http://www.cnn.com/2013/12/23/world/africa/south-sudan-violence/index.html?hpt=hp_t2 posted:

"By positioning these forces forward, we are able to more quickly respond to crisis in the region, if required," read a statement from U.S. Africa Command.
It cited the example of Benghazi, where an attack last year killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
"One of the lessons learned from the tragic events in Benghazi was that we needed to be better postured, in order to respond to developing or crisis situations, if needed. These precautionary movements will allow us to do just that," the statement read.

kustomkarkommando posted:

quote:

North Kivu Boogaloo 2: The UN Strikes Back

quote:

The UN says it has reports of three mass graves in South Sudan, amid "palpable fear" among civilians they will be killed for their ethnicity.

There has been a week of fighting amid a power struggle between President Salva Kiir, a Dinka, and ex-deputy Riek Machar, of the Nuer.

The UN said 34 bodies had been found in Bentiu in the north, with two more sites reported in the capital, Juba.

One man in Juba said he was rounded up with 250 men and only 12 survived.

quote:

A week ago, Simon K, a 20-year-old student living in the capital of South Sudan, was arrested by men in military uniforms. He was asked a question that has taken on deadly importance in the world's newest country in the past seven days: incholdi – "What is your name?" in Dinka, the language of the country's president and its largest ethnic group.

Those who, like Simon, were unable to answer, risked being identified as Nuer, the ethnic group of the former vice-president now leading the armed opposition and facing the brunt of what insiders are describing as the world's newest civil war.

Simon K was taken to a police station in the Gudele market district of Juba, where he was marched past several dead bodies and locked in a room with other young men, all Nuer. "We counted ourselves and found we were 252," he told the Guardian. "Then they put guns in through the windows and started to shoot us."

The massacre continued for two days with soldiers returning at intervals to shoot again if they saw any sign of life. Simon was one of 12 men to survive the assault by covering themselves in the bodies of the dead and dying.

ANYTHING YOU SOW posted:

Also a bit of positive news:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201312120605.html


An increase of life expectancy of 12 years over a period of 10 years, which surely must be the fastest increase of any country ever?

flatbus posted:

What good is an enormous GDP if it can't stop the country from suffering one of the highest rates of AIDS prevalence in Africa?

Amused to Death posted:

It must be doing some good, I've read praise for Botswana's anti HIV efforts of the past decade. I don't think any SSA nation had enough money, infrastructure of general levels of education to stop from being devastated by staggering levels of HIV, especially given how fast it came on.

Ardennes posted:

That is only going to go so far in a country with a very high gini index, in fact one of the highest in the world.

Amused to Death posted:

True, but the gini won't mean as much on this particular subject if you have a concentrated, nationalized nation-wide effort against HIV. For example, the number of HIV positive babies born to HIV positive moms has fallen to near western levels in just a few years. This NPR article also says near 95% of infected people receive anti-retroviral drugs for free, which is more than the US can actually say.

Ardennes posted:

Massive inequality almost certainly helped the epidemic spread in the first place. Of course its neighbors also had considerable inequality as well. The damage was already done.

Amused to Death posted:

Oh I thought you meant inequality in regards to the current efforts. No doubt the inequality probably helped quicken the spread. I don't think any country in the region though ever had a chance to stop the original epidemic, low or high inequality, unless history had been different and the nations of the area were reasonably developed. It just hit too quick and too strong. Botswana has shown though it's possible to begin to abate the level of the epidemic.

Amused to Death posted:

It must be doing some good, I've read praise for Botswana's anti HIV efforts of the past decade. I don't think any SSA nation had enough money, infrastructure of general levels of education to stop from being devastated by staggering levels of HIV, especially given how fast it came on.

UN progress report posted:

Attending primary school is becoming the norm, but the quality of
education remains a challenge

Most countries have achieved universal primary enrolment—rates of 90 per cent or higher—so the
continent as a whole is expected to achieve Goal 2. Low completion and high grade repetition remain a
challenge, however, as one in three students drop out. Reasons include late entry, poverty, poor quality of
education and a lack of awareness of education’s importance. Some 30 per cent of students with six years
of schooling cannot read a sentence, and girls are more likely to drop out than boys. Social protection
regimes—particularly cash transfers and school feeding programmes—and access to preschools have been
instrumental in reducing dropout.

