Villagers in Zimbabwe say a Chinese mining company has told them they will have to leave their homes to make way for a granite quarry. The company denies plans to forcibly move the villagers, but a lack of transparency has many fearing they will be pushed out of their ancestral land.

Some villagers in Zimbabwe’s Mutoko District say they are not sure what the future holds now that Chinese companies such as Jinding Mining are exploring quarry mining in the region.

Most are reluctant to even talk about it, for fear of retaliation.

But this 42-year-old farmer, who asked that his name be withheld, is eager to speak out about the company’s plan to mine an area that stretches across 180 hectares and includes some of their homes.

“The area they want is where we live and where our cattle graze. It’s our source of income. We wonder where we will go, the area they want is too huge. Our ancestors’ graves are there, too. We wonder where they will relocate them,” said the farmer.

Activists say more than 50 families could be forced out by one mining company alone.

Richard Ncube of the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association said his group plans to ask the courts to prevent the eviction of villagers.

“ln order to help the communities, we are raising awareness on environmental issues. We are researching on these issues in order to inform legal reform and then we take matters to court as a last resort to have their remedies addressed or issues addressed,” he said.

An environmental impact report by Jinding Mining has addressed the concerns of villagers, said Amkela Sidange from Zimbabwe’s Environmental Management Agency.

“What we only do as the agency is to take the project that is brought by the project owner, we go through it, we verify whether what is being indicated in the report that consultations were done, were really done. We actually go to the ground and triangulate to check if what is in the report is what actually took place on the ground,” said Sidange.

The farmer who spoke to VOA said the Jinding company asked no ordinary people about their concerns over the mining project, only the local leaders.

Officials at Jinding and the Chinese Embassy in Zimbabwe were not available to comment.

In a statement, the embassy said Chinese investors in Zimbabwe are working for the betterment of the country.
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Villagers in Zimbabwe say a Chinese mining company has told them they will have to leave their homes to make way for a plant. The company denies plans to forcibly move the villagers, but a lack of transparency has many fearing they will be pushed out of their ancestral land. Columbus Mavhunga reports from Mutoko, Zimbabwe.

Camera: Blessing Chigwenhembe Video editor: Barry Unger
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A Chinese official in Nigeria says Beijing plans to invest over $300 billion in Africa to increase African exports and help close the large trade gap with China. China’s plans for more investment in Africa have been welcomed by some, but critics worry about Africa’s growing debt with Beijing.

The recent signing of a multi-billion-dollar partnership between China and Africa marks a major step in China’s effort to spend more money in Africa in nine industrial sectors, including trade, digital innovation, medical, poverty reduction, culture and peace and security.

A Chinese official, China Africa Business Council head Diana Chen, signed a memorandum of understanding with Lagos Chamber of Commerce officials last week in Lagos.

Chen said the $300 billion will be invested in Africa over the next three years.

Many experts welcome the development and say it could increase the local manufacturing and export capacity of indigenous Nigerian and African brands.

Charles Onunaiji is the director of the Center for China Studies in Abuja.

“It’s not just in Lagos, it’s been holding across Africa. There have been discussions of the new opportunities of China-Africa cooperation. The Lagos meeting was one of the follow-ups on that very important meeting in Dakar, where the Chinese president offered nine programs to drive China-Africa cooperation to the next level. For me, this is a very important landmark in China-Africa cooperation,” he said.

China is Africa’s biggest trading partner, with over $30 billion in trade volume, surpassing the United States and Europe. Nigeria is one of China’s largest trading partners in Africa.

Onunaiji said the new partnership is expected to improve Africa’s trade with China, which analysts say is lopsided.

“China is responding to some of these concerns by giving more opportunities to Africa to access her market. And in my view, this particular proposal to import from Africa $300 billion worth of goods in three years is a game changer,” he said.

Chinese officials say the new partnership will see China establish special economic zones to accept more imports from Africa.

The president of the Nigeria Private Sector Alliance, Adetokunbo Kayode, said he worries the new partnership could further deepen Africa’s debt with China.

“Many African countries have sleep-walked into the debt trap. They’re already there, and it’s very obvious, because the facilities they’ve taken from several countries, including China, is such that they do not have the wherewithal to pay back. Secondly, the contracts are end to end,” he said.

Kayode said even though Bejing is investing heavily in Africa, Africans are not often part of the execution, creating a knowledge gap.

Experts say the success of the Chinese partnership will be dependent on favorable trade policies that will be drafted among China and African countries.

But Kayode has this to say, “What is our trade policy with China? In spite of my maybe fairly advantaged position in Nigeria, I’ve not seen any clear document showing the nitty gritty of Nigeria’s trade policy with China. I’ve not seen specific policies on areas like, for instance, how you drive the local contents of this multibillion-dollar contract.”

Since 2018, Chinese authorities began hosting the China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo in Changsha City in the central China province with the stated aim of exposing African products to the Chinese market.

While more African businesses may try to meet a more welcoming Chinese market for their products, many will be watching to see how the new partnership changes the status quo.
…

Golf is sometimes seen as a sport only accessible to an elite few. But in Senegal, one female golf star is redefining the sport’s image and challenging her country’s conservative gender norms. Annika Hammerschlag reports from Saly, Senegal.
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Uganda and Tanzania signed a deal with Chinese and French oil companies this week finalizing terms of a $10 billion drilling and pipeline project. The project’s backers say it will usher in economic development across the region. But Ugandan activists say complaints from communities affected by the project are not being heard.

Civil society organizations have raised red flags again, one day after Ugandan and Tanzanian officials put ink to paper for what they call the Final Investment Decision.

The move opens the way for construction and development of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline connecting future oilfields in Uganda to the Tanzanian port city of Tanga.

However, Ugandan civil society organizations, under their umbrella Stop EACOP, say the $3.5 billion project violates the rights of communities around Lake Albert where oil drilling will take place.

In 2021, the NGO Africa Institute for Energy Governance, which is providing legal support to the affected communities, was raided twice for allegedly operating without a license.

The NGO’s executive director, Dickens Kamugisha, says the attacks were meant to silence them for demanding to see key documents and raising issues such as people’s property rights.

Kamugisha tells VOA that locals may get compensated for the loss of their property but were not given much chance to negotiate.

