South Arica and South Sudan

On January 29, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, the South African minister of defence and military veterans, flew to Juba to visit her South Sudanese counterpart. She wasn’t there to urge South Sudanese authorities to stop and investigate their serious violations in that country’s abusive conflict. Instead she was there to reward South Sudan with a military cooperation agreement. The agreement will allow South African soldiers to train South Sudanese troops, who have shown no regard for international human rights or humanitarian law despite previous training by international forces. Instead of using South Africa’s privileged role to urge an end to war crimes and crimes against humanity and to demand accountability, government spokespeople have been intent on normalizing the military cooperation agreement between both countries. The official line is that it is merely “a product of long existing bilateral relations between the two countries dating back to the liberation struggles and South Sudan’s independence, in which South Africa played a critical role.”

Since the beginning of the brutal civil war four years ago, the South Sudanese army’s abuses against civilians have included hundreds of killings, dozens of enforced disappearances, countless rapes, rampant torture, the wholesale destruction of dozens of villages and the forced recruitment of thousands of children. The conflict has created the continent’s largest refugee crisis, forcefully displacing close to four million South Sudanese civilians, half of whom have fled to neighboring countries, away from the warring parties’ atrocities.

The government of South Africa cannot claim to be ignorant of these violations by South Sudanese soldiers. They have been extensively documented. South Sudanese leaders have shown no serious intent to prevent, investigate or punish abuses against civilians committed by troops under their command. South Africa’s plan to assist and train South Sudan’s forces therefore raises serious concerns. While the civil war rages on, assistance to the army could lead to further atrocities and war crimes against civilians, and to South African complicity in them.  If South Africa’s government wants to assist the South Sudanese, rather than deepen cooperation with those who use child soldiers, it should support international efforts to provide accountability for grave crimes.

Kenyan Farming Potential

Last year 1.3 million Kenyans faced starvation, according to the World Bank. Kenya produces less than 40 million bags of maize a year, against demand of 51 million bags. It imports eight million bags of maize a year, more recently due to drought.

The government allocation of Sh15 billion to agriculture this financial year is only six per cent to Gross Domestic Product against recommended 10 per cent as per Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in 2003.

The country is chronically food insecure, yet it could drastically reduce food imports and has the potential to feed itself.  Vast tracts of arable land lie idle, many owned by parastatals and private individuals. Shortsighted land policies don't penalise owners of unused fertile land. Smallholder farmers' parcels are too small for efficient agriculture. Seed varieties are poor. Inputs like fertiliser are inadequate and costly, storage is lacking or inadequate. There's a lot of waste. Transport and distribution are poor.

A recent World Bank assessment of policies and institutions supporting growth and poverty reduction scores Kenya very low on land and agriculture policies. While the continental score is 3.2 out of 6.0, Kenya only managed 2.5. 

Land owed by smallholders farmers — accounting for 70 per cent of national food production — is steadily shrinking, lowering production.

The Agriculture ministry says at least 60,000 acres of fertile land are controlled by individuals and parastatals. Then there are vast tracts of arid and semi-arid land that should be irrigated. Eighty per cent of Kenya is arid and semi-arid land, much of which can be reclaimed through irrigation and made productive through modern farming. Yields from irrigated farms are 90 per cent higher than those from nearby rain-fed farms, the World Bank says. And yet, only seven per cent of Kenya's ASAL is irrigated. Less than 1.8 per cent of maize crops are irrigated, despite it being a staple.

 The World Bank argues that poor land governance may be the root of the food security problem in Kenya and the continent. It cites a litany of problems. "Limited access to agricultural advisory services, technical knowledge, market information, training, quality inputs and capital are among the chief obstacles to smallholders farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa to improving productivity, increasing incomes and strengthening food security,'' says the report 'Securing Africa’s Land for Shared Prosperity'. Kenyan farmers lose at least 20 per cent of their harvest due to poor storage, including proper silos and refrigeration.

