Africa Business

General Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno on Monday appointed by decree 104 more members of his “parliament” as he leads Chad’s two-year transitional government after taking power on the death of his father.

A national forum for reconciliation last month recommended boosting the number of members of the National Transition Council (CNT), which operates as a de facto parliament, from 93 to 197.

In the decree seen by AFP, general Deby appointed the 104 “additional members of the CNT”, including former opposition party figures who have joined the regime, rebels who signed a peace deal in August and civil society representatives.

Much of the opposition and the most powerful armed rebel groups however boycotted the forum, protesting the “dynastic succession”.

The 38-year-old five-star general took the helm in April 2021 after his father, Chad’s iron-fisted ruler for three decades, was killed during an operation against jihadist rebels.

The junta had declared it would restore civilian rule after 18 months in power, and Deby had at first promised he would not take part in the future elections.

But as the 18-month deadline neared, the nationwide forum staged by Deby reset the clock, approving a new 24-month timeframe for holding elections, naming him “transitional president” and declaring he could be a candidate in the poll.

The CNT is tasked with drawing up a new constitution and preparing the election.

On October 20, the authorities put down opposition protests officially leaving 50 people dead, 300 wounded and hundreds detained.

The European Union strongly condemned an “excessive use of force” and violation of the right to freedom of speech and assembly.

A semi-desert country  in central western Africa, Chad has been chronically unstable since it gained independence from France in 1960.

Madrid on Monday denied that migrants had died on Spanish soil during a deadly mass border crossing from Morocco earlier this year as claimed by a BBC documentary.

On June 24, Spanish authorities said up to 2,000 migrants took part in the attempt to storm the border fence between Morocco and Spain’s North African enclave of Melilla, and clashed with border officers.

Others put the death toll higher, with independent experts appointed by the United Nations human rights office saying last week that at least 37 people died and dozens more were injured.

Last Tuesday, British broadcaster BBC released a documentary that claimed lifeless bodies were dragged by Moroccan police from an area that was Spanish-controlled, casting doubt on official government accounts.

“There was no death on Spanish territory,” Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told reporters when asked about the documentary during a visit to the central town of Cuenca.

“State security forces acted within the law, with proportionality and necessity,” he added.

The minister said 50 Spanish Guardia Civil police officers were injured in the incident, which he called a “violent attack of the border, which is a European Union border.”

The United Nations and rights groups have denounced the use of “excessive force” by the authorities on both sides of the border.

But both Spanish and Moroccan authorities have repeatedly defended their actions saying the migrants had been violent and that reasonable force had been used.

The Spanish enclaves of Melilla and Ceuta have long been a magnet for people fleeing violence and poverty across Africa, seeking refuge via the continent’s only land borders with the European Union.

Grieving Tanzanians paid emotional tribute Monday to 19 people killed when a passenger plane plunged into Lake Victoria in the country’s deadliest air crash in decades.

The Precision Air flight from the financial capital Dar es Salaam crashed on Sunday morning while trying to land in the northwestern city of Bukoba.

Police blamed bad weather for the accident in the Kagera region.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa was among hundreds of people who gathered at Kaitaba Stadium in Bukoba, with Muslim and Christian clerics leading prayers for the dead as onlookers wiped away tears.

The accident shocked Tanzanians, with local broadcasters running live coverage of an hours-long ceremony to hand over the bodies of the victims to their families.

Majaliwa said the government would pay for the funeral services for the victims in addition to providing one million Tanzanian shillings ($430) to their families.

Twenty-four survivors were plucked to safety out of the 43 people aboard flight PW 494, with investigators from Precision Air and the Tanzania Airports Authority arriving in the lakeside city on Sunday.

Precision Air, a publicly listed company and Tanzania’s largest private carrier, said the aircraft was an ATR 42-500, manufactured by Toulouse-based Franco-Italian firm ATR, and had 39 passengers — including an infant — and four crew members on board.

AFP journalists saw the plane largely submerged on Sunday as rescuers, including fishermen, waded through water to bring people to safety.

