Abuja — In Nigeria, bushmeat is more than just food, it’s a culinary tradition and a trade. Despite the risk of zoonotic diseases like Ebola and Lassa fever, 45% of the country consumes bushmeat regularly, and now discussions to raise awareness are taking center stage.

Following last week’s World Zoonoses Day celebrations, Nigeria’s bush meat consumption comes under scrutiny due to the associated health risks.

Abuja-based civil servant Barnabas Bagudu among the 45% of Nigerians who consume bushmeat frequently, despite being aware of the potential risks. His personal favorites include antelope, rabbit, grasscutter, and alligator.

Bagudu emphasizes bushmeat’s unique taste and cultural significance.

“I like bushmeat so much that if I see it anywhere, I like to eat it, mostly antelope and rabbit. Since it is from bush, it’s blessed by God naturally, more than the one that we trained at home,” he said.

Bushmeat is also a thriving trade for many, like Evelyn Agbo, a seller of various types of bushmeat for over a decade.

She draws a huge patronage across Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, with antelope being her bestseller.

Agbo explains the preparation process.

“When I get the bushmeat, I dress it with salt and heat over fire with firewood until it is dried. I could do this for two days because if it’s not dry, flies will perch on it and attract diseases,” she said. 

The World Health Organization states that about 60% of all infectious diseases are zoonotic, passing from animals to humans.

Nigeria has a high prevalence of zoonotic pathogens like Ebola, tuberculosis, and Lassa fever.

Abuja-based public health expert Ejike Orij warns about bushmeat consumption amid a fragile healthcare system.

“So, if for any reason that animal is infected and then it is now killed and served to humans in bats and in restaurant, that’s how the transmission starts,” he said.

The theme of the 2024 World Zoonoses Day was awareness and prevention of zoonotic diseases.

In Nigeria, efforts to promote safer bushmeat consumption practices remain low.

Orji stresses the need to ramp up awareness.

“There has been a lot of public education and community engagement by government on the issue of bushmeat, especially when there was an epidemic of lassa fever…it’s just to spread the awareness especially to the people who prepare it,” he said.

While bushmeat is a top delicacy in Nigeria, the need for safer consumption practices is urgent.

Public health experts urge Nigerians to explore domestic protein sources like chicken and to increase public awareness to mitigate risks.
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Burkina Faso is home to many people internally displaced by years of insecurity and conflict. Most of them live in various towns across the country, and some are now trying to find jobs in the capital, Ouagadougou, or starting businesses. VOA’s Gildas Da has this report, narrated by Anthony LaBruto.
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Juba, South Sudan — At 75, Galiche Buwa has lived through civil wars, famine and natural disasters, but the South Sudanese widowed mother of four always managed to get by, thanks to her grocery business.

Now, however, even that standby is on shaky ground, as the oil-dependent nation’s economy reels from revenue losses following the rupture of a key pipeline in its war-torn neighbor Sudan in February.

The damaged pipeline was crucial for transporting South Sudan’s crude oil abroad, with petroleum exports traditionally accounting for about 90 percent of the impoverished country’s GDP.

The implications have been far-reaching, with inflation soaring as the value of the South Sudanese pound relative to the U.S. dollar plunges on the black market, from 2,100 in March to 3,100 today.

The official rate slipped from around 1,100 in February to nearly 1,550 this month.

“Since the 1970s up to now I am still here, but these days we are suffering. Things are tough,” Buwa said as she glumly tended to her stall at the Konyo-Konyo market in the capital Juba.

“We are unable to buy stock, things are expensive… and prices keep rising every day,” she said, compelling her to purchase supplies on credit.

As wholesale costs shoot up, retail prices follow — a mug of maize sold by Buwa was worth 800 South Sudanese pounds in March, compared to 2,000 today, she said.

Teddy Aweye, a 28-year-old mother of two, said she was struggling to put food on the table, forcing her family to eat just one meal a day.

“You go to the market today, you get a price, and tomorrow you go back and you get a different price… I had to return home without buying anything,” Aweye told AFP.

“Life is really very difficult.”

Losses upon losses

It is a common refrain across Juba’s biggest market, where several traders told AFP they were racking up losses every day.

Abdulwahab Okwaki, a 61-year-old butcher, said his business was in crisis.

“A customer who used to (buy) one kilo is now taking half a kilo, and the one taking half a kilo now takes a quarter… and the one who was taking a quarter is not coming anymore,” he said.

The father of eight often loses money when he is unable to sell meat before it goes bad.

Many of his fellow butchers have simply quit, unable to make ends meet, he said.

Higher-end businesses have also taken a hit.

Harriet Gune, a 27-year-old entrepreneur, said her fashion boutique was losing customers.

“The more you increase prices for the items in the shop, the more you scare away clients,” she told AFP.

A pair of jeans that used to cost 25,000 South Sudanese pounds in March now sells for 35,000, she told AFP, adding that she needed to raise prices “to be able to get enough money to order new stock”.

‘Develop alternatives’

Even government officials are feeling the pinch.

In May, Finance Minister Awow Daniel Chuang told parliament that the government would struggle to pay salaries to lawmakers, military, police, civil servants and other officials because of a shortfall in revenues.

He said the country was losing about 70 percent of its oil revenues because of the pipeline rupture, which has affected exports of Nile blend crude and Dar blend crude.

“The production is only from Blocks 12, 14, and 58, which means there is only around 30 to 35 percent of the oil that is flowing,” he said.

South Sudan was in crisis even before the pipeline shutdown sent shock waves through its economy, with fears that long-anticipated elections, currently scheduled for December, will be delayed.

In addition to rampant corruption draining its coffers, with the ruling elite routinely accused of plunder, the country is very vulnerable to currency shocks, because it imports nearly everything, including agricultural produce.

The fighting in Sudan between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces since April 2023 has only exacerbated the situation, analysts say.

The conflict has killed tens of thousands of people, forced millions to flee — including over 700,000 to South Sudan — and pushed Sudan to the brink of famine.

Economist and government advisor Abraham Maliet Mamer told AFP that South Sudan, which declared independence from Sudan in 2011, needed to plan ahead to secure its future.

“Our country is suffering. We have less money, we have fewer services, and our security is a problem,” he said, urging the government to build refineries and pipelines through other nations.

“Sudan will never be the same again. Until we develop alternatives… we will be having issues,” he warned.
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Nairobi, Kenya — Some Kenyan church leaders are calling on President William Ruto to dissolve his Cabinet as protests of his administration continue.

Ruto withdrew proposed tax increases that set off the protests, but many Kenyans blame Ruto’s Cabinet for the country’s debt and economic problems.

The National Council of Churches of Kenya, which represents some of the country’s biggest churches and religious organizations, has added its voice to protests, saying Ruto’s administration is marred by bad governance and allegations of corruption.