Progress toward gender parity is encouraging
Women across Africa are becoming more empowered, with more girls attending both primary and secondary
school and more women in positions of political power. Nearly half the countries in Africa have achieved
gender parity in primary school, and while parity at the secondary and tertiary levels has improved, limited
data makes measuring progress difficult. Thanks to affirmative action, the proportion of seats held by
women in African national parliaments (nearly 20 per cent) is second only to that in Latin America and
the Caribbean. Early marriage, inequitable household power dynamics and low economic opportunities for
women, however, are slowing progress.
...

Africa has halted the spread of HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria
Africa has halted and reversed the spread of HIV/AIDS, with a drop in prevalence rates from 5.9 per cent
in 2001 to 4.9 per cent in 2011, due to strong political will, focused interventions and increased access to
antiretroviral therapy. While tuberculosis and malaria remain serious health threats, Africa as a whole has
halted the spread of both. Tuberculosis infections and deaths have fallen sharply in recent years, as have
malaria cases and deaths. Access to insecticide-treated bed nets and improved prevention and treatment
have played a large role in the declines.

UN progress report posted:

Poverty reduction lags behind growth
Africa is the world’s second fastest growing region, and extreme poverty has declined faster since 2005 than
over 1990–2005—but not fast enough to reach the target by 2015. The proportion of people living in extreme
poverty (on less than $ 1.25 a day) in Southern, East, Central and West Africa as a group fell from 56.5 per
cent in 1990 to 48.5 per cent in 2010; about 20.25 percentage points off the 2015 target, compared with just
4.1 points for South Asia. However, more people are joining the ranks of extreme poverty than exiting—some
124 million people fell into extreme poverty over 1990–2010.

Decent jobs, a work in progress
Africa’s growth has not been job-rich, and most jobs are vulnerable. Over the past 10 years, Africa’s labour
force added 91 million people but only 37 million jobs in wage-paying sectors. Some 46 per cent of Africa’s
workers earn less than $1.25 per day, working in vulnerable jobs with low wages and low productivity. Africa’s
high working poverty and vulnerable employment call for strengthening social protection programmes
to cushion workers from economic shocks. Job growth requires a structural transformation of African
economies—with bold industrial policies that promote value addition and economic diversification.

Inequality is undermining efforts to reduce poverty
High gender, income and rural–urban inequalities have tempered the nexus between growth and poverty
reduction. In Africa, a 1 per cent increase in inequality increases poverty 2.16 per cent. Wage rates remain
unequal by gender, with women making as little as half that men make for the same work in Mauritania,
Algeria and Côte d’Ivoire. On average, births to women in the richest quintile are nearly three times as likely
to be attended by a trained professional as births to women in the poorest. Ninety per cent of women in
urban areas had at least one antenatal care visit during pregnancy, well above the 71 per cent for women in
rural areas. Addressing gender and rural–urban inequality is thus vital for sustaining progress on the MDGs

...

Food insecurity—a recurring challenge
Africa’s food insecurity challenge is manifested in high prevalence of hunger and malnutrition, especially
among children. In 2012, Southern, East, Central and West Africa’s Global Hunger Index (20.7) was second
only to Southern Asia’s (22.5). Most African countries endured serious to alarming hunger over 1990–2012,
scoring between 20 and 40.
At $174 per capita, the value of Africa’s food production is well below the global
average ($241 per capita) and the lowest worldwide. African countries must build on initiatives like the African
Union’s Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme and focus on the multidimensional
aspects of food security to accelerate progress towards halving hunger and ensuring food security. Regional
and national programmes have shown that food security is an intersectoral problem that needs an integrated
approach. But the responses have been undermined by weak political ownership, the limited scope of
programmes and weak private sector and civil society involvement.

quote:

The United Nations Security Council has approved plans to almost double the number of UN peacekeepers in South Sudan.

The 15-member council unanimously authorised on Tuesday a request by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to boost the strength of the UN mission in South Sudan to 12,500 troops and 1,323 police - up from its previous mandate of 7,000 troops and 900 police.

Earlier on Tuesday the top UN humanitarian chief in the country said thousands of South Sudanese have been killed in the week-long violence, giving the first clear indication of the scale of conflict engulfing the young nation.

"Absolutely no doubt in my mind that we're into the thousands" of dead, Toby Lanzer told reporters on Tuesday
Follow our in-depth coverage of South Sudan

The official death toll has stood at 500 for days, although numbers are feared to be far higher, with some estimating at least a 1,000.

Hilde Johnson, head of the UN peacekeeping mission in South Sudan told Al Jazeera on Tuesday "terrible atrocities have been committed and perpetrators will have to be held accountable."

She said the situation "will turn into a large scale humanitarian crisis if the violence does not stop."