Emergency workers attempted to lift the aircraft out of the water using ropes, assisted by cranes as residents also sought to help.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday hailed emergency workers and volunteers for acting quickly to save lives.

“I congratulate those who participated in the rescue, including the people of Bukoba,” she said on Twitter. 

“I pray for the deceased to rest in peace and for the injured to recover quickly.” 

– Rope and paddle –

Kagera regional commissioner Albert Chalamila singled out the “great role” played by volunteers, giving one million Tanzanian shillings to Majaliwa Jackson, a fisherman who was hospitalised after sustaining injuries during the rescue effort.

In an interview with local media from his hospital bed, the fisherman said he was among the first responders to the accident, which happened while he was drying fish by the lakeside.

As he approached the aircraft, he saw people waving for help, he said.

“I went to the (plane’s) door and broke it using my boat paddle” before tying a rope to the door handle to try and pull it open, he said.

“But after a few minutes the rope broke and I fell into water. I did not know what happened after that because I found myself in hospital.”

The government has since spoken of offering the fisherman a job in the fire and rescue service. 

“Let the man get proper training and support the public as he has done already,” the prime minister said.

– Anger over rescue effort –

The accident has sparked anger among many Tanzanians over the government’s handling of the rescue effort.

Majaliwa said the government would do more “to ensure safety in the aviation transport sector.”

Defence Minister Innocent Bashungwa, who also attended the ceremony that ended Monday afternoon, said the authorities had “learned a lot” of lessons from the disaster.

“We will… improve the government response to such accidents in partnership with the private sector.”

“The accident investigations are still ongoing and I would like to ask the public to remain calm for now,” Transport Minister Makame Mbarawa added.

Precision Air, which is partly owned by Kenya Airways, was founded in 1993 and operates domestic and regional flights as well as private charters to popular tourist destinations such as Serengeti National Park and the Zanzibar archipelago.

The accident comes five years after 11 people died when a plane belonging to safari company Coastal Aviation crashed in northern Tanzania.

In 1999, a dozen people, including 10 US tourists, died in a plane crash in northern Tanzania while flying between Serengeti National Park and Kilimanjaro airport.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned world leaders at a climate summit in Egypt on Monday that humanity faces a stark choice between working together or “collective suicide” in the battle against global warming.

Nearly 100 heads of state and government are meeting for two days in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, facing calls to deepen emissions cuts and financially back developing countries already devastated by the effects of rising temperatures.

“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” Guterres told the UN COP27 summit. 

“It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact or a Collective Suicide Pact,” Guterres said, urging the world to ramp up the transition to renewable energy and for richer polluting nations to come to the aid of poorer countries least responsible for heat-trapping emissions.

Nations worldwide are coping with increasingly intense natural disasters that have taken thousands of lives this year alone and cost billions of dollars — from devastating floods in Nigeria and Pakistan to droughts in the United States and Africa and unprecedented heatwaves across three continents.

“We have seen one catastrophe after another,” said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. “As soon as we tackle one catastrophe, another one arises — wave after wave of suffering and loss.

“Is it not high time to put an end to all this suffering?”

But a multitude of other crises, from Russia’s war in Ukraine to soaring inflation and the lingering effects of the Covid pandemic, has raised concerns that climate change will drop down the priority list of governments. 

Guterres, however, told world leaders climate change could not be put on the “back burner”.

He called for a “historic” deal between rich emitters and emerging economies that would see countries double down on emissions reductions, holding the rise in temperatures to the more ambitions Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era.   

Current trends would see carbon pollution increase 10 percent by the end of the decade and put the world on a path to heat up to 2.8C.

“We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator,” Guterres said.

– ‘Moral imperative’ –

The UN secretary general said the target should be to provide renewable and affordable energy for all, calling on the United States and China in particular to lead the way.

He also said it was a “moral imperative” for richer polluters to help vulnerable countries.

Earlier Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron urged the United States, China and other non-European rich nations to “step up” their efforts to cut emissions and provide financial aid to other countries.