Council of Churches general secretary, Reverend Chris Kinyanjui called for Ruto to fire his ministers. 

“The president has himself said that his Cabinet is incompetent,” Kinyanjui  said. “Kenyans are saying he has an incompetent Cabinet, and in addition, many members of his Cabinet are also corrupt.”

Ruto’s government recently proposed tax increases to offset the country’s debt. The proposals sparked protests which killed at least 40 people and injured more than 380.

Ruto withdrew the tax hikes after protesters stormed the parliament buildings, forcing legislators to flee.

On Friday, Ruto announced new measures to reduce government expenditures, including merging key ministries and state corporations, banning the purchase of government vehicles for 12 months, and suspending nonessential travel by state and public officers.

Kenyan political commentator Dismas Mokua noted that none of Ruto’s Cabinet members have been convicted on corruption charges and told VOA that Ruto will be reluctant to dismiss them.

“If the courts have not pronounced one guilty of anything, the probability of President Ruto firing somebody from the Cabinet merely on the account of people demanding he should be fired is almost zero,” Mokua said. “But the key consideration here is really the cost of living. If he is able to turn around the economy and ensure the public debt is not a burden on the majority of Kenyans … then people will settle down and they will wait for 2027.” 

Some protesters are also demanding the formation of a new, independent electoral commission.

Mokua said the demands of the Kenyan protests – which have been dubbed Generation Z protests for the age of their organizers — are far reaching.

“The pressure which is going to be applied by Gen Z is not going to be limited to the national government. It will go down to county governments, it will go down to the members of the national assembly and it will go down to churches,” Mokua said.

The secretary-general of Kenya’s ruling United Democratic Alliance, Cleophas Malala, said the party will start a program of government outreach and engagement. 

He said political leaders must not come to the people only when they want their votes. 

Some experts blame the recent protests on a lack of space for Kenyans to air their grievances, and the government’s failure to engage with the public on laws being considered. 

The constitution requires citizens’ input before a law is passed, something that successive Kenyan administrations have made little effort to obtain.   
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Italy is trying a new development-focused approach to preventing migrants from trying to cross the Mediterranean from Africa. For VOA, Henry Wilkins reports from the Italian island of Lampedusa, where residents are welcoming the measure after thousands arrived there in a single week last year.
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Dakar, Senegal — Gambian lawmakers adopted recommendations Monday for the country to maintain its ban on female genital mutilation ahead of a vote later this month on whether to decriminalize the practice.

Female genital mutilation (FGM) has been outlawed in Gambia since 2015, but the deeply rooted cultural practice remains widespread in the West African nation and the first convictions last year fueled a backlash against the law.

After a heated debate Monday, the recommendations contained in a report by the joint health and gender committee passed the full house sitting, with 35 lawmakers voting in favor of adopting the report, 17 against and two abstentions.

A final vote on the bill on whether to decriminalize FGM is currently set for July 24.

If parliament approves it, Gambia would become the first country to reverse a ban on FGM. It passed its second reading in March with only five out of 53 lawmakers voting against it and one abstaining.

After the second reading, the joint committee carried out a national public consultation with religious and traditional leaders, doctors, victims, civil society groups and circumcisers among others.

Its conclusions, presented Monday, described all forms of FGM as a “traumatic form of torture” and “discrimination against women.”

“Repealing the law would be a significant setback for the Gambia,” said Amadou Camara, the lawmaker who read out the report.

The first FGM conviction last August — of three women found guilty of cutting eight infant girls — sparked outrage and prompted independent lawmaker Almaneh Gibba to table the repeal bill in March.

Gibba and his backers, who include influential religious leaders, say the ban violates citizens’ rights to practice their culture and religion in the Muslim-majority country. Many Islamic scholars dispute this argument.

The World Health Organization says FGM has no health benefits and can lead to excessive bleeding, shock, psychological problems and even death.
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Harare, Zimbabwe — After her son, the family’s shining light and only breadwinner, was arrested last year, Tambudzai Tembo went into meltdown. In Zimbabwe, where clinical mental health services are scarce, her chances of getting professional help were next to zero. She contemplated suicide.

“I didn’t want to live anymore. People who saw me would think everything was OK. But inside, my head was spinning,” the 57-year-old said. “I was on my own.”

A wooden bench and an empathetic grandmother saved her.

Older people are at the center of a homegrown form of mental health therapy in Zimbabwe that is now being adopted in places like the United States.

The approach involves setting up benches in quiet, discreet corners of community clinics and in some churches, poor neighborhoods and at a university. An older woman with basic training in problem-solving therapy patiently sits there, ready to listen and engage in a one-on-one conversation.

The therapy is inspired by traditional practice in Zimbabwe in which grandmothers were the go-to people for wisdom in rough times. It had been abandoned with urbanization, the breakdown of tight-knit extended families and modern technology. Now it is proving useful again as mental health needs grow.

“Grandmothers are the custodians of local culture and wisdom. They are rooted in their communities,” said Dixon Chibanda, a psychiatry professor and founder of the initiative.

“They don’t leave, and in addition, they have an amazing ability to use what we call ‘expressed empathy’… to make people feel respected and understood.”

Last year, Chibanda was named the winner of a $150,000 prize by the U.S.-based McNulty Foundation for revolutionizing mental healthcare. Chibanda said the concept has taken root in parts of Vietnam, Botswana, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania and is in “preliminary formative work” in London.

In New York, the city’s new mental health plan launched last year says it is “drawing inspiration” from what it calls the Friendship Bench to help address risk factors such as social isolation. The orange benches are now in areas including Harlem, Brooklyn and the Bronx.

In Washington, the organization HelpAge USA is piloting the concept under the DC Grandparents for Mental Health initiative, which started in 2022 as a COVID-19 support group of people 60 and above.

So far, 20 grandmothers have been trained by a team from Friendship Bench Zimbabwe to listen, empathize and empower others to solve their problems, said Cindy Cox-Roman, the president and chief executive of HelpAge USA.

Benches will be set up at places of worship, schools and wellness centers in Washington’s low-income communities with people who “have been historically marginalized and more likely to experience mental health problems,” she said.

Cox-Roman cited fear and distrust in the medical system, lack of social support and stigma as some of the factors limiting access to treatment.

“People are hurting, and a grandmother can always make you feel better,” she said.

More than one in five U.S. adults live with a mental illness, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

“The mental health crisis is real. Where it’s a real crisis after the pandemic is that many clinicians have dropped out of the workforce,” said Dr. Jehan El-Mayoumi, who works as an expert with HelpAge USA and is a founding director of the health equity Rodham Institute at Georgetown University. She has struggled to get psychiatrists for acutely suicidal patients.

