The Africa Thread

[Birdjaguar]

I guess we'll see if it has legs now.

 

[Takhisis]

On it goeth.

Sudan coup attempt has failed, government says
Officials and military sources say a group of officers had tried to occupy state media building

Sudan’s fragile political transition has been plunged into uncertainty after a reported coup attempt by soldiers loyal to the former autocrat Omar al-Bashir, who was ousted in 2019.

Spoiler :

As Sudan woke up to the government’s claims of the alleged coup, details – including the individuals behind it – remained murky. Bashir himself came to power after a military coup in 1989.

Amid reports of sporadic shooting at a base in Khartoum’s twin city of Omdurman, which is linked to the capital by bridge, government officials said the coup involving military officers and civilians linked to the deposed regime had failed.

Sudan’s army said in a statement that 21 officers and a number of soldiers had been arrested in connection with a coup attempt on Tuesday morning, and a search was ongoing to capture the remainder of those involved.

In an address to troops on Tuesday, the powerful paramilitary commander Mohamed Hamdan Daglo, known as Hemeti, said: “We will not allow a coup to take place. We want real democratic transition through free and fair elections, not like in the past.”

The reported coup attempt comes amid a period of heightened tensions over Sudan’s long-delayed political transition after the end of Bashir’s three-decade-long rule in April 2019, which followed widespread street demonstrations.

According to local media reports, military forces were stationed on key roads on Tuesday and on the main bridges linking Khartoum to the neighbouring cities of Omdurman and Bahri.

Sudan’s state-run television called on the public to “counter” the coup attempt but did not provide further details.

“All is under control. The revolution is victorious,” Mohammed al-Fiky Suliman, a member of the ruling military-civilian council, wrote on Facebook. He called on Sudanese citizens to protect the transition.

The prime minister, Abdalla Hamdok, said the coup plotters involved military personnel and civilians, adding that the attempt was aimed at undermining the country’s political transition.

A military official said an unspecified number of troops from the armoured corps were behind the attempt and that they had tried to take over several government institutions but were stopped.

He said they had aimed to seize the military headquarters and the state broadcaster. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to brief the media, said more than three dozen troops, including high-ranking officers, had been arrested. He did not provide further details, saying that a military statement would be released shortly.

The state-run Suna news agency quoted Brig Al-Tahir Abu Haja, a media consultant for the military’s chief, as saying that the armed forces “thwarted the attempted coup and that all is completely under control”.

Sudan has been wracked by instability since achieving independence in 1956, with the country governed since August 2019 by a hybrid military-civilian ruling council. However, frictions between the civilian and military wings have persisted, as well as tensions within various factions of the armed forces.

Despite an October 2020 peace deal with a number of Sudan’s armed and unarmed opposition groups, including from Darfur, South Kordofan and Blue Nile states, the country’s political transition has been halting, confronted by a worsening economic situation and long-lasting tensions between the county’s centre and its periphery.

Exacerbating the situation has been an unpopular attempt by the government to reform the country’s economy in order to qualify for debt relief from the International Monetary Fund, including a cut to subsidies and a rising cost of living.

Describing the alleged coup, Mohammed Hassan al-Taishi, a member of the sovereign council, called it a “foolish and bad choice”.

“The option of military coups has left us only a failed and weak country,” he wrote on Twitter. “The path towards democratic transition and securing the country’s political future and unity remains one option.”

Later, in a statement read on state-run TV, the culture and information minister, Hamza Baloul, said authorities were chasing others “from the remnants” of Bashir’s regime who were suspects in orchestrating the attempted coup. He did not give further details.

Bashir himself is detained in Khartoum’s high-security Kober prison and is facing trial over the coup that brought him to power.

He is also wanted by the international criminal court on charges of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide for his prosecution of a deadly scorched-earth campaign against minorit-ethnic rebels in Darfur.