These problems plague much of Sub-Saharan Africa, which contains almost 60 per cent of the world's uncultivated land, according to FAO. If used for high-yield agriculture, the continent could be a global food basket. According to the World Economic Forum, Africa must invest in research into plant breeding to develop high-yield crops specific to its soils

''It is high time the continent adopts genetically modified crops that are high-yielding and resistant to pests and diseases. This presents Africa with an opportunity to address food insecurity. It is also cost-effective as it reduces pesticide use by 37 per cent, increases yields by 22 per cent and farmer profits by 68 per cent,'' says Mark Jones, lead researcher for the World Economic Forum. Africa has the world's lowest fertiliser consumption, accounting for only two per cent of global consumption, The FAO says. This despite having 20 per cent of the world's population. Lack of fertiliser is attributed to lack of stable affordable supply.

https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2018/02/03/so-much-land-yet-so-many-people-hungry_c1696989

Post-colonial Africa

 At least 10 million of the 16 million Zambians live in poverty. The Global Hunger Index says that Zambia is the country with the third hungriest population. Hunger levels are alarming in the country, as well as in the Central African Republic and in Chad. About half of Zambia’s population and half of the people of the Central African Republic are undernourished. Last year, Gregory Chileshe of Christians Against Poverty said that the hunger is a consequence of unemployment. The ‘pangs of poverty’, he said, ‘will flatten the people to inhuman conditions’.

Zambia is not a poor country - if you look at its resources. It is the eighth largest supplier of copper to the world. Last year, Zambia produced 850,000 tons of copper, 100,000 tons more than in the previous year. The price of copper remains high. There is plenty of money to be made from this precious resource. The five copper firms that dominate mining in the country have Zambian names, but are not Zambian companies. They are owned by the Canadian firm Barrick, the Canadian firm FQM, the UK firm Vedanta, the Swiss firm Glencore as well as by China’s Non-Ferrous Metals Mining Corporation. These are major mining companies that leech Zambia of its resources and - through bribery - earn the loyalty of the pliant government. These companies declare only a fraction of their earnings. About two-thirds of their earnings are ‘mispriced’ - and the money sent off to tax havens.

In the Copperbelt Province of Zambia, 60% of the children in grades one to four cannot read.  Why is this so? Why is the country rich in resources unable to teach its children elementary skills?

The UN Children’s Agency - UNICEF - has just released a stunning report about illiteracy. It suggests that north of Zambia - from South Sudan to Niger - the illiteracy rates of children are stunning. Current the highest illiteracy rates are in Niger (76%), Chad (69%), South Sudan (68%) and Central African Republic (64%). In these countries, children cannot read nor write. UNICEF suggests that the reason is that this region has long been a site of conflict. It is true that this belt that runs across the width of Africa has struggled with wars of one kind or another. Niger, for instance, is faced with a virtual military occupation by France and the United States, whose militaries are on the ground to defend the uranium mines for French companies. War certainly creates chaos. The UNICEF report is correct in its emphasis on war. But war is not a sufficient explanation. War is itself a symptom of a much more dangerous underlying reality.

They are also in places where the nation-states have been unable - for whatever reason - to harness the resources on their own. The ruling elites in these nation-states have turned over their sovereignty to enormously powerful multinational corporations. The profits made by these firms - by the sale of Zambia’s copper or Niger’s uranium - is far beyond the GDP of these states. These companies declare only a fraction of their earnings. Global Financial Integrity studied five African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda) to show that these countries lost at least $14.5 billion to such financial shenanigans. The UN’s Economic Commission of Africa estimated that the illegal financial flows out of Africa amounted to $50 billion per year. Most of this money vanishes into tax havens. The ruling elites in these African states accede to these firms often because they are bribed to turn a blind eye to the corruption of multinational companies. Transparency International suggests that the bribery amounts total around $3 billion for all of Africa. The United Nations has suggested that 99.5% of bribes are paid to African officials by non-African firms.

The ruling elites are selling the countries cheaply. The rate of return earned by Western-based resource extraction firms is considerable. Bribery certainly pays off.

https://www.alternet.org/world/mining-companies-africa-make-billions-children-left-illiterate

African Migration

African migration is predominately within the continent, particularly between neighbouring countries. In 2013, 65 percent of the 20 million sub-Saharan African migrants, who had left their countries, were still living in the region. Migration within and outside of Africa is expected to increase, in part because of continued population growth, with the working-age population of Africa expected to double to 1,3 billion by 2050.

The leading host countries for migrants in Africa are Côte d’Ivoire (with 2,3 million African migrants), South Africa (2 million) and Nigeria (0,9 million). Gabon, Algeria and Morocco are emerging as African migration destinations.

Meanwhile, Uganda and Ethiopia host the largest refugee populations on the continent. In December 2017, Uganda was home to over 1,4 million refugees (75 percent of them from South Sudan). Ethiopia currently hosts over 890 000 refugees (most of whom are from neighbouring South Sudan and Somalia). 

Drivers of African migration include the desire for a better and safer life, and the search for work. People are also forced to move by war, harsh economic climates, bad governance and environmental degradation. Remittances – money sent by migrants to their home countries – are one of the biggest benefits of migration for African countries. n 2008, they overtook foreign direct investment and international aid as the largest source of foreign exchange earnings for sub-Saharan African countries. 

