Africa Business

Sudanese police fired tear gas in the capital Khartoum on Saturday in an attempt to disperse hundreds of pro-democracy protesters demonstrating against coup leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, AFP correspondents reported.

Security forces had erected road blocks on bridges crossing the Nile river linking Khartoum to its suburbs, AFP reporters said, to deter protesters who had vowed to take to the streets in large numbers.

The demonstrators oppose Burhan’s October power-grab and are also highlighting heavy fighting in Sudan’s southern Blue Nile state, about 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of Khartoum.

They accuse the military leadership and the ex-rebel leaders who signed a 2020 peace deal of exacerbating ethnic tensions there for personal gain.

Sudan’s latest coup derailed a transition to civilian rule, sparking near-weekly protests and a crackdown by security forces that has left at least 114 killed, according to pro-democracy medics.

Nine were killed on June 30, the medics said, when tens of thousands had gathered and their deaths reinvigorated the movement.

On July 4, Burhan vowed in a surprise move to make way for a civilian government.

But the country’s main civilian umbrella group rejected the move as a “ruse”. Protesters have continued to press the army chief to resign.

The rallies on Sunday follow a period of relative calm over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which ended last week.

Protesters in Khartoum held signs noting the recent bloodshed in ethnic clashes in the south of the country.

“Al-Damazin is bleeding,” one Khartoum protester’s sign read on Sunday, referring to the state capital of Blue Nile.

Troops were deployed in the Blue Nile town of Al-Roseires Sunday, after at least 33 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in the state, according to the health ministry.

Guerrillas in Blue Nile battled former strongman president Omar al-Bashir during Sudan’s 1983-2005 civil war, picking up weapons again in 2011.

Bashir was ousted in 2019. The following year, the transitional administration reached a peace deal with key rebel groups, including from Blue Nile as well as the war-ravaged western Darfur region.

But the areas remain awash with weapons and local grievances over land, water and livestock regularly erupt into deadly clashes.

The current violence in Blue Nile is between two local ethnic groups, the Berti and the Hausa.

Sudanese police and soldiers deployed in large numbers Sunday across the capital Khartoum, ahead of mass protests planned by pro-democracy groups against coup leader General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan.

Security forces erected road blocks on bridges crossing the Nile river linking Khartoum to its suburbs, AFP reporters said.

Undeterred, protesters vowed to take to the streets in large numbers following a period of relative calm over the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha which ended early last week.

The demonstrators oppose Burhan’s October power-grab and are also highlighting heavy fighting in Sudan’s southern Blue Nile state, about 450 kilometres (280 miles) south of Khartoum.

Sudan’s latest coup derailed a transition to civilian rule, sparking near-weekly protests and a crackdown by security forces that has left at least 114 killed, according to pro-democracy medics.

Nine were killed on June 30, the medics said, when tens of thousands had gathered and their deaths reinvigorated the movement.

On July 4, Burhan vowed in a surprise move to make way for a civilian government.

But the country’s main civilian umbrella group rejected the move as a “ruse”. Protesters have continued to press the army chief to resign.

They accuse the military leadership now in power and the ex-rebel leaders who signed a 2020 peace deal of exacerbating ethnic tensions for personal gain.

In Blue Nile on Sunday, witnesses reported troops deployed in the town of Al-Roseires, after at least 33 people were killed and more than 100 wounded in violence between rival ethnic groups, according to the health ministry.

Guerrillas in Blue Nile battled former strongman president Omar al-Bashir during Sudan’s 1983-2005 civil war, picking up weapons again in 2011.

Bashir was ousted in 2019. The following year, the transitional administration reached a peace deal with key rebel groups, including from Blue Nile as well as the war-ravaged western Darfur region.

The current violence in Blue Nile is between two local groups, the Berti and the Hausa.

When Muhammed Sandeng first learned that his father, political activist Ebrima Solo Sandeng, had been tortured to death at the Gambian national spy agency’s headquarters, he felt one emotion above all else.

“It was all fear — fear, fear, fear — you had to be wise for your life because you didn’t know what would happen,” the student, 19 at the time, told AFP.

