Africa Business

Sitting at the desk of a grand office in Lesotho’s capital of Maseru, Sam Matekane doesn’t attempt to hide his ambition.  

The millionaire political novice — whose business empire spans from donkeys to diamonds — says he aims to secure an “outright win” in the country’s parliamentary elections on Friday.  

That’s no easy feat.

The small southern African kingdom has been ruled by fractious and frail coalition governments for the past decade, with no party able to secure a majority and no premier serving out a full five-year term. 

Analysts expect the vote to usher in yet another coalition, unlikely to tackle poverty and instability in the mountainous country of about two million people.  

But some concede Matekane, who styles himself as a champion of the country’s business elite, could be a dark horse in the race.  

“I want to go alone,” the 64-year-old says about his plan to do away with political alliances during an interview shortly before the vote. 

“Our country is sinking. So, we have to try and save (it) as business people,” he tells AFP. 

Lesotho, which is completely surrounded by South Africa, ranks among the world’s poorest countries, with more than 30 percent of its population living on less than $1.90 a day.

A constitutional monarchy where the king has no formal power, it has long been beset by political turmoil that has hampered development.

Coups and attempted coups dot its history since independence from Britain in 1966.

Matekane says he hopes to turn things around, bringing his business skills to the government to relaunch the economy and tackle public debt and unemployment. 

“All these governments that came, we were assisting them with the hope that things will change but things never changed and got worse,” he told AFP.

“That’s when we realised we need to take over”.

But so far he has given little in the way of detailed plans.

– Rags to riches –

The seventh of fourteen children born to a family of poor farmers in the central town of Mantsonyane, Matekane is a rags-to-riches tale. 

He started off raising donkeys at the age of 22, and is now thought to be Lesotho’s wealthiest man. 

Through the years he added a myriad of business ventures to his portfolio, from diamond mining to farming and medicinal cannabis — the cultivation of which Lesotho allowed in 2017, becoming the first African country to do so. 

His success is simply down to “working hard”, he says.

A philanthropist, he has become a popular figure in the kingdom, building schools, a stadium and even a theatre. 

He funds scholarships, sponsors the national football federation and has helped with the purchase of vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic. 

He does not want to state his worth, but his affluence is on display at his office on the 6th floor of a building in the centre of Maseru, a sleepy city of 350,000 people. 

White armchairs and golden door handles adorn the premises, while a helipad occupies part of the lawn. 

Influential figures, including international election observers and the former president of the constitutional court, come and go from the building. 

The outgoing parliament failed to pass a law on electoral reform aimed at ending political volatility — which would have prohibited lawmakers from switching party allegiance within the first three years of their tenure.

A fan of motorcycle racing, Matekane likes to move fast. 

He launched his party “Revolution for Prosperity” only six months ago, and quickly recruited former ministers, a number of business figures and an ex-Central Bank governor.

In his efforts to maximise his time, Matekane often flies to meet his constituents, explains his chauffeur. 

The transport can save precious minutes, the man says: “A two hours’ drive, but only 30 minutes by helicopter”.

Just a week ago, 34-year-old Ibrahim Traore was an unknown, even in his native Burkina Faso. 

But in the space of a weekend, he catapulted himself from army captain to the world’s youngest leader — an ascent that has stoked hopes but also fears for a poor and chronically troubled country.

Traore, at the head of a core of disgruntled junior officers, ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, who had seized power just in January.

The motive for the latest coup — as in January — was anger at failures to stem a seven-year jihadist insurgency that has claimed thousands of lives and driven nearly two million people from their homes.

On Wednesday, Traore was declared president and “guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity… and continuity of the State.”

At that lofty moment, Traore became the world’s youngest leader, wresting the title from Chilean President Gabriel Boric, a whole two years older.

Traore’s previously unknown face is now plastered on portraits around the capital Ouagadougou.

His photo is even on sale in the main market, alongside portraits of Burkina’s revered assassinated radical leader, Thomas Sankara, and of Jesus.

