Africa Business

With less than 10 months to go to the Rugby World Cup hosts France welcome holders South Africa to Marseille on Saturday but the home side are refusing the title of tournament “favourites” despite a record 11-match unbeaten run.

Les Bleus’ impressive stretch of victories goes back to July 2021 and includes a convincing win over New Zealand and a first Six Nations Grand Slam success in more than a decade.

Head coach Fabien Galthie has turned an under-performing outfit stuck in the middle of inconsistent selection and in-fighting between Top 14 clubs and the federation to second in the world rankings since he took over after the 2019 World Cup.

“The notion of favourites is so subjective,” France team manager Raphael Ibanez told reporters this week.

“We leave other nations the statute of favourites. 

“They’re just words, what’s important is action,” the former Test hooker added.

Galthie’s team have played against and beaten every side in the top 10 in the world over the past three years, apart from the Springboks, who last lost to Les Bleus in 2009.

“South Africa, we love them. The South Africans, this team’s story, we’ve followed it since after the World Cup,” Galthie said.

“We have great respect for them, what they do is marvellous, sublime in our opinion,” he added. 

A big part of the Boks’ success in the World Cup was their ‘Bomb Squad’, six heavy forwards coming off the bench, something which Galthie has attempted to replicate during his tenure.

This weekend, Galthie will hand Montpellier’s 121kg lock Bastien Chalureau a debut as a replacement alongside 135kg second-row Romain Taofifenua with just two backs among his substitutes.

“Our wish is to have a solid front five starting and a solid front five to finish the match,” Galthie said.

“The question was asked for the 5-3 split but when a guy like Bastien presents himself we felt it was important to open the door and give him a shirt,” the former France captain added.

– ‘Unlock’ France –

Galthie’s counterpart Jacques Nienaber has reshuffled his back-three for the game, with 33-year-old Willie le Roux coming in at full-back to deal with the hosts’ intelligent kicking game.

“Everybody’s trying to unlock France at this stage, but nobody’s found the recipe,” Nienaber said.

“That’s the challenge for us as coaches and players,” he added.

Les Bleus’ results have been built on playing without the ball, discipline and a steely defence.

During their winning streak, a 1930s record beaten with last weekend’s win over Australia, they have conceded more than two tries in a game just twice, against the All Blacks and the only side ranked above them, Ireland.

“They’re quite a stingy team, they don’t allow teams to get close to their half with their kicking game,” Nienaber said.

“When you do get there, they are a really well-organised defensive side,” he added.

This week, Nienaber’s outfit have licked their wounds after last Saturday’s loss in Ireland on the Mediterranean coast, where they will be based before next year’s tournament.

They will start the defence of the Webb Ellis trophy in a matter of months at the Stade Velodrome against Scotland and they also face Tonga at the home of France’s only Champions League winners during the pool stages.

“We’re fortunate to experience for a week what we will experience in the World Cup for up to six weeks,” Nienaber said.

“Toulon have world-class facilities.

“It’s nice for us to familiarise ourselves with the travel times, the fields, the facilities,” he added.

A sister of Egypt’s jailed dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah quickly disputed a claim by the prosecutor Thursday that the hunger striker was in “good health,” as fear mounts that he is being force-fed.

Relatives have repeatedly demanded information on the health of the British-Egyptian activist in recent days, after he escalated his months-long hunger strike and stopped even drinking water as the COP27 climate summit opened in the North African nation on Sunday.

Late Thursday, the Egyptian prosecutor contended that “all his vital signs… are normal,” and that he “is in good health and does not need to be transferred to hospital.”

“Lie!”, responded the activist’s sister Mona Seif on Facebook, adding that the authorities were forcibly intervening to “deny” his hunger strike “so that he won’t die”.

The White House expressed “deep concern” about Abdel Fattah, after the activist’s lawyer said he had been refused access to him, despite being authorised for such a visit by the interior ministry.

Abdel Fattah’s mother Laila Soueif, who has likewise tried to access the Wadi al-Natroun prison north of Cairo, was informed that “medical intervention was taken… with the knowledge of judicial entities”, the activist’s sister Mona Seif wrote on Twitter.