El-Mayoumi said the Zimbabwean concept provides people with “someone you can trust, open up your heart to, that you can tell your deepest secrets [and] that requires trust, so that’s what’s so wonderful about the Friendship Bench.”

The idea was born out of tragedy. Chibanda was a young psychiatrist, and one of just over 10 in Zimbabwe in 2005. One of his patients desperately wanted to see him, but she could not afford the $15 bus fare. Chibanda later learned that she had killed herself.

“I realized that I needed to have a stronger presence in the community,” Chibanda said. “I realized that actually one of the most valuable resources are these grandmothers, the custodians of local culture.”

He recruited 14 grandmothers in the neighborhood near the hospital where he worked in the capital, Harare, and trained them. In Zimbabwe, they get $25 a month to help with transport and phone bills.

The network, which now partners with the health ministry and the World Health Organization, has grown to over 2,000 grandmothers across the country. Over 200,000 Zimbabweans sat on a bench to get therapy from a trained grandmother in 2023, according to the network.

Siridzayi Dzukwa, the grandmother who talked Tembo out of suicide, made a home follow-up visit on a recent day. Using a written questionnaire, she checked on Tembo’s progress. She listened as Tembo talked about how she has found a new lease on life and now sells vegetables to make ends meet.

Dzukwa has become a recognizable figure in the area. People stop to greet and thank her for helping them. Some ask for a home visit or take down her number.

“People are no longer ashamed or afraid of openly stopping us on the streets and ask us to talk,” she said. “Mental health is no longer something to be ashamed of.”
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Islamabad — A court in Kenya said Monday that police acted unlawfully in using lethal force against a Pakistani journalist killed near the capital in October 2022, ordering thousands of dollars in compensation for his widow.

Arshad Sharif, 49, died when Kenyan police opened fire on his car at a roadblock outside Nairobi. Authorities said it was a case of mistaken identity.

On Monday, the court in Kajiado, where Sharif was killed, ruled the use of deadly force against the Pakistani journalist was “arbitrary, un-proportional, illegal and unconstitutional,” and ordered the state to pay over $77,000 to the family.

The payment was suspended for 30 days after the state’s attorney claimed lack of funds.

The court also ordered authorities to conclude their investigation and take action against the police officers involved.

Javeria Siddique, one of Sharif’s two wives, filed the lawsuit in Kenyan court last year on October 23 – exactly one year after her husband’s killing.

Speaking to VOA, Siddique said getting a verdict in this case in Kenya was a “big deal” for her.

“I was not very hopeful. This was a politically motivated murder,” Siddique said. “Of course, implementation will take time. For me, today’s victory will leave a huge mark on press freedom and freedom of expression.”

Sharif, a prominent news anchor, fled Pakistan in August 2022 while facing sedition charges. He had become a vocal critic of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment after former Prime Minister Imran Khan was removed from office in a parliamentary vote of no-confidence in April 2022.

In a letter to Pakistan’s Supreme Court in late 2022, Sharif’s mother Riffat Ara Alvi listed several members of the military’s top brass, including then-army chief Gen. Qamar Javed Bajwa, who she said should be questioned about her son’s killing.

The Pakistani military and its spy agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) have denied playing any role in the killing.

Sharif’s family has been unable to lodge a police report in Pakistan for the crime. Speaking to VOA, Siddique rejected a report Islamabad police filed two years ago against three Pakistani nationals who hosted her late husband in Kenya as bogus.

A Pakistani fact-finding mission which visited Kenya in November 2022 concluded that the father of five was the victim of a targeted killing.

“Arshad Sharif’s death is not a case of mistaken identity – I can say, and on the evidence we have so far, this prima facie is a target killing,” then-Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah told reporters in Islamabad in December 2022. The minister said the journalist’s body had bruises and signs of torture.

In a statement marking the first anniversary of Sharif’s killing last year, journalists’ advocacy group Reporters without Borders accused authorities in Pakistan and Kenya of duplicity.

“Kenya is protecting its police officers and Pakistan is deliberately steering clear of the possibility that its security services were involved,” the watchdog’s head of investigation Arnaud Froger said in an online statement.

The country’s top court began scrutinizing the Pakistani government’s investigation in December 2022. Siddique told VOA she has been waiting for nearly a year for the court to set a date for a hearing.
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Beni, DRC — A military court in the volatile east of DR Congo sentenced 22 soldiers to death on Monday for “fleeing the enemy” during fighting with M23 rebels, a lawyer told AFP.

Sixteen soldiers were handed death sentences in one case in the North Kivu province, and six others in a separate case, coming just days after 25 soldiers received a similar judgment.

The latest sentences come as M23 rebels, which Kinshasha accuses Rwanda of backing, last week seized new terrain on the northern front of the conflict that has been ongoing for two-and-a-half years in the North Kivu province.

A military court condemned 16 people in one case in the court in North Kivu.

The prosecution had asked on Saturday that 22 people in the case be condemned to death.

But the court on Monday instead handed down 10-year prison sentences to three defendants and acquitted three other people.

In a separate case examined and judged on Monday in North Kivu six of the seven defendants were sentenced to death and one person was acquitted, lawyer Jules Muvweko told AFP.

Last Wednesday, a court sentenced 25 soldiers to death during a one day trial for also “fleeing the enemy,” lawyers said.

Since the end of 2021, the M23 rebels have conquered vast swathes of territory in the province, nearly completely encircling the provincial capital of Goma.
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Niamey, Niger — U.S. troops have completed a withdrawal from their base in Niger’s capital of Niamey and will fully depart from Agadez in the north before a Sept. 15 deadline set by the country’s military rulers, both countries said Sunday.

Niger’s military leaders scrapped a military cooperation deal with Washington in March, after seizing power in a July 2023 coup.

The United States had around 650 soldiers in Niger as part of anti-jihadist missions in several Sahel nations of West Africa, including a major drone base near Agadez.

“The defense ministry of Niger and the U.S. Defense Department announce that the withdrawal of American forces and equipment from the Niamey base 101 is now completed,” the two countries said in a statement.

A final flight carrying U.S. troops was due to leave Niamey late Sunday.

The U.S. presence had stood at around 950 troops, and 766 soldiers have left Niger since the military ordered their departure, AFP learned at a ceremony at the base attended by Niger’s army chief of staff Maman Sani Kiaou and US General Kenneth Ekman.

“American forces are now going to focus on quitting airbase 201 in Agadez,” the statement said, insisting that the withdrawal would be completed by September 15 as planned.

Niger had already ordered the withdrawal of troops from France, the former colonial power and traditional security ally, and has strengthened ties with Russia which has provided instructors and equipment.

On Saturday, Germany’s defense ministry also said it would end operations at its airbase in Niger by August 31 following the breakdown of talks with military leaders.