– Military career –

Traore was born in Bondokuy, in western Burkina Faso, and studied geology in Ouagadougou before joining the army in 2010.

He graduated as an officer from the Georges Namonao Military School — a second-tier institution compared to the prestigious Kadiogo Military Academy (PMK) of which Damiba and others in the elite are alumni.

Traore emerged second in his class, a contemporary told AFP, describing him as “disciplined and brave.”

After graduation, he gained years of experience in the fight against the jihadists.

He served in the badly-hit north and centre of the country before heading to a posting in neighbouring Mali in 2018 in the UN’s MINUSMA peacekeeping mission. 

He was appointed captain in 2020.

A former superior officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, recounted an incident that occurred in 2020 when the town of Barsalogho in central Burkina was on the verge of falling to the jihadists.

The highway into Barsalogho was believed to have been mined, so Traore led his men on a “commando trek” across the countryside, arriving in time to free the town, he said.

When Damiba took power in January, ousting elected president Roch Marc Christian Kabore, Traore became a member of the Patriotic Movement for Preservation and Restoration (MPSR), as the junta chose to call itself.

– Discontent –

In March, Damiba promoted Traore to head of artillery in the Kaya regiment in the centre of the country.

But it was a move that ironically would sow the seeds of Damiba’s own downfall.

The regiment became a cradle of discontent, and Traore, tasked by his colleagues with channelling their frustrations, made several trips to Ouagadougou to plead their case with Damiba.

Disillusionment at the response turned into anger, which appears to have crystallised into resolve to seize power after an attack on a convoy in northern Burkina last month that left 27 soldiers and 10 civilians dead.

“Captain Traore symbolises the exasperation of junior officers and the rank and file,” said security consultant Mahamoudou Savadogo.

The new president faces a daunting task in regaining the upper hand over jihadist groups, some affiliated with Al-Qaeda and others with the Islamic State. They have steadily gained ground since they launched their attacks from Mali in 2015.

Yet Traore has promised to do “within three months” what “should have been done in the past eight months,” making a direct criticism of his predecessor.

Savadogo warned that one soldier overthrowing another illustrates “the deteriorating state of the army, which hardly exists any more and which has just torn itself apart with this umpteenth coup d’etat”.

Traore’s takeover comes during a struggle for influence between France and Russia in French-speaking Africa, where former French colonies are increasingly turning to Moscow.

Demonstrators who rallied for him in Ouagadougou during last weekend’s standoff with Damiba waved Russian flags and chanted anti-France slogans.

Traore seems — for now — to bring hope to many in a country sinking steadily in the quagmire.

On Monday, L’Observateur Paalga newspaper, went with a decidedly biblical headline: “Ibrahim, the intimate friend of God, will he be able to save us?”

Activists and agriculture lobby groups on Thursday urged Kenya’s government to reverse its decision to lift a long-standing ban on genetically modified crops as the country struggles with a crippling drought.

The government of newly elected President William Ruto on Monday allowed the open cultivation and import of GM crops, saying it was in response to the drought — the worst to hit the country in 40 years. 

But activists protested the move, raising concerns over the safety of GM foods in a joint statement signed by nearly a dozen groups, including Greenpeace Africa.

“Food security is not just (about) the amount of food but the quality and safety of food,” the statement said.

“Our cultural and indigenous food have proved to be safer, with diverse nutrients and with less harmful chemical inputs.”

Kenya, like many other African nations, banned GM crops over health and safety concerns and to protect smallholder farms, who account for the vast majority of rural agricultural producers in the country.

However, the East African powerhouse had faced criticism over the ban including from the United States which is a major producer of GM crops.

On Monday, a statement issued by Ruto’s office said the decision was “a progressive step towards significantly redefining agriculture in Kenya by adopting crops that are resistant to pests and disease.” 

It said the cabinet had considered expert views and technical reports, including by Kenya’s National Biosafety Authority, the World Health Organization and Food and Agriculture Organization, before arriving at a decision.