“They should allow our mother to see him immediately and see for herself how he is,” Seif added.

Abdel Fattah, a veteran pro-democracy and rights campaigner, is serving a five-year prison sentence for “spreading false news” by sharing a Facebook post about police brutality.

– ‘Free him’ –

International concern has mounted since the 40-year-old also began declining liquids on Sunday.

On Thursday, an officer told the activist’s mother that he was “under medical intervention”. Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the country’s largest rights group, said that statement “means he is being force-fed”.

Amnesty International said they were “worried” that medical decisions for Abdel Fattah were “not made by independent doctors free from interference and coercion by security”.

A key figure of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Abdel Fattah gained British citizenship this year.

The dissident’s aunt, novelist Ahdaf Soueif, earlier this week said the family was concerned about “rumours of force-feeding and of sleep-inducing drugs”.

Soueif demanded that he be moved to the Qasr al-Aini University Hospital, Cairo’s largest state medical facility, fearing the prison hospital “is probably not equipped” to care for a patient who has been living for months “on 100 calories a day”.

Abdel Fattah’s lawyer, Khaled Alia, said Thursday that “the interior ministry refused to implement the prosecutor’s permit for us to visit Alaa under the pretext that the permit was dated” the day before.

Also on Thursday, US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan announced that the White House had been in “high-level” communication with Egypt’s government, expressing “deep concern” and a desire to see Abdel Fattah freed.  

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz had already voiced their own concern during the climate summit and called for his release.

United Nations rights chief Volker Turk has warned Abdel Fattah’s “life is in great danger”.

On Thursday, hundreds of COP27 participants, dressed in white like Egyptian prisoners, chanted “Free him!” and “no climate justice without human rights!”.

Others shouted “Free them all!” in reference to the 60,000 political detainees rights groups say are incarcerated in the country, many of them in brutal conditions and overcrowded cells — accusations which Cairo rejects.

– Protest call –

Abdel Fattah’s case and the wider rights situation are intensely sensitive in Egypt, ranked 135 out of 140 countries in the World Justice Project’s rule of law index.

As international criticism of Egypt mounts, a counter-campaign has grown.

One Egyptian lawmaker protested during a press conference by Sanaa Seif, Alaa Abdel Fattah’s other sister, at COP27 — before being expelled by UN security — and another has called on parliament to protest.

Egypt’s mission in Geneva criticised the intervention by the UN’s Turk, saying his “characterisation of a judicial decision as ‘unfair’ is an unacceptable insult”.

A lawyer has also filed a complaint against Sanaa Seif for “conspiracy with foreigners” and “false information”, according to activists.

The prosecution has yet to decide on the complaint, the same potential charge of spreading “false information” that Abdel Fattah himself was jailed for.

He had shared a post — written by someone else — accusing an officer of killing an inmate under torture.

A call for protests in Egypt on Friday circulated on social media on Thursday, and rights group Amnesty noted that Egyptian police deployments were being reinforced.   

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate on Thursday urged US President Joe Biden to help those most affected by the ravages of global warming, a day before his arrival for UN climate talks in Egypt.

Nakate, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations’ children’s fund UNICEF, urged Biden to listen to climate science and those “on the frontlines of this crisis”.

She also called for fossil fuels to be phased out and funding to help vulnerable countries cope with accelerating climate impacts.

“The world needs the United States to be a climate leader in our fight for climate justice,” the 25-year-old told AFP in an interview at the COP27 climate conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. 

“The message is for President Biden to stand with the people on the planet and the coming generations.”

Inspired by Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, Nakate — who founded the Rise Up Climate Movement in her native Uganda — has become a prominent voice among global youth fighting for climate action and justice. 

Although she is unlikely to meet the US president in person during his fleeting trip to the two-week climate talks, Nakate urged Biden to summon the “political will” to support communities most affected by the snowballing impacts caused by a warming world. 

This year alone has seen a barrage of extreme heat waves and crop-withering droughts across the world, while catastrophic floods have swept Pakistan and Nigeria. 