 

[Takhisis]

tl;dr the president of Tunisia has
a) suspended congress and instead begun to legislate by decree
b) not awarded power to a prime minister as he is supposed to
c) declared members of congress no longer immune from prosecution
d) all in the name of defending the people and their rights

Tunisia’s president to ignore parts of the constitution and rule by decree
Kais Saied says he is preparing to change the political system, prompting opposition from rivals

Spoiler :

Tunisia’s president Kais Saied has declared that he will rule by decree and ignore parts of the constitution as he prepares to change the political system, prompting immediate opposition from rivals.

Saied has held nearly total power since 25 July when he sacked the prime minister, suspended parliament and assumed executive authority, citing a national emergency in a move his foes called a coup.

His intervention has undermined the democratic gains of Tunisia’s 2011 revolution that ended autocratic rule and triggered the Arab spring, despite Saied’s pledges to uphold the freedoms won a decade ago.

As the weeks have passed, he has come under growing pressure from Tunisian political players and western donors to name a prime minister and explain how he intends to move past the crisis.

The new measures announced on Wednesday go far beyond the steps he took in July, writing into the official gazette rules that transform Tunisia’s political system to give the president almost unlimited power.

Rules published in the official gazette allow him to issue “legislative texts” by decree, appoint the Cabinet and set its policy direction and basic decisions without interference.

The elected parliament, which he suspended in July using a highly contentious reading of the constitution, will not only remain frozen but its members will stop being paid their salaries. They will still be stripped of immunity from prosecution.

Saied did not put any time limit on his seizure of power, but said he would appoint a committee to help draft amendments to the 2014 constitution and establish “a true democracy in which the people are truly sovereign“.

The presidency said that in the meantime only the preamble to the existing constitution and any clauses that do not contradict the executive and legislative powers he has seized will remain in force.

The leader of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, the biggest in the deeply fragmented parliament and a member of successive governing coalitions, immediately rejected Saied’s announcements.

Rached Ghannouchi said the announcement meant cancelling the constitution and that Ennahda, which had already declared Saied’s 25 July intervention a coup, would not accept that.

A senior official in Heart of Tunisia, the second-largest party in parliament, accused Saied of conducting a “premeditated coup.“

“We call for a national alignment against the coup,” the official, Osama al-Khalifi, said on Twitter.

Saied has denied having dictatorial aspirations, insists his moves are constitutional and has vowed to uphold the rights of Tunisians.

His broadly popular intervention came after years of economic stagnation and political paralysis, aggravated by a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases and a day of violent protests.

However, as the weeks have passed a growing number of Tunisians have grown concerned by the lack of clarity on Saied’s plans and the absence of a prime minister.

 

[Farm Boy]

Best we become more authoritarian to combat these right wing threats.

 

[Gelion]

Best we become more authoritarian to combat these right wing threats.

Careful, if you go to far you'll make a full circle

 

[Farm Boy]

And how.

 

[Gelion]

And how.

If you go left you will come to the right - Joseph Stalin

“On the Anglo-Russian Committee of Unity”, speech at the joint plenum of the Central Committee and the Central Control Commission of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on June 15, 1926: “But such is the fate of the 'ultra-left' phrase-mongers. Their phrases are left-wing, but in reality it comes out to help the enemies of the working class."

Something like that

 

[Ajidica]

On the subject of Russia in the Africa thread...

Central African Republic war: No-go zones and Russian meddling
Amid a Russian-backed advance, the growing threat of landmines and improvised explosives in the Central African Republic (CAR) points to a dangerous tactical shift in a new and unfolding guerrilla war.

Earlier this month, a convoy driving across CAR's volatile north-west struck an explosive device, killing an aid worker from the Danish Refugee Council.

Even in one of the world's most dangerous countries for aid workers, who routinely face violence and intimidation, the tragic incident stood out - highlighting a growing and unprecedented threat after years of civil war.

These indiscriminate devices, which can kill or cause horrific injuries, are keeping aid and human-rights investigators out of hotspots - and leaving desperate communities without a lifeline.

"Fighting is happening behind closed doors," said Christine Caldera, from advocacy group the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, adding that it was civilians who were paying the price for the increasing use of explosive devices.

Documented atrocities
While instability has wracked CAR for decades, the origins of this new chapter in the crisis stretch back to 2013 when a rebel coalition seized power, triggering reprisals from militias loyal to the ousted regime amid a spiral of war crimes and crimes against humanity.