“They are being forced to open bank accounts. But even those who have opened, they don’t receive the money,” said Kamugisha. “Many people haven’t agreed on the compensation rates, but they are being told you have to receive whatever is available. So, the communities are still aggrieved. There are no grievance handling mechanisms. The courts are not functioning, so the people are helpless. People have been made to even become poorer, and more miserable and desperate.”

This week’s agreement was signed between Uganda, Tanzania, the French company Total Energies and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

Total Energies faces a lawsuit in France for its failure to prevent human rights violations and environmental damage linked to the project.

The drilling and pipeline have been delayed for years, and Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni noted that one reason for the delay was the pressure put on Total Energies by civil society groups.

Museveni has been dismissive of the groups, describing members as jobless people moving aimlessly.

‘They go and campaign. They say, Ugandans are not allowing NGO’s to inspect the petroleum operations in Lake Albert,” said Museveni. “They are hiding something. So, I appeal to the Ugandans and to the local governments in Buliisa, Kikube, in Nwoya, let the NGO’s go and sleep in the bush if they want.”

When completed, the pipeline is expected to carry about 60,000 barrels of oil to Tanzania per day.

Tanzania’s Vice President Phillip Mpango expressed hope all parties will adhere to labor and environmental laws.

“I’m therefore looking forward to hear that they are committed to implement this project, in an exemplary manner,” said Mpango. “Taking into consideration the ecology as well as local community rights.”

Uganda’s oil deposits were first discovered in 2006 and are estimated at 6.5 billion barrels. Assuming the drilling and pipeline go ahead, exports are expected to begin in 2025.
…

U.N. agencies in Malawi have started providing aid to victims from Tropical Storm Ana, which killed scores of people across southeastern Africa and left tens of thousands homeless. The U.N. children’s agency, UNICEF, has provided personal hygiene and water treatment kits to approximately 15,000 people. But Malawi’s President Lazarus Chakwera says more assistance is needed.

The latest report from Malawi’s Department of Disaster Management says the floods killed 33 people, displaced more than 100,000 and affected nearly 200,000 households in the country.

The storm also damaged at least 19 health facilities, destroying medicines and cold chain equipment.

Mohamed Fall is UNICEF’s regional director for Eastern and Southern Africa. He is in Malawi visiting flood hit areas.

“For the moment, our focus is on life-saving commodities namely those which help for water, for sanitation, nonfood items, probably also some tents, latrines, cleaning stuff. Also, because I am sure that with water levels dropping, resettlement will be a challenge,” he said.

Fall notes that the destruction of water and sanitation facilities puts children and their families at risk of waterborne diseases such as cholera.

Meanwhile, the World Food Program announced Wednesday that it has set aside an initial amount of $500,000 for relief assistance to the flood victims.

Paul Turnbull is the WFP country director in Malawi.

“As part of our immediate response, WFP is providing corn-soya bran to some 21,000 households, around 95,000 people in four most affected districts of Chikwawa, Mulanje, Nsanje and Phalombe. Distribution started yesterday, first of February,” he said.

Turnbull added the WFP is currently prioritizing displaced people living in temporary shelters as it looks for additional resources to scale up its response.

The head of the Department of Disaster Management, Charles Kalemba, told a press conference Tuesday that the relief efforts are hampered by lack of funding despite several government appeals for financial assistance.

During his tour to affected areas Tuesday, President Lazarus Chakwera called for more assistance to help thousands of Malawians affected by floods in over half of the country’s 28 districts.

Chakwera said, “As we continue asking for more assistance from our partners, we should also make sure that in our national budget this year, we should allocate some to help rebuild public infrastructures destroyed by the storm.”

Tropical Storm Ana also killed at least 20 people in Mozambique and 48 people in Madagascar.

The Malawian president said he will soon meet with African Union heads of state to ask for support in aiding areas affected by the storm.
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It’s 2 p.m. and Hannah Mgbede asks her husband if she can take her first break of the day from threshing rice so she can breastfeed their 18-month-old baby girl fastened to her back during the grueling work.

Her husband Ibrahim Mohammed, 45, used to harvest as many as 10 bags of rice a year from his farm. But that dropped to just three bags after attackers burned his home to the ground a few years ago, as violence between farmers and herders escalated across the northwest and central parts of Nigeria.

With that decreased yield, Mohammed hasn’t made enough money to buy seedlings to grow yams, soybeans and guinea corn (sorghum).

“Sometimes we manage to eat once (a day),” says Mohammed, who has three children, aged five and younger. “Since the crisis, it is only by the grace of God we are feeding to remain alive.”

Here in Benue state, harvests of rice, yams and soybeans were once so bountiful that it was called the “food basket of Nigeria.” But waves of violence over the last several years have reduced crops in the northcentral state of Africa’s most populous nation.

More than 1 million farmers in the state have been displaced because of the intercommunal violence between herders and farmers competing for water and land, say officials.

“We are heading to a food crisis,” Benue state Gov. Samuel Ortom told The Associated Press.

Across northern Nigeria, at least 13 million are now facing hunger amid a lean season, according to the U.N. World Food Program. The violence has also disrupted the sales of food as roads are too unsafe for farmers to transport crops and marketplaces have been razed by attackers.

Rice production has dropped so much that its price has jumped more than 60% in Benue state as well as some other parts of the country.

“There is a very real risk of famine because both conflict and COVID-19 has made it harder to reach those most in need,” a spokesperson of the U.N. agency told AP.

Thousands of Nigerians have been killed in the decades-long clashes between agrarian communities and nomadic cattle herders who are fighting over limited access to water and grazing land. The farmers often accuse the herders of encroaching in their fields while the herders, mostly from the Fulani ethnic group, claim the croplands are their traditional grazing routes.

The government has now launched an initiative under the National Livestock Transformation Plan in the hope of resolving the conflict which has been worsened by the proliferation of arms and the government’s failure to prosecute past perpetrators from both groups.

About 3,000 people who have fled the violence in Benue state are now living at a camp in Guma local government area.

Mtonga Iliamgee, 43, says every day is a struggle to feed her family of 10. She was seen preparing their only meal of the day at 1 p.m.

“We live for the day, and we don’t know what tomorrow could bring,” she says.

Felix Agune, the deputy head of the camp school, says some children come to class crying that they’ve had no breakfast. Non-government organizations are trying to fill the gap, but it is “nothing compared to the massive hunger spread across Benue state,” said Rex Elanu, a program director for the One to One Healthcare Initiative.

Government officials insist they are working to make farmlands safe enough for people to return and work the land. They’re also trying to encourage nomadic herders to take up ranching, so they are less at odds with farmers.