– ‘Curtails freedom’ –

But the activists said the move was made without public participation and that it “essentially curtails the freedom of Kenyans to choose what they want to eat, or not.”

“We demand that the ban be immediately reinstated and an inclusive participatory process be instituted to look into long-term and sustainable solutions to issues affecting food security,” they said.

They added that the lifting of the ban opened the market to US farmers using sophisticated technologies and highly subsidised farming that risked putting small-scale farmers in Kenya out of business. 

Agriculture is the backbone of Kenya’s economy, contributing over 20 percent to GDP.

Ruto, a former chicken seller turned millionaire businessman, was elected to the top job in August on a promise to turn around Kenya’s stuttering economy and tackle inflation.

Within weeks of taking office in September, he halved the price of fertilisers to improve crop yields in the midst of the drought that has affected 23 of 47 counties. 

Four consecutive rainy seasons have failed in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia, an unprecedented climatic event that has pushed millions across the Horn of Africa into extreme hunger.

In the Clara Town suburb of Liberia’s capital Monrovia, Aminata Kanneh stands sweating under the hot midday sun, queueing in a 100-metre-long line to buy rice.

“Today makes it two weeks that I have been coming every day, but until now I have not got a grain of rice,” the 34-year-old told AFP.

Liberians around the country have for weeks been queuing outside wholesalers to get their hands on the national staple food after rumours of a coming rice shortage began circling about six months ago.

Supply-chain disruptions and Russia’s war in Ukraine have caused food shortages and high prices across much of the world. 

But Liberia, a West African nation of five million people, has been hit particularly hard, with the government and UN blaming a delay in shipments.

Rice prices have steadily risen to about $25 per 25-kilogram bag, from the official rate of $13, over the past six months.

“I can’t sell a bag for even $20 right now because rice has become gold dust”, said Angeline Sandy, a 27-year-old retailer.

“I bought a bag for $23 — I am selling it for $30.”

Some 1.3 million people — more than a fifth of the population — live on less than $2.15 per day, according to the World Bank.

One wholesaler who asked not to be named blamed the price hikes on the war in Ukraine, citing heightened freight costs.

“In neighbouring countries, rice is sold for more than $20 (while) we are asking for only $15 per bag”, he said. 

“We are selling at a loss — we can’t continue.”

Djaounsede Madjiangar, a spokesman for the UN World Food Programme in West Africa, said the rice shortage was due to “delays in the incoming consignment”.

“On the price of rice, it is definitely impacted by the crisis in Ukraine”, he said, adding that about 70 percent of Liberia’s staple food, including rice, is imported. 

“As for many other countries in West Africa, the increase in domestic food prices reflects international food price trends, largely driven by the global energy crisis resulting from the Russia and Ukraine crisis”, he said.

– ‘Remain calm’ –

This week the commerce ministry called on Liberians to “remain calm” and refrain from panic-buying, adding that more supplies were on the way.

It also urged retailers not to hoard the commodity.

“We want to assure the public that the current stock of rice in the country can serve the market up to the arrival of the next vessel which is expected in the coming days”, the Tuesday statement said.

It said the government has been subsidising importers to maintain a price cap on the staple product, and attributed “delays in incoming consignments” to a National Port Authority order in August to block vessels deemed defective from docking in the country.

One wholesaler told AFP that Liberia needs at least 50,000 metric tonnes of rice per month to satisfy demand. 

The commerce ministry said that some 150,000 metric tonnes would arrive between mid-October and early November, which would supply the market until early next year. 

Another 22,000 metric tons were expected “in the coming days”, the statement said.

Liberia also faced fuel shortages earlier this year with prices spiking and motorists forced to wait in long queues outside gas stations.

One of the poorest countries in the world, Liberia is still recovering after back-to-back civil wars from 1989 to 2003 and West Africa’s 2014-16 Ebola crisis. The country also suffers from high inflation and regular cash shortages.

