the 26 others suggests it is set on hanging onto power. The military recently said it needed 39 months to transition back to civilian rule, refuting demands by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) to do it much sooner.

“Such pronouncements [by the military regime] lack credibility and obscure the essential takeaway that the junta has no plans to relinquish power on its own,” Boucher said.

Guinea has a long legacy of military and authoritarian governments. But 77% of Guineans prefer democracy to any other regime and want two-term limits for the presidency, according to the Afrobarometer survey.

”Therefore, the junta’s aim to hold power is a direct effort to undermine Guinean’s deeply held aspirations for a democratic government,” Boucher said.
…

The record drought in Ethiopia has led to a dramatic increase in desperate parents marrying off their children, says the U.N. Children’s Fund (UNICEF), with reported child marriages more than doubling so far this year. Aid groups are trying to get much-needed water and other help to drought-hit families to try to curb that trend and protect girls. Linda Givetash reports from Gode, Ethiopia.
Videographer/video editor: Michele Spatari Produced by: Luis Da Costa, Jason P. Godman
…

A Nigerian military commander said at least 51,000 Boko Haram terrorists and their families have surrendered in the country’s northeast in just the first three months of this year.

Major General Chris Musa said Tuesday that the mass surrender of insurgents is a sign that Nigerian security forces are winning the 13-year-conflict against Boko Haram. But some analysts remain skeptical.

Musa, the commander of operation Hadin Kai, made the announcement Tuesday to reporters in Abuja. He said among those who surrendered were 11,000 people who had been enslaved by, conscripted by or born to the insurgents.

Musa said they had surrendered because of successful military operations. He spoke to a Lagos-based television show on Monday.

“We want to assure the public that we’re doing the best we can and we’re working together because this operation is for Nigeria, it is a Nigerian war,” Musa said.

The army commander said the death of Boko Haram sect leader Abubakar Shekau also played a role. Shekau was declared killed in May 2021 during fighting with splinter group Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).

According to the country’s 2016 Safe Corridor plan, which provides recruits with a voluntary exit from Boko Haram, many defectors could have a normal civilian life. But analysts said the program, if not properly managed, could pose risks.

Darlington Abdullahi, a retired air commander, said if reintegration is not carried out properly, problems could emerge.

“There’s a possibility that they might go back into the kinds of activities they were engaged in previously,” Abdullahi said.

The Safe Corridor program is part of a national strategy to reduce militant activity in the country’s northeast but critics argue it is offering amnesty to terrorists.

Musa said surrendered terrorists were being held in a camp in Maiduguri and would be closely monitored before being allowed back into their communities.

But Abdullahi said it wouldn’t be easy to change their ideologies.

“For them to fit into the larger society, they must change their mindsets,” Abullahi said. “They must begin to behave like normal people. They must begin to feel that they belong to the society.”

Last week, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres visited the camp in Borno state during his two-day visit to Nigeria and praised the reintegration program.
…

Five years ago, France’s Emmanuel Macron saw big when it came to Africa. Days after his presidential inauguration, he flew to northeastern Mali, meeting with French troops and vowing, alongside his Malian counterpart, Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, to wage an “uncompromising fight” against Islamist terrorism.  

A few months later in another Sahel country, nearby Burkina Faso, he laid another pillar of his Africa strategy based on a “rupture” of traditional French-Africa relations. France’s 39-year-old leader told students from the University of Ouagadougou he was “from a generation that doesn’t come to tell Africans what to do.” 

Today, the Sahel insurgency is expanding southward, and both Mali and Burkina Faso are under military rule. France’s counter-insurgency military operation in the Sahel is downsizing, regrouping and recasting itself under a European umbrella.  

Meanwhile, Macron’s ambitious promise of transforming France’s relationship with Africa is still in the works. 