Seeds and fertilizers have also been supplied to farmers in the past to enhance food production, cushion the effect of the pandemic and encourage more youths to go into agriculture, according to a spokesman of the agriculture ministry.

Despite the violence, Nigerian farmers have been able to produce enough crops to keep the country self-sufficient in staples such as rice, cassava and yams.

“Nigeria survived with the produce generated by the smallholder farmers,” Theodore Ogaziechi of the agriculture ministry said. “The farmers are doing their utmost best to feed the nation.”

Farmers are resilient but also afraid because some who have attempted to go back to their farms have been killed, warned Ortom, the governor of Benue state.

“If there is security for these farmers, we’ll continue to retain our position as the food basket of the nation,” he said. “But if nothing is done, as it is now, it is a big challenge.”
…

Regional bloc ECOWAS has condemned what it calls an “attempted coup” in the West African state of Guinea-Bissau, where heavy gunfire was heard near the seat of government Tuesday.

President Umaro Cissoko Embalo, a former army general, was reportedly holding a cabinet meeting in the government palace when the shooting broke out. 

Sources in the capital, Bissau, say heavily-armed men had surrounded the building. 

Reuters reports an “unknown number” of people were injured and that two were killed. 

If confirmed, this would be the second coup in West Africa in just over a week. Burkina Faso’s president, Roch Kabore, was overthrown by the military on January 23.Army officers also seized power in Guinea and Mali last year. 

Embalo was declared the winner of the 2020 elections, but the results have been contested by his opponent, Domingos Simoes Pereira.

Embalo started to form a new government with the support of the military even while a supreme court challenge to the election was ongoing. 

At the United Nations, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the world body does not know details of the events in Guinea-Bissau but added that “coups are totally unacceptable.” 

He said, “We are seeing a terrible multiplication of coups, and our strong appeal is for soldiers to go back to the barracks and for the constitutional order to be fully in place in the democratic context of today’s Guinea-Bissau.” 

The country of 1.5 million gained independence from Portugal in 1974 and has experienced four coups and more than 12 coup attempts since. 

Some information in this report comes from Reuters and The Associated Press. 

 
…

Nigerian authorities have sent security reinforcements to areas in three states where armed groups killed scores of people over the weekend. Nigerian police say the gangs targeted civilians and security personnel in Nigeria’s northwest and central states of Niger, Katsina and Kaduna. Security analysts say the attacks underscore authorities’ failure to stem violence in the regions.

The attacks last weekend were some of the deadliest seen in northern Nigeria over the past year.

Authorities said the gangs, referred to locally as bandits, killed 12 people in Katsina, 11 in Niger, and 11 in Kaduna states. Some of the victims were burned alive as the attackers rained terror on communities, razing down houses.

Niger state authorities say fatalities included security personnel who were killed when gunmen overran a security base in the Shiroro local government area.

Commissioner of police Monday Bala-Kuryas says authorities are responding to the attacks.  

“We have beefed up security in that place. And what we’re doing also…areas that are closer (to the affected area) where we suspect bandits are there, we have also mobilized officers to those places and we’re monitoring,” said the Niger state police commissioner.

Authorities have also deployed heavily armed security reinforcements to the affected areas in Kaduna and Katsina states.

Authorities have not announced any arrests in connection with the attacks.

On Tuesday, Katsina State police spokesperson, Gambo Isah, said an undetermined number of people were also kidnapped in a separate attack in the state.

Security analyst Kabiru Adamu says security threats will persist unless government’s forces dislodge forest hideouts known where the gangs usually take cover.

“They need to dominate it and by dominating it I mean, to take over those forests so that these bandits don’t have space to operate in any longer. Any effort that is done and those forests are [still] left unoccupied, it means these bandits will still come through them especially in this instance where these gunmen are able to move across borders,” Adamu expressed.

But the lingering security problems have been stretching Nigeria’s internal security architecture.

Late last year Nigeria designated the groups as terrorist organizations. Experts say in theory, the designation gives security forces more fighting power and makes punishment against offenders more defined.

But security analyst Ebenezer Oyetakin says corruption is preventing authorities from making much progress. 

“Our security forces, our security intelligence should get their acts together. We have compromised elements in our security system, in the financial system and in the society,” he noted.

Last month, some 200 people were killed and about 10,000 displaced after armed gangs launched a reprisal in northwestern Nigerian state of Zamfara following military air raids on their hideouts. 
…

At least 10 people were killed and 15 were wounded when rival clan militias clashed in central Somalia, residents and community elders said Tuesday.

The battle broke out in the neighborhoods of the Balanbal district in the Galgaduud region. Both sides used rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft guns and assault rifles, witnesses and officials said.

What sparked the battle between the Ayr and Marehan clans remains unclear, but the two rival groups have had a history of repeated disputes about pasture rights, water wells and other clan disagreements.

“We call for the cessation of hostility. It is unfortunate that two brotherly clans fight over trivial matters, while their families are suffering from a severe drought,” said Mo’alim Sugaal Guuled, a respected religious scholar in the region.

The clashes come at a time when escalating drought in Somalia is creating a massive displacement crisis.

Somali authorities and international aid agencies say 245,000 people have already fled their homes, with numbers projected to reach up to 1.4 million if the drought continues. 

Meanwhile, a military court in the central Somali town of Galkayo handed down death sentences Tuesday for five al-Shabab militants accused of killing several people.

Two other defendants were sentenced to life in prison. 

The defendants, all between the ages of 18 and 21, appeared in the military court in prisoners’ uniforms. Some of them looked shocked and confused, according to witnesses at the court hearing.

At the court, before the sentence were announced, one of the defendants shouted, “We are innocent, and we were framed up!”

“After court proceedings, including hearings and the presentation of evidence, the court sentences these men to death and jail terms,” said the court verdict. “The defendants were responsible for the killing of 10 people, among them two members of parliament and three senior military officers.” 

The defendants have 30 days to appeal the verdicts.

Al-Shabab’s insurgency aims to drive out African Union peacekeepers, topple Somalia’s Western-backed government, and impose its strict version of Islam on the Horn of Africa state.

Abdiwahid Mo’alim Isaq contributed to this report.