It ranks 178th out of 191 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index.

A presidential election is slated for October 2023.

Flooding caused by heavy rains in the West African state of Niger has claimed nearly 200 lives and affected more than a quarter of a million people, the Civil Protection Service said on Thursday, describing the toll as one of the highest on record.

Rainy-season floods claimed 192 lives, affected more than 263,000 people and destroyed more than 30,000 homes, as well as classrooms, medical centres and grain stores, it said.

The worst-affected regions are Maradi and Zinder in the centre of the country, Dosso in the southwest and Tahoua in the west.

The rainy season in Niger, located in the heart of the arid Sahel, typically runs from June to September and routinely claims lives.

In 2021, 70 people were killed and 200,000 people were affected. The death toll in 2020 was 73.

Katiellou Gaptia Lawan, head of the national meteorological agency, said this year’s heavy rains were consistent with models of impacts from climate change.

Niger is the world’s poorest country, according to the benchmark of the 2020 Human Development Index devised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).  

Over 4.4 million people — more than a fifth of the population — fall into the category of “severe” food insecurity, the International Red Cross and Red Crescent said in July.

The dancers are a blaze of colour, swirling amid a deafening, pounding noise.

In their midst, a young man stands up.

Wearing a beaded necklace and clad in a tight red shirt with multi-coloured scarves hanging from his waist, with his arms outstretched, he makes a long cry to the heavens.

This is an important moment for Cedric Djikila Diatta, 21, on his path towards the coveted status of manhood.

According to the traditions of the Diola people in Senegal’s southern region of Casamance, he has entered the period of “Youth” — the intermediate chapter between adolescence and adulthood.

To prepare for the next step, a phase that may take half a dozen years, he and other young men of the same age have spent the past month together.

They have been working in the rice fields and listening to the elders recount secret rites of passage and inculcate the values of hospitality and discipline.

“Once you have been initiated, you change status,” said Cedric. 

“You are free to travel, get married, take decisions that affect the entire community.”

– Combat –

Central to the transition to adulthood is the notion of warriorhood — “Life is a fight,” said Cedric. “You always have to fight.”

And this where the dance comes in: it is designed to strengthen them spiritually for combat, which in the Diola culture is conveyed through wrestling, Senegal’s national sport.

As tomtoms and the bombolong, a traditional elongated drum, echo around the village of Kabrousse, the young initiates leap from side to side, their metal armbands rubbing against each other.

Some are bare-chested, others are wearing tunics, feathers or magic charms called grigris — those men who are due to marry in the coming year are dressed as women.

The dancers swirl around, some brandishing swords or staves, and even fake snakes.

Evening starts to fall and a gentle light, filtered by the emerald fronds of two giant kapok trees, bathes the dancers.

Young women arrive, gathering around the young men, swinging their hips, their makeup and hair perfect, crooning their support for their champions and rubbing powder on the sculpted male bodies.

Children are there, and the elderly too. The mothers look adoringly at their sons on the brink of manhood — “he’s so handsome!” cries Cedric’s mother, Angele Antessey Diatta, a proud smile illuminating her face.

– Threatened tradition –

The party marking the end of these important rites coincides with the end of the rainy season each year in late September.

Lower Casamance is part of Senegal’s southernmost region, and almost separated from the rest of the country by the tiny state of Gambia.

The rituals, teaching and secrets conveyed from generation to generation vary from village to village, said Abdou Ndukur Kacc Ndao, an anthropologist.

“But these practices are under threat today,” he said. 

“In a hundred, two hundred years, it may well be that they no longer exist.”

Pressures on animist-rooted traditions range from the growing place of Islam in Senegal, greater mixing among ethnic groups, and migration towards other regions within the country or abroad.

Those who return bring back different perspectives, fashions and tastes.

Cedric praised the ancient traditions, but he also had his eye on distant horizons.

He showed off his small house, which had no furniture, toilet or running water or even a floor.