“Europeans are paying,” Macron told French and African climate campaigners on the sidelines of COP27. “We are the only ones paying.”

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, whose country is the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases, is not attending the summit.

US President Joe Biden, whose country ranks second on the top-polluters list, will join COP27 later this week after midterm elections on Tuesday that could put Republicans hostile to international action on climate change in charge of Congress.

– ‘Loss and damage’ –

On Sunday, the heads of developing nations won a small victory when delegates agreed to put the controversial issue of compensation for “loss and damage” on the summit agenda.

Pakistan, which chairs the powerful G77+China negotiating bloc of more than 130 developing nations, has made the issue a priority.

The United States and the European Union have dragged their feet for years on the proposal, fearing it would create an open-ended reparations framework.

Guterres said COP27 must agree on a “clear, time-bound roadmap” for loss and damage that delivers “effective institutional arrangements for financing”.

“Getting concrete results on loss and damage is a litmus test of the commitment of governments to the success of COP27,” he said.

Mohamed Adow, director of the Power Shift Africa think tank, said there was no clearly-defined final outcome expected from the meeting on the issue of loss and damage.

“The historic polluters … must be made to pay for the harm they have caused,” he said. “We cannot have COP27 become a sham.”

Rich nations will also be expected to set a timetable for the delivery of $100 billion per year to help developing countries green their economies and build resilience against future climate change. 

The promise is already two years past due and remains $17 billion short, according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

COP27 is scheduled to continue until November 18 with ministers joining the fray during the second week.

Security is tight at the meeting, with Human Rights Watch saying authorities have arrested dozens of people and restricted the right to demonstrate in the days leading up to COP27.

Ugandan youth activist Nyombi Morris arrived in Egypt for the UN’s COP27 climate summit with high hopes of being part of the campaign for environmental justice.

But it didn’t take long for Egypt’s stiff security measures to shatter his dreams, as rights groups warn the North African country has stifled protests with “dozens” of arrests.

“I was so happy when they announced that COP would be in Africa,” said Morris, who founded the Earth Volunteers youth organisation campaigning for “climate justice”.

“I thought maybe I would get a chance to be at the room where the negotiations are taking place.”

Instead, “with the questions we received at the airport, it will not be easy for us to continue with our plan”, the 24-year-old said.

In 2008, when Morris was 10, devastating flash floods hit Uganda’s eastern Butaleja district — an area where the illegal extraction of riverbank sand for construction was common. Some 400 people, including Morris’s family, lost their homes.

Morris, who has said the digging “exacerbated flooding already made worse by climate change”, said they had to move to the capital Kampala.

“I am here to represent my mother who lost a farm, who lost a home,” he said. “I am here to ask for compensation for my community.”

– ‘Abusive security measures’ –

Activists wanting to demonstrate at COP27, held in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, must request accreditation 36 hours in advance, providing information such as the names of the protest organisers and details of the proposed march.

Approved demonstrations are only allowed during working hours, and in a specific purpose-built area. 

That accreditation process is risky, Morris fears.

“When they started asking about our locations, where we will be staying, our passports, our names, we were worried,” he said.

“What if they follow one of us and (we) get arrested?”

He cited the case of Indian climate activist Ajit Rajagopal, who was arrested after setting off to march from Cairo to Sharm el-Sheikh. He was later released after an international outcry.

Human Rights Watch on Sunday warned that “dozens of people” calling for protests had been detained.

“Egypt’s government has no intention of easing its abusive security measures and allowing for free speech and assembly,” the watchdog said.

Rights groups say at least 151 people have been arrested ahead of a rally slated for November 11 — planned nationwide but not in Sharm el-Sheikh — against what they decry as repression and sharp increases in the cost of living.

“Everyone must be able to participate meaningfully at COP27 in Sharm el-Sheikh. That includes civil society,” UN rights chief Volker Turk said Monday.

– ‘Watching online’ –

On top of security restrictions, Morris lamented that activists like him were excluded from the talks.

“I am watching online because our ‘observers’ badges don’t allow us to enter,” he said.