However, Africa’s loss of skilled and educated people remains a major negative consequence of migration. There are some policies and legal frameworks in place in Africa.

Xenophobia in South Africa still persists

The African Diaspora Forum (ADF) is worried that attacks on migrants could spread to Pretoria. “The mere fact that you are not a South African by birth puts you in danger,” said Marc Gbaffou, the chairperson of the organisation representing foreigners living in South Africa.

Attacks on foreigners started two weeks ago in Rustenburg, when six buildings believed to be owned by Nigerians and allegedly used as brothels and drug dens were torched.

The ADF said there was growing concern that areas with a concentration of migrants might be the next target. Gbaffou said the attacks had spread to Mogale City, where a satellite police station in Krugersdorp was set alight and police vehicles stoned during a protest against foreigners.

“A similar thing happened a number of months ago in Rosettenville, where community members went on a rampage to attack migrants they believed were criminals, and that quickly spread to Mamelodi, Atteridgeville and many other places in Gauteng.” Gbaffou said migrants living in Pretoria had a reason to be concerned. “They are not only attacking Nigerians, but all foreigners and that’s a cause for concern.”

Corruption Throughout the Continent

 Speaking at the 32nd Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union,  Chairperson of the African Union Commission, Mr. Moussa Faki Mahamat has disclosed that a $50 billion is lost annually to corruption and Illicit financial flows in the continent.

Mahamat expressed concern that the continent has continuously relied on external assistance because of huge financial loss through corruption.

The Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA), Ms. Vera Songwe, underlined the need for African countries to collectively conquer corruption. Songwe added that it is only through this that the continent can achieve lasting independence and sustainable development.

Call for Action

The capitalist crisis in the world economy has remained intense, deep and prolonged. It is primarily borne out of contradictions of capitalism, in which production is social and the fruits of labour are appropriated privately by a handful of people. This capitalist crisis has driven down standards of living and the livelihoods of millions of people throughout the world.

Unemployment has risen and wages remain depressed. Although often coated with relatively short-lived, anaemic, upward or recovery cycles, all major western economies are experiencing a long downward drag.

As workers, we know that in both economic boom and crisis, it is the bosses that benefit and the workers that suffer. Throughout the world, the ruling elites have imposed extreme sacrifices upon the workers. They have often succeeded where the unions are weak or are divided along narrow sectarian lines. In this unfolding capitalist crisis, trade unions need to respond with militancy and programmes of the mass-line in defending the working class and this must continue even though global capitalism seems to have started to recover.

We now know from the last report released by Statistics South Africa that more than half of the South African population live in poverty. In fact, the number of people living in extreme poverty (i.e. persons living below the 2015 Food Poverty Line of R441 per person per month) has increased by 2,8 million, to nearly 14 million. Women, children and the elderly are the hardest hit by poverty. This reality of the deepening and widening poverty was also confirmed by the South African Reserve Bank (SARB), which reported that 'in per capita terms South Africans are poorer than they were in 2014'

During this round of wage negotiations, unions need to take up the fight for better wages and improved benefits to the employers in a disciplined and fearless way. Unions should go out there and fight strong and hard for decent wage increases that will bring about meaningful change to the lives of the workers.

We need to realise that for us to fight back we need to be united as workers across union lines and adopt the idea of sympathy strikes and solidarity rallies embracing the widest sections of workers. A failure by trade unions to unite and collectively work together to defend the interests of our members in the face this widening social and economic crisis would be reckless and a form of cowardice that we would live to regret.

http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=13532

The “second scramble for Africa”.

With crime, corruption, conflict and  uncertainty as well as dismal employment figures, higher costs of living and the inevitable fallout of these, moods are generally grim across Africa.

Nevertheless, Africa, as we know, is very attractive to foreigners and demand for investment in African real estate is expected to reach a fever pitch in 2018, and beyond, API Events,  Africa’s leading provider of real estate development and investment conferences, said.

With macroeconomic indicators released by the International Monetary Fund in November 2017 pointing to a surge in real Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth of 5 percent across 18 economies in sub-Saharan Africa, and the World Bank’s 2018 Economic Outlook predicting overall growth of 3,2 percent, demands for investment opportunities are increasing.  It becomes apparent that Africa’s sleeping ‘lion economies’ are waking up with Ghana predicted to grow at 8,9 percent, Cote d’Ivoire 7 percent and Senegal around 7 plus. Kenya and Mozambique are also predicted to grow substantially.

 https://www.herald.co.zw/scramble-for-african-real-estate-to-reach-fever-pitch/

Unequal South Africa

Shoprite’s chief executive, Pieter Engelbrecht, earned 1 332 times more money than the average salary of an employee.