On Wednesday, Sandeng felt something new, “fulfilment and relief”, after the High Court of Banjul found five ex-intelligence officials guilty of the 2016 murder.

His father’s violent death was one of the most high-profile abuses committed under ex-president Yahya Jammeh’s brutal 22-year regime and galvanised a political movement that eventually ousted the dictator.

The former head of the National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Yankuba Badjie, its former operations chief, Sheikh Omar Jeng, and former officials Babucarr Sallah, Lamin Darboe and Tamba Mansary were all handed death sentences.

They will be converted to life sentences because The Gambia has a moratorium on executions.

“We were always there, during the preliminaries, and listening to all of those (hearings) was not easy — it was painful and made us relive most of the trauma,” said Sandeng, now 25.

“The persistence has paid off.” 

– ‘Beginning of the end’ –

Solo Sandeng, a key member of the opposition United Democratic Party (UDP), was arrested at an April 2016 anti-Jammeh protest and died in custody two days later.

According to Abdoulie Fatty, a Gambian lawyer, that was “the beginning of the end” for the dictator, who is accused of committing a litany of crimes, including rape, witch hunts and forcing bogus cures on AIDS patients.

The killing encouraged the political opposition to unite behind Adama Barrow, who beat Jammeh in the December 2016 presidential election.

Launched in 2017, the trial was fraught with tension, reflected by brawls outside the court.

The accused blamed Solo Sandeng’s murder on Jammeh’s private death squad despite it taking place on the intelligence agency’s grounds.

Witnesses recounted how men took turns beating him in custody “until his whole body was bleeding and blood was coming out from his head”.

“These were people who symbolised Jammeh’s dictatorship — the NIA symbolised Jammeh’s dictatorship,” said Fatty.

Badjie, the agency’s director, was “probably the second most powerful individual in the country”, he added.

On Wednesday, security guards had to remove several members of the public when shouting broke out after the guilty verdicts were pronounced.

– Scepticism –

The ruling offers some hope to other Jammeh-era victims.

“For me, personally, as a victim, it means a lot,” said Isatou Jammeh, whose own father — Yahya Jammeh’s brother — disappeared and was later killed after challenging the ex-president.

“Seeing them sentenced means that there is rule of law, and it serves as an example to all those who have committed gruesome crimes,” she said.

But the Solo Sandeng case was an outlier — one of only two domestic trials tied to Jammeh-era crimes.

After it began, the justice ministry opted to wait for a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparations Commission (TRRC) to conclude before launching other investigations.

“The TRRC was not a judicial body and it’s the state’s responsibility to conduct prompt and impartial investigations in parallel,” said Nana-Jo N’dow, a campaigner whose father disappeared in 2013.

In May, following the publication of the TRRC’s final report, the government vowed to prosecute Jammeh, who remains in exile in Equatorial Guinea, and more than 200 others accused of abuses. 

But victims’ groups say it has not shown how it will make good on those promises. 

“In the meantime, Jammeh allies are in positions of power in Gambia,” N’dow said. 

President Barrow, who was re-elected in December, last year formed a political alliance with Jammeh’s former party and has since nominated two of his supporters as speaker and deputy speaker of parliament.

– ‘We will get him’ –

In late May, Barrow travelled to Equatorial Guinea, but there was little mention of Jammeh during his talks with President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo, a government spokesman said.

The state says it has hired foreign and domestic lawyers to work on trying the ex-president, and in mid-June the Justice Ministry said it would suspend any current state employees accused of abuses in the TRRC report.

A ministry spokesman on Friday did not respond to requests to confirm whether those suspensions had taken place.

But in late June, the Attorney General indicated to a parliamentary committee that the government presently lacks the financial resources to implement the TRRC recommendations.

“There’s more that needs to be done around security reforms and institutional reforms,” said Muhammed Sandeng.

But as for Jammeh, he said: “It is very evident that justice is catching up on him and surely, sooner or later, we will get him.”

South Africans’ annoyance at power cuts has given way to worry, with business owners complaining that the prolonged energy crisis for which no end is in sight is eating into profits and hobbling economic activity.