 
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South Africa’s luxury housing dealers say the market is booming despite the economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic. Real estate agents say the need to work from home and have better security are some of the drivers, while affordable housing for the poor remains a challenge. Linda Givetash reports from Johannesburg.
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While Kenya has seen the percentage of people fully vaccinated against the coronavirus gradually increase to 19%, some people – like nomadic herders – have been harder to reach.  So, Kenyan authorities offered an incentive – herders who get the jab can also get routine vaccinations and medicines for their livestock. For VOA, Brenda Mulinya reports from Isiolo, Kenya.
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Mali said it is expelling the French ambassador because of “hostile and outrageous” comments by former colonial power France about Mali’s transitional government.

A statement read on national television Monday said French Ambassador Joel Meyer has been given 72 hours to leave the country. 

“This measure follows the hostile and outrageous comments made recently by the French Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs and the recurrence of such comments by the French authorities with regard to the Malian authorities, despite repeated protests,” the statement said. 

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said last week that Mali’s junta was “illegitimate and takes irresponsible measures.” He also described the junta as “out of control.” 

The French Foreign Ministry said in a statement Monday that it would recall Meyer from Mali. 

Relations between Mali and France deteriorated this month after the junta went back on an agreement to organize elections in February. Instead, the junta has proposed staying in power for up to another five years. 

European nations have also expressed concern that Mali’s interim government has accepted private Russian security contractors. 

France has had troops in Mali since 2013 when it sent forces at the request of Malian leaders to stop Islamist militants who were advancing on the capital. The latest dispute raises questions about whether French troops will remain in the country. 

Last week, Mali’s junta demanded that Denmark withdraw its newly arrived contingent of soldiers to Mali. The junta accused Denmark of deploying without authorization, a charge Copenhagen denied. 

Denmark’s foreign minister said Friday that it supports France in the latest diplomatic dispute. 

“Reports the French Ambassador has been declared Persona Non Grata by Mali transitional authorities are unacceptable. Denmark stands in full solidarity with France,” Danish Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said in a tweet on Friday. 

Mali’s interim leader Assimi Goita seized power in August 2020 citing widespread popular dissatisfaction toward elected leader Ibrahim Boubacar Keita. However, less than a year later in May 2021, Goita overthrew the transitional government that he helped set up, citing a Cabinet reshuffle that excluded two key military leaders.

Goita claimed the move violated the terms of the new government. French President Emmaneul Macron called the action “a coup within a coup.” 

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence France-Presse. 
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Nairobi, known as a cosmopolitan and culturally diverse African capital, boasts a thriving assortment of Chinese restaurants. It is a testament to China’s cultural and financial influence in Kenya, embraced by some, while bringing uncertainty critique for other native Kenyans.

Mbathi Kimani, a local, owns Hong Kong Kitchen, a joint tucked away in Safi Soki mall in south Nairobi. The hole-in-the-wall restaurant flanks a recently completed section of Ngong Road, a major construction project done in collaboration with Chinese firms.

The road is a part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) to create infrastructure to enhance land and sea trade routes from Asia to Africa.

Belt and Road projects have brought a new wave of Chinese immigrants to Nairobi in recent years, some of whom have opened local restaurants.

“The Chinese restaurant competition here is tough. There are quite a number of us for a rather niche market, but I wanted to give it a try,” Kimani told VOA.

He owns three Chinese restaurants inspired by his travels to Hong Kong in the 90s and 2000s. He was so impressed by the efficiency and organization he witnessed in Hong Kong and thinks Kenya can benefit from that model.

He also enjoyed the food there and is replicating Hong Kong’s Cantonese food at his Nairobi restaurants. Kimani found while some local Kenyans like Chinese food, others don’t embrace it.

He tried opening a Hong Kong Kitchen along Mombasa Road, where the population has a lower concentration of expatriates than the other locations. “After just one month, it wasn’t doing great––people in that area weren’t as keen to try the food,” Kimani explained. They’ve closed that restaurant for the time being, but business is steady at the other three locations across town.

Kenyans’ mixed appetite for Chinese cooking parallels the locals’ relationship and perception of Chinese presence in their country. While some Kenyans welcome the benefits of jobs and roads created through Chinese investments, others are more cautious and even critical of the the cost of doing business with China, in terms of debts.

Co-existing in Kenya

Kenyan’s mixed perception of the Chinese and Chinese food in Nairobi also comes from how the two cultures co-exist.

Marvin Akinyi, a 29-year-old Kenyan who works as a biology lab assistant, said he finds it strange how workers from mainland China tend to keep to themselves but attributes it to the language barrier.

“Perhaps, if I had more Chinese friends, I’d have more chances to try the food,” he said in an interview with VOA.

Akinyi gave Hong Kong Kitchen a try once. “It was good,” He continued, “but just very different from what I’m used to. I’m not sure I would try it again, especially since most of my friends are Kenyan. We are used to getting nyama choma [grilled meat] at the same bars rather than trying new places.”

Fusion of flavors and cultures

In the kitchen and the dining rooms, some Kenyans are experimenting with fusing traditional Kenyan cuisine with Chinese ingredients and flavors, and liking what they taste.

A 29-year-old Kenyan chef, Malachi Mwaniki, has also worked in upscale Nairobi restaurants such as Hemingway’s.

“Common Kenyan foods are simple and hearty, but relatively bland compared to the range of spices used across Chinese cooking. Stir-fries have become very popular. Young people in particular are keen on trying new foods and flavors,” he tells VOA.

He is on a journey to explore international foods and makes barbecued brisket, cold-smoked salmon, Chinese bao buns, and even Cantonese dim-sum.

Moses Kulavi, who has worked at the popular Kenyan chain Java Coffeehouse and upscale Hemingway Hotel, attended a culinary course at Kenya’s Tsavo Park Institute of Technology, where he learned the fundamentals of intercontinental cooking.

“Many of the ingredients that we used were local.” Kulavi said, “but we also learned how to use things like bok choy and soy sauce. Overall, I would say that Chinese dishes are spicier.”

Many base ingredients like chicken, beef, and eggs translate across Kenyan and Chinese cuisines. The Kenyan culinary tradition, of cooking meat “wet fry” and “dry fry” — meaning with or without stew or broth — also has similar Chinese cuisine counterparts.

Kulavi now caters private events for clients, mostly middle class and local. He created his version of an African beef dry fry paired with Chinese fried rice.

“It’s been a big hit and is commonly requested by my clients,” Kulavi told VOA in a phone interview.