Floods had also ripped through Nakate’s own region in Uganda, she said.  

“When you look at all these crises that are happening and they are just around you in your community, you have no choice but to come here and believe that another world is not only necessary but it’s also possible,” she said.  

– ‘Cannot eat coal’ –

Thunberg has snubbed the UN talks in Egypt — billed as an “Africa COP” — over concerns about restrictions for campaigners. 

But Nakate said she had been compelled to attend because of the growing harm suffered by people in the global south, adding that activists were using social media and interviews in the press to keep up the pressure on leaders.

She said it was more important than ever “to hold our leaders accountable and to remind them that we cannot eat coal, we cannot drink oil and we cannot breathe gas”. 

In a world gripped by energy, food and inflation crises — fuelled by climate impacts, the war in Ukraine, and the pandemic — the challenges of soaring prices are too often seen only through the eyes of wealthier nations, Nakate said.

“In countries like Uganda, many people are being impacted and suffering because, as the fuel prices rise, transportation rises, food prices rise as well,” she said, adding that many people “just don’t know how to keep up with it”.

She called for the international community to step up investments that address energy poverty in Africa and support the shift to renewable power. 

“If there is no climate finance to support that transition, many of our countries are being pressured into taking money from fossil fuel companies so that they can lift their communities out of energy poverty,” she said. 

In her role for UNICEF, Nakate has recently visited communities affected by the devastating drought in the Horn of Africa, where millions are on the brink of starvation, including children.

These tragedies can reverberate for many years throughout an individual’s life, even generations, Nakate said. 

But she noted that Biden and the other world leaders who have travelled to Egypt this week should understand that their positive actions also have the potential to echo into the future.  

“I’ve heard of something called the butterfly effect, whereby just one thing that may seem like a small action can end up affecting the lives of so many people,” she said, adding that leaders have a choice whether their effect is positive or negative. 

“If it’s to be positive, then one action right now will benefit not only our generation, but also the coming generations,” she said.

Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate on Thursday urged US President Joe Biden to help those most affected by the ravages of global warming, a day before his arrival for UN climate talks in Egypt.

Nakate, a Goodwill Ambassador for the United Nations’ children’s fund UNICEF, urged Biden to listen to climate science and those “on the frontlines of this crisis”.

She also called for fossil fuels to be phased out and funding to help vulnerable countries cope with accelerating climate impacts.

“The world needs the United States to be a climate leader in our fight for climate justice,” the 25-year-old told AFP in an interview at the COP27 climate conference in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh. 

“The message is for President Biden to stand with the people on the planet and the coming generations.”

Inspired by Sweden’s Greta Thunberg, Nakate — who founded the Rise Up Climate Movement in her native Uganda — has become a prominent voice among global youth fighting for climate action and justice. 

Although she is unlikely to meet the US president in person during his fleeting trip to the two-week climate talks, Nakate urged Biden to summon the “political will” to support communities most affected by the snowballing impacts caused by a warming world. 

This year alone has seen a barrage of extreme heat waves and crop-withering droughts across the world, while catastrophic floods have swept Pakistan and Nigeria. 

Floods had also ripped through Nakate’s own region in Uganda, she said.  

“When you look at all these crises that are happening and they are just around you in your community, you have no choice but to come here and believe that another world is not only necessary but it’s also possible,” she said.  

– ‘Cannot eat coal’ –

Thunberg has snubbed the UN talks in Egypt — billed as an “Africa COP” — over concerns about restrictions for campaigners. 

But Nakate said she had been compelled to attend because of the growing harm suffered by people in the global south, adding that activists were using social media and interviews in the press to keep up the pressure on leaders.

She said it was more important than ever “to hold our leaders accountable and to remind them that we cannot eat coal, we cannot drink oil and we cannot breathe gas”. 

In a world gripped by energy, food and inflation crises — fuelled by climate impacts, the war in Ukraine, and the pandemic — the challenges of soaring prices are too often seen only through the eyes of wealthier nations, Nakate said.

“In countries like Uganda, many people are being impacted and suffering because, as the fuel prices rise, transportation rises, food prices rise as well,” she said, adding that many people “just don’t know how to keep up with it”.