He stopped school at the age of 12 to help his parents in the field. His father fell ill and two of his brothers also died of sickness, lacking treatment.

He trained as a cook, working in one of the hotels in Casamance’s Cap Skirring tourist resort, leaving for work at 4:30 am and returning in the afternoon to work in the rice fields.

He said he earned 80,000 CFA (around $120) a month.

His dream was to get a job at the Club Med, an upmarket French vacation village at Cap Skirring.

“When you get hired there, you make contacts enabling you to head off and live elsewhere,” he said.

Captain Ibrahim Traore was appointed as president of Burkina Faso on Wednesday, according to an official statement, after the West African country’s second coup in less than nine months.

The impoverished Sahel nation plunged into renewed turmoil at the weekend when Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba — who had seized power in January — was toppled by newly emerged rival Traore, leading a faction of disgruntled junior officers.

It was the latest putsch in the Sahel region much of which, like Burkina Faso, is battling a growing Islamist insurgency.

Traore has been appointed as “Head of State, Supreme Head of the Armed Forces”, according to the official statement read out on national television by spokesman for the ruling junta Captain Kiswendsida Farouk Azaria Sorgho.

The statement said that Traore would now be the “guarantor of national independence, territorial integrity… and continuity of the State.”

Damiba fled to Togo following the two-day standoff, which was defused by religious and community leaders.

Burkina is struggling with a seven-year-old jihadist campaign that has claimed thousands of lives, forced nearly two million people to flee their homes and left more than a third of the country outside government control.

Swelling anger within the armed forces prompted Damiba’s coup against the elected president in January.

Appointing himself transitional head of state, Damiba had vowed to make security the country’s top priority — but after a brief lull the attacks revived, claiming hundreds of lives.

– Tensions –

Delegates from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) wrapped up a fact-finding mission Tuesday and held meetings with religious and traditional leaders and Traore.

Traore said the ECOWAS visit was to “make contact with the new transition authorities” as part of the support that Burkina Faso derived from the region.

Speculation has risen that Burkina’s new leader may follow other fragile regimes in French-speaking Africa and forge close ties with Moscow at the expense of France, the region’s former colonial power and traditional ally.

The dramatic takeover coincided with violent anti-French protests and the sudden emergence of Russian flags among demonstrators.

On the streets, demonstrators’ slogans included “France get out”, “No to ECOWAS interference”, and “Long live Russia-Burkina cooperation”.

The United States has warned the junta of the risks of allying with Russia, saying they condemned “any attempt to exacerbate the current situation in Burkina Faso”.

“We strongly encourage the new transitional government to adhere to the agreed-upon timeline for a return to a democratically elected, civilian-led government,” a State Department spokesman said earlier this week.

Traore has previously said he would stand by a pledge that Damiba gave ECOWAS for restoring civilian rule by July 2024.

Sixty-three confirmed and probable cases have been reported in the Ebola outbreak in Uganda, including 29 deaths, the World Health Organization said Wednesday.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus lamented that the outbreak, declared two weeks ago, was taking a deadly toll on health workers as well as patients.

There are six species of the Ebolavirus genus and the one circulating in Uganda is the Sudan ebolavirus — for which there is currently no vaccine.

“So far, 63 confirmed and probable cases have been reported, including 29 deaths,” Tedros told a press conference in Geneva.

“Ten health workers have been infected and four have died. Four people have recovered and are receiving follow-up care.”

The east African nation’s Health Minister Jane Ruth Aceng Ocero said that a 58-year-old anaesthetist had died of Ebola early Wednesday, following the deaths of a Tanzanian doctor, a health assistant and a midwife.

– Candidate vaccines –

Tedros said the vaccines used successfully to curb recent outbreaks of the Zaire ebolavirus species in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) did not provide cross-protection against the Sudan ebolavirus.

“However, several vaccines are in various stages of development against this virus, two of which could begin clinical trials in Uganda in the coming weeks, pending regulatory and ethics approvals from the Ugandan government,” he said.

