Ethiopia on Tuesday rejected a report by U.N. investigators that accused Addis Ababa of possible ongoing crimes against humanity in its war-torn Tigray region, including using starvation as a weapon.

The Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia said it had found evidence of widespread violations by all sides since fighting erupted in Tigray nearly two years ago.

This included the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, a Nobel laureate, and its allies who were “intentionally causing great suffering” by denying aid to Tigray, a region of 6 million.

Kaari Betty Murungi, one of the commission’s three independent rights experts, and its chair, said the denial of food, medicine and basic services was “having a devastating impact on the civilian population.”

“We have reasonable grounds to believe it amounts to a crime against humanity,” she said on Monday following the release of the report, the commission’s first.

“We also have reasonable grounds to believe that the federal government is using starvation as a method of warfare,” she added.

Ethiopia’s permanent representative to the U.N. in Geneva, Zenebe Kebede, said the commission was “politically motivated” and its conclusions were “self-contradictory and biased.”

“There is not any single evidence that shows the government of Ethiopia used humanitarian aid as an instrument of war,” the envoy told AFP, describing the report as “a mockery” and “rubbish.”

“Therefore, we have no other option but to reject this report.”

He said investigators had ignored atrocities by the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), which ruled Ethiopia for decades before Abiy came to power in 2018, and which Addis Ababa considers a terrorist group.

Eritrea condemned

Fighting between government forces and their allies, and rebels led by the TPLF, reignited in August after a five-month lull.

The return to the battlefield comes as diplomatic efforts intensify to try to peacefully resolve the nearly two-year war in Africa’s second-most populous country.

Authorities in Tigray announced this month they were ready to participate in talks mediated by the African Union, removing an obstacle to negotiations with Abiy’s government.

But fighting has only escalated in the weeks since, with airstrikes pounding Tigray, and Ethiopia’s ally Eritrea crossing the border to join the fight against the rebels.

On Tuesday, the TPLF accused Eritrean forces of launching a “full-scale offensive” across northern Ethiopia, where heavy combat has been reported on multiple fronts in recent weeks.

AFP was not able to independently verify the claims. Access to northern Ethiopia is severely restricted, and Tigray has been under a communications blackout for more than a year.

Mike Hammer, the U.S. special envoy to the region who just returned from 11 days in Ethiopia, said Washington “had been tracking Eritrean troop movements across the border.”

“They’re extremely concerning, and we condemn it,” Hammer told reporters on Tuesday.

“The presence of Eritrean troops in Ethiopia only serves to complicate matters and inflame an already tragic situation.”

Eritrean troops supported Ethiopian forces in the early stages of the war when Abiy sent soldiers into Tigray to unseat the TPLF, accusing the group of attacking federal army camps.

Last week, Eritrean authorities issued a general call for mobilization.
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Israel has restarted flights to bring thousands of Ethiopians to Israel. All of those coming have family members already in Israel. The Israeli move comes as war is escalating again in the Tigray region of Ethiopia. Linda Gradstein reports from Tel Aviv. Camera: Ricki Rosen
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U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appealed to leaders Tuesday to unite and take action to address the problems of a world “teeming with turmoil.”

“We are in rough seas; a winter of global discontent is on the horizon,” he said at the opening of the annual weeklong gathering of presidents, prime ministers and other officials at the U.N. General Assembly.

“A cost-of-living crisis is raging. Trust is crumbling. Inequalities are exploding.

“And our planet is burning,” he cautioned.

“We need hope …. and more. We need action.” His immediate call was for easing the global food crisis. An essential element of that is addressing what he called the “global fertilizer market crunch.”

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, it has imposed quotas on its exports of fertilizer. Russia is one of the world’s top exporters and the shortages it has created have led to steep price increases on international markets, making it unaffordable for some small farmers, with the potential to dramatically decrease their harvests.

“Without action now, the global fertilizer shortage will quickly morph into a global food shortage,” Guterres said.