She called for the international community to step up investments that address energy poverty in Africa and support the shift to renewable power. 

“If there is no climate finance to support that transition, many of our countries are being pressured into taking money from fossil fuel companies so that they can lift their communities out of energy poverty,” she said. 

In her role for UNICEF, Nakate has recently visited communities affected by the devastating drought in the Horn of Africa, where millions are on the brink of starvation, including children.

These tragedies can reverberate for many years throughout an individual’s life, even generations, Nakate said. 

But she noted that Biden and the other world leaders who have travelled to Egypt this week should understand that their positive actions also have the potential to echo into the future.  

“I’ve heard of something called the butterfly effect, whereby just one thing that may seem like a small action can end up affecting the lives of so many people,” she said, adding that leaders have a choice whether their effect is positive or negative. 

“If it’s to be positive, then one action right now will benefit not only our generation, but also the coming generations,” she said.

Mali’s army and jihadist groups have carried out massacres and hundreds of human rights violations, the UN said in a report that details previously undocumented abuses against civilians.

The UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) report, seen by AFP on Thursday, catalogues 375 rights violations in the country between July and September, attributing 163 to jihadist groups and 162 to the Malian army.

It added 33 were carried out by militias, and 17 by armed groups which signed a 2015 peace agreement in northern Mali.

The report details for the first time several abuses that had been impossible to report on previously because of challenges on the ground.

It said 14 dead bodies were found in Gassel village in the Douentza region on September 12 “with their hands tied behind their backs”, a few hours after the army and “foreign military personnel” had arrested them.

Bamako denies a military operation in Gassel, the UN said. 

Five days later, in the central Malian town of Gouni, “foreign military personnel accompanied by traditional hunters” killed “around fifty people, of whom 43 were formally identified”, the report said.

It added that Bamako had launched an investigation. Mali’s junta, which seized power in 2020, often claims it carries out probes, but the results are very rarely made public.

At the start of September, the report says, 12 women were raped in Tandiama and Nia Ouro in the Mopti region of central Mali as part of a joint operation between the Malian army, foreign military personnel and traditional hunters.

Five people from Nia Ouro, including the village chief and imam, have also been missing since the operation after being taken to a nearby military camp, the UN said. 

Bamako said it was “not aware of the facts reported”, adding tat an investigation was under way.

The report follows others published by the UN and independent experts it has commissioned documenting abuses by the Malian army with foreign support.

The alleged presence of mercenaries from the Wagner group, which has not been officially acknowledged by Bamako, is widely criticised by human rights groups and Mali’s partners.

The violations the UN attributes to the army took place in central Mali, where the military has been conducting a large-scale operation since the start of the year.

The army has previously been accused of massacring civilians, including in Moura and Hombori. 

The abuses attributed to jihadist groups — some affiliated with Al-Qaeda and others with the Islamic State group — have almost all taken place in Mali’s northeast where there has been frequent fighting since March.

The Ukraine war has shown the heavy toll military conflict takes not just on people but also on the planet, say experts at the UN climate summit in Egypt.

From the emissions caused by diesel-powered tanks, fighter jets and missile blasts to urban and forest fires and massive waves of refugees, the conflict has also spewed out huge amounts of greenhouse gases.

“This is a field of significant emissions and nobody has really dealt with this problem,” said Axel Michaelowa, head of the University of Zurich’s International Climate Policy research group.

Russia’s invasion has plunged Ukraine into misery, heightened geopolitical tensions, driven up global energy and food prices and distracted the world community from the urgent need for climate action.

A fast-heating world “cannot afford a single gunshot”, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told the COP27, arguing that the aggressors “are destroying the world’s ability to work united for a common goal”.

But, aside from such massive global shockwaves, the actual carbon footprint of war — and of peacetime armies — is also enormous, experts have argued, while acknowledging that so far they lack precise data.

Estimates of planet-warming emissions from the world’s militaries range between one and five percent of the global total, according to a commentary published in the journal Nature last week.

