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https://twitter.com/nikicaga/status/1709997447534018780 https://twitter.com/aethelred/status/1709918261804949812
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Oct 6, 2023 22:18
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Burkina Faso over the last few weeks has seen less incidents but more deadly. Bit hard to make out all the details but it seems over a hundred civilians were slaughtered in an attack by the military in the central north. Not sure if the terrorists attacked and the counter-attack resulted in collateral casualtlies. Also ~30 Russian soldiers turned up in Ouagadougou to assist. No Wagner but regulars including medics.
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Nov 13, 2023 09:12
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Electric Wrigglies posted:Burkina Faso over the last few weeks has seen less incidents but more deadly. Bit hard to make out all the details but it seems over a hundred civilians were slaughtered in an attack by the military in the central north. Not sure if the terrorists attacked and the counter-attack resulted in collateral casualtlies. Link? Regular Russian soldiers is... peculiar.
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Nov 13, 2023 15:52
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This is through colleagues/contacts that pass through Ougua. I seen a Russian VIP plane (IL-62) at the airport a few months ago and Russia has agreed to help Burkina build a nuclear power station so not terribly surprised. I can link the nuclear news at least..https://www.bbc.com/news/world-afri...post_type=share
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Nov 13, 2023 16:27
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May I ask your line of work that your colleagues come across these things? And lol at a nuclear plant in Burkino. I'm sure that will be well built, well maintained, well operated etc
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Nov 13, 2023 16:41
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Ethiopia is also still not doing so well. Just like Oromia has had a low-to-mid level insurgency for the last several years, now large swaths of Amhara do too. There was major fighting in the streets last week, with people (unclear if fighters or civilians) gunned down and left in the roads. Apparently the battle in Lalibela went on for about 6 hours, with ENDF using heavy weaponry from the city. No major structural damage and civilians mostly stayed afterwards so it sounds like more of a "raid" style attack from Fano, but who knows. Certainly doesn’t get much reporting, I guess it’s old news by now and largely drowned out by Gaza.
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Nov 14, 2023 10:21
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How do folks follow news from the continent? Any feeds, sources, etc. that are recommended?
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Nov 14, 2023 22:44
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The Economist has a weekly Africa section which is very good. Covers conflicts, politics, economics, etc with lots of on the ground reporting.
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Nov 15, 2023 17:59
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I wrote a post way upthread with a bunch of sources, I haven’t been reading about Africa as much lately but it should still be good.
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Nov 15, 2023 18:54
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So Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have issued a blunt communique informing they are pulling out of ECOWAS. The charter says it should require a year's notification but the notification came seemingly without consultation with other countries. Highlights how unpredictable these governments are. Not sure what it means for their use of the CFA, customs and the like. All three are landlocked nations requiring support of ECOWAS nations just for food and power so it seems a pretty brave (deluded? desperate?) move.
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Jan 29, 2024 09:11
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Electric Wrigglies posted:So Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso have issued a blunt communique informing they are pulling out of ECOWAS. The charter says it should require a year's notification but the notification came seemingly without consultation with other countries. Highlights how unpredictable these governments are. They were already suspended from ECOWAS, so I'm not sure how much of a practical difference it makes. Good question about CFA; anyway there are already 2 CFAs that are pegged to the same amount but are not compatible, so might as well add in a third. Mali has been suspended for years already with no effect on CFA. Either that or they go full "de-neocolonialization" and print a new currency that they use to compete with 2010's Zimbabwe and 1920's Germany for world's most inflationary currency. Or, maybe somewhat more likely, the less basket case countries in W Africa finally make their new currency, and ditch the CFA along with Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.
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Jan 29, 2024 10:30
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In other news, the trial of Pascaline Bongo (Omar's daughter and Ali's sister) for a 70 million Euros corruption machine in France (involving the French Company Egis Route) started today. Francis Ping, the son of the former president of the African Union is also sued in the same affair. Former miss France Sonia Rolland and french bank BNP are also accused of complicity. It's apparently involving most of Omar's old Francafrique connections.
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Jan 29, 2024 10:54
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Saladman posted:They were already suspended from ECOWAS, so I'm not sure how much of a practical difference it makes. Good question about CFA; anyway there are already 2 CFAs that are pegged to the same amount but are not compatible, so might as well add in a third. Mali has been suspended for years already with no effect on CFA. They weren't suspended, just being sanctioned by the other countries within it. Agreed that they could not hope to launch their own currency, despite how minerally wealthy they think they are. They do think themselves fabulously wealthy, mineral wise and it is only that other countries taking it that is the problem. This is despite having a handful of mines in each vs say Australia which has a handful of mines that generate more revenue individually than all of theirs combined plus several hundred more smaller ones. They also don't realise that the governments of each of those countries take the biggest cut of the revenue from internationally operated mines within their borders. Another development a bit more worrying is that terrorists in northern Burkina have learnt from the Ukr/Rus conflict and have added drone dropped hand grenades to their techniques on top of the IEDs which they are using closer to Ouaga than they were before. Also evidently the Russia Africa Corp has suffered casualties patrolling in the north of Burkina.
