Analysts say the African Union (AU) is unlikely to offer Ukraine much support against Russia despite a passionate address Monday by Ukraine’s president.  Many African nations have historical ties to Russia and have refused to condemn its invasion of Ukraine.

In his speech to the African Union Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of holding Africa hostage by not allowing Ukrainian grain exports to reach the continent unless Western sanctions are lifted.  

Zelenskyy, speaking via videolink, also reminded AU leaders about Africa’s history of being colonized and said the continent should never support any attempt by one nation to colonize another. 

Abdi Rashid, chief Horn of Africa analyst for Sahan Research, a Nairobi-based research group, said that while many Africans have expressed support toward Russia because of the former Soviet Union’s backing of liberation movements against colonial powers and apartheid, Russia has changed.

“And I think Africans probably have not come to grips with the reality of modern Russia,” he said. “So, we need to modernize our views of Russia and understand that today’s Russia is essentially an imperial power, which is weakened and which wants to get back the kind of clout and supremacy it had.”

After the address, Moussa Fakit Mahamat, chairperson of the African Union Commission, tweeted that the African Union “reiterates its position of the urgent need for dialogue to end the conflict [in Ukraine] to allow peace to return to the region and to restore global stability.”

Hassan Khannenje, director of the Horn International Institute for Strategic Studies, said the response by the African Union was short of what Zelenskyy expected. 

Taking sides with Ukraine, Khannenje argues, would be seen very negatively by China, which has close relations with Moscow. He said Africa’s geopolitical calculations and relative power in the international system doesn’t allow it to make a decisive turn toward one of the two warring parties. 

“Because remember, there’s a question of Taiwan, which of course, the West supports Taiwan,” he said. “And so, in an event of a conflict, if you’re going to side with Ukraine today, it’s going to send a message — that in situations of conflict with Taiwan you’re going to take the side of the West – [for] which China might decide to turn off the taps of investment for you, because you’re not a reliable partner.”

Even though African countries are struggling with high inflation and the effects of drought and lack of Ukrainian imports, China has made it clear it will provide support to the continent only if Africa pushes back against what Beijing calls Western interference in the war, especially the sanctions aimed at the government of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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Botswana’s Minister of Mineral Resources, Lefoko Moagi, says the meeting in the resort town of Kasane needs to candidly discuss issues affecting the diamond industry.

He says those include the Kimberley Process, a system that monitors the sale of “conflict diamonds” — diamonds used to fund armed groups and wars.

“I am hopeful that this inter-sessional meeting will implore you to delve into the rough diamonds related matters, engage and discuss even the most uncomfortable Kimberley Process issues with the sole objective of ensuring that the Kimberley Process remains fit for purpose in these evolving times, whilst maintaining the original mandate of this entity as espoused in the United Nations general resolution.”

Abu Brima is a member of the Kimberley Process Civil Society Coalition, a group which monitors the diamond body.

He tells VOA the Kimberley Process is losing its relevance and the Coalition made its position known at the meeting.

“All the principles, all the procedures will have to be revised, especially to create a proper agenda for reform, to reform those aspects that make KP an impediment to achieve its own agenda. The whole question of conflict diamonds will have to be opened up and broadened.”

Russia would have been on the agenda at the Botswana meeting only if there was a consensus from all the 85 participating countries.

But Brima says such an arrangement no longer serves its purpose and needs to be revisited.

“The consensus decision making process would veto power by any individual country that is not comfortable with any decision. That does not help KP to move forward. That needs to be changed.”

Despite the criticism, Minister Moagi says the Kimberley Process remains relevant to the global diamond trade.

“Through the KP, in spite of challenges and shortcomings, we continue to give our many stakeholders reasonable assurance that as an industry, we value peace and security. Moreover, we equally recognize the need to ensure that the rough diamond trade optimally contributes to sustainable development.”

Russia’s continued trade in the stones has come under global scrutiny with concerns diamond revenue could be funding the invasion of Ukraine.
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A British subsidiary of mining and trading giant Glencore on Tuesday formally pleaded guilty to seven counts of bribery in connection with oil operations in Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and South Sudan.

At a Southwark Crown Court hearing in London, Glencore Energy admitted to paying more than $28 million in bribes to secure preferential access to oil and generate illicit profit between 2011 and 2016. The company will be sentenced on Nov. 2 and 3, the U.K. Serious Fraud Office, or SFO, said.

Glencore, a Swiss-based multinational, has already said it expects to pay up to $1.5 billion to settle allegations of bribery and market manipulation and three subsidiaries in the United States, Brazil and Britain have now pleaded guilty to criminal offenses.