A similar shift has taken place in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso, which are also ruled by military leaders and faced with violence from jihadist groups.
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Nairobi, Kenya — Hundreds of Kenyans gathered Sunday in the capital Nairobi for a memorial concert following deadly protests over tax hikes that saw the country’s leader scrap a controversial finance bill.

The initially peaceful rallies mostly led by Gen-Z spiraled into violence that left 39 people dead, rights groups have said, and saw President William Ruto reject the bill containing the hikes and promise spending cuts.

On Sunday people streamed into Nairobi’s central Uhuru Park from around midday to listen to performers and commemorate those who had died.

Victor Waithaka, 29, told AFP he was attending to pay tribute to the “heroes who died during the protests on the rejected finance bill.”

“This is our country, and we have the right to fight for our rights,” he said.

Large crowds shouted, “Ruto must go,” echoing demands made by protesters in previous weeks, and waved Kenyan flags as they danced to a medley of singers and performers.

“The fight has just begun, the political awakening [is] just the beginning,” prominent demonstrator Hanifa Adan told AFP on the concert’s sidelines.

Early Sunday morning some roads in the city were blocked by police officers.

The concert fell on so-called “Saba Saba” (Seven Seven) — the seventh day of the seventh month, marking the moment in 1990 that the opposition rose up to demand the return of multi-party democracy — and a day when demonstrations have previously taken place.

It follows Ruto’s decision Friday to announce budget cuts and increased borrowing, to cover the projected shortfall from scrapping the finance bill.

Following his speech, the president also took part in a sometimes-fiery exchange of views on social media platform X, in a wide-ranging conversation with younger Kenyans on social media.
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In Ouagadougou, the capital of Burkina Faso, an Italian expatriate runs a rather unique business for a foreigner, selling grilled pork, a highly appreciated dish. Gildas Da has the story narrated by Arzouma Kampaore.
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A young Frenchman who settled in Senegal a little over a year ago decided to master the local Wolof language. Now he’s teaching it to other people on social media. Allison Fernandes has the story, narrated by Michelle Joseph.
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ABUJA — A West African leaders’ summit opened amid political turmoil Sunday after the military rulers of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso cemented a breakaway union at a rival meeting. 

The three countries announced they were forming a new confederation, and their defiant first gathering on the eve of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) summit marked another test for the regional bloc they split from earlier this year. 

ECOWAS is already wrestling with sweeping jihadi violence, financial trouble and the challenges of mustering a regional force. 

It was not clear how the fractured bloc would respond after Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso adopted a treaty establishing a “Confederation of Sahel States” in Niamey on Saturday. 

But ECOWAS Commission chief Omar Alieu Touray said the three countries risked “political isolation” and losing millions of dollars in investments. 

The break would also worsen insecurity and hamper the work of the long-proposed regional force, he said before the bloc began a closed-door session in Nigeria’s capital Abuja. 

“Our region is facing the risk of disintegration,” he warned. 

Backs turned 

The juntas in Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso came to power in a series of coups over recent years and announced their joint departure from ECOWAS in January. 

They have shifted away from former colonial ruler France and expelled French troops, with Niger’s General Abdourahamane Tiani calling for the establishment of a “community far removed from the stranglehold of foreign powers.” 

“Our people have irrevocably turned their backs on ECOWAS,” Tiani said Saturday, rebuffing the bloc’s pleas to come back into the fold. 

The Sahel countries’ ECOWAS exit was fueled in part by their accusation that Paris was manipulating the bloc and not providing enough support for anti-jihadi efforts.  

Several West African leaders have called for the resumption of dialogue and Sunday’s summit was the first for Senegal’s new President Bassirou Diomaye Faye, who said in May that reconciliation was possible.  

Niger’s ties with ECOWAS deteriorated following the July 2023 coup that brought Tiani to power, when the bloc imposed sanctions and threatened to intervene militarily to restore ousted President Mohamed Bazoum.  

The sanctions were lifted in February, but relations remain bitter. 

Military force 

Ahead of the ECOWAS summit, defense and finance ministers have been looking into funding a “regional force to combat terrorism and restore constitutional order,” according to the ECOWAS Commission. 

It has called for the establishment of an initial 1,500-strong unit, and one proposal was to then muster a brigade of 5,000 soldiers at a cost of around $2.6 billion a year. 

ECOWAS has launched military interventions in the past, but its threat of doing so after the coup in Niger fizzled out.  

As the bloc grapples with regional challenges, Touray warned it was facing a “dire financial situation.” 

There were also reports of a rift over the possible reappointment of Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as ECOWAS chair. 

Media adviser to the Nigerian president Bayo Onanuga told AFP that “while some countries want him to remain because the region has faced some crisis, the Francophone countries want the seat.” 

Several French-speaking countries sent their foreign ministers to Sunday’s summit instead of their leaders. 

Benin’s foreign minister told AFP that President Patrice Talon would not be attending “for scheduling reasons” and denied a dispute, saying that Talon support Tinubu’s reappointment. 
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MACHAKOS, Kenya — With dismay, Martha Waema and her husband surveyed their farm that was submerged by weeks of relentless rainfall across Kenya. Water levels would rise to shoulder height after only a night of heavy downpour.

The couple had expected a return of $1,500 from their three acres after investing $613 in corn, peas, cabbages, tomatoes and kale. But their hopes have been uprooted and destroyed.

“I have been farming for 38 years, but I have never encountered losses of this magnitude,” said the 62-year-old mother of 10.

Their financial security and optimism have been shaken by what Kenya’s government has called “a clear manifestation of the erratic weather patterns caused by climate change.”

The rains that started in mid-March have posed immediate dangers and left others to come. They have killed nearly 300 people, left dams at historically high levels and led the government to order residents to evacuate flood-prone areas — and bulldoze the homes of those who don’t.

Now a food security crisis lies ahead, along with even higher prices in a country whose president had sought to make agriculture an even greater engine of the economy.

Kenya’s government says the flooding has destroyed crops on more than 67,987 hectares of land, or less than 1% of Kenya’s agricultural land.

As farmers count their losses — a total yet unknown — the deluge has exposed what opposition politicians call Kenya’s ill preparedness for climate change and related disasters and the need for sustainable land management and better weather forecasting.

Waema now digs trenches in an effort to protect what’s left of the farm on a plain in the farthest outskirts of the capital, Nairobi, in Machakos County.

Not everyone is grieving, including farmers who prepared for climate shocks.

About 200 kilometers west of Waema’s farm, 65-year-old farmer James Tobiko Tipis and his 6½-hectare farm have escaped the flooding in Olokirikirai. He said he had been proactive in the area that’s prone to landslides by terracing crops.

“We used to lose topsoil and whatever we were planting,” he said.

Experts said more Kenyan farmers must protect their farms against soil erosion that likely will be worsened by further climate shocks.