That can be compared to shipping or aviation — both around two percent, according to the paper led by researchers in Britain.

If the US military, the world’s biggest by expenditure, were a country, it would have the world’s highest per capita emissions, at 42 tonnes of CO2 equivalent per member of its personnel.

When one of its F-35 fighter planes flies 100 nautical miles, it hurls into the atmosphere as much CO2 as the average British petrol car does in a year, the experts wrote.

– ‘Conflicts past and present’ –

Ukraine has started to calculate emissions linked directly and indirectly to the invasion launched by Russia on February 24, a first for a country at war.

Fires in buildings, forests and fields sent into the skies 23.8 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, and the fighting itself 8.9 million tonnes, according to the project called the Initiative on GHG Accounting of War.

The displacement of people caused 1.4 million tonnes, said the project created two months into the war, while reconstruction of destroyed infrastructure will cause another 48.7 million tonnes of carbon emissions.

The total comes to nearly 83 million tonnes as a direct consequence of the war, now in its eighth month — compared to around 100 million tonnes produced from all sources by the Netherlands over the same period, according to the initiative.

“It shows us how much we are missing from other conflicts past and present,” said Deborah Burton, co-founder of the group Tipping Point North South. “We have not had this level of detail on Iraq or Syria or other conflicts.”

The authors of the Nature commentary argued it is high time to address the issue.

“Why are reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and United Nations climate summits silent on military emissions?” they wrote. 

“The short answer is politics, and a lack of expertise.”

– ‘Blind spot’ –

Ukraine’s project aims to remedy this “sort of blind spot” in the calculation of global emissions, said Lennard de Klerk, a private-sector specialist on carbon emissions who took part in the initiative. 

The experts of the Nature commentary hope the COP27 and next year’s climate conference in Dubai will bring “opportunities to formalise this change”. 

“The best step in our view would be to actually bring this directly to the IPCC process,” Michaelowa told AFP.

“The challenge is that military data are usually kept confidential, but there are possibilities to actually find proxies.

“You know which aircraft are operating in which area, you have an idea of the emission intensity of certain types of vehicles,” explained Michaelowa.

“So, by using proxy data, you should be able to have estimates of military emissions that are at least accurate in the level of plus or minus 10-20 percent.”

The Nature authors argued that carbon emissions “must be officially recognised and accurately reported in national inventories, and military operations need to be decarbonised”.

“Military emissions need to be put on the global agenda.”

A Kenyan court on Thursday dropped a $60 million corruption case against new President William Ruto’s right-hand man Rigathi Gachagua.

The decision was announced by Nairobi anti-corruption court magistrate Victor Wakumile after prosecutors applied to withdraw the case against Gachagua and nine other people because of a lack of evidence.

The deputy president was charged last year in the 7.3 billion shilling ($60 million) case on six counts including money laundering, fraudulent acquisition of public property, conflict of interest and conspiracy to defraud.

Wakumile rebuked the prosecution for filing cases when it did not have sufficient information to sustain charges, saying the judicial system should not be treated as a “doormat”.

He ordered that bail of 12 million shillings (about $99,000) be returned to Gachagua as well as his passport.

An investigating officer, Obadiah Kuriah, filed a court affidavit last month claiming he was coerced by the former director of criminal investigations George Kinoti to fabricate evidence in the case.

Kinoti resigned soon after Ruto’s administration took power following the August election, with both the president and his deputy accusing him of using his office to punish politicians who were critical of the former government.

However, Ruto’s defeated rival in the close-fought presidential race, Raila Odinga, lashed out Thursday at what he said was the willingness of the judiciary “to dance to the tune of the executive”.

Less than two weeks before Kenya went to the polls, a court had ordered the 57-year-old Gachagua to forfeit the equivalent of almost $1.7 million that had been frozen in the corruption probe.

At the time, the judge ruled that Gachagua had failed to explain the source of the money found in his bank account and should therefore surrender it to the state.

Gachagua had dismissed the decision, accusing the judge of “conducting a sham trial”.

The family of Egypt’s jailed dissident Alaa Abdel Fattah said Thursday prison authorities had told them he is “under medical intervention”, as fear mounts that he is being force-fed.