One of the main differences in the two cuisines is in preparation. For instance, both pilau and fried rice are staple rice dishes. For the former, a coastal Kenyan comfort food, all the ingredients are boiled together in the same pot, while in Chinese-style fried rice, the ingredients are sauteed separately––developed as a way to use up leftovers and odds and ends in the kitchen.

Hong Kong Kitchen’s Kimani appreciates the beauty and diversity of an international palate. However, he recognizes that the situation is different for those who lack firsthand experience in seeing and tasting for themselves.

“Kenyans come into Hong Kong Kitchen with all sorts of stereotypes,” Kimani said. “Some expect to find snakes or things like that. We have to show them that it’s largely the same ingredients, just cooked differently. It’s just food!” 
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Exactly one week after Burkina Faso’s president was overthrown in a military coup, the African Union has suspended the west African nation.

The AU’s Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department announced on Twitter Monday that it had voted “to suspend the participation of #BurkinaFaso in all AU activities until the effective restoration of constitutional order in the country.”

The announcement came as a delegation from the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) was traveling to Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, to meet with junta leader Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Damiba, just three days after ECOWAS suspended Burkina Faso from its activities. A special United Nations envoy was also taking part in Monday’s talks.

Soldiers ousted President Roch Marc Christian Kabore last Monday after a day of fighting near the presidential palace in Ouagadougou. The move came amid rising anger among the rank-and-file stemming from the failure to adequately equip them to fight terror groups linked to al-Qaida and Islamic State since 2015. Rumors of a coup had been rife for weeks after a military base in the north of the country was overrun by terrorists in November, killing 49 military members.    

The junta suspended the constitution, dissolved the National Assembly and closed the country’s borders immediately after the takeover.  

Burkina Faso joins Mali and Guinea in being suspended by the African Union following military coups.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and  Agence France-Presse.
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Malawi’s government says is registering low numbers of teenagers taking the COVID-19 vaccine. This is largely because parents and guardians are reluctant to give consent to have their children get the shot.

Malawi started administering the Pfizer vaccine to children ages 12 to 17 on January 1st to help contain the spread of the coronavirus among children. 

Vaccination of teens requires health care providers to seek consent from parents. 

Statistics show that fewer than 4,000 children were vaccinated as of Saturday, a figure health authorities said was not impressive. 

The low response is blamed on parents refusing to give consent to health workers. 

Mailesi Mhango is the district coordinator for the Expanded Program on Immunization in the Ministry of Health. 

She says reluctance is more prevalent for children who go to public or government schools, where none of the youngsters has so far been vaccinated. 

“For the privately owned schools, the response is better compared to government-run schools. I don’t know why. But for private schools, at least there is a positive response; many schools are booking us. ‘Can you come and vaccinate our learners?’ So, we are going to such schools and vaccinating them,” she said.

Willy Malimba, the president of the Teachers’ Union of Malawi, says it is a non-starter to expect teenage students to get the COVID-19 shot in schools. 

“This time around, even when the government can decide to go to school to vaccinate learners, I am sure that school can be immediately closed because the learners, even the teachers will run away, unless they are fully sensitized. Otherwise, they are taking this issue as a negative issue because of the coming of this vaccine; it came with negatives,” he said.

Malimba recounts incidents where students have run away from suspected providers of the vaccine. 

“Even myself I have been experiencing some situations whereby I was going to certain schools and when learners saw my car, they ran away and I was told from the head teachers that the learners are running away because they think that we are coming with the vaccine,” he said.

Government statistics show that only about 7.3 % of about 20 million people in Malawi are fully vaccinated, far from the required 60% to reach herd immunity. 

The low uptake is largely attributed to myths that link COVID-19 vaccine to infertility and allegations that the vaccine is the government’s ploy to reduce the population. 

In a statement Saturday, the co-chairperson for the Presidential Task Force on COVID-19, Dr. Wilfred Chalamira Nkhoma, urged all parents and guardians to get their children aged 12 years and above inoculated. 

He said doing so will protect these children from severe disease and hospitalization, even if they do become infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. 

Some parents say they are not ready for that at the moment. 

Lindiwe Mwale, a mother of three children, two of them teenagers, is among the parents concerned. 

She spoke via a messaging application from her home in Chiwembe Township in Blantyre.

“I am a parent who has vaccinated them before [with] other vaccines which are there, but for this one [COVID-19 vaccine] I really would not want to risk them by getting them vaccinated by a vaccine which is currently on trial. After all, the COVID-19 is not greatly affecting people of that age; many of them make it,” she said.

Mwale, who is vaccinated, also says with a drop in cases in Malawi, from about 700 daily cases previously to now 80 cases as of Saturday, she feels the pandemic poses no threat that would warrant vaccination of her children. 

Health authorities say they are now planning to meet the parents and teachers and educate them on the importance of having children vaccinated against COVID-19. 

 
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Cameroon’s national football team, the Indomitable Lions, Sunday donated $85,000 and dedicated their 2-0 victory over the Scorpions of Gambia to victims of the stampede that killed eight and injured 38 at Yaoundé’s Olembe stadium this week. The Indomitable Lions say they cannot be indifferent after people died or were injured as they turned out to support Cameroon players taking part at the ongoing Africa Football Cup of Nations tournament in Cameroon.

Members of Cameroon’s national football team, the Indomitable Lions, sing that God will bless victims of this week’s crush at Yaoundé’s Olembe stadium. The players sang on Saturday evening in Douala, Cameroon’s economic hub and coastal city, after beating the Scorpions of Gambia in a quarter-final game in the Africa Football Cup of Nations, AFCON.

A statement after the match from Serge Guiffo, the Indomitable Lions press officer, said the players had donated $85,000 and dedicated their 2-0 victory over the Scorpions of Gambia to victims of the stampede that killed eight and injured 38.

The statement did not say how the money would be distributed to the victims, but said family members of those who died in the stampede will be given a share.

Narcisse Mouelle Kombi, Cameroon’s minister of sports and physical education, addressed the players at Douala’s Japoma stadium after the match.

Kombi said Cameroonians are happy that their national football team players have helped people who died or were injured while they struggled to watch the Indomitable Lions play. He said Cameroonians are happy that the donation comes after a historic victory against the Scorpions of Gambia.

The crush occurred as crowds struggled to get access to Olembe Stadium in the capital city Yaoundé. Cameroon President Paul Biya ordered the injured to be treated free of charge.