At Native Rebels, a colourful second-floor bar flanked with a large balcony in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, the cost of running a generator to keep lights on for weeks has been a huge burden, co-owner Masechaba Nonyane told AFP.

“We thought Covid was bad… now that has been replaced with eight hours of no power,” the 33-year-old entrepreneur said. 

“It’s been really, really crippling,” she added.

Scheduled blackouts, known locally as load shedding, have burdened the country for years but recently reached new extremes.

This month, the country has endured almost two weeks of stage-6 load shedding, which entails multiple power cuts a day, each lasting between two and four hours.

Each of the up to eight stages of load shedding costs the country’s economy an additional R500 million (US$29 million) a day in lost activity, according to government estimates.

The crisis was exacerbated by a labour dispute at monopoly power provider Eskom’s coal plants.

The dispute was resolved earlier this month as Eskom agreed to a pay raise for its striking workers –- but power cuts have yet to significantly abate.

– Load shedding = job shedding –

“Load shedding will lead to further job losses, which will lead to lower production. It will affect spending. It will further affect economic growth,” said Ismail Fasanya, senior lecturer of economics at the University of the Witwatersrand.

Firms have had to spend money on generators, raising the cost of running a business –- something that risks dissuading local entrepreneurs looking to start new ventures as well as foreign investors, said Fasanya.

The impact on jobs is particularly worrying in a country grappling with 34.5 percent unemployment in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, he said.

Addressing the South African Communist Party congress on Friday, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who has been under pressure to resolve the issue, said he would soon be announcing measures to tackle the crisis.

While details remain unclear, the president said one solution might entail setting up other state-owned power utility firms to compete with Eskom, which currently generates more than 90 percent of the country’s energy.

“We have to use every available means and remove every regulatory obstacle to bring extra electricity onto the grid as soon as possible,” Ramaphosa said.

– ‘Very worried’ –

Energy experts and even debt-ridden Eskom have called for rapid government investment in renewables, particularly solar, as the best option to quickly boost energy production.

“That will go a long way for (supporting) small businesses and reducing job loss,” Fasanya said. 

In May, Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe told parliament that while renewables are slated for procurement, gas, coal and nuclear projects are also in the pipeline.

Whether those measures come fast enough to keep businesses from closing their doors remains to be seen. 

In Soweto, bar owner Nonyane said she’s already had staff close up early on slow nights to reduce diesel consumption. 

“I’m very worried about how we’re going to survive, I’m worried for people’s jobs, how many people we can save,” she said. 

“If people are not working and they are not getting an income, you’re in a lot of trouble as a country.”

Morocco has detained a seventh suspect in a sexual abuse and trafficking case against French insurance tycoon Jacques Bouthier, while a seventh woman has lodged a case against him, lawyers said Saturday.

Bouthier, 75 and one of France’s richest men, is being held in Paris on suspicion of child rape and trafficking.

He is also under investigation in Morocco along with several of his employees, for alleged “people trafficking, sexual harassment and verbal and moral violence”.

“In total, seven cases are now pending against Bouthier and his accomplices” in Morocco, lawyer Abdelfattah Zahrach told a news conference in the northern city of Tangiers.

“The victims have decided to break the silence, and others will follow.”

Aicha Guellaa of the Moroccan Association for the Rights of Victims (AMDV), also a lawyer, said a French national, the seventh suspect to be detained in Morocco, was remanded in custody and set to appear before prosecutors on Saturday.

Five employees of Bouthier’s insurance group Assu2000, later renamed Vilavi, were detained in Tangiers on July 6, while a sixth was charged but released.

Sexual abuse victims in Morocco often face social stigma, but five young women appeared at Saturday’s press conference, wearing dark glasses to hide their identities. 

Those who spoke said they had faced intimidation in the media and online.

“The nightmare continues. They have threatened us, insulted us and even tried to bribe us, but without success,” one said.

The alleged victims say they had faced repeated sexual harassment and intimidation between 2018 and this year, as well as threats of being sacked, a serious prospect in a country where many struggle to find work.