Jane Kirui, an agricultural officer in Narok County, emphasized the importance of terracing and other measures such as cover crops that will allow water to be absorbed.

In Kenya’s rural areas, experts say efforts to conserve water resources remain inadequate despite the current plentiful rainfall.

At Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology, professor John Gathenya recommended practices such as diversifying crops and emphasizing the soil’s natural water retention capacity.

“The soil remains the biggest reservoir for water,” he said, asserting that using it wisely requires much less of an investment than large infrastructure projects such as dams. But soil needs to be protected with practices that include limiting the deforestation that has exposed parts of Kenyan land to severe runoff.

“We are opening land in new fragile environments where we need to be even more careful the way we farm,” Gathenya said. “In our pursuit for more and more food, we are pressing into the more fragile areas but not with the same intensity of soil conservation that we had 50 years back.”
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CAPE TOWN, South Africa — Scientists in South Africa have been stunned to discover that termite mounds that are still inhabited in an arid region of the country are more than 30,000 years old, meaning they are the oldest known active termite hills.

Some of the mounds near the Buffels River in Namaqualand were estimated by radiocarbon dating to be 34,000 years old, according to the researchers from Stellenbosch University.

“We knew they were old, but not that old,” said Michele Francis, senior lecturer in the university’s department of soil science who led the study. Her paper was published in May.

Francis said the mounds existed while saber-toothed cats and woolly mammoths roamed other parts of the Earth and large swathes of Europe and Asia were covered in ice. They predate some of the earliest cave paintings in Europe.

Some fossilized termite mounds have been discovered dating back millions of years. The oldest inhabited mounds before this study were found in Brazil and are around 4,000 years old. They are visible from space.

Francis said the Namaqualand mounds are a termite version of an “apartment complex” and the evidence shows they have been consistently inhabited by termite colonies.

Termite mounds are a famous feature of the Namaqualand landscape, but no one suspected their age until samples of them were taken to experts in Hungary for radiocarbon dating.

“People don’t know that these are special, ancient landscapes that are preserved there,” Francis said.

Some of the biggest mounds — known locally as “heuweltjies,” which means little hills in the Afrikaans language — measure around 30 meters across. The termite nests are as deep as 3 meters underground.

Researchers needed to carefully excavate parts of the mounds to take samples, and the termites went into “emergency mode” and started filling in the holes, Francis said.

The team fully reconstructed the mounds to keep the termites safe from predators like aardvarks.

Francis said the project was more than just a fascinating look at ancient structures. It also offered a peek into a prehistoric climate that showed Namaqualand was a much wetter place when the mounds were formed.

The southern harvester termites are experts at capturing and storing carbon by collecting twigs and other dead wood and putting it back deep into the soil. That has benefits in offsetting climate change by reducing the amount of carbon emitted into the atmosphere.

It’s also good for the soil. Masses of wildflowers bloom on top of the termite mounds in a region that receives little rain.

Francis called for more research on termite mounds given the lessons they offer on climate change, sustaining ecosystems and maybe even for improving agricultural practices.

“We will do well to study what the termites have done in the mounds. They were thought to be very boring,” she said.
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PAARL, South Africa — Freya, a 6-month-old lion cub rescued from the wildlife trade in Lebanon, poked a curious nose out of her transport crate and sniffed the air. Satisfied, she took her first cautious steps in her new forever home in a sanctuary in South Africa.

Freya’s relocation to the Drakenstein Lion Park is only a partial success story.

She will never live as a lion should in the wild. She has been given lifetime sanctuary at Drakenstein, which has taken in other lions from zoos and circuses in France, Chile, Romania and elsewhere. Some have terrible backstories of abuse, noted on placards at the sanctuary: Ares was blind and neglected when he was rescued. Brutus had been beaten hard enough to break his jaw.

But as Freya settles in at Drakenstein, animal welfare groups have again drawn attention to South Africa’s contradictory position when it comes to the species that often symbolizes African wildlife.

South Africa, with an admirable reputation for conservation and ethical sanctuaries like Drakenstein, also has a thriving captive lion business where the big cats are bred for petting and other encounters but also for killing in “canned hunting” experiences or for the lion bone trade.

South Africa has special permission through the endangered plant and animal trade treaty CITES to export lion bones and skeletons, mostly to Southeast Asia to be used in traditional medicines. Canned hunting, where lions are chased down and shot in enclosures with no chance of a fair chase or escape, is also legal.

Animal welfare groups have pushed for the business of breeding lions in captivity to end. The South African government announced recently it plans to close down the industry and it’s expected to take two to three years if there are no legal challenges.

It has been a stain on South Africa’s conservation brand, said Audrey Delsink, the Africa wildlife director for Humane Society International, which was involved in Freya’s relocation. She said it was important for people to realize that the cute cubs used for petting encounters at some South African parks — but not at Drakenstein — end up being big lions shipped off to be killed.

“They’ve been pulled from their mothers, they’ve been hand-raised for you to take selfies with and enjoy them, and then eventually the same lions are going to be shot for trophies in a camp from which they cannot escape, and then end up as a bag of bones,” Delsink said.

There are more than 300 captive lion facilities in South Africa, with more than 7,000 lions. That is double the number of lions in the South African wild. Campaigners against the business say it should be made more clear to visitors that the vast majority of South Africa’s lions live in cages in the world’s largest captive lion industry.

“We cannot pull the wool over tourists’ eyes anymore,” Delsink said.

As for Freya, her rescuers hope that she will eventually bond and live in the same enclosure as young male cub Pi, who they believe is her brother and was brought from Lebanon in April.

Pi was illegally trafficked and owned by a man who used him to promote his TikTok account, said Jason Mier, director of Animals Lebanon, which rescued Pi and Freya. Pi often had his mouth taped shut when used for videos or selfies and was locked in a small cage at night. He was kept as a status symbol for his owner “to be able to show off I’m powerful, I have money, look at me,” Mier said.

Freya and Pi are the latest of nearly two dozen big cats rescued from various situations by Animals Lebanon. Some have come to Drakenstein, which doesn’t allow cub petting or any close encounters, but does welcome visitors to see the lions and learn about them.

Freya and Pi wouldn’t survive if released in the wild, so the sanctuary is the best option for them. Those involved in Pi’s rescue said they remember watching the cub experience grass under his paws for the first time at Drakenstein, even if it was in the enclosure he and Freya will likely inhabit for the rest of their lives.
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cairo — Rival Sudanese political factions formally attended reconciliation talks in Cairo on Saturday — the first since a conflict in the country began almost 15 months ago — but admitted there was little prospect of quickly ending the war. 

During the conference, the Democratic Bloc, which is aligned with the army, refused to hold joint sessions with the Taqaddum faction, which it accuses of sympathizing with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Neither the army nor the RSF attended. 