Ndukong Edward, a family member of a stampede victim, said the president did not make a statement about any assistance to the families of dead victims. Ndukong said he hopes the government will assist the injured and family members of the dead. He said security lapses by Cameroon’s police might have caused the stampede.

“If the gate was opened as it was supposed to be, nothing would have happened because people would have had access to the field. But if the gate was closed by some overzealous security officers for whatever reasons, then they should take responsibility,” he said.

Cameroonian authorities Friday blamed the deadly stadium crush on what they said was a massive influx of ticketless fans who arrived late to the game involving the host team and tried to force their way in to avoid security checks and COVID-19 screening.

Nasseri Paul Bea, governor of Cameroon’s Centre region, where Olembe is located, said the government will assist victims of the crush after the tournament. He said people attending football matches during AFCON should stop uncivil behavior such as jumping fences to get into stadiums.

“We are calling on this population to follow and respect the institutions, to be able to cooperate to be sure that Cameroon does not represent a bad image by being very patriotic and responsible. It should never happen again. Cameroonians should put in their mind that what happened in Olembe should never happen again,” he said.

Bea said some government ministers, senior state officials and well-wishers have been giving financial assistance to the victims in solidarity with the state of Cameroon.

After the crush, the Confederation of African Football suspended AFCON matches at Olembe until further notice.

Cameroon is hosting AFCON for the first time in 50 years. The tournament, which is the continent’s main football event, was originally scheduled in 2019. The confederation stripped the event from Cameroon that year because stadiums were not ready.

The competition that ends on February 6 began January 9.
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Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Sudan’s capital and other cities across the country Sunday for the latest in a months-long string of demonstrations denouncing an October military coup that plunged the country into turmoil. 

Protesters, mostly young men and women, marched in the streets of Khartoum and other cities, demanding an end to the military’s takeover. They called for a fully civilian government to lead the country’s now-stalled transition to democracy. 

The coup has upended Sudan’s transition to democratic rule after three decades of repression and international isolation under autocratic President Omar al-Bashir. The African nation has been on a fragile path to democracy since a popular uprising forced the military to remove al-Bashir and his Islamist government in April 2019. 

The protests are called by the Sudanese Professionals Association and the Resistance Committees, which were the backbone of the uprising against al-Bashir and relentless anti-coup protests in the past three months. 

Footage circulated online showed people beating drums and chanting anti-coup slogans in the streets of Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman. Protesters were also seen carrying Sudanese flags and other flags with photos of protesters reportedly slain by security forces printed on them. 

They marched towards the presidential palace, an area in the capital that has seen deadly clashes between protesters and security forces in previous rounds of demonstrations. 

Security forces fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters in at least one location in the capital. At least three people suffered injuries from rubber bullets, said activist Nazim Sirag. 

There were protests elsewhere in the country including the eastern city of Port Sudan, western Darfur region and Madani, the capital city of Jazira province, about 135 kilometers (85 miles) southeast of Khartoum. Medani saw a massive anti-coup protest last week. 

Ahead of the protests, authorities stepped up security in Khartoum and Omdurman. They deployed thousands of troops and police and sealed off central Khartoum, urging protesters to assemble only in public squares in the capital’s neighborhoods. 

The United Nations mission in Sudan on Saturday warned that such restrictions could increase tensions, urging authorities to let the protests “pass without violence.” 

Since the coup, at least 78 people have been killed and hundreds of others wounded in a widely condemned crackdown on protests, the Sudan Doctors Committee, which tracks casualties among protesters, said. 

There were also mass arrests of activists leading the anti-coup protests and allegations of sexual violence, including rape and gang rape, in a Dec. 19 protest in Khartoum, according to the U.N. 

The upheaval in Sudan worsened earlier this month following the resignation of Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, who was the civilian face of the transitional government over the past two years. 

The prime minister, who was ousted in the October coup only to be reinstated a month later under heavy international pressure, stepped down on Jan. 2 after his efforts to reach a compromise failed. 

Sunday’s protests came as the U.N. mission continued its consultations to find a way out of the ongoing crisis.

On Saturday, powerful Gen. Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, deputy head of the ruling Sovereign Council, and commander of the feared Rapid Support Forces, said they have accepted the U.N. efforts to resolve the crisis, but that U.N. envoy Volker Perthes “should be a facilitator not a mediator.” 

Dagalo did not elaborate but his comments showed the challenges the U.N. mission faces to find a common ground between rival factions in Sudan. 

The pro-democracy movement has insisted on the removal of the generals from power and the establishment a fully civilian government to lead the transition. 

The generals, however, said they will hand over power only to an elected administration. They say elections will take place in July 2023, as planned in a 2019 constitutional document governing the transitional period. 
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About 50 people were sentenced to death in Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday in connection with the murders of U.N. experts Zaida Catalan and Michael Sharp in 2017, a human rights group tracking the trial said. 

A local immigration official was among those given death sentences while an army colonel was given 10 years in prison, said Thomas Fessy, Human Rights Watch’s senior researcher on Congo. Congo has observed a moratorium on the death penalty since 2003 so those convicted will serve life sentences. 

But Fessy and Catalan’s sister said investigators had ignored the potential involvement of higher-level officials and the trial had not revealed the truth. 

Catalan, a Swede, and Sharp, an American, were investigating violence between government forces and a militia in the central Kasai region in March 2017 when they were stopped along the road by armed men, marched into a field and executed. 

Five year trial

Congolese officials have blamed the killings on the Kamuina Nsapu militia. They initially denied any state agents were involved but later arrested the colonel and several other officials who they said were working with the rebels. 

After a nearly five-year trial marked by repeated delays and the deaths of several defendants in custody, a military court in the city of Kananga delivered its verdict on Saturday. 

Among those sentenced to death was Thomas Nkashama, a local immigration official who met with Catalan and Sharp the day before their fatal mission, Fessy told Reuters. Others were alleged members of the militia. 

Colonel Jean de Dieu Mambweni, who also met with Catalan and Sharp before their mission, was sentenced to 10 years, Fessy said. 

Prosecutors and defense lawyers in the case were not immediately available for comment. 

Sister urges more questions

Catalan’s sister, Elisabeth Morseby, said after the verdict that testimony in the case was of dubious reliability given how much time the defendants had spent together in prison and said the conviction of Mambweni was a smokescreen. 

“In order for the truth to emerge, all suspects, including those higher up in the hierarchy, need to be questioned, which has not yet been done,” she told Reuters. 

Prosecutors say they have followed the available evidence. 