He called for the removal of “all remaining obstacles” to the export of Russian fertilizers and their ingredients, including ammonia.

“These products are not subject to sanctions — and we are making progress in eliminating indirect effects,” he emphasized.

While there are no Western sanctions on either Russian food or fertilizer exports, Moscow claims that there are. A deal signed in Istanbul on July 22 is helping to get millions of tons of Ukrainian grain to international markets and is working to build confidence among shippers, insurers and buyers of Russian grain and fertilizer so they will resume at pre-invasion levels.

Two giant screens in the assembly hall above the secretary-general showed a photo of the Brave Commander, one of the ships that carried Ukrainian grain to the Horn of Africa. He said it represents multilateral diplomacy in action.

“Meanwhile nuclear saber-rattling and threats to the safety of nuclear plants are adding to global instability,” he said, alluding to the threatened Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine, as well as rhetoric and actions from North Korea and questions around Iran’s nuclear program.

Wider turmoil

Guterres mentioned a litany of crises both new and entrenched from Ethiopia and the Sahel to Haiti, Syria and Myanmar that he said must be resolved.

In Afghanistan, he said human rights are “being trampled,” especially those of women and girls, who have seen their rights disappear under the Taliban.

He warned of the dangerous divisions between the global West and the South and geopolitical tensions splitting between developed and developing countries.

The world’s top diplomat urged making conflict prevention and peace-building a priority.

“In all we do, we must recognize that human rights are the path to resolving tensions, ending conflict and forging lasting peace,” he reminded leaders.

All this conflict is leading to an unprecedented amount of humanitarian need. He said U.N. aid appeals are running a deficit of $32 billion.

In his sea of bad news, he found a few “glimmers of hope.”

“In Yemen, the nationwide truce is fragile but holding,” he said. “In Colombia, the peace process is taking root.”

The world’s youth are also a source of hope, he said, as they work for a better future.

Existential threat

The secretary-general’s strongest words were for the rapidly warming planet.

“The climate crisis is the defining issue of our time,” he said. “It must be the first priority of every government and multilateral organization.”

He worried that climate action has been pushed to the back of the international agenda, despite global public support for leaders to do more.

Greenhouse gas emissions are rising at record levels and he said they need to be slashed by 45% by 2030 to have any hope of reaching the net zero target by 2050.

To do that, he urged the world to end its “addiction” to fossil fuels and accelerate its transition to clean, renewable energy. And as part of that, he said, “Polluters must pay.”

“Today, I am calling on all developed economies to tax the windfall profits of fossil fuel companies,” the secretary-general declared, noting that G20 countries emit 80% of all greenhouse gas emissions.

He said those funds should go to help defray the costs of climate change in countries suffering loss and damage from the climate crisis and to people struggling with rising food and energy prices.

He urged unity to develop “common solutions to common problems.”

“Let’s work as one, as a coalition of the world, as united nations,” he said.
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South Africa’s state power utility, Eskom, has implemented its highest level of nationwide power cuts to reduce pressure on the grid after two more of its aging power plants broke down.

South Africans will be forced to go up to nine hours a day without electricity, putting a severe strain on Africa’s most industrialized economy.

The energy crisis is so severe that President Cyril Ramaphosa is cutting short his trip to the United Nations General Assembly in New York to return home and try to find solutions to the electricity shortages. 

Ramaphosa, who is currently in England for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, had just held an urgent virtual meeting with the concerned ministers to find out what led to so many units tripping, his spokesman Vincent Magwenya told VOA. 

“He further wanted to understand what could be done immediately to resolve the current state of loadshedding which is devastating to businesses as well as households,” Magwenya said. 

On Sunday, officials from state power utility Eskom warned that the country could be heading for even higher stages of what’s known here as “loadshedding” — scheduled blackouts to save energy. 

Stage Six, the worst level seen so far, and which was last implemented in June during South Africa’s winter, allows for some 6,000 megawatts to be cut to avoid total collapse of the national grid. 