U.S. authorities will see the bulk of those funds after Glencore agreed to a $1.1 billion U.S. settlement last month to resolve a decade-long scheme to bribe foreign officials across seven countries — and separate charges alleging a trading division manipulated fuel oil prices at U.S. shipping ports.

But the guilty plea by a corporate heavyweight in London is a much-needed boost for the SFO, which has faced sharp criticism and awaits the outcome of a “forensic” government-ordered review after senior judges overturned two convictions in its Unaoil bribery investigation because of disclosure failings.

“The SFO’s success with Glencore will certainly not protect it from any flak that comes its way,” said Syed Rahman, a partner at Rahman Ravelli. “But the result it has in this case is an indicator of what the agency is capable of when it does not make mistakes.”

Helen Taylor, a legal researcher at pressure group Spotlight on Corruption, urged the SFO now to investigate and prosecute senior executives who had condoned the wrongdoing.

The SFO said only that its Glencore investigation was ongoing.

Glencore is also paying $29.6 million directly to state-run Brazilian oil company Petrobras in compensation for defrauding the company and roughly $10 million to authorities in civil penalties, prosecutors have said.
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The west African country of Niger hosts more than 303,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, most fleeing violence from neighboring Nigeria.

In the southern Maradi region, the U.N.’s refugee agency (UNHCR) and aid group Save the Children have set up camps to help refugees stay safe from the border while also easing the burden on their host community.

At a dusty playground at Garin Kaka refugee camp in southern Niger, young children spin on a merry-go-round and clamber on a metal climbing frame.

The camp, in a patch of scrubland in southern Niger, is home to around 4,000 refugees who have fled violence from Islamist militants and bandits in neighboring Nigeria.

It’s one of three camps the U.N.’s refugee agency set up in Niger’s Maradi region since 2019 as what it calls an “opportunity village.”

Refugees at these camps, the first of their kind in Niger, have been moved further from the border, for their safety, and both the refugees and the local population receive aid.

The idea of giving aid to locals is to reduce their burden from the refugee population and ease any tensions that might otherwise arise from competing for resources.

Refugee women are also given small grants to set up shops so they can take care of their families.

Forty-two-year-old Nigerian Hanetou Ali fled her village three years ago on foot with her 11 children after Islamist militants attacked and began killing her neighbors.

She said when militants chased them, she and her family ran. But militants caught a man and his wife, Ali said, and cut him to pieces. You could see the blood streaming, she said, and  people had to collect the pieces to bury him.

Safe in the camp since 2019, Ali used a grant to set up shop selling vegetables, salt, and cooking oil.

Aid group Save the Children runs services in the camp.

The group’s Ilaria Manunza said it’s just as important to support refugees as it is the locals, who are under increasing pressure from climate change.

“We also believe the host population still needs and requires some support, so we cannot forget about the host population, the fact they were hugely welcoming and supportive of the refugees,” Manunza said. “Therefore, all our interventions should always target both the population of refugees and the host populations.”

Aid groups hope refugees in the so-called Opportunity Villages will eventually become self-sufficient.

But some of the refugee women say they are unable to grow their business because there is not enough demand for their services in the camp.

Forty-year-old Nigerian mother of six Jameela Salifou also arrived in Garin Kaka camp three years ago after armed men attacked her village.

She makes a living mending clothes with a sewing machine.

Salifou said sometimes they make enough money to buy cassava flour, but it is not every day that they have business. She said this is how they survive; with the small amount (of money) they get,  they manage because they are proud of their business. Salifou said if she earns something, she can use it to not only buy food but also to protect the dignity of her family.

The U.N.’s refugee agency (UNHCR) said conflict in northwestern Nigeria has forced more than 80,000 Nigerians to flee to Niger’s Maradi region. Nearly 18,000 refugees have been moved into the three camps with the Opportunity Village model.

Aid groups said if the model is successful in helping the refugees to integrate and start news lives, they could soon be set up in other countries in the region.
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Cameroon hosts about 460,000 refugees and asylum-seekers, most of them women and children who escaped violence in the Central African Republic and Nigeria.  But while they have found safety in Cameroon, women refugees are not always welcomed by locals, and struggle to survive.

Thirty-five-year-old Mairama Abba cleans her goat house at the Ngam refugee settlement on Cameroon’s eastern border with the Central African Republic, C.A.R.

Mariama said she fled armed conflicts in the C.A.R in March 2015, after her husband and two children were killed in a crossfire between rebels and government troops.

