Africa Business

Northern Mozambique is facing dire food shortages, the United Nations warned Friday as it appealed for funds to keep its food aid flowing to the conflict-ridden region.

The UN’s World Food Programme is delivering food assistance to one million people affected by the turmoil in the southern African nation.

But the WFP warned it would be forced to suspend its aid at the peak of the hunger season in February unless an additional $51 million is urgently received.

“The situation is dire and these are people who are suffering,” Antonella D’Aprile, the WFP’s country director in Mozambique, told reporters in Geneva via video link from Maputo.

“We have a very serious funding shortage. WFP would be forced to suspend life-saving assistance to one million people by February if we do not receive funds now.”

February is the peak of the lean season in Mozambique, with food more expensive as farmers wait for the harvest. It is also the cyclone season.

Cabo Delgado province is the epicentre of a five-year-old jihadist insurgency which has so far claimed more than 4,300 lives, and around a million people have fled their homes.

But the jihadists are now making incursions into the previously untouched south of Cabo Delgado and spilling over into neighbouring Nampula and Niassa provinces.

Cabo Delgado is the most food-insecure province in Mozambique, with nearly 1.15 million people in what is considered “crisis” or “emergency” levels of hunger, with indicators showing that the situation may deteriorate further.

“These people are displaced and traumatised multiple times,” said D’Aprile.

“We need funding now to avert not only hunger in the short-term but also to tackle the root causes of chronic food insecurity.”

The WFP has already been delivering half-rations since April due to limited funding and increasing needs.

US President Joe Biden arrived at UN climate talks in Egypt on Friday armed with major domestic achievements against global warming but under pressure to do more for countries reeling from natural disasters.

Biden will spend only a few hours at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh, three days after US midterm elections that have raised questions about what the result could mean for US climate policy.

The lightning visit to Egypt marks the start of a week-long trip abroad that will also take him to an ASEAN regional summit in Cambodia at the weekend, before he travels to Indonesia for G20 talks.

Climate action in the United States — the world’s second biggest emitter — was given a major boost this year when Congress passed a landmark spending bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes $369 billion for clean energy and climate initiatives.

Global warming “is an urgent crisis”, Biden said as he met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi on the sidelines of COP27, where he said he would address human rights in the country with his host.

Biden, who was due to deliver a speech later, skipped a two-day summit of about 100 world leaders at COP27 that coincided with the US election earlier this week.

– ‘Historic polluter’ –

New research shows just how dauntingly hard it will be to meet the goal of capping global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels — requiring emissions to be slashed nearly in half by 2030.

The new study — published on Friday in the journal Earth System Science Data — found that CO2 emissions from fossil fuels are on track to rise one percent in 2022 to reach an all-time high.

COP27 talks have been dominated by the need for wealthy polluters to stop stalling on helping developing countries green their economies and prepare for future impacts — alongside calls to provide financial help for the catastrophic damage already apparent.

Calling out the United States as “the historic polluter”, Mohamed Adow, founder of the think tank Power Shift Africa, said Washington has been an obstacle to the establishment of a “loss and damage” fund.

“So our test for Biden … is, will he actually set out US commitment in providing effective support on loss and damage for the vulnerable countries?” Adow said.

The United States agreed to have the issue discussed at COP27, with developing countries least responsible for planet-heating emissions seeking what amounts to reparations from rich polluters to cope with accelerating climate impacts.

– Climate-sceptic Republicans –

Germany’s climate envoy, Jennifer Morgan, told reporters that Biden’s attendance at COP27 was a “very good sign” that reassures other countries that “the United States at the highest level takes this issue incredibly seriously”.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said Biden will “underscore the need to go further, faster, to help the most vulnerable communities build their resilience” and push major economies to “dramatically” cut emissions.

US climate envoy John Kerry presented this week a public-private partnership aimed at supporting the transition to renewable energy in developing nations and based on a carbon credit system.

But the plan has been panned by activists wary of firms using these to “offset” their carbon emissions.

The White House announced Friday plans to require federal contractors to set targets to reduce their emissions in line with the Paris Agreement.

It also aims to step up efforts to cut methane emissions — a major contributor to global warming — with a “Super-Emitter Response Programme” that would require companies to act on leaks reported by “credible” third parties.

Biden has also pledged to contribute $11.4 billion to a $100 billion per-year-scheme through which rich countries will help developing nations transition to renewable energies and build climate resilience.