“I’m like ‘so, why are we here?'”

He said his hopes have faded that having the summit in Africa might make a difference — including in demanding wealthy nations responsible for emissions pay their dues.

Africa is home to some of the countries least responsible for planet-heating emissions but hardest hit by an onslaught of weather extremes.

“It is not an African COP, it is a polluters’ COP — because it is polluters dominating,” he said. 

“Haven’t you seen Coca-Cola here?” he added, referring to one of this year’s official sponsors.

Campaign group Greenpeace has called Egypt’s choice of the soft drink giant “appalling”, blaming the company for much of the “plastic pollution in the world”.

Last year, at the COP26 in Glasgow, tens of thousands of demonstrators from all over the world marched to demand “climate justice”.

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg is skipping COP27, slamming it as a forum for “greenwashing” and saying the “space for civil society this year is extremely limited”.

Tasneem Essop, executive director of Climate Action Network International, told reporters at the COP27 centre that the right to protest has been “seriously challenged”, and that there was “immense repression” in Egypt.

On Sunday, ignoring the restrictions, a handful of activists waved banners at the entrance to the summit hall.

“We are trying to promote the veganism to help save the planet from the greenhouse gases”, said Tom Modgmah, a follower of Vietnamese “Supreme Master Ching Hai”, alongside colleagues waving banners.

“Be vegan, make peace,” they read.

The Tradex petrol station on Bangui’s Boganda avenue stands deserted, except for a lone goat wandering between the empty pumps.

It used to be a busy spot in the Central African Republic’s capital, but deliveries dried up seven months ago.

Just along the street, 18-year-old Princia Omah is lining up bottles full of petrol and fuel oil shaded from the hot sun by a multi-coloured umbrella.

“I sell petrol to make life easier for car owners,” she says.

Central Africa Republic (CAR) is the second least developed country in the world, according to the United Nations, and has often struggled to maintain oil supplies.

But since March the situation has become dramatically worse.

“It is a result of the war in Ukraine and the difficulty of shipping hydrocarbons because the country is landlocked,” Ernest Fortune Batta, director general of CAR’s Petroleum Products Storage Company (SOCASP), tells AFP.

Government majority-owned SOCASP has exclusive charge for the import and storage of oil products in the country.

– Black market –

For years the price of petrol has been blocked by the government at 865 CFA francs (1.32 euros) a litre. On the street, a bottle costs up to 40 percent more.

Petrol sellers buy on the black market where the product is often of poor quality from cheap additives.

“My father gets supplies from smugglers in the Muslim quarter,” says Omah. “It usually comes from Chad or Cameroon.”

Hundreds of petrol station workers around Bangui are out of a job and have been replaced by curbside sellers like Omah.

The petrol stations that still do manage to obtain a delivery quickly find themselves  under siege from long queues of impatient drivers.

“I have no choice, I have to get petrol from re-sellers so that I can do my shopping and go to work, even if the petrol is contaminated and can cause problems for the car,” says Cedric Banam, who tops up three times a week.

“We did not expect the crisis to get so bad,” admits Maurice Gbeza, aged 29, who has been supplying motorists illegally from the curbside for a year.

Transport costs have soared, provoking public anger.

Administrative secretary Pamela Mayevosson used to spend 1,000 CFA francs a day (1.5 euros) on transport.

“But now I need at least 2,000 francs for a day, it’s too much when our salaries have not gone up,” she says.

“The government should get a hold of the situation otherwise the country risks turning into a desert.”

“There is no answer in sight to sort out the situation,” rages Franck Ngaickom, head of the motorbike-taxi union.

“The government does not realise that the people are suffering. Many drivers have stopped work.”

– ‘Total drought’ –

Batta says the government “has contacted different suppliers to bring the crisis to an end”, but he offers no more detail.

The government did not answer several requests from AFP to explain the petrol shortage.

In mid-March, energy minister Arthur Bertrand Piri sought to reassure people with an announcement of the delivery of oil by trucks to re-supply the capital.

But since then things have become worse and worse.