There are at least six candidate vaccines against the Sudan species, of which three have made it far enough to be tested on humans, producing so-called Phase 1 safety and immunogenicity data.

They could “proceed to be used in the field in a sort of ring vaccination campaign”, WHO’s chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan said.

She mentioned a candidate vaccine from the University of Oxford and another from the Sabin Vaccine Institute, and said which one goes into trials may depend on which one actually has doses ready to deploy.

“Realistically it may take another four to six weeks,” she said.

Swaminathan said plans were also afoot for testing potential therapeutics.

– WHO sending specialists, resources –

The initial outbreak was discovered in the central district of Mubende.

There are gold mines in the Mubende area which attract people from across Uganda, as well as other countries, the WHO’s Africa regional office said.

“The mobile nature of the population in Mubende increases the risk of a possible spread of the virus,” it said.

Infections have since been found in Kassanda, Kyegegwa and Kagadi districts.

The WHO’s Geneva headquarters has released $2 million from its contingency fund for emergencies and is working with partners to support the health ministry by sending additional specialists, supplies and resources, Tedros said.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has vowed not to impose any lockdowns to tackle the disease, saying last week that there was “no need for anxiety”.

– Haemorrhagic fever –

Ebola is an often-fatal viral haemorrhagic fever named after a river in DR Congo where it was discovered in 1976.

Human transmission is through bodily fluids, with the main symptoms being fever, vomiting, bleeding and diarrhoea.

Outbreaks are difficult to contain, especially in urban environments.

People who are infected do not become contagious until symptoms appear, which is after an incubation period of between two and 21 days.

Uganda has experienced several Ebola outbreaks, most recently in 2019 when at least five people died.

The neighbouring DRC last week declared an end to an Ebola virus outbreak that emerged in eastern North Kivu province six weeks ago.

The worst epidemic, in West Africa between 2013 and 2016, killed more than 11,300 people. The DRC has had more than a dozen epidemics, the deadliest killing 2,280 people in 2020.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) issued an alert Wednesday over four cough and cold syrups made by Maiden Pharmaceuticals in India, warning they could be linked to the deaths of 66 children in The Gambia.

The UN health agency also cautioned the contaminated medications may have been distributed outside of the West African country, with global exposure “possible”.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told reporters the four cold and cough syrups in question “have been potentially linked with acute kidney injuries and 66 deaths among children”.

“The loss of these young lives is beyond heartbreaking for their families.”

Tedros said WHO was also “conducting further investigation with the company and regulatory authorities in India”.

According to the medical product alert issued by WHO Wednesday, the four products are Promethazine Oral Solution, Kofexmalin Baby Cough Syrup, Makoff Baby Cough Syrup and Magrip N Cold Syrup.

On Thursday, Gambian authorities began collecting paracetamol and promethazine syrup from rural households in the West Coast Region and Upper River Region.

A Gambian health ministry investigation, which began in July and is ongoing, also cited the E. coli bacteria as a possible cause of the acute kidney failure outbreak.

“The preliminary results from the ongoing investigation indicate that it is most probably the paracetamol and promethazine syrups that caused the acute kidney injury cases in this outbreak,” Abubacarr Jagne, the nephrologist leading the health ministry’s investigation, told AFP Wednesday.

Health authorities had on September 23 ordered a recall of all medicines containing paracetamol or promethazine syrup.

– Tedros urges caution –

The Gambia experienced its severest flooding in years in July, causing sewers and latrines to overflow.

“Since July 2022, there has been an increase in the number of severe kidney disease with high fatality among children mainly following diarrheal diseases,” the ministry said in a statement in September. 

E. coli bacteria were found in the stools of many children, but many had also taken paracetamol syrup, it said.

“To date, the stated manufacturer has not provided guarantees to WHO on the safety and quality of these products,” the alert said, adding that laboratory analysis of samples of the products “confirms that they contain unacceptable amounts of diethylene glycol and ethylene glycol as contaminants”.