But Democrats may be running out of time to honour that as control of the House of Representatives appears poised to shift to the Republicans from January in the wake of this week’s mid-term elections.

“We’re going to be pressing for passage of the appropriations bills,” US lawmaker Kathy Castor, who chairs the climate crisis committee in the House, told AFP.

More than 620 people, including dozens of minors, have been arrested in Chad, the public prosecutor said Friday, after anti-regime protests that left at least 50 dead.

The arrest figure is far higher than previously stated officially but had been suggested by local and international rights groups after the mass demonstrations.

N’Djamena prosecutor Moussa Wade Djibrine, told reporters “621 people had been arrested and sent” to Koro Toro high security prison in the desert some 600 kilometres (360 miles) from the capital.

He said those detained were behind “serious acts and targeted attacks on the Republic’s institutions”.

Around 401 people have appeared in court and the other 220 before an instructing magistrate, he added.

A total of 83 of those held appeared before children’s judges.

Wade Djibrine gave no further details and refused to answer questions.

Last week, Prime Minister Saleh Kebzabo told AFP the government had accepted the principle of an international inquiry “as soon as possible” to shed light on the bloodshed on October 20.

The authorities say the official death toll included a dozen members of the security forces and accused the opposition of mounting an “insurrection”.

According to rights groups, dozens more people were killed during and since the protests across several cities.

Opposition groups called the demonstrations to mark the date when the ruling military had initially promised to hand over power — a timeline now extended for another two years by General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno.

The 38-year-old took power after his father, president Idriss Deby Itno, who ruled for 30 years, died during an operation against rebels in April 2021.

Since the protests, which also resulted in 300 wounded, the government has suspended all party political activity.

It has also imposed a night curfew “until the total restoration of order” in the capital N’Djamena and the towns of Moundou, Doba and Koumra. 

Springboks No. 8 Jasper Wiese has been ruled out of this weekend’s Autumn Nations Series Test due to concussion and has been replaced by Kwagga Smith, South African Rugby’s director of rugby Rassie Erasmus said on Friday.

Wiese, 27, failed the Head Injury Assessment (HIA) protocols after taking a knock during last week’s loss to Ireland and will miss Saturday’s game with Les Bleus in Marseille.

Olympic sevens bronze medallist Smith, 29, is promoted from the Rugby World Cup winners’ bench with Deon Fourie starting among the replacements.

“We’d hoped Jasper would pass all the criteria, HIA set of rules,” Erasmus told reporters.

“Kwagga has done really well for us at eight,” he added.

Erasmus and head coach Jacques Nienaber have chosen against handing 21-year-old Evan Roos a place among the substitutes instead of former Lyon forward Fourie, who can play hooker and No. 8.

“With the change so late, a guy like Deon makes more sense to us and knows French culture and the way they play,” Erasmus said.

“Evan has been with us for a while now, he deserves a chance somewhere.

“We did consider it,” Erasmus added.

France, captained by World Rugby player of the year Antoine Dupont, are on a record 11-match unbeaten run, which included last weekend’s late win over Australia and March’s first Six Nations Grand Slam victory in 12 years.

“They’re not a team that goes through ups and downs emotionally,” Erasmus said.

“You can see they’re steady when it goes well and bad. 

“They’re a well-balanced team with young guys leading their team, that makes them dangerous,” he added.

Nienaber’s set-up have spent the week in Toulon, 70 kilometres up the Mediterranean coast from the Stade Velodrome, where they will play two group games at the World Cup in 10 months’ time.

His squad for Saturday, led by Siya Kolisi, includes just five players who were absent from the Webb Ellis trophy win three years ago.

“It will be good for us, especially the guys who have never played in a World Cup to see what it will be like,” Kolisi said.

“We’re all getting these experiences now. 

“Especially for those who haven’t seen it before, it will be really good for them to see what it will be like next year,” he added.

Ballon d’Or runner-up Sadio Mane was named in Senegal’s World Cup squad by coach Aliou Cisse on Friday in spite of a recent injury.

Cisse, who captained Senegal at the 2002 World Cup, said he hoped the condition of the Bayern Munich attacker would improve within a few weeks and declared himself “really optimistic” that the injury would not require an operation.

Mane’s involvement in the tournament was in doubt after he limped off during Bayern’s 6-1 win over Werder Bremen on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old was diagnosed with an injury to his right fibula and will undergo further tests.

“I preferred to keep him in the group,” Cisse told reporters.

“Sadio Mane is an important player in our squad, it is important to continue to follow his injury, hoping that in two or three weeks there will be progress. But we are really optimistic.