The war in Sudan erupted in April 2023 and has forced almost 10 million people from their homes, sparked warnings of famine and waves of ethnically driven violence blamed largely on the RSF. 

The force this week swept through the state of Sennar, causing new displacement. In response, army head General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said the army would not negotiate with the RSF or its supporters. 

“The stark deterioration in the humanitarian situation and the catastrophic consequences of this crisis call on all of us to work to immediately and sustainably to stop military operations,” said newly-appointed Egyptian foreign minister Badr Abdelatty. 

Talks in Jeddah between the army and RSF that were sponsored by the United States and Saudi Arabia broke down at the end of last year. 

Taqaddum is a coalition of pro-democracy parties, armed groups, and civil society that has called for an end to the war. The army-aligned Democratic Bloc includes several armed group leaders participating in the fighting. 

While Egypt was able to wield its influence to assemble the group, the main attendees were seated at opposite sides of the hall at the conference’s opening. The two political factions agreed only to form a small subcommittee to come up with a final communique expected late Saturday. 

“We told them not to have high ambitions from this meeting,” said finance minister and Democratic Bloc leader Jibril Ibrahim to Reuters. 

“Given the situation on the ground, if we sit and eat and drink and laugh — with the people who are allied and partners in the crimes that are happening — we would be sending the wrong message to our citizens and to our soldiers on the field,” he said. 

He added that an end to the war was not realistic without the withdrawal of the RSF from civilian areas, in line with an agreement signed in Jeddah last year, and the end of material support to the RSF by the United Arab Emirates. U.N. experts have said that accusations of such support are credible though the UAE has denied them. 

Former Prime Minister and Taqaddum head Abdalla Hamdok rejected accusations that the coalition was linked to the RSF, saying he awaited the army’s agreement to meet. 

“A crisis this complicated and deep is not expected to end in one meeting… The lesson is for us to be patient and to build on anything positive that comes out of it,” he told Reuters, echoing sentiments from diplomats at the meeting. 

U.S. Special Envoy Tom Perriello said he hoped momentum from Saturday’s talks would carry on to another meeting called by the African Union next week, another of several initiatives. 
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MAIDUGURI, Nigeria — For the first time since 2020, three female suicide bombers attacked the Nigerian border town of Gwoza, where Boko Haram extremists declared a short-lived caliphate 10 years ago, signaling that the world’s longest war on militancy is still ongoing. 

This came two days after officials touted success in their war against extremists, with Nigerian military spokesperson Major General Edward Buba telling reporters the often-used phrase: “We have greatly degraded the terrorists.” 

The first of the three coordinated suicide bombings on June 30 targeted a well-attended wedding, the second was detonated at the victims’ funeral, and the third at a hospital attending to the injured. 

At least 32 people were killed in the attacks, including nine family members and friends of Mohammed Kehaya, a resident who is now worried about his safety in the state of Borno, a hotbed of Islamic militancy, where extremists once kidnapped hundreds of schoolgirls in 2014. 

No group has claimed responsibility for the bombings, but blame quickly fell on Boko Haram, which since 2009 has launched an insurgency to establish its radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in northeastern Nigeria. They have since splintered into different factions, together accounting for the direct deaths of at least 35,000 people and the displacement of more than 2 million amid a humanitarian crisis with people in dire need of foreign aid since 2009. 

Nigerian authorities maintained that the attacks were not a setback. 

Nigerian Defense Chief General Chris Musa said the bombings were rather “a sign of desperation” and described them as a one-off by the militants. 

“Some individuals would do everything possible for us not to succeed,” he said. 

However, several security analysts and locals interviewed about the bombings echoed concerns that the attacks must have taken a lot of planning and coordination and portend danger in Borno, where some villages lack a security presence. 

One of the extremists’ goals could be to distort the narrative that the security situation in the region has normalized, said Vincent Foucher, consulting senior analyst for West Africa at the International Crisis Group. 

“It’s a way to show the war goes on,” Foucher said. 

In Borno, the three bombings sent shock waves across families and left many wondering whether they should pack what was left of their belongings and flee once again. 

“Parents have been calling in to ask if their kids would be safe going back to school,” said Yusuf Ibn Tom, a public school teacher in Maiduguri. “Everyone here is scared.” 

At the height of the insurgency in 2014, Boko Haram was considered the world’s deadliest terrorist group, killing at least 6,000 people that year alone, according to the Institute for Economics and Peace’s Global Terrorism Index. A lot has changed since then, making the extremists far less lethal. 

The military has pushed them further into the fringes of the Lake Chad axis, and the 2021 death of the group’s founding leader, Abubakar Shekau, demoralized some members and made suicide bombing less popular. Clashes between Shekau’s faction and the one linked to the Islamic State group have made the extremists turn against themselves, sometimes shifting the focus of attacks from the military and civilians and even contributing to the defection of thousands who are undergoing a reintegration program. 

But what has not changed over the years is the “operational prowess” of the extremists, said Cameron Hudson, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. 

Attacks like the latest one “are rarely one-off incidents and are often part of a wider series,” Hudson said. He did not rule out future attacks. “That will give a better indication of the relative strength of the insurgency today as well as the Nigerian military’s ability to respond,” he added. 
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Niamey, Niger — The military regimes of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso marked their divorce from the rest of West Africa Saturday as they signed a treaty setting up a confederation between them. 

The first summit of the three countries, who all pulled out of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) this year, also saw calls for greater cooperation across a wide range of sectors. 

“Our people have irrevocably turned their backs on ECOWAS,” Niger’s ruling General Abdourahamane Tiani told his fellow Sahel strongmen at the gathering’s opening in the Nigerien capital, Niamey. 

The three leaders, who took power through coups in recent years, “decided to take a step further towards greater integration” and “adopted a treaty establishing a confederation,” they said in a statement issued at the end of the summit.  

The Confederation of Sahel States, which will use the acronym AES and be headed by Mali in its first year, totals about 72 million people.   

Shift away from France 

Their ECOWAS exits were fueled in part by accusations that Paris was manipulating the bloc and not providing enough support for anti-jihadist efforts.  

“The AES is the only effective sub-regional grouping in the fight against terrorism,” Tiani declared on Saturday, calling ECOWAS “conspicuous by its lack of involvement in this fight.” 

The exit came as the trio shifted away from former colonial ruler France, with Tiani calling for the new bloc to become a “community far removed from the stranglehold of foreign powers.” 

All three have expelled anti-jihadi French troops and turned instead toward what they call their “sincere partners” — Russia, Turkey and Iran. 

In early March, the AES announced joint anti-jihad efforts, though they did not specify details. 

Insurgents linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have carried out attacks for years in the vast three borders region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, despite the massive deployment of anti-jihad forces. 