Fessy said there were still more questions than answers after the verdict. 

“The investigation and ultimately this trial have failed to uncover the full truth about what happened. Congolese authorities, with U.N. support, should now investigate the critical role that senior officials may have played in the murders,” he said. 

Ann Linde, Sweden’s foreign minister, echoed that call on Twitter: “Crucial that investigation concerning others involved continues to further uncover truth and bring justice. We encourage authorities to fully cooperate with the UN mechanism.”
…

Hundreds of soccer fans in Malawi braved heavy rain Friday to cheer and welcome Malawi’s national football team, nicknamed The Flames, as it returned from Cameroon, despite failing to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) quarterfinals.

As the team arrived Friday at Chileka International Airport, soccer fans, many of them dressed in red, sang songs, praising the Malawi Flames with a welcome for heroes.

The honor was largely because of the team’s outstanding performance during the games that allowed it to reach the round of 16, a knockout stage, for the first time in the country’s football history.

The Flames lost to Guinea, one-nil, in their opening match, but then bounced back with a 2-1 victory over Zimbabwe and a hard-fought scoreless draw against 2019 Nations Cup finalist Senegal.

However, in the knockout stage, Malawi lost 2-1 to Morocco, booking itself a ticket back home.   

Walter Nyamilandu is the president of the Football Association of Malawi. He told reporters upon arrival in Blantyre that although Malawi failed to proceed further at AFCON, Malawi’s mission in Cameroon was accomplished.  

“Nobody expected that we would go this far, and to reach a group of 16 teams is mission accomplished. We went there to reach a round of 16, and we achieved exactly what we wanted. So, we are extremely happy that now we are among the top 16 teams in Africa, and this is where Malawi belongs,” Nyamilandu said.

Nyamilandu said much of the credit goes to coach Mario Marinica, a Romanian national who is the team’s technical director.

The Football Association of Malawi in November last year tasked Marinica to act as head coach for the Flames during the AFCON engagements.  

“The coach is here to stay. It depends [on] what role he has to play, and he is an asset because he is delivering,” Nyamilandu said. “And it’s a question where will we deploy him? We will sit back and make a sober decision about what is right for Malawi in the short term and long term. But as far as I am concerned, he has passed all the tests, and if anything, we should give him an open visa, a Malawi citizenship to stay here because he has proved that he can deliver.”  

Marinica told VOA this week from Cameroon, however, that he would love to introduce the new style of play he has instilled in the Flames to all the nation’s football clubs.  

“Obviously, we need this system to be implemented throughout the country, and as much as possible adopted by all the coaches in Malawi. I hope that in the near future, we will see consistent results and much better players produced throughout the country,” Marinica said.

Sunduzwayo Madise is the board chairman for the Malawi National Council of Sports. He says the performance of the Flames at AFCON has given the country pride.  

“It was the first time when you go to a country wearing a Malawian jersey and people see you, and they start clapping hands at you,” Madise said. “Yes, in terms of FIFA ranking we may not be up there, but I think we demonstrated that we have got a spirit and I think that we gave our best shot. Unfortunately, we didn’t go through, and I think we did very well.”

From the airport, the Flames proceeded to the Amaryllis Hotel in Blantyre, which hosted a celebratory dinner and provided accommodations for the team.

The government is pledging to provide more funding to make the team among the best in Africa.

 
…

The U.N, Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, warns it may be forced to end its humanitarian operation in northern Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray province because supplies are running out. 

Intense fighting in northern Ethiopia has prevented aid from getting through to millions of destitute people in Tigray since mid-December.   

OCHA spokesman Jens Laerke says U.N. and private aid agencies already have been forced to scale back operations because of severe shortages of supplies, fuel and cash.

“Organizations have warned that operations could cease completely by the end of February,” said Laerke. “Nutrition supplies for supplementary feeding and treatment of severe acute malnutrition have already run out.”   

The World Food Program says 13 percent of Tigrayan children under the age of five, and half of all pregnant and breastfeeding women are malnourished, a condition that increases the risk of infection and death.  

Laerke says international aid agencies operating in Tigray report their last fuel stocks were depleted on January 24.  Since then, he says aid workers have been delivering the little remaining humanitarian supplies and services on foot, where possible.   

“We have seen in recent days — of course, the U.N. Humanitarian Air Service has picked up again and they are delivering.  But you cannot deliver by plane at all, the kind of volumes of aid that is clearly needed in this situation,” said Laerke.

War between Ethiopian government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front broke out in November 2020.  Since then, the conflict has spread to the neighboring Amhara and Afar regions, displacing hundreds of thousands, and pushing up rates of hunger and malnutrition.

Unlike the situation in Tigray, Laerke says aid agencies can scale up assistance in accessible parts of Amhara and Afar.  He says food has been distributed to more than half-a-million people in Amhara during the past week, and nearly 380,000 people in Afar have been reached in an ongoing round of food distribution.

 
…

Ahead of a Cameroon-Gambia knockout match in the ongoing Africa Football Cup of Nations in Douala, a commercial hub and coastal city Saturday, Cameroon says it has deployed an additional 250 police officers to control an influx of tens of thousands of fans. The central African nation this week reported a stampede that killed eight people and injured 38 in an AFCON match in the capital, Yaoundé. Police have been struggling to contain the huge number of arriving fans.  

This song, Go Lions Go, by the musical group Tribute Sisters, blasts through speakers at bus stations in Yaoundé and Douala. The song says if Cameroon’s national football team, the Indomitable Lions, wins the ongoing Africa Football Cup of Nations, Cameroon will be stronger and more united and its people will be proud.

Host Cameroon is playing a quarter-final match Saturday against Gambia in Douala.

Among the Cameroon fans in the city is Gilbert Ekosso, a 28-year-old teacher. Ekosso says if he misses this opportunity, he may never watch Cameroon play against Gambia in an AFCON match in his life.  

“The last time Cameroon hosted an Africa Cup of Nations competition was about 50 years ago,” Ekosso said. “There is no way I can miss this match between Cameroon and Gambia. It looks like a once in a lifetime opportunity watching them play here in Douala.”  

Cameroon police and the ministry of Sports and Physical Education say tens of thousands of football fans from Cameroonian towns and villages are already in Douala. The police say the 50,000-seat Japoma stadium, the match venue, cannot contain the number of fans scrambling to get entry tickets.

Narcisse Mouelle Kombi is Cameroon’s sports and physical education minister.

