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Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green selects top news and analysis from and about the African continent.
Ethiopian lawmakers voted this week to sever ties with the leaders of the northern Tigray region, in a move that a Tigray official called “tantamount to a declaration of war.” The decision by the upper house of Ethiopia’s national parliament, the Federation House, is the harshest in a series of tit-for-tat provocations between Tigray leaders and federal officials and puts Tigray at risk of losing up to $ 281 million. in the federal budget. grants.
Tensions between the two sides emerged early in Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration. Tigray’s leaders were irritated by his loss of economic and political influence after he took office in 2018, accusing his administration of unjustly targeting Tigrayans in corruption cases. The regional ruling party, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, also opposed Abiy’s move last year to merge the four members of the ruling coalition into a single pan-Ethiopian party, preferring to maintain the federal structure that had been in place. in force since 1991. Local leaders then challenged their authority by moving forward with a regional vote last month despite the federal government’s decision to delay all elections due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The TPLF won a decisive victory in that election, even as Abiy joined MPs in dismissing the vote as illegal. Tigrayan leaders, in turn, accused Abiy of illegitimately extending his mandate and said they would no longer follow federal directives. The Federation Chamber retaliated with Wednesday’s vote demanding that the Abiy government cut funding for the region.
It is not yet clear exactly how much money Tigray will lose, as federal MPs have pledged to continue working with local administrators to provide basic services. However, the vote has sparked talks about regional secession and possible violence.
Abiy may still have a chance to defuse the situation. Even when he denounced the regional vote last month, the prime minister promised that there would be no extreme retaliatory measures such as military intervention or funding cuts. It is unclear whether Abiy, who has yet to respond to the House of Federation move, will take any action to fulfill his promise and reverse it.
Stay up to date on the news from Africa with our selected Africa news cable daily.
Here is a summary of news from other parts of the continent:
east africa
South Sudan: The floods that have been occurring since July have forced more than 368,000 people from their homes, according to UN officials, and have left humanitarian agencies scrambling to provide food, shelter and medical care. But a surge in localized violence, which Sam Mednick wrote about in a WPR briefing in September, threatens to disrupt relief efforts. On Monday, militants attacked a convoy carrying food aid, leaving one crew member missing and allegedly dead and wounding three others. More than 800,000 people across South Sudan have been affected by the floods, mainly in communities living along the White Nile, which runs through the center of the country. Months of torrential rains have caused rivers in East Africa to overflow, affecting more than six million people across the region.
Kenya: President Uhuru Kenyatta said he would reject any request by the United States to launch drone strikes within the borders of his country, while affirming in an interview with France 24 that the US military had not requested such authorization. The US Army’s Africa Command said last month that it was seeking permission to carry out armed drone strikes in eastern Kenya to target al-Shabab extremists. The Islamist group linked to al Qaeda is based in neighboring Somalia, but often carries out raids in Kenya.
Board members and Malians celebrate the ouster of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, in Bamako, Mali, on August 21, 2020 (AP photo).
West africa
Mali: Citing “significant progress” towards a return to democracy, the regional bloc, the Economic Community of West African States, lifted on Tuesday the sanctions it had imposed on the country after the ouster of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August. The move came a day after Transitional President Bah N’daw introduced his new 25-member cabinet, appointing military leaders to several key positions. Malian colonels, including members of the military junta that staged the coup, will head the ministries of defense, security, territorial administration and national reconciliation. N’daw turned to civilians to lead several critical ministries, including justice and foreign affairs. The transitional government has also promised to hold elections within 18 months, but as Peter Tinti explained at a WPR briefing in September, the focus is on election documents on some of the underlying health and economic disparities that precipitated The hit.
The new government also secured the release of four hostages held by Islamist extremists, including a prominent opposition politician. A group aligned with Al Qaeda, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, is believed to have seized Soumaila Cisse while he was campaigning during parliamentary elections earlier this year. Three Europeans were also released, including two Italian nationals who had been captured in Niger and a French aid worker who was kidnapped in Mali in 2016. His release comes days after the N’daw administration released nearly 200 extremist fighters in a apparent exchange of prisoners.