Naspers’ chief executive Bob Van Dijk earned 264 times more than an average worker.

Steinhoff’s former chief executive Markus Jooste earned 234 times more.

Siphokazi Mthathi, Oxfam SA’s executive director, said this was why she believed capitalism to be a “crime against humanity”, as companies with gaping wage inequalities, which are entangled in graft, continue to reward billionaires at the expense of ordinary workers.

“We outline in the report that the wealth that the marginalised produce, but don’t benefit from, should be considered a crime against humanity. The humanity we are talking about are the 3.7 billion people who continue to be excluded from benefits, yet their labour is extracted to feed and bolster the profits of the wealthy. Free market capitalism has not worked for the majority of the world’s people,” Mthathi emphasised.

Most Nigerians are in Poverty

The Special Advisor to the President on Social Protection, Mrs. Maryam Uwais, says about 67 per cent of Nigerian population live below poverty line.

Soth Sudan and a lost generation

South Sudan risks losing a generation that would make it harder to rebuild after the civil war ends.

Henrietta H. Fore, UNICEF's executive director, made the warning after visiting some of the areas most devastated by the war. "70 percent of the children are out of school, that is highest in the world...we are going to lose this generation and that would be tragic for South Sudan because a country cannot build itself without this next generation of young people."

Fore said she had witnessed widespread malnutrition among children and warned: "We are heading into the dry season... we might lose up to a quarter of a million children in South Sudan."

Where is South Africa going? (1993)

From the June 1993 issue of the Socialist Standard

There was a time when the battle-cries of the ANC were “Black Majority Rule" and “Sanctions Now”. But that was when Nelson Mandela was still a political prisoner— in the days when “communism” was seen as a threat to those governments which advocated free-market policies.

We live, however, in unpredictable times. The last 4-5 years have been momentous in shattering illusions, beliefs, notions of what had hitherto been taken for granted. The impossible became possible. There were great shifts in public opinion. Governments have been toppled and national boundaries have moved overnight as if blown by a breeze.

Many believed the breeze reached South Africa when Mandela was released from 27 years of imprisonment on 11 February 1990. Headlines praising the release and eulogizing F.W. De Klerk were flashed around the world, and the 78-year struggle of the ANC seemed finally about to be vindicated.

The dreams of South Africa’s black majority appeared to have been realized in mid-1991, when the parliament in Cape Town repealed the Population Registration Act, and when De Klerk announced to a joint sitting of the country's tricameral parliament that “Apartheid now belongs to history”. Brave words, indeed, from a ruling National Party that had held power and practiced institutionalized racism since 1948.

By September De Klerk was seen to be pushing South Africa towards democracy, by unveiling further constitutional proposals for a new non-racial South Africa. The scheme was lambasted by opponents as an underhand move, designed to allow the white minority to keep the “accumulated privileges of apartheid" (Guardian, 4 September 1991). Although the new proposals would extend the franchise to all adult South Africans, it would in effect, it was argued, give the whites and other minorities the right to veto important policy decisions.

It is hardly a coincidence that De Klerk s decision to free Mandela, legalize the ANC and the South African Communist Party, and begin constitutional negotiations should coincide with the discrediting of international “communism” in the wake of the end of the cold war. The South African government knew full well that any change in the constitution would not upset the country’s economic status quo. Under apartheid the black majority had laboured as wage-slaves, or rather volatile wage-slaves; enfranchised, they would still be wage-slaves but this time a little more contented. Besides, a South Africa seen to be getting its act together would be an incentive for foreign investment.

In February last year, De Klerk announced that white voters would be asked in a referendum to answer “yes” or "no” to the question: “Do you support the continuation of the reform process . . . which is aimed at a new constitution through negotiations?” One month later the white voting population returned an impressive 68.6 percent "yes" vote. It is a fair guess, however, that many voters, voting either way, had their minds set when violence surrounding the campaign left 25 dead.

Massacre

The entire reform process ground to a halt on 17 June 1992, when Inkatha warriors, with the assistance of the security forces massacred 42 in the Transvaal township of Boipatong. The ANC abandoned constitutional talks and Mandela was "convinced that his [President De Klerk’s] method of bringing about a solution to this country is war" (Guardian, 22 June). All sides were in agreement on the suspending of talks and within a week tit-for-tat killings had left another 70 dead.