Eskom CEO Andre de Ruyter said loadshedding might have to be ramped up to Stage Eight, but that “total blackout” was not an imminent risk. 

“I think we are doing our level best to avoid a total system collapse, that is why we have to impose loadshedding,” de Ruyter said. 

For ordinary South Africans, loadshedding makes all aspects of daily life difficult, from having to plan when to cook, to making sure they always have gas lamps or candles available for when homes across the country are plunged into darkness. 

And for small businesses that can’t afford to get generators, the cuts are devastating. 

Jeanette Mmelwa is a hairdresser at a small Johannesburg salon which was empty on Monday morning. She says there’s no electricity to run the hair dryers, so no clients are coming in. Mmelwa works on commission, so isn’t earning anything. 

“I am concerned because of this loadshedding my boss can one day just say, ‘No, I can’t take this anymore. We’re not making enough money, so we have to close.’ I am worried about that,” she said.

Things are even worse at home, said Mmelwa, who has a young son. 

“Waking up in the morning and there’s no lights, now you think, ‘What is he going to eat before he goes to school?’ So yes, it’s very stressful,” she said. 

The current electricity crisis has been brewing for a decade. The cash-strapped and debt-ridden power utility relies on aging coal plants that are prone to breakdowns. 

Corruption has also weakened the utility considerably, said independent political analyst Ralph Mathekga. 

“The problem with loadshedding is that ours is self-created, it is about corruption, inability to turn things around and fight against corruption,” Mathekga said. 

If South Africa’s energy crisis persists, there will be massive damage to the economy, which has already been badly hit by the pandemic, with the official unemployment currently at 33.9 percent. 

 
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A government-allied Somali militia killed at least 45 al-Shabab fighters and beheaded some of them, three witnesses said on Sunday, as citizens in central regions of the country increasingly take up arms against the insurgents.

The beheadings on Saturday followed a battle in the Hiran region of Hirshabelle State, where there has been significant fighting this month between al-Shabab and newly expanded militias allied with the federal government.

Al-Shabab, an al-Qaida-linked Islamist group, has been fighting Somalia’s weak central government since 2006. It wants to implement a strict interpretation of sharia law.

Al-Shabab has increasingly burned houses, destroyed wells, and beheaded civilians in the Hiran region, residents say; that, combined with its demands for taxes amidst the worst drought in 40 years, has pushed more residents to take up arms.

“Al-Shabab is not strong, it just burns people, beheads people and put their heads in the streets just to terrorize,” said Ahmed Abdulle, a Hiran elder.

“Now, we are doing the same: we have ordered the beheading of al-Shabab fighters,” he told Reuters.

Videos widely shared on Telegram showed at least two beheaded alleged al-Shabab fighters and dozens more dead bodies in fatigues and red-and-white checked scarves. Some of the dead appeared to have died in battle.

Reuters was not independently able to verify the authenticity of the videos, but three witnesses to the beheadings said they were real. Seven other residents, including Abdulle, said family members had been present and confirmed the deaths to them.

The three witnesses asked not to be named for security reasons.

“Al-Shabab put us in hell. … So our people decided to liberate themselves. … My daughter is also fighting in the frontline, she has an AK-47 on her shoulder,” resident Halima Ismail said.

Somali Interior Minister Ahmed Moalim Fiqi did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

An al-Shabab spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

Fighters have retaken 10 villages from al-Shabab in recent weeks, elder Hassaan Farah told Reuters.

Residents in nearby Galmudug state are also taking up arms.

“This week, we have recaptured nine villages,” said Ahmed Shire, the Galmudug information minister. “It is a big revolution by Galmudug state.”

On Saturday, the federal government sent troops to reinforce Galmudug fighters, the Somali National News Agency said.

Earlier this month, al-Shabab militants killed at least 18 civilians and destroyed food aid trucks. In August, they killed more than 20 people in a hotel siege.