Nigeria: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, an economist and former finance minister, is one of two finalists to head the World Trade Organization. South Korean Trade Minister Yoo Myung-hee also advanced to the final round, which means that for the first time in its history, the world trade body will have a CEO. Okonjo-Iweala, who has also served as managing director of the World Bank, has vowed to use the position to boost trade in Africa. The WTO hopes to reach a consensus decision next month.
South Africa
South Africa: Thousands of workers took part in a strike on Wednesday, fueled by outrage over government corruption and the loss of more than 2 million jobs during the second quarter of the year. The Congress of South African Trade Unions, the country’s largest workers’ federation, called the one-day strike to denounce a series of corruption scandals that have emerged from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s response to COVID-19, even as the economy continues to suffer. a hemorrhage of jobs and civilians. the servants complain that they have not received the promised raises. South Africa’s economy was already struggling before the pandemic, but James Hamill explained in an August WPR report that rampant corruption and a hesitant response from the Ramaphosa administration have exacerbated the crisis.
North Africa
Sudan: The transitional government formalized a peace agreement with several rebel groups on Saturday in an attempt to end civil wars in the western Darfur region of the country and along its southern border with South Sudan. The peace agreement covers a variety of topics, including regional self-government, reparations, and the return of refugees and displaced persons. The deal has faced repeated delays and was boycotted by a powerful wing of the Sudan-North People’s Liberation Movement, which is fighting for greater autonomy for two southern states. Separately, he agreed to open new talks with the government. The delays over the peace agreement have slowed down other aspects of Sudan’s democratic transition, as Yasir Zaidan explained at a WPR briefing in June, including the formation of a transitional legislative council, which should include members of the various groups. rebels.
Central Africa
Democratic Republic of Congo: During a virtual summit this week, the presidents of four countries in the region agreed to strengthen efforts to combat armed militias in eastern Congo and crack down on the illegal mineral trade that supports them. The leaders of Congo, Rwanda, Uganda and Angola confirmed their support for efforts to end the persistent conflict in the North and South Kivu regions of the Congo, where more than 130 armed groups remain active. The summit, which was delayed twice, came amid mounting regional tensions, including increasingly tense relations between Burundi and Rwanda. Burundi President Evariste Ndayishimiye ultimately refused to participate in the summit, opting for bilateral talks with Congolese officials.
Top readings on the Web
The separatist struggle continues in Cameroon one year after the important national dialogue: As the violence continues one year after a national forum to resolve the separatist crisis in Cameroon, some participants wonder if the government-organized event was just a political theater, reports Moki Edwin Kindzeka for Voice of America. Separatist fighters from the country’s Anglophone minority, based in Cameroon’s two western provinces, launched an insurgency in 2017 in an attempt to establish their own independent state. The death toll in the fighting has now risen to at least 3,000, as there have been 1,000 more deaths since the self-proclaimed “Great National Dialogue” last year. But that does not mean it was a complete failure, according to some participants, who point to ongoing political reforms that have allowed local Anglophone leaders greater autonomy and the launch of a regional reconstruction fund.
Hopes for a new political direction in Algeria fade a year after the popular uprising: There are two political realities in Algeria, Adam Nossiter reports for The New York Times. The first, perpetuated by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune, is that the country has gone from a history of repression and rigged elections to a free and democratic system. The other is a perception shared by tens of thousands of protesters who see a corrupt political system that has managed to renew itself since former President Abdelaziz Bouteflika was ousted from power in April last year. Algerians continue to attempt to protest, despite COVID-19 restrictions, even as they fail to unite around a shared vision for the future of the country that could offer an alternative to the Tebboune regime.
Andrew Green is a freelance journalist based in Berlin. He writes regularly on health and human rights issues. You can see more of his work at www.theandrewgreen.com.