“We will give ourselves all the necessary means to allow Sadio Mane to recover.”

Mane’s fitness has been a major cause of concern in Senegal, the current African champions, with state president Macky Sall tweeting on Wednesday: “Sadio, heart of a Lion! All my heart is with you!”

Cisse admitted the possible absence of the talisman would be a massive blow for the continent. 

“Losing Sadio Mane is not an easy thing for a coach, for the team, even for African football,” he said. 

“We don’t want to think about it but inevitably we have to be prepared should Sadio Mane be absent. 

“For now, we still have time ahead of us. I don’t want to talk about the absence of Sadio Mane even if, in the back of my head, I’m trying to prepare for it.”

Mane, who has scored 33 goals in 92 international matches, is joined in the squad by Abdou Diallo, another player who has recently missed game time due to injury as well as Everton midfielder Idrissa Gueye and Chelsea pair Edouard Mendy and Kalidou Koulibaly.

Left back Saliou Ciss, who is currently without a club, is omitted with Fode Ballo-Toure or Ismail Jakobs providing the options on the left.

“I chose a team that can meet the demands of this competition. We gained experience in 2018 and through our continental championships. We are going to Qatar, aware of our qualities and above all with high ambitions.”

Senegal have been drawn in Group A and play their opening game on November 21 against the Netherlands, before going on to meet tournament hosts Qatar and Ecuador.

Full squad: 

Goalkeepers: Edouard Mendy (Chelsea/ENG), Seny Dieng (QPR/ENG), Alfred Gomis (Rennes/FRA)

Defenders: Youssouf Sabaly (Real Betis/ESP), Kalidou Koulibaly (Chelsea/ENG), Abdou Diallo (RB Leipzig/GER), Pape Abou Cisse (Olympiakos/GRE), Formose Mendy (Amiens/FRA), Ismail Jakobs (Monaco/FRA), Fode Ballo-Toure (AC Milan/ITA)

Midfielders: Nampalys Mendy (Leicester/ENG), Cheikhou Kouyate (Nottingham Forest/ENG), Pape Matar Sarr (Tottenham/ENG), Idrissa Gueye (Everton/ENG), Krepin Diatta (Monaco/FRA), Moustapha Name (Pafos/CYP), Mamadou Loum (Reading/ENG), Pape Gueye (Marseille/FRA), Pathe Ciss (Rayo Vallecano/ESP)

Forwards: Sadio Mane (Bayern Munich/GER), Boulaye Dia (Salernitana/ITA), Nicolas Jackson (Villarreal/ESP), Bamba Dieng (Marseille/FRA), Iliman Ndiaye (Sheffield United/ENG), Ismaila Sarr (Watford/ENG), Famara Diedhiou (Alanyaspor/TUR)  

Burkina Faso’s new legislative assembly opened on Friday with a call for self-sacrifice by the 71 members appointed by the junta that seized power a month ago.

One of the world’s poorest countries, Burkina has been struggling with a jihadist offensive since 2015.

Disgruntled army officers have carried out two coups this year in a show of anger at failures to roll back the insurgency.

Coup leader Captain Ibrahim Traore named 20 of the new deputies and the armed forces 16. The country’s 13 regions selected one member each, civil society groups 12 and political parties 10.

A dozen members of the last parliament were among those appointed, including Abdoulaye Soma, who ran for president in 2020, and 41-year-old law professor Ousmane Bougouma, who was elected speaker on Friday.

“Our country, Burkina Faso, is living through difficult times in its history,” Bougouma told the assembly.

“It’s not a time for celebration but rather commitment and self-sacrifice.”

The assembly opened after agreement in mid-October on a transitional charter to help guide the Sahel nation back to elections.

Traore, 34, ousted Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba on September 30.

In January, Damiba had led a group of officers to topple the last elected president, Roch Marc Christian Kabore.

Traore has been appointed transitional president with the declared aim of taking pack huge swathes of territory held by “hordes of terrorists”.

Thousands have been killed in Burkina over the last seven years, around two million people out of a population of 21 million have fled their homes and more than a third of the country is outside government control.

Ballon d’Or runner-up Sadio Mane was named in Senegal’s World Cup squad by coach Aliou Cisse on Friday despite of a recent injury.

Cisse said he hoped the condition of the Bayern Munich attacker would improve within a few weeks and declared himself “really optimistic” that the injury would not require an operation.