“Three fuel trucks have just arrived to ease the situation, we still have a stock of fuel but deliveries are limited to stop us from running totally dry,” Batta notes.

“Come to mother M16, it’s 1,100 francs a bottle,” shouts Marguerite Goungbon, sitting on a plastic chair.

“When I saw that most of the stations were shut because of the crisis I started selling petrol,” says the former doughnut seller.

“When the crisis is over I’ll stop selling,” (petrol), adds the 52-year-old.

A bloody civil war has wracked Central Africa since 2013, even if the fighting has dropped off over the last four years.

And so, despite mineral resources such as gold, diamonds and potentially even plenty of oil reserves, the unstable nation at the heart of Africa has slipped to one of the absolute poorest.

The World Bank estimates that 71 percent of Central Africa’s six million people live below the international poverty line of $2.15 a day. 

Nearly half the population suffers from food insecurity and relies on international aid, the UN says.

UN chief Antonio Guterres warned world leaders at a climate summit in Egypt on Monday that humanity faces a stark choice between working together or “collective suicide” in the battle against global warming.

Nearly 100 heads of state and government are meeting for two days in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, facing calls to deepen emissions cuts and financially back developing countries already devastated by the effects of rising temperatures.

“Humanity has a choice: cooperate or perish,” Guterres told the UN COP27 summit. 

“It is either a Climate Solidarity Pact or a Collective Suicide Pact,” Guterres said, urging richer polluting nations to come to the aid of poorer countries least responsible for the emission of heat-trapping gases.

Nations worldwide are coping with increasingly intense natural disasters that have taken thousands of lives this year alone and cost billions of dollars — from devastating floods in Nigeria and Pakistan to droughts in the United States and Africa and unprecedented heatwaves across three continents.

“We have seen one catastrophe after another,” said Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi. “As soon as we tackle one catastrophe another one arises — wave after wave of suffering and loss.

“Is it not high time to put an end to all this suffering?”

But a multitude of other crises, from Russia’s war in Ukraine to soaring inflation and the lingering effects of the Covid pandemic, has raised concerns that climate change will drop on the priority list of governments. 

Guterres however told world leaders climate change could not be put on the “back burner”.

He called for a “historic” deal between rich emitters and emerging economies that would see countries double down on emissions, holding the rise in temperatures to the more ambitions Paris Agreement target of 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era.   

Current trends would see carbon pollution increase 10 percent by the end of the decade and Earth’s surface heat up 2.8C.

“We are on a highway to climate hell with our foot still on the accelerator,” Guterres said.

– ‘Moral imperative’ –

The UN secretary general said the target should be to provide renewable and affordable energy for all, calling on the United States and China in particular to lead the way.

He also said it was a “moral imperative” for richer polluters to help vulnerable countries.

Chinese leader Xi Jinping, whose country is the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases, is not attending the summit.

US President Joe Biden, whose country ranks second on the top-polluters list, will join COP27 later this week after midterm elections on Tuesday that could put Republicans hostile to international action on climate change in charge of Congress.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged the United States, China and other non-European rich nations to “step up” their efforts to cut emissions and provide financial aid to other countries.

“Europeans are paying,” Macron told French and African climate campaigners on the sidelines of COP27. “We are the only ones paying.”

– ‘Loss and damage’ –

On Sunday, the heads of developing nations won a small victory when delegates agreed to put the controversial issue of compensation for “loss and damage” on the summit agenda.

Pakistan, which chairs the powerful G77+China negotiating bloc of more than 130 developing nations, has made the issue a priority.

The United States and the European Union have dragged their feet for years on the proposal, fearing it would create an open-ended reparations framework.

Guterres said COP27 must agree on a “clear, time-bound roadmap” for loss and damage that delivers “effective institutional arrangements for financing”.

“Getting concrete results on loss and damage is a litmus test of the commitment of governments to the success of COP27,” he said.

Rich nations will also be expected to set a timetable for the delivery of $100 billion per year to help developing countries green their economies and build resilience against future climate change. 