Within three months it was the turn of South Africa’s defence forces to have themselves a massacre, opening fire on a demonstration by 70,000 ANC supporters at Ciskei, killing 28 and leaving another 200 injured.The government, who was accused of complicity with the defence forces, awaited an ANC-led backlash, it never came. Instead, in a surprising act of volte-face, the ANC, three days later, agreed to hold peace talks with the De Klerk government.

In September Mandela signed a “record of understanding" with De Klerk, agreeing that a new South African constitution could only be shaped by an elected constituent assembly and that there would be a non-racial interim government in the future. For good measure, and probably as a way of compensation for the recent massacres. De Klerk agreed on the immediate release of 150 political prisoners. Two months later De Klerk was calling for further negotiation to be re-started by the end of March 1993 with a view to holding South Africa's first non-racial general election by April 1994.

On 4 February this year, the ANC again met with the government for a further round of bilateral talks. In a meeting a month previous both sides had agreed there should be an “interim government of national unity”, though no agreement had been reached on the timescale for a new constitution. Nevertheless, it was understood that an “interim government of national unity”, consisting of parties that had secured a minimum percentage of the vote in elections, would hold power for five years following an agreement by a constitutional assembly on a final constitution.

Many in the ANC, however, objected any set-up which would give a disproportionate share of power to Chief Buthelezi, the Inkatha leader. Disagreement also remained on the suggested devolved regional plan. The ANC had pushed for a centralized authority, be it within a federal framework, while De Klerk pressed for regional autonomy on such issues as health and education.

On 1 April delegates from 26 political organizations, extreme left as well as right-wing, attended a round of multi-party negotiations. The talks ended a day sooner than scheduled, with many surprised that negotiations were back on track and to continue at a lower level. A day later secret negotiations began to reincorporate the "independent" homelands back into South Africa. Matters appeared to be going smoothly.

Assassination

No-one could have anticipated what would happen eight days later when a member of the neo-nazi AWB assassinated Chris Hani, a leading ANC politicians as well as the leader of the South African Communist Party. This had been the first political assassination in almost 30 years, and many believed that previous mutual restraint had signalled an unwritten agreement between blacks and whites not to target one-another s leaders.

The ANC urged restraint on its members, hoping that something fruitful could emerge out of the death of Hani, that his death would at least induce some kind of urgency into negotiations. Meanwhile, ANC Youth leaders rejected peace calls. One speaker announced to a rally in Pretoria: "It is time we told the leadership that enough is enough . . . now is the time to hit back” (Times, 13 April). In a country where peaceful demonstration has been met with violence and force, and where the black majority has for so long been denied the right of the ballot box to voice their wishes, it is little wonder that many still feel that violence can be the only tool of reform.

Hani's murder has a deadly logic for those in South Africa who hope to gain by it. those who are attempting to upset reform and derail negotiations at any cost, who will deny the black majority any rights, even if it means civil war. Thankfully their numbers are few. They include the likes of Eugene Terreblanche, the AWB leader whose hypocritical view of the death of Nani was an “atrocious deed". But whatever the latent motives were for the death of Hani, his assassination does not seem to have dowsed the flame of reform. On 15 April the South African government reacted to the current crisis by tentatively promising to hurry along constitutional reform.

It looks likely that in the near future an electorate with enfranchised blacks in the majority will have voted in a new constituent assembly and a power-sharing government of national unity holding power for five years, headed, probably by Nelson Mandela. The ANC is in favour of a government of national unity of limited duration. but have opposed a five-year power-sharing plan. De Klerk, however, appears to be in the better bargaining position. How smaller factions within South Africa will react remains to be seen. The extreme right-wing AWB will never be placated, neither will comfort be found in the Inkatha camp where Chief Buthelezi has warned of civil war should the ANC and De Klerk's National Party reach an agreement to share power on their own. In any event, a future South Africa will probably be a highly devolved federation, with local and regional rights entrenched.

The negotiations have been taking place against the background of a South African economy in turmoil. Employment between 1991 and mid-1992 contracted by five percent and there is a continuance of capital flight—six billion Rand last year and 40 billion Rand since 1985. It is only a matter of time before the finger of blame is pointed. Should the economy continue to collapse Mandela will be blamed as much as De Klerk.

George Meddemmen.

Courting capitalism

Much has been compromised by the ANC since Mandela was released. Black majority rule has been sacrificed for a share in an interim government of national unity, in which parties with a minimum percentage of support will be given representation. Similarly, the ANC ultimate goal of a “socialist society” has been sacrificed for a share in a government with a proven track record of capitalist management.