Mairama said she and her remaining two children live peacefully at the Ngam refugee settlement in northern Cameroon and are not considering going back to their war- ravaged village called Nyem in the north of the C.A.R. Mairama said money she raises from the sale of chicken and sheep enables her to feed her children and to take care of the children’s health needs.

Mairama said her first two years in Cameroon were among the most difficult in her life, as she and her children would go without food and water for days. She said the U.N. Children’s Fund in 2016 saved her children from dying of malnutrition.

The U.N. and humanitarian agencies say Mairama is one of at least 350 women and girls in the Ngam refugee settlement who have since been trained to be self-reliant.

Ohandja Claire Lydie is an official of a charity, the International Medical Corps. She said besides healthcare services, her organization provides training that help refugee women and girls to become less dependent on aid.

She said several hundred refugee women and girls now know embroidery, how to make soap, sew dresses and raise animals at home. She said before training, the women are educated on self-reliance and psychologically prepared to save incomes that will enable the women to improve their living conditions and take good care of their families when they start working.

The World Bank and the U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, have been providing what they call targeted support for refugees in the form of cash, under a program called social safety nets.

Amma Kouto said she was given $70 from the safety nets scheme in 2018. She said she invested the money in selling palm oil and salt to refugees and Ngam villagers.

Koutok said she saved $300 in three years and bought a maize and rice flour grinding machine. She said their camps women association, assisted by the World Bank and UNICEF has been instrumental in improving the living conditions of refugee women especially widows and women who do not know if their husbands are dead or alive.

Host communities complain that refugees steal food and cattle, provoke conflicts over water resources, lodging and farmlands and cut down trees for firewood.

Helen Ngoh is communication associate of UNHCR Cameroon. She said on this year’s World Refugee Day, UNHCR attempted to persuade host communities to sympathize with the refugees.

“Greater majority of Central African Refugees, about 330,000 Central African refugees are still here and they have safety here in Cameroon. If you are forced to flee your home, you should be able to find safety, so this year’s theme (of World Refugee Day) is drawing attention to the importance of people who are forced to flee their homes to be able to have safety,” said Ngoh.

Speaking on Cameroon state broadcaster CRTV, Ngoh refugees from both the C-A-R and Nigeria are scared to return home because of violence in their native countries.

Meanwhile, UNHCR says less than 15 percent of the $154 million needed this year to help displaced Nigerians and Central Africans has been raised.
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Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has condemned the killing of more than 200 people, most of them ethnic Amhara, in the eastern Oromia region. Locals have blamed the killings Saturday on the rebel Oromo Liberation Army, which has denied responsibility. 

The federal government has reportedly deployed security personnel to the Oromia region but locals say it is not enough.

Ahmed Hassen from the Amhara community lost his brother and sister-in-law. Speaking to VOA by phone, Hassen said that fighters circled their village and butchered the residents.

According to him, the militia came with guns and machetes. Hassen said while there’s calm in Oromia today, many families are too scared to bury loved ones.  

Ahmed said there were 250 dead, and that this was just in one village. Many of the bodies still haven’t been buried, he said, simply because families are afraid to bury them.

“In the afternoon, yesterday when we tried to bury our loved ones, there were lots of snipers shooting, we couldn’t bury our family members,” he said. “We are not alive, we are waiting to die.”

In a tweet, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said the Federal Government’s key priority is to restore peace and security in affected communities.

He condemned the killings, saying the attacks on innocent civilians, destruction of livelihoods by illegal and irregular forces is unacceptable.

Both the government and locals blame the rebel Oromo Liberation Army for Saturday’s attack.  

The group denies responsibility. Odaa Tarbii, the group’s spokesperson, told VOA it was government forces and the Oromia state-created militia Gaachina Sirna, which means “shield of order,” that were near Gimbi town where the attack happened. 

He said it is not clear which armed group carried out the atrocity.

Odaa said many of those killed were not necessarily ethnic Amharas, noting that members of other tribes such as the Oromo and Afars are also residents of the town.

“We are also wondering what transpired, what led to any shootout or any conflict between the local civilians and the government’s forces,” he said. “Of course, you know, it is very painful for us to hear about civilians, unarmed, living their lives being killed in such a manner. There’s a danger that this country will grow numb to these things and not really even take action or demand for justice.”

The Oromo Liberation Army is calling for an independent investigation into the killings.

Meanwhile, as more federal security personnel are deployed in Oromo to quell the violence, Prime Minister Abiy said there will be zero tolerance for horrific acts claiming lives. 
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