Africa

Tuesday marked the second anniversary of the fall of Kabul, certainly the worst of President Joe Biden’s unforced errors in foreign policy and arguably among the worst in the history of the American presidency.

Rhissa Ag Boula, a former leader in Niger’s Tuareg uprisings three decades ago, announced on Wednesday he is forming a Council of Resistance for the Republic (CRR) to oppose the ruling junta and restore President Mohamed Bazoum to power.

Cowboys star linebacker Micah Parsons has an adventurous spirit. How adventurous? Adventurous enough that he one day plans to “disappear” to Africa.

The coup in Niger will undermine the fight against resurgent terror groups in Africa’s Sahel region, France’s defence minister said.

A message claiming to be from the head of the Wagner Private Military Company (PMC), Yevgeny Prigozhin, published on social media on Monday suggested that the mercenary organization would continue to remain active only in Africa for the time being – mere days after another claiming to be Prigozhin praised the coup against a pro-Western president in Niger.

The regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), following an emergency meeting on Sunday, announced that it would consider “force” to oust the leaders of a coup d’etat in Niger last week, rejecting their authority and declaring “zero tolerance for unconstitutional change of government.”

Protesters in Niger marched through the capital on Sunday in support of the military coup before attacking the French embassy.

A huge explosion damaged vehicles and caused numerous injuries on Bree Street in Johannesburg, South Africa, Wednesday.

A Russian paramilitary group called COSI said in a Sunday post on the messaging platform Telegram that hundreds of “experienced” Wagner Group mercenaries are pouring into the Central African Republic (CAR) to “ensure security” ahead of a July 30 referendum that could give President Faustin-Archange Touadera a third term in office.

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi paid a rare visit to Africa this week, with stops planned in Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. While in Uganda on Wednesday, Raisi praised President Yoweri Museveni for passing a law that increased punishment for homosexual activity, all the way up to capital punishment in some cases.

The United Nations marked World Population Day on Tuesday, publishing a forecast that the Earth’s population will hit 9.7 billion by the year 2050 and surpass 10 billion before the end of the century.

A report published by the Business & Human Rights Resource Center (BHRRC) on Wednesday accused Chinese companies of more than a hundred human rights and environmental abuses at the mines where China produces much of the world’s supply of “green energy” minerals, such as lithium, cobalt, copper, and various rare earths.

A fleet of Chinese warships made port in Nigeria on Sunday for a five-day visit, a rare show of Chinese naval strength in West Africa hailed by China’s ambassador as a “major event in the relations” between the two countries, and between China and Africa at large.

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday announced sanctions against four companies linked to the infamous Wagner Group and its founder Yevgeny Prigozhin.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that thousands of mercenaries from the Wagner Group will remain deployed in Africa, even though Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin led a mutiny against the Russian military over the weekend and then sought refuge in Belarus with some of his forces.

South African Police Minister Bheki Cele and a group of his senior officials visited China last week for five days of discussions and training with Chinese police officials. Their schedule included talks about security preparations for the August BRICS summit to be held in Johannesburg, South Africa, and security for projects under China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).

President Joe Biden is bragging that his administration is building one of the world’s largest solar plants, not in the United States but rather in the Central African nation of Angola.

The Biden administration is allegedly using a Bush-era program that delivers AIDS relief to Africa, called PEPFAR, to promote its pro-abortion agenda abroad, Republican Congressman Chris Smith (NJ) told Breitbart News on Monday. 

Senegal’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on Tuesday that its consulates overseas will be temporarily closed following “a series of aggressions that caused serious damage.”

Voice of America News (VOA) reported on Tuesday that while the international community is nervously monitoring the brutal war between factions of the Sudanese junta and scrambling to deal with the ensuing humanitarian disaster, Communist China is moving full speed ahead with plans to “advance its own interests” in Sudan’s oil and mineral resources.

Non-American members working for the United States Embassy in Nigeria have reportedly been shot dead in a region of intense unrest.

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) on Thursday declared a formal end to its monkeypox emergency due to rapidly declining case numbers around the world.

The Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) published a video on its official Weibo page, the largest regime-controlled social media site in China, featuring Chinese dancers in brown face paint and turbans pretending to be Indian.

“Stolen” African artefacts returned by the progressive West to the Nigerian government have now disappeared, experts say.

Police in Kenya on Monday reported they have recovered at least 58 bodies from forest land occupied by the Good News International Church, a cult whose members believed they could ascend to Heaven by starving themselves.

President Joe Biden on Saturday ordered the evacuation of U.S. embassy staff in Khartoum, Sudan, amid worsening fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces, a rival paramilitary force.

The Sudanese army said it was coordinating efforts to evacuate diplomats from the United States, UK, China and France out of the country.

Yoweri Museveni, the longtime authoritarian president of Uganda, announced on Thursday that he would not sign into law a legislative bill that would greatly expand criminal punishment for individuals suspected of being gay, including proscribing the death penalty for a new crime: “aggravated homosexuality.”

Nigerian presidential candidate Peter Obi was detained at Heathrow Airport in London on Good Friday and interrogated for hours, apparently because someone had been impersonating him in London.

A documentary on the life and tumultuous times of Queen Cleopatra is on the horizon for Netflix with the planned docuseries veering from accepted historical wisdom by changing the subject’s ethnicity.

The Premium Times of Nigeria on Tuesday published an update from the Nigerian government on its war against oil poachers. According to the Eastern Command of the Nigerian Navy, 27 smuggling vessels were captured over the past year, and 294 illegal refineries were located and shut down.

Last weekend saw a rash of mass casualty attacks in Africa, with atrocities in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Burkina Faso, and Nigeria claimed by the Islamic State (ISIS) and other terrorist groups.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni responded to criticism of his country’s draconian new laws against same-sex relationships by urging other African leaders to join him in resisting “the promotion of homosexuality.”

China’s state-run Global Times on Monday mocked the Biden administration for trying to compete with China for the affections of Africa by spending a fraction of the money Beijing has invested in the continent.

A former general has called on the EU to act militarily in Africa, blaming PMC Wagner Group for the current wave of illegal immigrants. 

Vice President Kamala Harris visited Ghana on Monday. She praised the “democratic principles” of President Nana Akufo-Addo and pledged $139 million in assistance for the coming fiscal year, plus a share of various regional initiatives, including economic support and counter-terrorism programs.