“The goal should be to accompany local efforts rather than expanding French interests in Africa,” Cameroonian intellectual Achille Mbembe told French broadcaster RFI. If that happens, he added, “It would be possible to finally get out of France-Afrique,” describing Paris’ old and tangled ties with its former colonies.  

Yet, as Macron officially begins his second term this Friday, Africa appears to be taking a back seat to other, more immediate priorities, both domestic and European, as the war in Ukraine takes center stage.  

French-African relations barely figured into an election campaign that saw him facing off anti-immigration, far-right leader Marine Le Pen in the runoff.  

“It would be hard to see Macron completely changing his African strategy” in his second term, Africa analyst Antoine Glaser told France 24 TV in a recent interview. “I think what will change will be the method … he will be a lot less on the front lines,” giving African and European partners a bigger spotlight. 

Other analysts agree France should be more attentive to African concerns, mindful it now competes against many other foreign players on the continent, including in former French colonies.  

“France and Europe fail to properly listen to the priorities of different African states,” said Africa-Europe researcher Cecilia Vidotto Labastie, from the Paris-based Montaigne Institute research institution. “This creates space for other partners — or competitors or enemies — to act.”  

Breaking with the past 

Still in his first term Macron did listen and respond to several key African priorities, recognizing more painful aspects of France’s legacy on the continent — and in doing so, going further than his predecessors.  

He acknowledged his country’s role in Rwanda’s genocide and crimes committed by French soldiers and police during Algeria’s war of independence — although he ruled out an official apology to France’s former colony. In both cases, Paris set up expert commissions to dig into historical archives.  

Those steps, among others, helped cement ties between Macron and Rwandan President Paul Kagame, following years of rocky French-Rwandan relations.   

Ties with Algeria remain strained, however, including over other, more recent issues, like French visas and Macron’s remarks about Algeria’s post-colonial rule. Nonetheless, Algerian President Abdelmadjid Tebboune congratulated his French counterpart on his reelection last month and invited him to visit.  

Macron also became France’s first leader to restore looted colonial-era treasures — returning a dozen artifacts to Benin and a sword to Senegal. Those gestures helped to unleash a broader restitution debate and similar moves elsewhere in Europe.  

“The fact he has so much energy and interest in this, in a way it obliged other countries to do the same,” said analyst Vidotto Labastie. “This is something that is new. In a way, it’s now part of Europe-Africa relations.”  

Less successful has been Macron’s support for efforts to reform the West and Central African CFA currency, and for a France-Africa summit that featured civil society rather than the continent’s leaders last October.  

Aimed to “reinvent” France’s relationship with the continent, the summit in Montpellier, France, also offered a forum for young Africans to air grievances against Paris’ alleged tolerance of corruption and dictators in Africa.  

“Emmanuel Macron wanted to shake up French-Africa relations,” one participant, Ivorian historian Arthur Banga told Jeune Afrique news magazine, but still described changes the president has realized to date as largely in form, rather than substance. Over Macron’s next term, Banga said, “The first steps he initiated over five years must now deliver results.” 

Sahel setbacks and moving forward 

Macron’s biggest challenge and setback, analysts say, has been in the Sahel.  

The civilian presidents he met with five years ago in Mali and Burkina Faso have been ousted and replaced by military juntas. The Islamist insurgency that French and African troops hoped to conquer has spread. Russia-based Wagner mercenaries are implanted in Mali, and anti-French sentiment is mounting in some countries.  

Last month, Mali’s military rulers suspended French broadcasters France 24 and RFI, over their reports of alleged rights abuses by Malian forces. Last week, as the two countries traded accusations over hundreds of bodies found buried in the Malian desert, Mali announced it had terminated a nearly decade-old military cooperation agreement with France — even as French troops were already leaving the country, as part of a full withdrawal planned over several months.  

Macron’s strategy in the Sahel was a failure, France’s Le Monde newspaper wrote, its fallout “casting a sandy veil over his record.”  

Not everyone agrees.  