Somalia has been in civil war since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew a dictator then turned on each other.
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Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has said that his country is seeing gains in the fight against the Somali-based, al-Qaida-affiliated Islamist militant group al-Shabab, following recent clashes in central Somalia between the Somali National Army supported by pro-government local clan militias and al-Shabab.

“We see a strong momentum against al-Shabab and want to sustain it to defeat a group that has proven to be remorseless and [like the] mafia, which has attained economic autonomy through intimidation and the murder of innocent people,” Mohamud said.  

In a speech to the Somali diaspora community in the Washington area Friday, he said his government is organizing a strong military front in the southern Jubaland state of Somalia.  

“There is ongoing preparation to liberate al-Shabab from middle-Juba region in southern Somalia, the only region in the country where the militants control its entirety,” Mohamud sad.  

He said his government’s new approach is being encouraged by the resistance of local clan militia, who keep fighting al-Shabab in the central Somali regions of Hiran and Galguduud.

“Once they could not tolerate the intimidation, the extortion and the abduction of their children, now some local clans say they have started fighting al-Shabab. Therefore, we want to support our people to live in peace and dignity,” Mohamud said.  

On Saturday, hours after the president’s speech in the U.S. state of Virginia, the Somali National Army said it killed 43 militants in central Somalia.  

“The Somali National Army launched an attack on the al-Shabab base in Aborey village and took over the militant base, killing 43 militants,” Brigadier General Mohamed Tahlil Bihi, infantry commander of the Somali National Army told government radio.  

Aborey is 25 km east of Bulaburte, a town 220 km north of Mogadishu.   

On Thursday, speaking to the government news agency (SONNA), Somali army chief General Odowaa Yusuf Rageh said the SNA killed at least 18 al-Shabab militants in an operation in the Buq Aqable area in the same region, located about 90 km south of Beledweyne city, the provincial capital of the Hiran region.

Government military officials say that in the recent military campaign against al-Shabab army troops, backed by armed locals, have killed more than 100 al-Shabab fighters and “liberated” 20 villages from the al-Qaida-affiliated group.   

Mohamud’s Washington visit   

In an exclusive interview with VOA Somali, President Mohamud said he discussed new government strategies to fight al-Shabab with top U.S government officials, who he said pledged “full support for his government.”  

At the Pentagon, President Mohamud met Thursday with U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, at the White House with the president’s National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and Homeland Security Adviser Dr. Elizabeth Sherwood-Randall, and at the State Department with U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland.

He said his trip to Washington has been mainly focusing on two things, security and the drought, which is feared to cause famine in parts of Somalia from October through December.    

“All the existing policies and strategies against the militant group seem to have fallen short of our expectations and the expectations of our partners because the militants keep changing tactics to survive. We came up with a new strategy that is based on two things, [an] ideological war front and cutting al-Shabab’s economic lifeline,” Mohamud said.  

According to a statement from the U.S. Department of Defense, Austin and Mohamud “exchanged views on the security outlook for the Horn of Africa in light of climate shocks, humanitarian issues, conflict, and the threat of violent extremism.”   

A White House statement said, “Mr. Sullivan and President Hassan Sheikh discussed the importance of political reconciliation in Somalia, particularly the renewed coordination between the federal government of Somalia and federal member states to improve governance, law enforcement, service delivery and security for the Somali people.”  

“Great to see Hassan Sheikh Mohamud with Under Secretary of State in Washington to discuss shared stabilization, good governance and humanitarian goals. The United States is committed to helping the people of Somalia counter terrorism, prevent famine, and advance democracy, and save lives,” Blinken said in a Twitter post. 

“It was a pleasure to meet with secretary Blinken and Under Secretary Nuland in Washington. We agreed on the importance of combating terrorism, promoting good governance and responding to [the] drought in Somalia. The U.S. is a strategic partner in Somalia’s sustainable development and progress.” Mohamud said in a Twitter post.  

Mohamud also met with The World Bank Group President David Malpass and International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva. 