The promise is already two years past due and remains $17 billion short, according to the OECD.

COP27 is scheduled to continue until November 18 with ministerial joining the fray during Week Two.

Security is tight at the meeting, with Human Rights Watch saying authorities have arrested dozens of people and restricted the right to demonstrate in the days leading up to COP27.

Grieving Tanzanians paid emotional tribute Monday to 19 people killed when a passenger plane plunged into Lake Victoria in the country’s deadliest air crash in decades.

The Precision Air flight from the financial capital Dar es Salaam crashed on Sunday morning while trying to land in the northwestern city of Bukoba.

Police blamed bad weather for the accident.

Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa was among hundreds of people who gathered at Kaitaba Stadium in Bukoba, with Muslim and Christian clerics leading prayers for the dead as onlookers wiped away tears.

The ceremony to hand over the bodies of the victims to their families was expected to take hours, with local broadcasters running live telecasts from the stadium in Kagera region.

Twenty-four survivors were plucked to safety out of the 43 people aboard flight PW 494, with investigators from Precision Air and the Tanzania Airports Authority arriving in the lakeside city on Sunday.

Precision Air, a publicly listed company and Tanzania’s largest private carrier, said the aircraft was an ATR 42-500, manufactured by Toulouse-based Franco-Italian firm ATR, and had 39 passengers — including an infant — and four crew members on board.

AFP journalists saw the plane largely submerged on Sunday as rescuers, including fishermen, waded through water to bring people to safety.

Emergency workers attempted to lift the aircraft out of the water using ropes, assisted by cranes as residents also sought to help.

During the ceremony, Kagera regional commissioner Albert Chalamila singled out the “great role” played by volunteers, giving one million Tanzanian shillings ($430) to a fisherman who was hospitalised after sustaining injuries during the rescue effort.

President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Monday also hailed emergency workers and volunteers for acting quickly to save lives.

“I congratulate those who participated in the rescue, including the people of Bukoba,” she said on Twitter. 

“I pray for the deceased to rest in peace and for the injured to recover quickly.” 

– Anger over rescue effort –

The accident has sparked anger among many Tanzanians over the government’s handling of the rescue effort.

“We will… improve the government response to such accidents in partnership with the private sector,” Defence Minister Innocent Bashungwa said at the ceremony.

“The accident investigations are still ongoing and I would like to ask the public to remain calm for now,” Transport Minister Makame Mbarawa added.

Precision Air, which is partly owned by Kenya Airways, was founded in 1993 and operates domestic and regional flights as well as private charters to popular tourist destinations such as Serengeti National Park and the Zanzibar archipelago.

The accident comes five years after 11 people died when a plane belonging to safari company Coastal Aviation crashed in northern Tanzania.

In 1999, a dozen people, including 10 US tourists, died in a plane crash in northern Tanzania while flying between Serengeti National Park and Kilimanjaro airport.

World leaders gathered Monday for climate talks in Egypt facing pressure to deepen cuts in emissions and financially back developing countries already devastated by the effects of rising temperatures.

The UN’s COP27 climate summit in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh comes as nations worldwide are facing increasingly intense natural disasters that have taken thousands of lives this year alone and cost billions of dollars.

At the opening ceremony on Sunday, COP27 officials urged governments to keep up efforts to combat climate change despite soaring inflation, the energy crunch linked to Russia’s war on Ukraine and the persistent Covid-19 pandemic.

“The fear is other priorities take precedence,” top United Nations climate change official Simon Stiell told a news conference.

The “fear is that we lose another day, another week, another month, another year — because we can’t”, he said.

The world must slash greenhouse emissions by 45 percent by 2030 to cap global warming at 1.5 degrees Celsius above late-19th-century levels.

But current trends would see carbon pollution increase 10 percent by the end of the decade and Earth’s surface heat up 2.8C, according to findings unveiled in recent days.

Only 29 of 194 countries have presented improved climate plans, as called for at the UN talks in Glasgow last year, Stiell noted.