There are now claims that the ANC elite are the new South African free marketeers, courting white businessmen and aspiring to their lifestyle. Recently the Johannesburg Weekly Mail ran a piece by a disillusioned ANC supporter, who questioned the contrasting lifestyles of the ANC elite and the black majority they represent: Mandela lives in a lavish suburb of Houghton; Zini Mandela’s honeymoon was financed by a wealthy white businessman; Allan Boesak now enjoys an extravagant lifestyle. “Are there gifts from the South African white economic elite?” asked the ANC member, “is our human suffering under apartheid rule so cheap to be bought by gifts from the white racists?”

Professor Heribert Adam, noted South African observer, commented:

On the part of the ANC/SACP, socialism has been reduced to anti-trust legislation and affirmative action. Lenin may still be quoted, but the World Bank, it seems, exerts a stronger pull . . . The more far-sighted sections of the business elite ingratiate themselves with any political leadership. (Guardian. 17 April)

The legalization of the ANC has much to do with this. Once legalized, given legitimacy, they struggled for acceptability and were easily discredited when Winnie Mandela was indicted on charges of kidnapping and murder, and when news broke about ANC detention and torture camps. The government could even use the Inkatha movement and their own defence forces against the ANC in acts of intimidation, knowing that any backlash would damage the new moderate image of the ANC. The only way the ANC could gain acceptability in the eyes of the white minority was by sacrificing some of their long-held views and recognizing the economic system, as run by the white capitalist elite.

For the ANC there is no going back now, only forward, forward with a perspective tainted by the capitalist economic values of the white minority. The ANC now want sanctions lifted, condemn acts of violence and aggression, and frown upon the kind of demonstrations they backed only six months ago at Ciskei.

"Our ideal is a socialist society”, said Chris Hani a few months before his assassination. “socialism is the best and most cohesive system for South Africa” (Guardian, 15 February). Ironic words, true socialists will agree, in light of recent events. Socialism (not the state capitalism Hani had in mind) is indeed a "most cohesive system”, but only on a world scale. Socialists, however, will not fail to welcome recent developments in South Africa. A South Africa with universal suffrage can only bring the realization of world socialism a step closer when the chains of capitalism begin to rust through and the world’s working class begin to voice objection through the ballot box.

John Bissett

Murder of Sengwer protestor in Kenya

"There are criminal elements in the forest which must be flushed out," Judi Wakhungu, Kenya's environment minister, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. "The security operation has been designed to return the situation to normal, which is what is likely to happen soon." He said this two days after a man was killed campaigning for a halt to the EU's six-year 3.6 billion shilling ($35 million) water conservation scheme in the Embobut forest, which they claim as their ancestral home. Activists welcomed the EU's move but called on Kenya to allow the Sengwer to return to live in the forest. The Sengwer hunter-gatherers have fought for more than five decades for the right to live in the Embobut forest in the Cherengany Hills, from where they were first evicted by British colonialists in the 19th century.

United Nations Special Rapporteurs expressed concerns on Monday about reports that indigenous Sengwer had been attacked and evicted from their homes as a result of the EU project. More than 100 armed Kenya Forest Service (KFS) guards entered the forest on Dec. 25, firing gunshots and burning at least 15 homes and killing livestock, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said. More than 70 Sengwer houses have been burned and numerous livestock shot dead since the start of January,

Rights groups, including Amnesty International, called on Kenya on Thursday to halt the security operation, which illustrates widespread tensions between indigenous people's land rights and conservation projects around the world.

Capitalism is a cancer

In 2006, Monica Kyotazala was diagnosed with cervical cancer, and her body shows the physical ravages of the condition. Painfully thin and with a faltering voice, she explains how she went without adequate medical treatment for close to two years, after Uganda's only radiotherapy machine broke down. After the machine failed, doctors prescribed two doses of chemotherapy for Ms Kyotazala.

"I didn't have the money," she says, beginning to cry. "I spent a month without getting the treatment. My children were trying to raise the money. So I survived on just morphine, for the pain. I had to go back home and wait."

At the Uganda Cancer Institute at the Mulago National Referral Hospital, radiotherapy is free, but chemotherapy and other cancer treatments are not. The cheapest dose of chemotherapy costs around 300,000 Uganda shillings ($85; £60). More expensive treatments cost as much as 1m shillings ($280; £205), says Rose Kiwanuka, head of the Palliative Care Association of Uganda.