“Mr. Malpass has reaffirmed to President Mohamud the World Bank Group’s (WBG) support to Somalia’s response to ongoing drought and humanitarian crises through reprogramming and additional financing and utilizing resources from IDA (International Development Association) Crisis Response Window,” the World Bank said.  

“I have discussed with all the U.S. government officials and the leaders of the other Washington-based institutions I have met, including senior officials from the World Bank and IMF on security, economic recovery and reform, as well as the ongoing drought situation in Somalia,” Mohamud told VOA. 

Mohamud also served as Somalia’s president between 2012 and 2017 and is the first Somali leader to win a second term in office.  After his victory in May he promised to transform the troubled Horn of Africa nation into “a peaceful country that is at peace within and with the world.”
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Senegalese President Macky Sall reinstated the post of prime minister Saturday, appointing a former economy minister to the job two months after a tense legislative election in which Sall’s ruling coalition lost its comfortable majority.

Amadou Ba, a 61-year-old taxation specialist who has also served as foreign minister, was named as the West African country’s prime minister, a statement from the presidency said.  

Ba’s appointment reestablishes the position of prime minister in the West African country following its abolition in April 2019.

“The major priorities that the president has outlined include improving household purchasing power, taming inflation, security, housing, vocational training, employment and entrepreneurship,” Ba said on national television after a meeting with Sall Saturday.

The full government is expected to be appointed later Saturday.

Earlier this week, Senegal’s security forces were called to secure a voting process in parliament and hold back rowdy opposition members of parliament who tried to disrupt the election of a new president of the national assembly. The assembly was convening for the first time since July’s election.

Sall came to power in 2012 after unseating longtime President Abdoulaye Wade. He was elected again in 2019 on promises of large-scale infrastructure expansion as the country is set to start producing oil and natural gas next year.

But much of his second term has been marked by economic hardship – partly stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic and global fallout linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Political tensions have boiled over after Sall’s refusal to publicly rule out a third-term presidential bid in 2024.  

Violent protests erupted in Senegal last year when Ousmane Sonko, Sall’s main opponent — who came in third in the 2019 presidential election — was arrested on rape charges which he denied.   

Sonko was released but many protesters saw his arrest as an attempt by Sall to remove a prominent rival and clear his path for a third term bid.
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The first “green hydrogen” power plant being built in Africa is expected to begin producing electricity in Namibia in 2024, an official from France-based HDF Energy told Reuters news agency this week.

That presents something of a dilemma for Namibia, which is championing the clean energy but also said this month that huge oil deposits had been discovered off its coast after many failed attempts at drilling.

Green hydrogen is produced by using renewable energy — like wind and sun, both of which Namibia has in abundance — to power the electrolysis of water. A plant producing green hydrogen, a clean power source that can potentially be used for industry and electric vehicles, is due to open in less than two years.

But at the same time, oil companies Shell and Total recently discovered the oil deposits, estimated to amount to more than 1 billion barrels, about 290 kilometers off the Namibian coast. 

Herbert Jauch, the head of a local nonprofit, the Economic and Social Justice Trust, wants Namibia to forsake oil drilling and focus on green hydrogen, a much-touted energy source of the future.

However, Jauch said, it’s “tricky” for Namibia to give up possible oil revenues when advanced nations are still making heavy use of fossil fuels, even as carbon admissions cause global warming.

“The oil discovery coincides with what needs to be the end of fossil fuels, and therefore it is quite tricky for Namibia to move into that direction, to go into large-scale oil exploration,” he said, noting the potential for ecological danger in drilling and the effects of climate change in many countries. By accenting solar energy and green hydrogen, “Namibia could become a front-runner in renewable energy.”

Maggy Shino, the petrol commissioner at the Ministry of Mines and Energy, cautioned that there was still a long way to go before Namibia could become an oil-producing nation.

“We need to understand that for us as explorers, we have a very long journey ahead of us before we can be able to change the narrative to say that we are an oil-producing nation,” Shine said. “We are oil finders, we have oil accumulation, but we are not yet an oil-producing nation. For us to get to that stage, a lot of work still needs to be done.”