As the warring parties fragmented, Russia entered the fray in 2017 as part of efforts to expand its influence across the continent - backing the beleaguered government in the capital, Bangui, and giving it weapons, ammunition and 175 military instructors.

Evidence suggests these so-called instructors include Russian mercenaries from the Wagner Group, a private military company with combat experience in Ukraine, Syria and Libya - though both governments deny this.

CAR's rebel groups - including Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation (3R) - are largely drawn from the country's Muslim minority, which has long faced marginalisation.

Ahead of presidential elections last December, 3R joined a loose rebel alliance, causing the collapse of peace agreements signed in 2019.

With Russian help, the armed forces have since driven them back, retaking towns and villages which have languished beyond state control for years.

But according to a recent UN report, they have committed almost as many documented abuses as the rebels over the past year, ranging from abductions and arbitrary detentions to rape, torture and summary killings.


Black-market landmines
Compounding this violence is the emerging threat of landmines and IEDs, which are increasingly prevalent in the region, particularly in northern Nigeria, the Lake Chad basin and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The first known use of them in CAR came in June 2020 during a UN-backed offensive against 3R, which began using these weapons in a brutal attempt to cling on to territory.

Among the devices being laid was a type of anti-tank mine known as a PRB-M3, a powerful, Belgium-made explosive from the 1970s and 1980s.

Weapons experts say these mines are probably being trafficked from Libyan stockpiles or harvested from active minefields in Chad and Sudan before entering the black market.

David Lochhead, a senior researcher with the Small Arms Survey, says CAR's rebels appear to be copying jihadist groups in Mali who have incorporated this type of mine into IEDs alongside other homemade explosives to create bigger blasts that destroy armoured vehicles.

"It's a very worrying trend," he said. "An IED may cost $35 (£26) to build and you can defeat an armoured vehicle that costs $500,000."

After the UN force ended its brief assault on 3R's strongholds, mine-related incidents all but stopped until the government's bid to rout rebels from provincial towns began this year.

In total, between January and August, explosive ordnance killed at least 14 civilians, including a pregnant woman and two children, injured a further 21 as well as two peacekeepers in more than two dozen incidents, according to the UN's humanitarian agency Ocha.

"Access here has been extremely complex - you have shifting conflict lines, poor infrastructure, now the rainy season. But explosive ordinance is a new ballgame," Ocha's Rosaria Bruno said.

The impact on civilians is calamitous. Planted on roads and even near schools, the landmines and IEDs cut villagers off from peacekeeper patrols and humanitarian help, and force people from their homes. More than 1.4 million people are currently displaced nationwide - the highest level for five years.

For example, around 1,000 people fled their village in the Nana-Mambéré region after a device exploded there in May; the village remains inaccessible because of the continuing lethal threat.

Some aid has been airlifted in by helicopter, including 1.5 tonnes of medicine, hygiene products and food for the villagers. But such operations are costly and unsustainable in a humanitarian emergency to which the response plan faces a funding gap of almost $190m - more than 40% of the required amount.

Smear campaigns
The impact is felt too by the UN's 15,000-strong peacekeeping force (Minusca), which has been hit by numerous sexual abuse allegations.

The beleaguered force has also been the target of smear campaigns from all sides, while its mission has been obstructed by the presence of explosives and also by Russian personnel deployed in the field.

Last month it faced rumours that it was supplying rebels with landmines, even as it was deploying personnel to remove these devices.

"Minusca has never used mines," said UN forces spokesman Maj Ibrahim Atikou Amadou, adding that de-mining operations were still at an impasse because of the accusations.

Though it seems responsibility for laying landmines may not lie solely with the rebels.

A UN report in June revealed that government troops had warned local communities in two different parts of the country that Russian soldiers had placed mines on a road and near a bridge.

Other sources said this was not the case but that such rumours had been circulated in a bid to deter rebels from launching attacks.

Regardless of whether the bomb presence is genuine, the fear created is real, limiting farming and preventing children going to school, the UN report said.