Mane’s involvement in the tournament was in doubt after he limped off during his club Bayern Munich’s 6-1 win over Werder Bremen on Tuesday.

The 30-year-old was diagnosed with an injury to his right fibula and will undergo further tests.

“I preferred to keep him in the group,” Cisse told reporters.

“Sadio Mane is an important player in our squad, it is important to continue to follow his injury, hoping that in two or three weeks there will be progress. But we are really optimistic.

“We will give ourselves all the necessary means to allow Sadio Mane to recover.”

Mane’s fitness has been a major cause of concern in Senegal, the current African champions, with state president Macky Sall tweeting on Wednesday: “Sadio, heart of a Lion! All my heart is with you!”

Senegal have been drawn in Group A and play the tournament opener against hosts Qatar on November 20, before going on to meet Netherlands and Ecuador.

The Ethiopian government said Friday its forces controlled 70 percent of the war-stricken northern region of Tigray and that aid was being sent in — claims swiftly denied by Tigrayan rebels.

The restoration of desperately needed humanitarian assistance to the region is one of the key planks of a peace deal between the federal government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) to end two years of brutal war in northern Ethiopia.

The contradictory claims come as representatives of the warring sides have been meeting in the Kenyan capital Nairobi to follow up on the breakthrough agreement signed in the South African capital Pretoria on November 2.

“70% of Tigray is under ENDF (Ethiopian National Defence Force),” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s national security adviser Redwan Hussein posted on Twitter.

“Aid is flowing like no other times,” he said, adding that trucks of food and medicine had been sent to the strategic city of Shire and that flights were being allowed.

“No hindrance whatsoever regarding aid.”

But the rebels denied Redwan’s assertions.

“He is plucking his facts out of thin air,” TPLF spokesman Getachew Reda told AFP in a message.

AFP was not able to independently verify the claims as Tigray — a region of about six million people — remains inaccessible to journalists.

Ethiopia’s northernmost region is in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis due to lack of food and medicine, and there is limited access to basic services including electricity, banking and communications.

Redwan’s comments were also dismissed by a humanitarian worker based in Tigray.

“What Redwan tweeted is completely false,” the worker told AFP. “No aid is allowed to enter Shire city at all.

“No services have been reconnected and no flights are allowed.”

– ‘Many dying of starvation’ –

The peace deal was signed after little more than a week of African Union-brokered negotiations between federal government and TPLF delegations.

It notably calls for the cessation of hostilities, restoration of humanitarian aid, the re-establishment of federal authority over Tigray and the disarming of TPLF fighters.

Military chiefs from the warring sides have been holding talks in Nairobi this week to discuss disarmament and the restoration of aid among other issues. 

The US State Department’s African bureau noted that Redwan had said in Nairobi that by week’s end humanitarian aid would flow “unhindered”.

“Vulnerable Ethiopians in Tigray, Afar, and Amhara need aid now,” it said on Twitter early Friday.

“Also restoration of services, protection of civilians & human rights accountability. Waiting urgently for actions to respect and implement the agreement.”

On Wednesday, the World Health Organization called for a massive influx of food and medicines into Tigray following the ceasefire deal, saying aid had not yet been allowed in.

“Many people are dying from treatable diseases. Many people are dying from starvation,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who hails from Tigray, told a press conference.

“Even in the middle of fighting, civilians need food, need medicine. It cannot be a condition.”

The conflict between the TPLF and pro-Abiy forces, which include regional militias and the Eritrean army, has caused an untold number of deaths, forced more than two million from their homes and sparked reports of horrific abuses such as rape and massacres.

Estimates of casualties vary widely, with the United States saying that as many as half a million people have died, while the EU’s foreign envoy Josep Borrell said that more than 100,000 people may have been killed.

UN-backed investigators have accused all sides of committing abuses but also charged that Addis Ababa had been using starvation as a weapon of war — claims denied by the Ethiopian authorities.

Abiy — a Nobel Peace Prize laureate — sent troops into Tigray on November 4, 2020 to topple the TPLF, the region’s ruling party, in response to what he said were attacks by the group on federal army camps.

The conflict capped months of simmering tensions between Abiy and the TPLF which has dominated the national government for almost three decades until he took office in 2018.

Heads turn and jaws drop when South African actor Kim Engelbrecht walks down a Cape Town street.

Born and raised in the picturesque city, the Emmy nominated actor, is a well-known face here. 

“My wife will be happy,” gleams a caretaker at the central Company’s Gardens park as he takes a selfie with the star. 