Minister of Mines and Energy Tom Alweendo said even if Namibia did begin to produce oil, it would have competition from other African countries, and citizens should not expect a financial windfall from oil revenue. 

“We just came from an oil and gas conference that was held in Senegal,” he said. “Senegal has discovered a lot of oil; so has Ghana; Uganda has oil, although they have not produced yet. So has Equatorial Guinea, so has Angola, so has Nigeria.”
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Botswana has announced it will cull more than 10,000 cattle in the country’s northeast in a bid to fight an outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease. One of Africa’s largest beef producers, Botswana was forced in August to halt beef exports over the virus, including to the lucrative European Union. 

Assistant Minister for Agriculture Molebatsi Molebatsi said the decision to kill affected livestock was taken following consultations with disease control experts. 

“The decision to depopulate is the one we have taken,” Molebatsi said. “We took the decision after consultation with experts. We don’t want any traces of the virus to remain or to have any further viral circulation.” 

Molebatsi said 19,000 cattle are in the affected zone, which is near the Zimbabwe border, and more than 10,000 will be slaughtered. Some goats and sheep will also be culled. 

Veterinarian Mbatshi Mazwinduma said culling means farmers must be compensated. 

“It comes at a great cost because it means people have to be compensated,” Mazwinduma said. “And there is also environmental issues of animals that have been slaughtered … on how do you dispose of them safely.”

Mazwinduma said in disease control, there should be certain considerations, particularly for the affected farmers.  

“When you are trying to control the disease, you have to consider the economic, social and often political impact. Politically speaking, remember at times you are going to be slaughtering animals that belong to farmers, and you might push them further into abject poverty,” Mazwinduma said. “Most of the time, the compensation of animals that are slaughtered is nowhere near the equivalent value if they were to sell them at the market.”           

Bose Sethupa, a farmer from the affected region, said while the livelihoods of many people will be affected, the government has to contain the disease. 

“It is a good move to try and contain the spread of the disease, but at the same time, it is not too good to the farmers because the government compensation is lower than the value of what the farmer will be having,” Sethupa said. “But apart from that … the move is good. It is truly meant to protect the export market, which is very key to our economy.” 

Roughly half of Botswana’s beef exports — or about 9,000 tons — are sent to the EU each year. 

 
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The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, is releasing $100 million from its Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to assist millions of people in what it calls “forgotten emergencies.”

OCHA reports money for 11 humanitarian operations in Africa, Asia, the Americas and the Middle East has dried up, putting the lives and livelihoods of millions of people at risk. 

The United Nations says it needs $49.5 billion this year to assist 204 million people threatened by conflict, climate shocks, hunger and forced displacement.

To date, only $17.6 billion of this total amount has been received. While this is a large amount of money, OCHA deputy spokesman Jens Laerke said the funding gap is nearly $32 billion, the largest it has ever been. 

He said the release of $100 million is meant to shrink this critical funding gap and address the problem head on.

“It may seem like a drop in the bucket and if you look at it from that perspective, it is a drop in the bucket,” he said. “But, the CERF funds, a key criterion is it has to go to lifesaving projects. So, it is the worst of the worst that we are trying to address with the CERF funding. And I guarantee you, for those whose lives are hanging by a thread, it means something.”

Laerke said the consequences for hundreds of millions of vulnerable people will be many and very severe, if money to assist them at this time of greatest need is not forthcoming.

“That can range from loss of life to victims of or survivors of gender-based violence who receive no support,” he said. “Children who do not get the vaccines that they need and so on and so forth.”

Laerke said the $100 million will help scale up lifesaving operations in the 11 countries, which include Yemen, South Sudan, Myanmar, and Venezuela.

He noted that CERF has allocated a record $250 million dollars so far this year to countries that are in a desperate state, but largely overlooked.
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In one of his first acts in office, Kenya’s new president, William Ruto, ordered cargo containers from incoming ships to be emptied at the port of Mombasa instead of in the capital, Nairobi. Ruto said he is carrying out a campaign promise, though there are concerns the move could overwhelm facilities at the Mombasa port.