The latest revelations come after French prosecutors last month indicted two men — one of them a police officer — in relation to the Bouthier sex trafficking case.

Bouthier is also facing charges of plotting kidnap and possession of child pornography.

Guellaa said Bouthier and his co-accused had formed “an organised criminal gang” and that more Moroccan victims would likely come forward.

“He thought he could sexually exploit young women with complete impunity,” she said.

Another woman who spoke at Saturday’s press conference said she had been “really scared of reprisals” after coming forward.

“I saw that they were capable of everything,” she said. 

“But we won’t back down. We won’t stop until the entire Bouthier mafia is behind bars.”

Togo officials on Saturday said several people were killed and others wounded when gunmen attacked four villages earlier this week in the country’s far north, where a jihadist insurgency is spilling over the border from Burkina Faso.

It was the fourth attack in Togo since last year as the West African country, Benin, Ghana and Ivory Coast all face a growing threat from Islamist militants in the Sahel north of their borders.

“In the night between July 14 and 15, gunmen attacked the population as they slept in four locations in Kpendjal and Kpendjal-Ouest prefectures and killed several people, all civilians,” the government said in a statement. 

Togo’s government had already reported the attack but had not given details on casualties.

Togo’s army said on Saturday gunmen carried out “coordinated and complex” raids on several villages in the area.

“This attack caused several deaths and a few injuries which were quickly taken care of by the first elements of the Togolese Armed Forces who arrived,” the army said in a statement.

Togolese media reports had said 10 to 15 people died.

In neighbouring Benin, the government has said the country has suffered around 20 attacks by armed groups, in the first official tally released in May.

Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ivory Coast among them have borders with Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where jihadist campaigns by Islamic State or al-Qaeda affiliates have claimed thousands of lives and driven more than two million people from their homes.

Benin’s first known fatal attack was last December, when two soldiers were killed near the troubled frontier with Burkina. 

Togo has declared a state of emergency in its far northern provinces to allow security forces more flexibility to operate.

Eight Togolese soldiers were killed in May in an assault claimed by a Mali-based alliance of Al-Qaeda affiliated jihadists.

Gunmen also clashed with Togo troops outside a military post in Goulingoushi area in Togo’s far northwest in June, before they were forced back across the border.

Election officials began counting ballots on Saturday after Nigeria’s southwest Osun state went to the polls to elect a new governor in a final test for next year’s presidential elections.

The frontrunners are incumbent governor Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress, senator Ademola Adeleke of the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Akin Ogunbiyi of the Accord Party and Labour’s Yusuf Lasun.

Analysts expect the contest to become a two-horse race between old political foes Oyetola and Adeleke — who lost by less than 500 votes after a run-off four years ago.

“I left home very early so that I can use my vote to elect the governor that will improve the welfare of the people,” Adenike Adeyiola, a 32-year-old university student, told AFP.

The ballot is seen as a battleground for Nigeria’s leading parties to test support for their presidential hopefuls ahead of the February 2023 election as President Muhammadu Buhari steps down following eight years in office.

“Am in the race to win and by the grace of God, I will triumph,” a smiling and waving Adeleke told a large crowd as he voted in his hometown of Ede.

Osun is among eight of Nigeria’s 36 states where governorship elections are not being held at the same time as the rest of the country because of legal challenges to previous results.

Polling stations opened from 08:30 am (0730 GMT) to 2:30 pm on Saturday, but long lines formed in the state capital Osogbo as early as 06:00 am. 

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), 1.9 million voters registered to participate in the ballot.

“Sorting and counting of the ballot papers have commenced,” said electoral official Opemipo Adelusi in Osogbo, the state capital.

The winner will be known by Sunday, he added.

Operatives of Nigeria’s anti-graft agency EFCC stormed some polling centres, including that of PDP’s Adeleke in Ede to monitor the ballot and arrest anybody offering or taking money for votes.

Nigeria has a history of election malpractice, fraud, vote-buying and violence. 

On Monday, the residence of Lasun, the Labour party candidate, in his Ilobu hometown, was attacked by gunmen but he was not at home.