Montaigne Institute’s Vidotto Labastie believes Macron’s Sahel setbacks were partly due to a mix of factors beyond his control — including the death of Chadian leader Idriss Deby, whose country was a linchpin of the regional counterinsurgency fight. They should also be seen within a wider European Union context, she adds.  

“It depends on how you define failure; France was never alone,” she said, noting Denmark’s announcement in January it would withdraw its forces from Mali and West Africa. “Was it a failure for Denmark? For the EU?” 

Moving forward, Vidotto Labastie said, France and Europe need to be more attentive to Africa’s demands in sectors like energy and migration.  

“The more France and the EU lack clarity in the region, the more space there is for Russia and also Turkey” along with other foreign powers, she said. “They will be ready to exploit any difficulty of the Sahel strategy and French action.”  

Analyst Glaser agrees France’s Africa strategy needs to be attuned to a more competitive and opportunistic reality.  

“France was in a dominant position for 30 years, until the fall of the Berlin wall,” he said. “Now it’s a globalized Africa … the world is changing, and Africa is changing even faster.” 

 
…

The Cameroon-headquartered Bank of Central African States (BEAC) has urged the Central African Republic (CAR) to annul a law it passed in late April that made the cryptocurrency Bitcoin legal tender. The bank warned in a letter made public last week that the move breached its rules and could affect monetary stability in the region. 

BEAC said the CAR’s decision to make Bitcoin legal tender could compete with the Central African Franc (CFA), the region’s France-backed currency.

A letter from the bank’s governor to the CAR’s finance minister dated April 29, and made public last week, said the move suggests the CAR wants a currency beyond the bank’s control.

The regional bank’s letter goes on to suggest using the cryptocurrency could upset monetary stability in the six-member Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC).

CEMAC members, including the CAR, Cameroon, Chad, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, and the Republic of Congo, use the CFA Franc as currency.  

The bank urged the CAR to comply with CEMAC in promoting economic and financial cooperation and avoiding policies that may lead to monetary fluctuations.

But economists note cryptocurrency is growing in popularity and difficult to control.  

Financial Capital economist Willy Delort Heubo said Bitcoin transactions have quadrupled in the region in the past three years.

He said the decision by the CAR to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender is a violation of a community pact signed by the six member states of (CEMAC) to protect the economic block’s financial integrity and economic development. However, Heubo said despite the region’s policies against making Bitcoin legal tender, it is very difficult to stop cryptocurrency transactions when people agree to use it as a means of payment.

The BEAC has also expressed concern that cryptocurrencies could make it easier for criminals to launder money and sponsor terrorism or rebellions in the region.

The CAR has been in conflict between rebels and central authorities since 2013. Cameroon is fighting separatists, and Chad is fighting a spreading Islamist insurgency.  

Last week, Cameroon’s Employers Union said armed groups in central African countries use Bitcoin to hide their financial transactions. The union said Cameroon in 2021 reported Bitcoin transactions of $260 million – 40% of them to separatists in western regions. 

The central African bank said instead of adopting Bitcoin, the CAR should implement CEMAC monetary policies to reduce endemic poverty.

CEMAC economist and consultant David Kunde said if the CAR does not annul the law on Bitcoin, the bank could punish it.

He said when the CAR or any CEMAC member states want to buy from the international market, they rush to the Bank of Central African States for liquidity for their transactions. Kunde said the Bank could withhold the CAR’s reserves if it violates the economic bloc’s laws.  

The BEAC declined to answer questions from a reporter on what pressure it might use to get the CAR to annul the Bitcoin law.  

The Central African franc (CFA) was pegged to the French franc following agreements signed between Cameroon, Chad, the Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of Congo in 1948. 

The CEMAC member states agreed to keep at least half of their financial reserves in the French treasury in return for a convertibility guarantee. 

Since 1999, the CFA franc has been pegged to the Euro at about 660 CFA francs to one Euro. 
…