Kombi says there is a heavy deployment of the police to stop the uncivil behavior of Cameroonians who want to force themselves into the stadium when they do not have tickets and negative COVID-19 test results. He says the police will also ensure that the number of people admitted into the stadium is exactly the number authorized by the Confederation of African Football.  

Kombi said due to COVID-19 restrictions, the confederation has authorized a maximum of 35,000 fans in the stadium. He said fans who are not authorized to enter the stadium should watch the match on TV.

Cameroon police chief Martin Mbarga Nguelle visited Douala Friday and said he was personally making sure police do their job well to ensure safety during matches.

He said the police should not only concentrate on fans massed outside the field. He said fans in the Douala stadium invaded the pitch to congratulate or blame players and match officials several times in previous games and that should not happen again.

Last week, the CAF reported that 40 fans came onto the playing field during an AFCON match between Ivory Coast and Algeria. No injuries were reported but the CAF fined both teams and condemned Cameroonian organizers for insufficient security measures

This week, Cameroon and the CAF ordered an investigation into a stampede that killed eight people and wounded 38 at Yaoundé’s 60,000-seat Olembe stadium. The government said fans trying to enter the stadium to watch an AFCON match between Cameroon and the Comoros overpowered hundreds of police, leading to the crush.

Cameroon says entry to the stadium will now begin five hours before the match to stop any last-minute rush that might provoke another crush. The government says entry into football stadiums for AFCON matches is henceforth prohibited for children under 11.

The Africa Football Cup of Nations tournament is taking place in Cameroon despite the ongoing pandemic and threats from separatists to disrupt the games. 

The AFCON championship started on January 9 and will end February 6. 
…

A military court in Democratic Republic of Congo is set to pronounce a long-awaited verdict Saturday in a mass trial over the 2017 murder of two U.N. experts in a troubled central region.

Dozens of people have been on trial for more than four years over a killing that shook diplomats and the aid community, although key questions about the episode remain unanswered.

Michael Sharp, an American, and Zaida Catalan, a Swedish-Chilean, disappeared as they probed violence in the Kasai region after being hired to do so by the United Nations.

They were investigating mass graves linked to a bloody conflict that had flared between the government and a local group.

Their bodies were found in a village on March 28, 2017, 16 days after they went missing. Catalan had been beheaded.

Unrest in the Kasai region had broken out in 2016, triggered by the killing of a local traditional chief, the Kamuina Nsapu, by the security forces.

Around 3,400 people were killed, and tens of thousands of people fled their homes, before the conflict fizzled out in mid-2017.

Prosecutors at the military court in Kananga are demanding the death penalty against 51 of the 54 accused, 22 of whom are fugitives and are being tried in absentia.

The charge sheet ranges from terrorism and murder to participation in an insurrectional movement and the act of a war crime through mutilation.

According to the official version of events, pro-Kamuina Nsapu militiamen executed the pair on March 12, 2017, the day they went missing.

But in June 2017, a report handed to the U.N. Security Council described the killings as a “premeditated setup” in which members of state security may have been involved.

During the trial, prosecutors suggested that the militiamen had carried out the murders to take revenge against the United Nations, which the sect accused of failing to prevent attacks against them by the army.

If so, those who purportedly ordered the act were not identified throughout the marathon proceedings.

Among the main accused is a colonel, Jean de Dieu Mambweni, who prosecutors say colluded with the militiamen, providing them with ammunition. He denies the charges and his lawyers say the trial is a set-up.

Mambweni and 50 others face the death penalty, a charge that is frequently pronounced in murder cases but is routinely commuted to life imprisonment since DRC declared a moratorium on executions in 2003.

Prosecutors are demanding 20-year jail terms against three other defendants, saying they deserve a measure of leniency for having cooperated with investigators.

Saturday’s verdict is liable to appeal at the High Military Court in Kinshasa, DRC’s capital. 

 
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European allies agreed on Friday to draw up plans within two weeks for how to continue their fight against Islamist militants in Mali, Denmark’s defense minister said, after France said the situation with the Malian junta had become untenable.

Tensions have escalated between Mali and its international partners since the junta failed to organize an election following two military coups.

It has also deployed Russian private military contractors, which some European countries have said is incompatible with their mission.

“There was a clear perception that this is not about Denmark. It’s about a Malian military junta which wants to stay in power. They have no interest in a democratic election, which is what we have demanded,” Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen told Reuters.

Speaking after a virtual meeting of the 15 countries involved in the European special forces Takuba task mission, she said the parties had agreed to come up with a plan within 14 days to decide on what the “future counterterrorism mission should look like in the Sahel region.”

The ministers held talks after the junta had insisted on the immediate withdrawal of Danish forces despite the 15 nations’ rejecting its claims that Copenhagen’s presence was illegal.

“European, French and international forces are seeing measures that are restricting them. Given the situation, given the rupture in the political and military frameworks, we cannot continue like this,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told RTL radio earlier in the day, adding that the junta was out of control.

He said the Europeans needed to think about how to adapt their operations.

‘Full of contempt’

Speaking to France 24 TV, Malian Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop said that Le Drian’s comments were “full of contempt” and Paris needed to act less aggressively and respect Mali.

“France’s attitude needs to change. … We are reviewing several defense accords and treaties to ensure they don’t violate Mali’s sovereignty. If that’s not the case, we will not hesitate to ask for adjustments.” 

He said that Paris welcomed military coups “when they served its interests,” referring to a coup in neighboring Chad that has drawn little resistance from France.

The junta’s handling of Denmark is likely to affect future deployments, with Norway, Hungary, Portugal, Romania and Lithuania due to send troops this year. It raises questions about the broader future of French operations in Mali, where there are 4,000 troops. Paris had staked a great deal on bringing European states to the region.

Colonel Arnaud Mettey, commander of France’s forces in Ivory Coast, which backs up Sahel operations, told Reuters that the junta had no right to refuse Denmark’s presence given agreed treaties.

“Either they are rejecting this treaty and so put into question our presence, or they apply it,” he said. “France and the European Union will not disengage from the Sahel. Takuba will carry on.”

Diop said the departure of French troops was not on the table for now.

However, Denis Tull, senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, said Paris may ultimately not be left with a choice.

“If this confrontation continues, there probably will simply be no political context in which the French transformation agenda for [France’s counterterrorism force] Barkhane can be applied and implemented as planned,” he said.
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