"Sometimes patients cannot even find all the doses prescribed at the national hospital," she adds. "They would have to buy them from private pharmacies if they are in stock, and then bring the drugs to the doctors. That just goes to show the need for radiotherapy."

Those who could afford it went abroad for treatment, including to Kenya and India. Those who couldn't had to pay for alternative forms of treatment, or wait in distress. Some got worse and died.

Friday marks the official unveiling of Uganda's new Cobalt 60 radiotherapy machine. Its predecessor failed in April 2016, after 21 years in operation. The arrival of the new machine is potentially life-saving, even if it remains the only one for a country of more than 40 million people. "Globally, in the best-case scenario, for every 250,000 people you should have one radiotherapy machine," says Dr Jackson Orem, a senior oncologist and director of the Uganda Cancer Institute. He says that even having one machine for 500,000, or one million, people would help.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-42720938

A Parable by Leo Tolstoy

I see mankind as a herd of cattle inside a fenced enclosure. Outside the fence are green pastures and plenty for the cattle to eat. While inside the fence there is not quite enough for the cattle. Consequently, the cattle are trampling underfoot what little grass there is and goring each other to death in their struggle for existence. I saw the owner of the herd come to them and when he saw their pitiable condition, he was filled with compassion for them and thought of all he could do to improve their condition. So he called his friends together and asked them to assist him in cutting grass from outside the fence and throwing it over the fence to the cattle. And that they called Charity. Then because the calves were dying off and not growing up into serviceable cattle, he arranged that they should each have a pint of milk every morning for breakfast. Because they were dying off in the cold nights, he put up beautiful, well-drained and well-ventilated cow-sheds for the cattle. Because they were goring each other in the struggle for existence, be put corks on the horns of the cattle, so that the wounds they gave each other might not be so serious. Then he reserved a part of the enclosure for the old bulls and the old cows over seventy years of age. In fact, he did everything he could think of to improve the condition of the cattle, and when I asked him why he did not do the one obvious thing, break down the fence and let the cattle out. he answered: “If I let the cattle out. I should no longer be able to milk them."

Congo - A Catastrophe Looming

In a stark warning, three UN agencies – the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), UNICEF and the World Food Programme (WFP) – say time is running out to save hundreds of thousands of lives in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Farmers – who fled due to conflict - have missed three consecutive planting seasons. This has left people with almost nothing to eat. Food assistance is failing to fill the gap. Only 400,000 out of the 3.2 million severely food insecure people in Kasai received assistance in December. More than 750,000 are still displaced. Around 630,000 people have returned to their burned down villages after hiding in the forest, they must be helped to resume food production. Over ninety percent of rural communities depend entirely on agriculture.

The nutritional status of children is particularly critical. “At least 400,000 children under five have severe, acute malnutrition,” said UNICEF’s Acting Representative in the DRC, Tajudeen Oyewale. “They are likely to die unless they urgently receive health, water, sanitation and nutrition support. Longer-term food security must be restored and feeding and care practices improved so that children can have access to the adequate quality food they need.”

https://reliefweb.int/report/democratic-republic-congo/un-agencies-urgent-bid-prevent-famine-kasai

South Sudan's Misery

Each time Patrick Okello goes to tend his crops, he has to tell the soldiers or face 50 lashes with a whip when he returns. They’re “always watching and very suspicious,” said the 43-year-old who grows cassava and corn on the outskirts of Pajok, his hometown in South Sudan’s Greater Equatoria region. 

 Equatoria was once South Sudan’s breadbasket, producing the corn, sorghum and vegetables that fed the nation including the oil-rich north where famine hit last year. Since fighting spread to Equatoria in mid-2016, output has collapsed, adding to what charity Oxfam International says is the likelihood of the country’s worst-ever hunger this year. The civil war that began in December 2013 has claimed tens of thousands of lives. An estimated 5.1 million people -- almost half the population -- are expected to face acute food shortages in the first quarter as insecurity limits access to farms and markets.

“Fighting and insecurity in Greater Equatoria means that food production is dropping every year,” said Ranjan Poudyal, Oxfam’s South Sudan director. “Farmers who have managed to stay are only able to cultivate land around their homesteads for fear that lands further afield are too great a risk.” That contributed to unprecedented hunger even during the recent harvest season, normally the most plentiful period.

Former residents describe many of Equatoria’s settlements as ghost towns, with buildings stripped of their iron roofing, doors, and windows by looters; all that remain of some villages are burnt ruins. Civilians have fled to neighboring Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, raising the number crossing borders to escape South Sudan’s war to 2 million and exacerbating what the United Nations in March called the world’s fastest-growing refugee crisis.