The family have repeatedly demanded information on the health of the British-Egyptian activist in recent days, after he escalated his months-long hunger strike to include water.

On Thursday, his lawyer said he had been refused access to him by the prison where he is held, despite being authorised to do so by the interior ministry.

Abdel Fattah’s mother Laila Soueif, who has likewise tried to access the Wadi al-Natroun prison north of Cairo, was informed that “medical intervention was taken… with the knowledge of judicial entities”, the activist’s sister Mona Seif wrote on Twitter.

“They should allow our mother to see him immediately and see for herself how he is,” Seif added.

Abdel Fattah, a veteran pro-democracy and rights campaigner, is serving a five-year prison sentence for “spreading false news” by sharing a Facebook post about police brutality.

International concern has mounted since the 40-year-old also began declining liquids since Sunday, marking the start of the UN climate summit COP27 hosted by Egypt.

On Thursday, an officer told the activist’s mother that he was “under medical intervention”, but gave no other details.

Hossam Bahgat, founder of the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights (EIPR), the country’s largest rights group, said the prison officer statement “means he is being force-fed”.

Amnesty International said they were “worried” that medical decisions for Abdel Fattah were “not made by independent doctors free from interference and coercion by security”.

– ‘Hidden behind high walls’ –

A key figure of the 2011 uprising that toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Abdel Fattah gained British citizenship this year.

“Surely our mother should see him, or someone from @UKinEgypt (British embassy in Cairo) so we understand his real health status!!” Seif added on Twitter.

The dissident’s aunt, novelist Ahdaf Soueif, earlier this week said the family was concerned about “rumours of force-feeding and of sleep-inducing drugs”.

Soueif demanded that he be moved to the Qasr al-Aini University Hospital, Cairo’s largest state medical facility, fearing the prison hospital “is probably not equipped” to care for a patient who has been living for months “on 100 calories a day”.

Abdel Fattah’s lawyer, Khaled Alia, said Thursday that “the interior ministry refused to implement the prosecutor’s permit for us to visit Alaa under the pretext that the permit was dated” the day before.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz have all voiced concern during the climate summit and called for his release.

United Nations rights chief Volker Turk has warned Abdel Fattah’s “life is in great danger”.

Activists at the COP27 summit in Egypt’s Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh have posted widely on Twitter under the hashtag #FreeAlaa. Several figures have ended their speeches with the words “you have not yet been defeated” — the title of the jailed activist’s book.

On Thursday, hundreds of COP27 participants, dressed in white like Egyptian prisoners, chanted “Free him!” and “no climate justice without human rights!”.

Others shouted “Free them all!” in reference to the 60,000 political detainees rights groups say are incarcerated in the country, many of them in brutal conditions and overcrowded cells — accusations which Cairo rejects.

“We are carrying out this action to draw attention to those who are invisible, hidden behind high walls,” one of the organisers George Galvis said.

– ‘Unacceptable insult’ –

Abdel Fattah’s case and the wider rights situation are intensely sensitive in Egypt, ranked 135 out of 140 countries in the World Justice Project’s rule of law index.

As international criticism of Egypt mounts, a counter-campaign has grown.

One Egyptian lawmaker protested during a press conference by Sanaa Seif, Alaa Abdel Fattah’s other sister, at COP27 — before being expelled by UN security — and another has called on parliament to protest.

Egypt’s mission in Geneva slammed the intervention by the UN’s Turk, saying his “characterisation of a judicial decision as ‘unfair’ is an unacceptable insult”.

A lawyer has also filed a complaint against Sanaa Seif for “conspiracy with foreigners” and “false information”, according to activists.

The prosecution has yet to decide on the complaint, the same potential charge of spreading “false information” that Abdel Fattah himself was jailed for.

He had shared a post — written by someone else — accusing an officer of killing an inmate under torture.

Fossil fuel lobbyists have flooded UN climate talks in Egypt, a report by watchdog groups said Thursday, even as calls grow at the summit for a windfall tax on oil majors’ bumper profits.