Mass graves found

UN rights chief Navi Pillay said on Tuesday that a mass grave had been found in the rebel-held town of Bentiu, while there were "reportedly at least two other mass graves" in the capital Juba.

The grim discoveries follow more than a week of escalating battles between troops loyal to President Salva Kiir and those backing his rival Riek Machar, a former vice president who was sacked in July.

Machar's forces were driven from the town of Bor on Tuesday by the army, but still hold Bentiu, capital of the key oil-producing state of Unity.

Lanzer said the situation in Bentiu remained "tense."

"There are a lot of armed men, almost no civilians on the street," he said to AFP.

"There are now well over 7,000 civilians within the UN base, where they've had to extend the perimeter."

Fighting has spread to half of the nation's 10 states, with hundreds of thousands fleeing to the countryside, prompting warnings of an imminent humanitarian disaster.

Machar ready to talk

Machar said, for the first time, on Tuesday that he was ready to accept Kiir's offer of talks, suggesting neighbouring Ethiopia as a neutral location.

"We are ready for talks," he told Radio France Internationale (RFI), adding that he had spoken earlier in the day to US Secretary of State John Kerry and Ethiopia's Foreign Minster Tedros Adhanom.

"We want democratic free and fair elections. We want Salva Kiir to call it a day," Machar said, listing his demands, which follow days of shuttle diplomacy by African nations and calls from Western powers for fighting to stop.

Machar's promise of talks came shortly before the army stormed Bor town, which Information Minister Michael Makwei called a "gift of the government of South Sudan to the people".

Bor's capture, apparently without major resistance by the rebels, relieves some 17,000 besieged civilians who fled into the overstretched UN peacekeeping compound for protection, severely stretching limited food and supplies.

Lawman 0 posted:

What do you make of the reports of piracy in west Africa?

flatbus posted:

The praise heaped on Botswana needs clarification. While it has one of the world's highest GDP growths, it's not shared by the people at all:


Also, as for life expectancy, I think the years given in the article (2001-2011) were chosen a bit too suspiciously:



That dip is caused by the AIDS pandemic, which is another answer to the question 'why is SSA so hosed.' Note that this doesn't completely excuse Botswana for having such a shocking drop in life expectancy, because GDP per capita growth was constantly increasing during this time. GDP itself rose sharply too - which means the increasing GDP/capita isn't a morbid artifact of people dying and leaving behind more wealth per capita for the rest of the country. What good is an enormous GDP if it can't stop the country from suffering one of the highest rates of AIDS prevalence in Africa?

Also, I thought that the specific metric, life expectancy at birth, seemed to be at odds with what World Bank records indicate:



Actually on this issue, it's a matter of empirical disagreement and I don't actually hold the WB to be in higher esteem; I just thought it was interesting that the life expectancy figures end up in completely different directions.

All this isn't to poo poo on Botswana's achievements, the GDP numbers are definitely solid; it's just that I find growth-oriented solutions dubious in lifting a country out of poverty even when they're wildly successful.

ANYTHING YOU SOW posted:

I think 2001 and 2011 were just the dates of the censuses. I'm not really sure about the figures for life expectancy- I assumed that they got them all from the census, and that those from the press release are just more up to date than the world bank ones, but I dunno.

I think your definitely right that GDP per capita on it's own isn't everything- look at Equatorial Guinea! Really what Botswana needs to do is to move onto high value manufacturing. Mining employs very few people, you want industries that employ larger numbers of people in order to share the economic activity more equitably. Of course this is pretty difficult for a country like Botswana that has a very small population and that is landlocked. They do however seem to be going in the right direction in terms of moving up the value chain with diamonds: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-24876589

Ardennes posted:

Honestly, it looks like Botswana is facing a resource curse, in this case it is diamonds rather than gas or oil. It is something that is very difficult to break out of especially when diamonds alone make up 62% of exports (and other mining takes another chunk).

flatbus posted:

Not to challenge you, but I'd like to read more on this. I've only been looking at it from a statistical perspective, which is quite ugly (24% prevalence rate, one of the highest in the continent). Now this could entirely be that Botswana was disproportionately affected by the AIDS pandemic, it's just frustrating to see the high rate when Botswana has a GDP/capita (PPP) of ~$15k, on the level of developed Latin American countries and much higher than South Africa (~$11k).

Communocracy posted:

edit: Please do talk about Mauritania, the place is fascinating

Y-Hat posted:

Isn't there honest-to-God chattel slavery in Mauritania? It's the country with the most slaves per capita in the world.