Those substances are toxic to humans and can be fatal, it said, adding that the toxic effect “can include abdominal pain, vomiting, diarrhoea, inability to pass urine, headache, altered mental state and acute kidney injury which may lead to death”.

WHO said information received from India’s Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation indicated that the manufacturer had only supplied the contaminated medications to The Gambia.

“However, the supply of these products through informal or unregulated markets to other countries in Africa, cannot be ruled out,” the UN agency said in an email.

“In addition, the manufacturer may have used the same contaminated material in other products and distributed them locally or exported,” it warned.

“Global exposure is therefore possible.”

Tedros urged caution, calling on all countries to work to “detect and remove these products from circulation to prevent further harm to patients”.

Ethiopia’s government and rebels from the country’s Tigray region said Wednesday they were ready to attend peace talks after the African Union invited both parties to negotiations in South Africa.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s national security adviser said the government had “accepted this invitation” while the leader of rebel-held Tigray said they were “ready” to send negotiators but raised questions about process.

Both sides had been invited to talks in South Africa this weekend by AU chair Moussa Faki Mahamat to try and end nearly two years of war in Africa’s second-most populous country.

A major resurgence of fighting in August dashed a five-month truce and halted aid into Tigray, where a shortage of food, fuel, cash and medicine has caused a humanitarian crisis.

The latest upsurge has also drawn Eritrean troops back to the battlefield in support of Ethiopia’s federal and regional forces, which are confronting rebels from the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) on multiple fronts.

The deepening conflict has raised international alarm, with the United States this week announcing that its special envoy to the region, Mike Hammer, would be making his second visit to Ethiopia in as many months to seek a halt to the fighting.

Tigrayan authorities said last month they were ready to participate in talks mediated by the AU, removing an obstacle to negotiations with the government in Addis Ababa.

Abiy’s national security advisor, Redwan Hussein, said the AU invitation was “is inline with our principled position regarding the peaceful resolution of the conflict and the need to have talks without preconditions”.

Tigray’s regional authorities said they were “ready to send our negotiating team to South Africa” but wanted to know what other parties would be involved and what role the  international community would play.

“Considering we were not consulted prior to the issuance of this invitation, we need clarification to some of the following issues to establish an auspicious start for the peace talks,” read a statement signed by TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael.

– ‘Troika of negotiators’ –

A diplomatic source told AFP that the AU talks would be mediated by “a troika of negotiators” including the bloc’s Horn of Africa envoy Olusegun Obasanjo and former Kenyan president Uhuru Kenyatta.

Another diplomatic source said South Africa’s former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka would serve as the third negotiator.

The warring sides were previously at odds over who should mediate negotiations, with Abiy’s government pushing for Obasanjo and the TPLF wanting Kenyatta to broker dialogue. 

They have also sparred over the restoration of basic services such as electricity, communications and banking in Tigray — a key precondition for dialogue according to the TPLF.

The region of six million people has been facing desperate shortages of food, fuel, medicines and other emergency supplies, with the UN’s World Food Programme warning of rising malnutrition even before the latest fighting halted aid deliveries.

Fighting has escalated in recent weeks in northern Ethiopia, with air strikes hammering Tigray and new fronts opening.

The US State Department on Monday announced that special envoy Hammer would travel to Kenya, South Africa and Ethiopia this month.

The visit, which will include meetings with federal government and AU officials, comes on the heels of an 11-day trip by Hammer to Ethiopia last month, which the State Department said was aimed at supporting the launch of AU-led peace talks.

The war, which erupted in November 2020, has killed untold numbers of civilians and triggered a deep humanitarian crisis, and all sides to the conflict have been accused of grave abuses against civilians.

The TPLF dominated Ethiopia’s ruling coalition for decades before Abiy took power in 2018.

After months of rising tensions Abiy, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, sent soldiers into Tigray to unseat the TPLF, saying the move was in response to attacks on federal army camps.