Nearly 100 heads of state and government began to arrive for two days of talks, with the notable absence of Chinese leader Xi Jinping, whose country is the world’s top emitter of greenhouse gases.

US President Joe Biden, whose country ranks second on the top-polluters list, will join COP27 later this week after midterm elections on Tuesday that could put Republicans hostile to international action on climate change in charge of Congress.

French President Emmanuel Macron urged the United States, China and other non-European rich nations to “step up” their efforts to cut emissions and provide financial aid to other countries.

“Europeans are paying,” Macron told French and African climate campaigners on the sidelines of COP27. “We are the only ones paying.”

– ‘Loss and damage’ –

Fresh from his own election victory, Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva is expected to attend the summit later on, with hopes high that he will protect the Amazon from deforestation after defeating climate-sceptic President Jair Bolsonaro.

Another new leader, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, reversed a decision not to attend the talks and is due to urge countries to move “further and faster” in transitioning away from fossil fuels.

On Sunday, the heads of developing nations won a small victory when delegates agreed to put the controversial issue of money for “loss and damage” on the summit agenda.

Pakistan, which chairs the powerful G77+China negotiating bloc of more than 130 developing nations, has made the issue a priority.

“We definitely regard this as a success for the parties,” said Egypt’s Sameh Shoukry, who chairs the COP27.

The United States and the European Union have dragged their feet on the issue for years, fearing it would create an open-ended reparations framework.

But European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans welcomed the inclusion of loss and damage, tweeting that the “climate crisis has impacts beyond what vulnerable countries can shoulder alone”.

– Protests restricted –

Rich nations will also be expected to set a timetable for the delivery of $100 billion per year to help developing countries green their economies and build resilience against future climate change. 

The promise is already two years past due and remains $17 billion short, according to the OECD.

COP27 is scheduled to continue until November 18 with ministerial meetings.

Security is tight at the meeting, with Human Rights Watch saying authorities have arrested dozens of people for calling for protests and restricted the right to demonstrate in the days leading up to COP27.

Kenya Airways cancelled most flights  Monday as a pilots’ strike entered its third day, with thousands of travellers stranded and the government threatening disciplinary action if staff don’t return to work.

The pilots launched the strike at Nairobi’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport at 06:00 am (0300 GMT) on Saturday, defying a court order against industrial action and leaving thousands of passengers stranded.

“Due to the ongoing unlawful industrial action by Kenya Airline Pilots Association (KALPA), most of our flights have been cancelled,” the carrier said in a statement, which came hours after the country’s transport minister threatened the protesting staff with disciplinary action.

The strike has exacerbated the woes facing the troubled national carrier, which has been running losses for years, despite the government pumping in millions of dollars to keep it afloat.

The airline, which is part owned by the government and Air France-KLM, is one of the biggest in Africa, connecting multiple countries to Europe and Asia. 

On Sunday, Transport Minister Kipchumba Murkomen urged the pilots to return to work, warning them against “defying a court order”.

“Considering the defiance of KALPA and their total disregard for the existing court order –- which is at the heart of the rule of law — the Ministry of Labour now has to activate the procedures governing industrial relations,” the newly-appointed minister said.

KALPA has not responded to the government warning but said earlier on Sunday that the strike would continue for the foreseeable future.

“The public should expect major flight disruptions t continue,” it said on Twitter, blaming the airline’s management for failing to resolve the stalemate.

On Sunday, the airline said 56 flights had been cancelled due to the strike, disrupting 12,000 passengers’ plans.

The protesting pilots, who make up 10 percent of the workforce, are pressing for the reinstatement of contributions to a provident fund and payment of all salaries stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Last week, the airline won a court injunction stopping the strike, but an official at KALPA, which has 400 members, told AFP the pilots “were acting within the provisions of the law” and that they were yet to be served with a court order.

The carrier has warned that the strike would jeopardise its recovery, estimating losses at $2.5 million per day if the pilots went ahead with their plans.

The airline was founded in 1977 following the demise of East African Airways, and flies more than four million passengers to 42 destinations annually.

It has been operating in large part thanks to state bailouts following years of losses.