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Feb 5, 2024 10:43
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Electric Wrigglies posted:They also don't realise that the governments of each of those countries take the biggest cut of the revenue from internationally operated mines within their borders. what makes you say this?
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Feb 5, 2024 15:19
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South Africa just held elections and the ANC lost its thirty year majority. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/liveblog/2024/5/31/south-africa-election-results-live-early-results-put-anc-short-of-majority Right now results stand at  It's certain the ANC will need a coalition partner to govern. MK, run by former President Zuma, has ruled it out, but he's a power hungry bastard and the party is basically his vehicle so he can do what he wants. EFF is leftist and DA is centrist. It's also possible a coalition of smaller parties might be able to scrape something together. DA heads a coalition of tiny parties and depending on final results might be able to pull something off from compromising with MK.
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May 31, 2024 23:34
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I was curious if an ANC + EFF coalition would be vulnerable to very small deflections but if this is accurate it looks like individual representatives have very little power: https://aceproject.org/ace-en/topics/pc/annex/pcy/pcy_za/mobile_browsing/onePag
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Jun 1, 2024 12:39
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The new articles I've read say that the ANC lost because of the awful economy. But the economy is bad because of Zuma, right? Why would people vote for him? Is it like the Republicans in the US who destroy the government and then run saying government doesn't work?
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Jun 1, 2024 15:43
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Zuma made it worse but the economy has been bad for a long time and also Ramaphosa has been president for six years so it’s not like he hasn’t had time to do anything
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Jun 1, 2024 15:54
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The big thing is probably Zuma making his own party. MK's base of support is in Zulu speakers, Zuma is a Zulu, there's a lot of folks voting for him solely on that basis (and dissatisfaction with the ANC). If you compare results to past elections they're not that different from past results except for MK taking such a big chunk of the ANC vote. Plus voter turnout being down 10% or so.
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Jun 1, 2024 15:59
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Am I right in thinking that ANC-EFF is a much more likely coalition than DA-MK? Would either start to dismantle the whole "cadre" thing where all jobs seem to be patronage and not qualification based? Or maybe my perspective is wrong and that things are more qualification based than it looks like to an outsider and that's not really a significant factor in the corruption that South Africa seems to be dealing with.
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Jun 1, 2024 17:36
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I don't think Zuma would ever form a coalition with the white-led, pro-business DA.
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Jun 1, 2024 18:40
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winnydpu posted:Am I right in thinking that ANC-EFF is a much more likely coalition than DA-MK? Would either start to dismantle the whole "cadre" thing where all jobs seem to be patronage and not qualification based? Or maybe my perspective is wrong and that things are more qualification based than it looks like to an outsider and that's not really a significant factor in the corruption that South Africa seems to be dealing with. You're correct in your thinking
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Jun 2, 2024 02:29
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The Economist had a good intro to this that I posted in the politically loaded maps thread a few days ago:quote:Mr Ramaphosa’s options will be determined by how far the ANC’s vote share falls. If it ends up closer to 40% of the vote than 50%, it may need to join forces with one of the bigger opposition parties. That presents it with a stark choice between pragmatism and populism. It could opt for a “grand coalition” with its biggest rival, the Democratic Alliance (DA), which campaigns for clean, liberal government. Alternatively Mr Ramaphosa could turn to one or both of the next most popular parties: the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) or uMkhonto weSizwe (MK). The first is an ANC offshoot which adores Vladimir Putin, castigates white South Africans and wants to nationalise much of the economy. https://www.economist.com/briefing/2024/05/23/why-this-is-south-africas-most-important-election-since-1994 An ANC + EFF coalition is probably the most likely coalition based on the results, unfortunately. ANC + DA would be the only government that would likely see corruption cracked down somewhat in.
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Jun 2, 2024 11:24
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COSATU coming out strongly rejecting a potential coalition with the DA, makes it a bit trickier for the ANC to chase that ANC + EFF still a couple seats short of a majority even if Al Jama-ah is brought in as well - might have to start sniffing round the PA like in Jo'burg. The PA are pretty drat loopy though so might try to get support rather than formal coalition - though McKenzie will probably demand a cabinet position.
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Jun 4, 2024 12:54
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