There was heavy security presence as security forces mounted road blocks to restrict people and vehicles in major cities.

Police deployed over 23,000 personnel, helicopters and drones to try to ensure a trouble-free election.

Ons Jabeur may have missed out on the Wimbledon title but the trailblazing Tunisian was accorded a champion’s reception on Friday as a crowd of hundreds celebrated the country’s sporting pioneer.

While she ultimately succumbed in three sets to Elena Rybakina, her achievement at becoming the first Arab and African woman to reach a Grand Slam final has seen her popularity soar.

The 27-year-old is visibly enjoying the affection she is getting from her fellow Tunisians.

“Tunisians’ love is more important than no matter which title. I hope this is the start of lots more wins. I’m proud to be a Tunisian,” she said as women and children carried the national flag, with music played at maximum volume on loud speakers adorned with photos of Jabeur and tennis racquets.

After spotting a banner in favour of a ‘yes’ vote on the upcoming referendum on the constitution she nodded: “Yes, everything is possible”.

And from a big grandstand in front of the capital’s national theatre she spelled out her next career objective “to be world number one and win (the French Open) at Roland Garros”.

Autographed tennis balls were being thrown into the crowd for those fans lucky enough to get their hands on them.

One of those in the happy throng was Mongia Zaag, who told AFP: “We’ve come here to experience the joy with Ons Jabeur”.

“She’s made us happy. I’m very emotional, with everything that’s going on (in the country), the morale of the Tunisian people is not at its highest,” Zaag added, alluding to the political crisis in the country and global economic difficulties.

The teacher by profession suggested Jabeur “is an example not only for Tunisian girls but also the boys”.

Friday’s reception followed Thursday’s presentation to Jabeur by President Kais Saied of the prestigious Grand Medal of the National Order of Merit.

She said she wanted to “give more hope” to the country’s youngsters.

Since she began her climb up the WTA rankings to her present fifth in the world her club’s membership has doubled to 700.

Key ministers from France and Niger met on Friday as French forces revamp their mission in the Sahel following a planned pullout from Mali.

Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna and Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu arrived in the Nigerien capital late Thursday.

They held talks on Friday with Foreign Minister Hassoumi Massoudou and Defence Minister Alkassoum Indatou, followed by President Mohamed Bazoum.

The visit takes place as French forces complete a pullout from Mali, placing the spotlight on Niger as a frontline state in the fight against jihadism, and as the unstable region struggles with a string of military coups.

“We are here to show France’s commitment, at the side of the Nigerien government,” Colonna told a joint press conference.

“We are here to respond as best we can to the needs you put forward.”

Niger, a deeply poor former French colony, is the focus of a French push that hopes to stem jihadism through security as well as development.

It is one of the biggest recipients of French aid, receiving 143 million euros (dollars) last year.

The two sides on Friday signed agreements for a French loan of 50 million euros and a grant of 20 million euros.

France will also increase food aid to Niger by 66 percent this year, to eight million euros, “at a difficult time for world food security” because of the war in Ukraine, Colonna said.

“If we don’t win the war of development, we will eventually lose the war against terrorism,” Massoudou said.

The French ministers were also to visit a base at Ouallam, north of Niamey, which oversees joint operations on Niger’s western border by several hundred French and Nigerien troops.

Colonna returns to Paris late Friday, while Lecornu heads to Ivory Coast, for talks with President Alassane Ouattara and a visit to French troops there.

– Sahel problems –

Niger, the world’s poorest country by the benchmark of the UN’s Human Development Index, has been badly hit by the jihadist insurgency that began in northern Mali in 2012 and then swept across neighbouring countries.

Thousands of civilians have been killed and more than two million have fled their homes.

Niger itself is facing insurgencies both on its western border with Mali and Burkina Faso as well as its south-eastern frontier with Nigeria.

It hosts tens of thousands of internally displaced people, as well as refugees from Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria. 

French forces who have been supporting Mali for nearly a decade are expected to complete their pullout in the coming weeks after France and the Malian junta fell out.