ECOWAS is to hold a summit of its heads of state in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, on Sunday, where the issue of relations with the AES will be on the agenda. 

Relations between ECOWAS deteriorated following a July 2023 coup that brought Tiani to power. The bloc imposed sanctions and even threatened to intervene militarily to restore the ousted president, Mohamed Bazoum.  

The sanctions were lifted in February but relations between the two sides remain frosty.  

United front 

After several bilateral meetings, this is the first meeting of all three Sahelian strongmen since coming to power through coups between 2020 and 2023. 

Niger’s Tiani first welcomed his Burkinabe counterpart Ibrahim Traore in the capital on Friday, followed by Malian Colonel Assimi Goita who arrived Saturday. 

“The aim is to show that this is a serious project with three committed heads of state showing their solidarity,” said Gilles Yabi, founder of the West African think tank Wathi. 

The trio have made sovereignty a guiding principle of their governance and aim to create a common currency.  

ECOWAS summit 

Sunday’s summit comes as several West African presidents have called in recent weeks for a solution to resume dialogue between the two camps. 

Notably, Senegal’s new President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said in late May that reconciliation between ECOWAS and the three Sahel countries was possible. 

In June, his newly reelected Mauritanian counterpart, President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, called on West African countries to unite again against the expansion of jihadism. 

But the successive summits on the same weekend raise fears of a stiffening of positions between the AES and ECOWAS. 

Beyond military cooperation, the leaders Saturday also talked about “mutualizing” their approach to strategic sectors such as agriculture, water, energy and transport. 

They also asked that indigenous languages be given greater prominence in local media.   

The question of creating a common currency to replace the CFA franc was not mentioned in the final communique. 
…

Niamey, Niger — A divided West Africa hosts two presidential summits this weekend — one in Niger between Sahel region military regime leaders, followed by another in Nigeria on Sunday with leaders of a wider economic bloc.

Saturday’s summit in Niger’s capital, Niamey, will mark the first between the military leaders of a new regional bloc, the Alliance of Sahel States (AES).

Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger set up the mutual defense pact in September, leaving the wider Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc in January.

Their ECOWAS exit was fueled in part by their accusation that Paris was manipulating the bloc and not providing enough support for anti-jihadist efforts.

The exit came as the trio shifted away from former colonial ruler France, expelling anti-jihadist French troops, and turned towards what they call their “sincere partners” — Russia, Turkey and Iran.

Given the deadly jihadist violence the three countries face, “the fight against terrorism” and the “consolidation of cooperation” will be on Saturday’s agenda, according to the Burkinabe presidency.

Sunday’s summit in the Nigerian capital Abuja then offers heads of ECOWAS states the opportunity to discuss relations with the AES.

Saturday’s summit

After several bilateral meetings, the three Sahelian strongmen are gathering for the first time since coming to power through coups between 2020 and 2023.

In mid-May, the foreign ministers of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger agreed in Niamey on a draft text creating the confederation, which the heads of states are expected to adopt at Saturday’s summit.

Niger’s General Abdourahamane Tiani welcomed his Burkinabe counterpart Ibrahim Traore in the capital Friday, while Malian Colonel Assimi Goita will arrive Saturday morning.

“Don’t expect many announcements, this is primarily a political event,” said Gilles Yabi, founder of the West African think tank Wathi.

“The aim is to show that this is a serious project with three committed heads of state showing their solidarity.”

In early March, AES announced joint anti-jihadist efforts, though they did not specify details.

Insurgents have carried out attacks for years in the vast “three borders” region between Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, despite the massive deployment of anti-jihadist forces.

The trio have made sovereignty a guiding principle of their governance and aim to create a common currency.

‘Path of no return’

Sunday’s summit comes as several West African presidents have called in recent weeks for a solution to resume dialogue between the two camps.

Notably, Senegal’s new President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said in late May that reconciliation between ECOWAS and the three Sahel countries was possible.

In June, his newly reelected Mauritanian counterpart, President Mohamed Ould Cheikh El Ghazouani, called on West African countries to unite again against the expansion of jihadism.

But successive summits on the same weekend raises fears of a stiffening of positions between AES and ECOWAS.

“I do not see the AES countries seeking to return to ECOWAS. I think it’s ECOWAS will have to tone it down (the situation),” Nigerien lawyer Djibril Abarchi told AFP.

While AES is currently an economic and defense cooperation body, its three member countries have repeatedly expressed their desire to go further.

At the end of June, Colonel Goita assured that cooperation within the AES had taken “a path of no return” during a visit to Ouagadougou, Burkina’s capital.

The potential creation of a new common currency would also mean leaving behind the CFA franc they currently share with neighboring countries.

“Leaving a currency zone is not easy,” warned Yabi. “Any country can change its currency, but it takes a lot of time and requires a clear political choice as well as a technical and financial preparation process.”

Issoufou Kado, a Nigerien financial expert and political analyst, agreed: “They have to be very careful, because the mechanism takes time.”
…

IBADAN, Nigeria — Dimly lit and stuffy classrooms stir with life every morning as children file in. Rays of sunlight stream through wooden windows, the only source of light. Pupils squint at their books and intermittently the blackboard as teachers try to hold their attention.

It’s a reality for many schoolchildren across Nigeria, where many buildings don’t have access to the national electricity grid. In Excellent Moral School in Olodo Okin in Ibadan, “the entire community is not connected, including the school,” said school founder Muyideen Raji. It acutely affects pupils, he said, who can’t learn how to use computers or the internet and can’t study in the evenings.

About half of Nigeria’s more than 200 million people are hooked up to a national electricity grid that can’t provide sufficient daily electricity to most of those connected. Many poor, rural communities like Olodo Okin are off the grid entirely.

In a country with abundant sunshine, many are looking to solar energy to help fill the gaps, but getting risk-averse investors to finance major solar projects that would give Nigeria enough reliable energy is an uphill struggle. It means that millions in the country are finding ways to live with little to no electricity.

Lots of sun, few funds

Studies have shown that Nigeria could generate much more electricity than it needs from solar energy thanks to its powerful sunshine. But 14 grid-scale solar projects in the northern and central parts of the country that could generate 1,125 megawatts of electricity have stalled since contracts were signed in 2016.

Those trying to develop solar projects in the country blame interest rates for borrowing which can be as high as 15 percent, two to three times higher than in advanced economies and China, according to the International Energy Agency.

That means it’s more costly for solar companies to work in Nigeria or other developing nations than in rich countries. Africa only has one-fifth the solar power capacity of Germany, and just 2% of global clean energy investments go to the continent.