More than 600 lobbyists from some of the world’s biggest polluters have registered to the climate talks in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, up 25 percent from last year, the analysis by groups including Global Witness and Corporate Accountability found.

That is more than the number of representatives from the 10 most climate-affected countries combined, they said.

“There’s been a lot of lip service paid to this being the so-called African COP, but how are you going to address the dire climate impacts on the continent when the fossil fuel delegation is larger than that of any African country?” said Philip Jakpor of Corporate Accountability.  

The groups scoured the official list of registered participants looking for those either directly affiliated with oil and gas companies, or people who are attending as part of delegations that “act on behalf of the fossil fuel industry”.

Last year at the UN climate meeting in Glasgow, they counted 503 fossil fuel lobbyists registered.

The groups called on the United Nations to restrict access to the talks for fossil fuel firms, which the UN chief Antonio Guterres has said are “poisoning our planet”.

They added that there are more fossil fuel lobbyists than any single national delegation, except for the United Arab Emirates — the host of next year’s talks — which has registered over a thousand delegates, 70 of whom are directly linked to fossil fuel interests.

– ‘Planet is burning’ –

Oil companies have scored tens of billions of dollars in profits this year as crude prices soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley called Monday for a 10 percent tax on oil companies to fund loss and damage.

Other small island nations threatened by rising seas caused by global warming joined her call on Tuesday.

“While they are profiting, the planet is burning,” said the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, adding that company profits should go towards the creation of a “loss and damage” fund to help vulnerable countries cope with the here-and-now impacts of climate change.

The Pacific island nation of Tuvalu became this week the second country to join calls for a fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty, an initiative that seeks to stop new investments in coal, oil and gas globally and phase out production.

Activists gathered for a small rally at the climate conference, calling for big emitters to be thrown out. 

“Polluters out! People in!” they chanted.  

COP presidency representative Ambassador Wael Aboulmagd said it was difficult to unpick exact numbers for lobbyists, adding that other high-emitting sectors such as the cement, fertilisers and steel industries were also present. 

The aim was to show that firms can cut their emissions, he said at the presidency’s “decarbonisation day”.

“The context isn’t going to be to allow anyone to come and pretend they’re doing something,” he told reporters. 

Some fossil fuel delegates said it was legitimate for them to represent their interests at the talks.  

“We have no apology for our position here,” Omar Farouk Ibrahim, head of the African petroleum producers organisation, told AFP. 

Sadio Mane will be included in Senegal’s squad for the World Cup despite suffering a leg injury this week, a source within the country’s football federation told AFP on Thursday.

“One thing is certain, Sadio Mane will be on the list tomorrow,” the source said, with coach Aliou Cisse set to announce his squad on Friday.

Mane, who finished second in this year’s Ballon d’Or voting behind Karim Benzema, limped off during Bayern Munich’s 6-1 win over Werder Bremen on Tuesday.

He was diagnosed with an injury to his right fibula. Bayern said he would undergo further tests in the coming days. 

According to the source, Mane “remains calm, he’s professional, he knows that injury is part of the job.”

The 30-year-old scored the winning penalty as Senegal won their first Africa Cup of Nations title in February, beating Egypt in a shootout in the final.

Mane also converted the decisive spot-kick in the World Cup play-off the following month as Senegal again defeated Egypt on penalties.

He has been ruled out of Bayern’s final game before the World Cup against Schalke on Saturday. 

The Senegal team doctor, Manuel Afonso, has flown to Munich to assess the extent of Mane’s injury.

But Senegal hope their talisman will be fit in time for their opening game of the tournament on November 21 against the Netherlands.

The Lions of Teranga will also take on hosts Qatar and Ecuador in Group A.

Mane, the two-time African player of the year, is pivotal to the African champions’ hopes of progressing to the knockout stages. 

Senegal President Macky Sall on Wednesday tweeted: “Sadio, I wish you a speedy recovery.” 

“Sadio, heart of a Lion! All my heart is with you!” he added.

Augustin Senghor, president of the Senegalese football federation, told AFP he was “worried”.

“We cross our fingers, we have been worried since we received the news.”