In 2019, the Kenyan government shifted cargo clearance operations from Kenya’s Indian Ocean port of Mombasa to the inland cities of Nairobi and Naivasha.

This week, Ruto directed that the operations be returned to Mombasa.

“I will be issuing instructions for clearing of goods and other attended operational issues to revert to the port of Mombasa as I made a commitment to Kenyans,” Ruto said. “This will restore thousands of jobs in the city of Mombasa.”

Former President Uhuru Kenyatta had moved cargo clearance to Nairobi to increase use of the Standard Gauge Railway, which was built with a $4.5 billion loan from China. The move forced companies to pay transport fees to use the railway — a decision Kenyan officials saw as the best way to repay the loan.

Ruto’s decision, announced Tuesday, is welcomed by newly-elected Mombasa governor Abdulswamad Shariff Nassir, who said the need to repay the debt is not reason to kill business at his city’s port.

“We have been fighting for it for a long time and we said openly, even if it was to repay the SGR debt, there are other ways to repay it. It’s not a must to kill the economy of one part of the country.”

According to the Economic Survey of 2022, SGR usage increased by 22.6 percent in 2021 and made $108 million, up from $87 million in 2020. The increase is attributed to cargo shipments to Nairobi.

With cargo clearance operations shifting back to Mombasa, many people are concerned that the railway will lose business to trucking companies, making it difficult for the railway to pay its debt, and ultimately shifting the cost of its construction to taxpayers.

Some traders argued that historically the Mombasa port has been slow to unload and transport cargo containers.

Gerrishon Ikiara, an economics teacher at the University of Nairobi, predicts the Mombasa port will not be able to handle the increased responsibilities.

“Very shortly, we will start getting the impact of the delayed cargo and other inconveniences, overcrowding of Mombasa highway and corruption in the police office at every point.”

Governance and urban development expert Alfred Omenya is hopeful the problems can be overcome, if the government appoints good managers to run the port.

“I think the president did the right thing,” he said. “We hope that it’s not an ad hoc political action, but it will be an action that will be based on coherent planning, coherent strategy and coherent development of our country.”

In a worst-case scenario, congestion and corruption at the Mombasa port will make traders from neighboring countries flock to other ports, making Kenya lose much-needed revenue for developing and servicing its debt.
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Japan is the latest country to try to increase engagement with Africa in the face of China’s massive influence on the continent and amid perceived threats to the international order.

There has been a flurry of visits to the continent by top officials this year, including Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and European diplomats. The visits from Western leaders have been seen by many analysts as an attempt to counter Beijing’s clout, and to some extent, Russian influence.

Last month, Japan also sought to provide African countries with an alternative to Chinese lending and investment, pledging to spend $30 billion on the continent and stressing a focus on training African professionals, food production and green growth.

The pledge was made during the eighth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) held in Tunisia.

In his remarks at the event, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida criticized Moscow and took an apparent swipe at China.

“It is true that a series of contradictions of the global economy, such as inequality and environmental problems, are concentrated in Africa at this moment. In addition, we need to urgently deal with issues such as the food crisis caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine and unfair and opaque development finance,” he said.

Paul Nantulya, a research associate at the Washington-based Africa Center for Strategic Affairs who has participated in two TICAD conferences, said the reference to “opaque” development finance was “definitely a rebuke to China,” which has been accused of practicing “debt trap diplomacy” — lending heavily to countries that can’t repay in order to gain political leverage.

During TICAD, Japan also announced that some $1 billion would go toward support for African countries’ debt restructuring and promised that Japan “aspires to be a ‘partner growing together with Africa.’”

While there’s increasing consensus among economists that the debt-trap accusations don’t stand up, it’s still a common criticism leveled by the West and its partners and enrages Beijing. Numerous articles in Chinese state media have slammed Kishida’s remarks as a smear campaign and said Japan’s investment pledge had “selfish intentions.”