“The same project put up in Nigeria and Denmark; the Danish project will get funding for 2 to 3 percent” interest rate, said Najim Animashaun, director of Nova Power, one of the stalled solar projects. Meanwhile he struggles to get loans even with interest rates of 10 percent or higher, “even though my solar project can produce two and half times more power,” than a Danish one.

Nigeria also does not set so-called cost-reflective tariffs, meaning the price consumers pay for electricity doesn’t cover the costs to produce and distribute it. This means distribution companies can’t fully pay producers and the industry relies on government interventions to stay afloat, scaring off lenders from investing in the solar industry.

Currently, power producers say they are owed up to 3.7 trillion Naira ($2.7 billion) by the government, making it difficult to meet obligations to their lenders and contractors.

One option would be getting World Bank guarantees that would put investors at ease and make them more willing to put money into solar projects. But the government is wary of signing up to anything that would force them to pay large sums even if electricity from the projects does not get to consumers because of inadequate transmission and distribution infrastructure.

Without World Bank guarantees “nobody will develop or finance a project with a government subsidy, because it can dry off,” said Edu Okeke, the managing director of Azura Power. Azura Power has a stake in the now-stalled 100 megawatt Nova solar project in Nigeria’s northern Katsina State.

Stop-gap solutions

With less than 8,000 megawatts of capacity and an average supply of less than 4,000 megawatts — less than half of what Singapore supplies to just 5.6 million people — power outages are an everyday occurrence in Nigeria.

Communities like Excellent Moral School’s in Ibadan that have no access to electricity are often surrounded by more fortunate ones that are connected to the grid but experience frequent outages and have to use gasoline and diesel-run private generators.

With the long-running petroleum subsidies now removed, many households, schools, hospitals and businesses struggle with the cost of the fuel for their backup generators.

“We have stopped using a diesel generator as an alternative due to costs,” said Abdulhakeem Adedoja, the head of Lorat Nursery and Primary School in Ibadan. He added that although the school is in an Ibadan area that is connected to the grid, they could go two weeks without a power supply.

The problem is not just the lack of electricity for computer-aided learning, proper lighting, and fans to make classes less stuffy for pupils and teachers, but also that students are unable to complete their school assignments at home, Adedoja said.

For more energy-hungry small businesses like restaurants, they either close shop or continue with alternative power generation, incurring high costs that hurt their capacity for expansion.

Ebunola Akinwale, the owner of Nature’s Treat Cafe in Ibadan, said she pays 2.5 million Naira ($1,700) monthly to power backup generators in her four branches.

“If nothing changes, I probably would have to close one or two branches,” she said, though she is planning to go solar which she enthuses will help us cut “pollution from the diesel (generators).” She’s in talks with her bank for a low-cost loan package specially designed for young women entrepreneurs to finance the solar alternative.

However, not every business and household has such access or can afford the upfront capital for a private solar system. School heads Raji and Adedoja said they find the costs prohibitive.

Finding a way forward

The stalled solar projects aren’t happening as finances don’t add up, but even for other sources of electricity generation, Nigeria struggles to attract desperately needed private financing.

The power minister, Adebayo Adelabu, said in May that in order to address the financial crisis affecting the electricity sector, prices must reflect the true costs of service because a broke “government cannot afford to pay 3 trillion Naira ($2.4 billion) in subsidy.”

The government also insists that Nigerians paying fully for the electricity they consume would encourage investments in the sector.

There has been some pushback to that, as labor unions went on strike in early June in part to protest electricity tariff increases.

But businesspeople like Akinwale understand the government’s position because regularly supplied grid electricity, even without a subsidy, is “still cheaper and cleaner” than diesel for generators, she said.

If finances for grid-scale solar projects do not add up, the government should offer incentives such as tax relief and payment plans to encourage private solar adoption, Akinwale said. “Sunlight is there abundantly,” she said.

Former regulatory chief Sam Amadi doubts if consumers in Nigeria — where the minimum wage is 30,000 Naira ($20) a month — “can today pay for energy consumed without subsidy.” He also wants a policy that makes it more affordable to have smaller-scale solar projects dotted across communities, businesses and homes.

Until then, there are consequences to the frequent blackouts, he said.

“I have the story of a person who died in hospital because the electricity went out during operation,” he said. “Every day, we see the real-world effects of the lack of electricity.”
…

…

Abuja, Nigeria — Human rights group Amnesty International raised concerns Friday about the Nigerian government’s hiring of two firms with past dealings with Shell to assess the proposed $2.4 billion sale of the company’s onshore assets in the Niger Delta.

Amnesty said the choice cast doubt on the independence and transparency of the process and called again for accountability in the proposed sale.

Amnesty described the hiring of the Boston Consulting Group, or BCG, and S&P Global by the Nigerian oil regulator as “concerning,” saying the firms are in business with Shell.

Amnesty said S&P Global plays a role in rating Shell’s debt and credit worthiness, while BCG performs a variety of services for Shell.

Amnesty’s Isa Sanusi said that BCG and S&P could be influenced by their commercial interests and that they may become lenient in their review of problems caused by Shell’s activities.

“I don’t think that it is possible for these companies to be independent,” Sanusi said. “In fact, the whole exercise of assessing Shell’s plan has now been jeopardized by this conflict of interest. There’s no way a company working for Shell can be hired to examine the books of Shell. I don’t think that is right.”

In January, Shell announced plans to sell its onshore properties to a local consortium of five companies for $2.4 billion. Shell said the move would enable it to focus on more-profitable offshore business as it plans to transition away from fossil fuels.

But the proposed sale has sparked concern among environmental and human rights activists calling on authorities to delay the deal until a review of Shell’s activities and assets in the region is done.

The groups say years of exploration by Shell have caused massive environmental damage and a loss of livelihoods for residents.

Energy expert Emmanuel Afimia agreed with Amnesty International, saying, “The consultants have existing relationships with Shell. This might compromise the consultants’ ability to conduct an impartial review.

“We need to understand that the independence of these consultants is crucial to ensure a fair assessment, and their ties to Shell could undermine trust in the process,” she said.

Nigerian law mandates Shell provide money for cleanup and decommissioning of its assets before exiting.

But Shell, like other foreign energy firms, has often blamed sabotage and theft for oil spills. Earlier this year, the company released on its website a list of eight cleanup operations it planned to carry out — all for spills of less than 100 barrels of oil.

Amnesty said that unless the right thing is done, enormous human rights risks are at stake.

“There must be an examination of all the environmental liabilities, community liabilities and human rights liabilities,” Sanusi said. “Shell has to pay for it before going ahead to sell its assets in the region. It is about human life, and that should be the priority of Nigerian authorities.”

In March, the Netherlands-based nonprofit Center for Research on Multinational Corporations accused Shell of trying to avoid responsibility for oil spills and warned that if allowed, it could set a negative example for other foreign firms seeking to leave the Niger Delta.
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