With navy blue eyes, high cheekbones and long brown hair, Engelbrecht, 42, poses patiently, smiles and thanks the fan. 

“People think they know you, it’s quite endearing this sense of familiarity,” she tells AFP, sporting a bright multi-coloured summer dress. 

“The South African audience has known me for a long time.” 

The actor started her long career in television as the host of a youth development show before getting her first movie role in an Italian production at the age of 12. 

Her breakthrough came with ‘Isidingo’, a popular dinnertime South African soap, on which she appeared for 12 years. 

But it was her first leading role — that of a criminal profiler investigating a string of murders in the sugar cane fields of the eastern KwaZulu-Natal province in the crime series ‘Reyka’ — that won her an Emmy nomination. 

Engelbrecht is up for the Best Performance by an Actress prize at the International Emmy Awards, which honour TV shows made outside the United States. 

‘Reyka’ which was shot during the coronavirus pandemic has also been nominated for Best Drama Series.

– ‘Dreams are valid’ –

“In the middle of Covid, filming a female-led drama series, it was a big deal for me,” Engelbrecht says of her role. 

Only the fifth African female actor ever to receive a nomination, she says she hopes her career will help motivate other young South Africans chase their dreams.

“Your dreams are valid. Hard work and dedication don’t go unnoticed,” she says. 

The nomination is “also an opportunity for people to see what South Africa is, what South Africa is about, to understand our cadence and who we are as a people,” she says.

Winners of the accolade are to be announced at a ceremony in New York on November 21.

Engelbrecht has already had a taste of Hollywood, having starred in superhero TV series ‘The Flash’ and sci-fi drama ‘Raised by Wolves’ produced by Ridley Scott. 

Yet, the actor who grew up in the working-class suburb of Belhar, east of Cape Town, is keen to continue work in her homeland. 

“I enjoy working in South Africa, these are my roots, this is who I am,” she says.

Since her nomination she has received many scripts, and would like to have a go at comedy. 

“Why not?” she says with a smile, signalling with a wave of her hand to some park walkers who had stopped upon seeing cameras that they are welcome to pass through. 

The Ethiopian government said Friday that 70 percent of the war-stricken northern region of Tigray was now under federal army control.

“70% of Tigray is under ENDF (Ethiopian National Defence Force),” Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s national security adviser Redwan Hussein posted on Twitter.

“Aid is flowing like no other times,” he said, adding that trucks of food and medicine had been sent to the strategic city of Shire.

AFP was not able to independently verify the claims, which come after the government and the rebel Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) reached a deal on November 2 aimed at ending their brutal two-year conflict.

Access to northern Ethiopia remains severely restricted and Tigray, which has a population of about six million people, is still inaccessible to journalists.

The northernmost region is in the grip of a severe humanitarian crisis due to lack of food and medicine, and there is limited access to basic services including electricity, banking and communications.

The breakthrough peace deal was signed in the South African capital Pretoria after little more than a week of negotiations brokered by the African Union between the federal government and TPLF delegations.

It notably calls for the cessation of hostilities, restoration of humanitarian aid, the re-establishment of federal authority over Tigray and the disarming of TPLF fighters.

The World Health Organization on Wednesday called for a massive influx of food and medicines into Tigray following the ceasefire deal, saying desperately-needed aid had not yet been allowed in.

“Many people are dying from treatable diseases. Many people are dying from starvation,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who hails from Tigray, told a press conference.

“Even in the middle of fighting, civilians need food, need medicine. It cannot be a condition.”

Talks have been under way in the Kenyan capital Nairobi this week between representatives of the warring sides to follow up on the Pretoria deal.

The meetings were due to discuss the disarmament of the rebels, while the AU said they should also provide a “roadmap” for immediate humanitarian access and restoration of services” in Tigray.

The conflict between the TPLF and pro-Abiy forces, which include regional militias and the Eritrean army, has caused an untold number of deaths, forced more than two million from their homes and sparked reports of horrific abuses by all parties.

Estimates of casualties vary widely, with the United States saying that as many as half a million people have died, while the EU’s foreign envoy Josep Borrell said that more than 100,000 people may have been killed.

UN investigators have accused Addis Ababa of possible crimes against humanity in Tigray and of using starvation as a weapon of war — claims denied by the Ethiopian authorities.

Abiy — a Nobel Peace Prize laureate — sent troops into Tigray on November 4, 2020 to topple the TPLF, the region’s ruling party, in response to what he said were attacks by the group on federal army camps.