In Equatoria, as elsewhere, non-combatants are bearing the brunt of the violence. Government forces routinely respond to rebel ambushes with “unlawful reprisals against civilians who live in rebel areas and share their ethnicity,” New York-based Human Rights Watch said in August. It reported a “climate of fear” and tactics including arbitrary arrests, torture and restricting movement between towns and villages. Amnesty International in July said both government forces and rebels have used hunger as a weapon of war in Equatoria, cutting supplies, looting from markets and homes and targeting civilians for perceived allegiances.

Joseph Nangi, a 36-year-old father of four, is trying to ward off hunger in Yambio, the capital of one of Equatoria’s nine states. Yet he’s sheltering just a half-day’s walk from his crops, which he had to abandon when fighting engulfed his village in December 2016. He described the risk of being killed or abducted if he returns. “Our crops are being eaten by wild animals and looted by armed men,” he said.

Eritrea's diaspora tax

The Netherlands have declared Eritrea's charge d'affaires "persona non grata." Eritrea has been enforcing a tax on expatriates amounting to 2 percent of their earnings, according to Dutch officials.

The Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra warned the African country's to end the practice of enforcing a so-called "diaspora tax" on Eritreans.

"In light of the continuous intimidation and force used in the collection of diaspora tax and its resulting social and political unrest, the cabinet is forced to give the Eritrean government a powerful signal."

Eritrean refugees make up one of the largest groups of foreign nationals in the country, second only to Syrians. Tens of thousands of Eritreans have fled their country since strongman Isaias Afwerki came into power following a decades-long war for independence from Ethiopia. Afwerki's rule has been characterized by severe human rights violations and suppression of dissent.

 According to a study published by the University of Tilburg last year "Those who are reluctant or refuse to pay… are ostracized as pariahs and consequently intimidated and harassed."

Italy sends troops to Africa

Italy's parliament approved a bill to beef up the country's military mission in North Africa, as well as in the West African nation of Niger. 

In December, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni first announced the new mission in Niger, which will see 470 Italian troops join the French and US soldiers already stationed there. At the same time, some Italian soldiers stationed in Iraq will be redeployed to northern Africa, particularly Libya.

Counterfeit Medicines

 Selling counterfeit medicine is the scourge of Africa and the cause of around 100,000 deaths annually on the world's poorest continent.

"To sell fake medicines, you need a clientele. The ailing poor are more numerous in Africa than anywhere in the world," said Marc Gentilini, an expert on infectious and tropical diseases and a former head of the French Red Cross. The WHO estimates that one out of 10 medicines in the world is fake but the figure can be as high as seven out of 10 in certain countries, especially in Africa.

The illicit sector has a turnover of at least 10 percent of the world pharmaceutical business, meaning that it earns tens of billions of dollars a year, the Switzerland-based World Economic Forum estimates, adding that the figure has nearly tripled in five years. 

Geoffroy Bessaud, the head of anti-counterfeit coordination at French pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, said fake medicines were biggest illicit business in the world. "This phenomenon is spreading: it's financial attractiveness draws criminal organisations of all sizes," he said. "An investment of $1,000 can bring returns of up to $500,000 while for the same kind of investment in the heroin trade or in counterfeit money the amount will be around $20,000." Sanofi said it had in 2016 helped dismantle 27 clandestine laboratories, including 22 in China and the rest in Indonesia, Ukraine and Poland.

Gentilini said some meningitis vaccines sent a few years ago after an outbreak in arid Niger were fake. The disease kills thousands every year in the arid west African nation.

he American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene estimated in 2015 that 122,000 children under five died due to taking poor-quality antimalarials in sub-Saharan Africa, which, along with antibiotics as the two most in-demand, are the medicines most likely to be out-of-date or bad copies.

Interpol in August announced the seizure of 420 tonnes of counterfeit medicine in West Africa in a massive operation that involved about 1,000 police, customs and health officials in seven countries: Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Togo. Ivorian authorities in May burnt 40 tonnes of fake medicines in Adjame, the biggest street market of fake medicines in West Africa which accounts for 30 percent of medicine sales in Ivory Coast.

Offenders remain largely unpunished worldwide and are mainly targeted for breaching intellectual property rights instead of being responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people, the Paris-based International Institute of Research Against Counterfeit Medicine says.

In countries where medical expenses -- from drugs to hospitalisation -- are not even partly reimbursed by the state, the relatively cheap price of street medication trumps the risk factor for many.

https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/africa/2018-01-17-fake-medicines-flourish-in-africa-despite-killing-thousands/