Both CAR and Russia deny that their forces have committed human-rights abuses or used landmines or other explosive devices.

While 3R has been widely blamed for planting mines, the group denies this, blaming the Russians.

More than 20 years ago, a global treaty banned the use of landmines targeted at individuals, though Russia is not a signatory and mines intended to destroy vehicles fall outside the convention.

'No military solution'
Experts warn that, despite their breath-taking advance, government forces have not eliminated the rebels, simply pushing them to peripheral areas and forcing them to adopt guerrilla tactics.

Neither have they addressed the underlying grievances that fuelled their appearance in the first place - the state's long-term and violent discrimination against the Muslim population.

"It is clear that there isn't a military solution to this conflict," said Ms Caldera.

"While the security forces are making progress in recapturing territory, they are wreaking havoc on the civilian population and not restoring stability whatsoever."

This week, CAR President Faustin-Archange Touadéra shrugged off criticism of his alliance with Russia, and insisted he was open to dialogue with the rebels, saying: "I did not choose this war."

As the country slips deeper into disaster, civilians bearing the brunt of the clashes will be hoping he pursues another course.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-58641124

Mali protesters: Drop France and ally with Russia
Thousands of protesters have taken part in a rally in Mali's capital, Bamako, to call for closer ties with Russia.

The rally follows days of diplomatic tension between Paris and Bamako after Mali's interim leaders acknowledged that they were in talks with the Russian mercenary group Wagner.

The Malians who took to the streets on Wednesday were supporting the transitional government.

It's under pressure from France and regional group Ecowas to hold elections in February and to renounce possible co-operation with Wagner.

The march was organised by the Yerewolo movement, which is opposed to the presence of French forces in Mali.

Referring to the launch of the French military operation against jihadists in northern Mali in January 2013, its spokesperson Siriki Kouyaté told the AFP news agency that “France and the international community have had nine years without results, without security, without protection of people and property”.

https://www.bbc.com/news/topics/cq23pdgvrqwt/mali

 

[Takhisis]

Some dark legacies still go on.

For African nations, capital punishment is a grim colonial legacy that lingers on
On the World Day Against the Death Penalty, the tide is turning in west Africa against this tool of colonial repression and racism

In July, Sierra Leone became the 23rd African country to abolish the death penalty. Although its use across the continent has dwindled – thanks to concerted efforts from human rights organisations and governments – the death penalty remains on many more countries’ statute books due to its strong colonial legacy.

Spoiler :

During the colonial period, punishments that were being abandoned in Europe found fertile ground in Africa. Among them was the death penalty, which was deployed as a key element in the mechanism of colonial repression.

While imprisonment became the most common response to crimes in colonial Africa, the death penalty was at the heart of the colonial project, its practice deeply woven into the fabric of state formation and citizenship building.

The 1890s were a formative time for the death penalty in Africa. It had been introduced in British Africa, in the Belgian Congo and in German Africa. But it was mainly practised in French Africa around this time, which corresponded with the end of the military conquests in the region and France’s early efforts to consolidate its rule through an established politico-legal administration.

The death penalty was first introduced in the region in Senegal, France’s oldest colony in west Africa, as early as 1824, soon after the French took possession in 1817. But it was not enforced until 1899. That year the first public guillotine execution took place in Saint-Louis, the colony’s administrative capital, at a time when the Third French Republic turned away from public executions.

Senegal was the only country in French West Africa to use the guillotine. In French Equatorial Africa, French Togo and French Cameroon, the firing squad remained the main execution method until 1957.

The death penalty in French Africa was an institution with a complex, messy and layered history. It moved beyond legal justice and was shaped in many ways by political and social factors. Alongside its role to mete out punishment and maintain law and order, the death penalty in French Africa was also displayed as an instrument of state authority and legitimacy.

From its institutionalisation in the 1890s until the 1960s, when France withdrew from most of its colonies in the region, the politics of the death penalty navigated between imperial ideas and local practices.

Crimes such as gang attacks, armed pillage, rebellions, conspiracy to rebel against the colonial administration – all threats to the colonial economy and the protection of French assets in French West Africa – were punished by death.