The roots of the dispute lie in a military takeover in August 2020, which was followed by a second coup in May 2021.

Friction developed over the junta’s delays in restoring civilian rule and escalated when Mali brought in Russian paramilitaries — personnel described by France as “mercenaries” from the pro-Kremlin Wagner group.

Coups followed in Guinea last September and in Burkina Faso in January.

– French in Africa –

At its peak, France’s Barkhane mission had 5,100 troops among five Sahel allies, all former French colonies — Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

The forces have provided key support in air power, troop transport and reconnaissance. In Niger, France notably has an air base at Niamey where it has deployed drones.

After the Malian pullout, the mission will have “around 2,500” troops, Barkhane commander General Laurent Michon said in an interview this month.

The reconfigured mission will emphasise “more cooperative operations,” in which French forces will act in support of local armies rather than in place of them, he said.

More than a thousand troops will be deployed in Niger, providing air support and training, French sources say.

French troops are also in Gabon, Ivory Coast and Senegal, as well as in the east of Africa in Djibouti.

On Wednesday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he had asked the government and military chiefs “to rethink our overall presence on the African continent by the autumn”.

He called for “a presence that is less static and less exposed” and “a closer relationship” with African armed forces.

Egypt will “temporarily suspend” its participation in United Nations peacekeeping operations in Mali after seven of its troops died in attacks this year, the UN mission MINUSMA said on Friday.

Egypt signalled its concerns at UN headquarters in New York this week, the mission said in a statement. 

“We have been informed that, in consequence, the Egyptian contingent would temporarily suspend its activities in MINUSMA from August 15,” said the statement, without detailing how long the suspension would last.

MINUSMA — the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali — was launched in 2013 to help one of the world’s poorest countries cope with a bloody jihadist campaign.

It is one of the UN’s biggest peacekeeping operations, with 17,609 troops, police, civilians and volunteers deployed as of April, according to the mission’s website. 

It is also one of the most dangerous UN missions, with 275 fatalities from attacks, accidents or other causes, according to the website. 

Of these, 177 deaths have come from hostile acts, 10 of them since January. 

The latest attack against the Egyptian contingent was on July 5, when two peacekeepers were killed and five seriously hurt near Gao, in northern Mali.

A UN official in Bamako said Egypt contributed 1,035 out of the total 12,261 UN peacekeeping troops in Mali.

“It is one of the mission’s biggest contingents,” he said.

– Crisis –

The announcement comes at a time when Mali’s ruling junta is wrestling with a bloody jihadist insurgency and friction with international partners.

The UN Security Council renewed MINUSMA’s mandate for one year on June 29, although the  junta opposed requests to allow freedom of movement for rights’ investigators with the mission.

On Thursday, Mali announced it was suspending all rotations by MINUSMA troops and police for reasons of “national security”.

Troops from France’s Barkhane operation are due to complete their pullout from Mali in the coming weeks — a departure sparked by a bustup between Paris and the junta which took power in September 2020.

The junta stirred French anger over delays in its pledge to restore civilian rule, and then wove closer ties with the Kremlin, bringing in paramilitaries that France says are mercenaries from the controversial pro-Kremlin Wagner group.

The French withdrawal is likely to have an operational impact for MINUSMA, as French air power has been a major source of support.

– ‘Hindrances’ –

A western diplomat whose country supplies troops to MINUSMA said that the “hindrances” to the mission “are clearly going to make several contributing countries question their commitments.”

“Some contingents were present in Mali because Barkhane was there,” Ornella Moderan, a researcher at the South African-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) told AFP in February.

“With the French troops going, will the Germans, the English or the Swedes be staying?” shed asked.

Mali’s security problems began with a regional insurrection in the north in 2012 that was abetted by Islamist militants.

The jihadists, after being scattered by French military intervention, regrouped to move into the centre of the country, inflaming long-standing ethnic resentments, and mounting cross-border raids into neighbours Burkina Faso and Niger.

Across the region, the violence has claimed thousands of lives, prompted more than two million people to flee their homes and inflicted devastating economic damage on three countries that rank among the poorest in the world.