State publication Global Times said while China does not have a problem with other countries offering aid to African nations, “what China opposes is the vicious attempt by Western countries, including the U.S. and Japan, to discredit China, asking African countries to be “wary” of China at every turn.”

“African countries have their own judgment and do not need the West to teach them what to do,” the Global Times quoted Yang Xiyu, researcher at the China Institute of International Studies, as saying.

The amount Japan pledged at TICAD this year was less than China’s pledge of $40 billion at last year’s Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Senegal.

Japan-Africa trade, worth some $24 billion a year, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, is also dwarfed by China’s, which amounted to a record $254 billion last year.

“I think lately, Japan definitely has been trying to strengthen its engagements in Africa and obviously … China is a strategic competitor to Japan,” said Nantulya. “There is an element of competition as far as Japan’s latest push in Africa is concerned.”

Akitoshi Miyashita, an international relations professor at Tokyo International University, echoed this idea.

“The recent TICAD conference was regarded by Tokyo as an important instrument to regain Japan’s presence in Africa in light of China’s growing influence in the region. In that sense, Japan’s ODA (official development assistance) in Africa has clear political purposes,” he told VOA.

However, he said, Japan is “losing an aid competition with China” because with large national debt and a shrinking economy, Japan cannot afford to provide Africa with the amount of money that China can. Japan also cannot provide aid to countries accused of serious corruption and human rights violations, whereas China’s loans are no-strings-attached — and preferred by some African countries.

Philip Olayoku, a Nigerian academic and member of the African Association of Japanese Studies, said he did not think Tokyo was trying to compete with China in Africa because it simply can’t and “does not have the kind of clout that it used to have.”

Instead, he said, Japan is trying to “consolidate its relationship, keep part of what it has, so that China doesn’t displace it.”

While FOCAC and TICAD are similar, analysts told VOA there are several key differences, namely that the Chinese model involves the Chinese state cooperating with African ruling parties directly, while the Japanese one is more multilateral, involving civil society, NGOs and international organizations like the United Nations Development Program and the African Development Bank.

“China’s aid in Africa tends to concentrate on the fields such as infrastructure and agriculture, but Japan’s ODA covers a broader range of development fields, including human development issues,” noted Shinichi Takeuchi, director of the African Studies Center at the Tokyo University of Foreign Studies.

Additionally, Japan tries to transfer knowledge and contribute to African self-sufficiency and has a post-war agenda of helping push for peace and democracy, analysts said. However, they noted that Japan also has an economic agenda, including trying to secure markets for its high-end products.

“It wants to promote activities of Japanese businesses in Africa. As Japan is facing a number of socio-economic challenges, including economic stagnation and [an] aging population, the government wants to benefit from economic opportunities in Africa,” Takeuchi said.

Tokyo also has political agendas in Africa, analysts said. Japan is pursuing a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council, and China is its strong rival, Takeuchi pointed out. Additionally, African countries are the biggest voting bloc at the U.N., said Nantulya.

Tokyo is also concerned that African countries could side with China — as many already did on Ukraine — and against its interests in areas such as the Western Pacific where the two are in a dispute over the ownership of the Senkaku Islands.

“The Japanese are definitely worried that African countries will be mobilized to support Chinese moves, to support Chinese strategic positions on issues … and it’s one of the reasons why this current TICAD … is really focused on really reengaging African countries diplomatically,” said Nantulya.

Asked whether Japan’s $30 billion commitment to Africa could be seen as an attempt to compete with China, Marie Hidaka, counselor at the Japanese embassy in South Africa, responded, “Nowadays, there are various fora through which many countries engage themselves with Africa, but TICAD, launched by Japan, was the forerunner of such fora for African development.”

“The $30 billion as the sum of public and private financial contributions, which Japan announced during the TICAD 8 held in last month in Tunis, focuses on investment in people and quality of growth and aims for a resilient and sustainable Africa while solving various problems faced by the African people,” she said.
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