But numerous legislations that reflected cultural assumptions about Africans – such as their natural savagery and barbarism, primitive character and natural instinct for violence – continuously reshaped how the death penalty was put into practice.

Capital crimes were constantly redefined to respond to growing concerns over any kind of criminal act or behaviour, which led to an expansion of the categories of capital crimes throughout the colonial period. Colonial judges, most of them administrators with no judicial training, were bestowed with discretionary powers to define what constituted a crime and handed down death sentences based on African customs that they knew nothing about or had limited understanding of.

The death penalty was deeply rooted in racism. It was politicised and weaponised as colonial administrators targeted and profiled particular ethnic, religious or political groups as potential capital criminals or suspects. Colonial judges built their prosecutions on the characters of African defendants rather on the circumstances of the crimes they had committed. Racist stereotypes and prejudice created the ground for the criminalisation of activities such as witchcraftand cannibalism. Colonial judges severely prosecuted these crimes, which stood as evidence of the so-called “savagery” of Africans, legitimising the necessity of the French’s “civilising mission” in Africa.

The death penalty did not end with the demise of European colonialism in Africa – Senegal did not abolish the death penalty until 2004. Instead, the continuity of colonial legislation and traditions surrounding the death penalty shaped its practice in countries long after independence.

Today, many African countries are still reckoning with this gloomy inheritance from colonialism. But with the growing momentum of the anti-death penalty movement across the continent and the world, there is good reason to think more countries will do away with the ultimate sentence.

Dr Dior Konaté is a professor of African history at South Carolina State University. She is the author of Prison Architecture and Punishment in Colonial Senegal. She is currently working on a book titled Constructing Death: Capital Punishment in Colonial Senegal

 

[NovaKart]

Central African Republic’s second largest city is named Bimbo

 

[Takhisis]

Central African Republic’s second largest city is named Bimbo

Like the Mexican bread brand?

 

[innonimatu]

An article calling the death penalty a "colonial legacy" is one of those pathetic jokes. Are we to believe that it was a paradise where the rules didn't sentence people to die, before colonial annexation? If they didn't it was just because it was more profitable to sell them into slavery. Oh wait, that would not be politically correct to say, would it?

An argument can be made that african countries today do carry the legacy of colonial-era laws and judicial organizations, such that countries that had been part of empires with the death penalty still have it in their laws, and countries that had been part of empires which had long abolished the death penalty don't have it now.

But that wouldn't make for a "colonialism bad" article but instead a "colonialism influenced legislative traditions" article. Worse, in a more in-depth article the author would have to recognize that several countries introduced the death penalty into their legislative codes after independence, not having had it while colonies...

This shoddy "journalism", by people either ignorant of history or intentionally deceiving readers because they have some agenda to serve, particularly irritates me. It's trivial to research the facts so I can only attribute it to maliciousness.

 

[NovaKart]

That occurred to me too, that they likely had the death penalty before colonialism but the written down law came from the European powers.

Like the Mexican bread brand?

Yes.

 

[Takhisis]

Innonimatu, didn't you, onyl a couple of months ago, defend the exploitation of the resources of third-world countries by foreign powers as a way to lift them out of poverty?

Or was that another innonimatu?

 

[innonimatu]

Innonimatu, didn't you, onyl a couple of months ago, defend the exploitation of the resources of third-world countries by foreign powers as a way to lift them out of poverty?

Or was that another innonimatu?

Me? Quote or shut up with false accuations.

That occurred to me too, that they likely had the death penalty before colonialism but the written down law came from the European powers.

The current legal codes are certainly a colonial legacy. But is is just about anything else about the current african countries. Not a single one corresponds to pre-colonial era borders, to start with. Not even Egypt, which arguably should not have had so much of sudan amputated from it, leading to the current problems and possible wars about management of Nile water.

But specific laws, and notorious ones such as the death penalty, have been changed several times post-independence in a large number of countries. Ironically that can be put down to "neo-colonial" influence more than endogenous factors. There was no falling back on pre-colonial legal codes because there was too little from that era to base a "modern" state (following the european model, which they all did). So they all had to evolve post-independence from what they had.
Imo clinging to death penalty, or even introducing the death penalty, had more to do with civil wars and local political violence than to either colonial legal tradition or pre-colonial tradition.

One can agree that colonial exploitation was bad and should end (as should the neo-colonial kind) and still be realistic, historically accurate, when commenting on the colonial era and its current consequences. The current problems there cannot be understood without truthfully analyzing the colonial era changes made on Africa. And even further back the pre-colonial times. It's recent history there.

 

[Snowygerry]

The 1890s were a formative time for the death penalty in Africa. It had been introduced in British Africa, in the Belgian Congo and in German Africa. But it was mainly practised in French Africa around this time, which corresponded with the end of the military conquests in the region and France’s early efforts to consolidate its rule through an established politico-legal administration.

Probably an oversight - but "Belgian Congo" only came to be 1908 - in the 1890s it was still "Congo Freestate" Belgian law didn't apply there...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State

 

[Ajidica]

An article calling the death penalty a "colonial legacy" is one of those pathetic jokes. Are we to believe that it was a paradise where the rules didn't sentence people to die, before colonial annexation? If they didn't it was just because it was more profitable to sell them into slavery. Oh wait, that would not be politically correct to say, would it?

An argument can be made that african countries today do carry the legacy of colonial-era laws and judicial organizations, such that countries that had been part of empires with the death penalty still have it in their laws, and countries that had been part of empires which had long abolished the death penalty don't have it now.

But that wouldn't make for a "colonialism bad" article but instead a "colonialism influenced legislative traditions" article. Worse, in a more in-depth article the author would have to recognize that several countries introduced the death penalty into their legislative codes after independence, not having had it while colonies...

This shoddy "journalism", by people either ignorant of history or intentionally deceiving readers because they have some agenda to serve, particularly irritates me. It's trivial to research the facts so I can only attribute it to maliciousness.

I've encountered a number of people who get quite angry when I put the blame for the assassination of Seth Sendashonga and the kidnapping of Paul Rusesabagina on Paul Kagame and the RPF instead of colonialism/neo-imperialism.
Or a number of other events/trends in modern Africa.

 

[thetrooper]

I bless the rains down in Africa.

 

[Tee Kay]

The current legal codes are certainly a colonial legacy. But is is just about anything else about the current african countries. Not a single one corresponds to pre-colonial era borders, to start with.

I've encountered a number of people who get quite angry when I put the blame for the assassination of Seth Sendashonga and the kidnapping of Paul Rusesabagina on Paul Kagame and the RPF instead of colonialism/neo-imperialism.

Incidentally, the country that arguably does correspond to pre-colonial borders is Rwanda.

 

[Samson]

African nations deploy envoys to Eswatini to help stem unrest

Southern African countries have deployed envoys to Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, to try to stem the unrest that saw one person killed and at least 80 people wounded by security forces in the latest wave of pro-democracy protests.
The demonstrations in the kingdom have flared up recently, months after authorities loyal to the country’s absolute monarch quashed an earlier round of demonstrations.

Gunfire was heard into the night on Wednesday in the Eswatini capital Mbabane, and the civil servants’ union NAPSAWU said at least one man had been shot dead earlier in the day. “The army and the police killed one person at about 3pm (13:00 GMT) today,” Oscar Nkambule, the president of the union, told the AFP news agency.
Fifty of its members were taken to hospital in Mbabane, with another 30 admitted to hospital in the city of Manzini, including some with gunshot wounds, he added.
Hundreds of soldiers and police began fanning through both cities early in the day, firing tear gas at even small gatherings of people and unleashing volleys of rubber-coated bullets, AFP reported.

The kingdom again shut down the internet as images of the violence began circulating on social media. On Thursday, mobile operators were told to suspend access to Facebook and its messenger app until further notice.

“This is a recipe for war,” said Wonder Mkhonza, head of the Amalgamated Trade Union of Swaziland.
“The king is fighting for a war, he is making the country ungovernable by deploying the armed forces.”
​

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