Communocracy posted:

edit: Please do talk about Mauritania, the place is fascinating

From http://www.aljazeera.com/news/africa/2013/12/south-sudan-death-toll-thousands-20131224184529888976.html


The bolded bit answers kustomkarkommando's question about Bentiu.

Aliquid posted:

Anyone have any writing on how Botswana has been able to create an effective civil society in which the public has faith?

Lead out in cuffs posted:

And they are a lot worse off than Botswana.

Lead out in cuffs posted:

It's only part of the puzzle, but it's worth bearing in mind that colonialism in Sub-Saharan Africa never really ended, it just got kinder and gentler. It's gone from outright rape and pillage to American-led exchanging of resources for valuable free market ideology to the Chinese actually building infrastructure in exchange for the resources they plunder. But at no point in the past 500 years have most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa not been effectively vassal states to global powers.

Aliquid posted:

There was actually a long-running joke in my city by locals about the halted construction or shoddy workmanship of Chinese infrastructure projects.

Aliquid posted:

There was actually a long-running joke in my city by locals about the halted construction or shoddy workmanship of Chinese infrastructure projects.

surrender posted:

The locals here complain because Chinese companies (including construction firms) and their employees won't hire local workers, even for tasks like housekeeping and cooking.

Lead out in cuffs posted:

Botswana is relatively ethnically homogeneous (79% Tswana), has a population of only 2 million people and produces a metric fuckton of diamonds. Regardless of policies, they're starting from one of the most advantageous positions on the continent.

Equatorial Guinea is a good comparison, though -- similar population, homogeneity and even higher GDP per capita, but in that case it's from oil, not diamonds. And they are a lot worse off than Botswana.

I would argue that this comes down to the difference in importance in international politics between diamonds and oil. Oil is a strategic resource, and the big powers are more than happy to gently caress with countries both openly and in secret to ensure its flow.

It's only part of the puzzle, but it's worth bearing in mind that colonialism in Sub-Saharan Africa never really ended, it just got kinder and gentler. It's gone from outright rape and pillage to American-led exchanging of resources for valuable free market ideology to the Chinese actually building infrastructure in exchange for the resources they plunder. But at no point in the past 500 years have most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa not been effectively vassal states to global powers.

Jonad posted:

The situation in Equitorial Guinea has a lot to do with the fact that the country's first post-independence leader, Francisco Nguema, was a raving lunatic who pillaged the country of everything he could get his hands on. During the 70s Equitorial Guinea didn't really have a president so much as a looter-in-chief. In one famous episode on Christmas Day 1975, he had a bunch of his opponents (real and imaginary) rounded up and shot in a stadium by troops wearing Santa costumes while 'Those Where the Days' played over the loudspeakers. In other countries, it took decades for the initial post-independence optimism to crumble under the weight of corruption and mismanagement; Equitorial Guinea started off at basically rock bottom.

Amused to Death posted:

I would say it's in fact the bolded part. Botswana was in the middle of the geographic area of the most severe region of the HIV epidemic. There's not any ryhme or reason to the outbreak numbers beyond geography. Botswana, Namibia, South Africa(this one is sketchier given apartheid was going into the 1990's) , and Zimbabwe(my knowledge on Zimbabwe isn't great but I hear until the past decade Zimbabwe was doing pretty well as far as sub-Saharan African nations) should in theory have lower numbers for their level of development when places right next door like Angola, DRC, and Mozambique have much lower rates of HIV infection despite years of civil war and huge areas with de facto no government to provide an effective response(or any response period).

(I actually wonder if higher levels of development coupled with very lower populations actually helped HIV spread, namely in Botswana and Namibia. Most of both countries is arid and sparsely populated, it's possible their small populations may be more urbanized and/or localized which would spread disease quicker)

The Observer posted:

Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi stormed the House moments before the bill was passed, protesting without much effect.

Mbabazi had walked out of the chambers earlier after Parliament had passed the Plants Varieties Protection Bill, apparently unaware the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was up next.

He soon rushed back to complain that the government was still consulting on some clauses, and that the House didn’t have the number of MPs required to pass the law.

“I was not aware that this bill was on the order paper; we have a few issues on which we are consulting… we would not want to have it pass without quorum,” Mbabazi said.

But he was booed by many, including ministers. Mbabazi seemed puzzled by the fact that even his own opposed him.

“We passed several bills yesterday [Thursday] with less numbers, why didn’t you stop us that there was no quorum?” Katerera MP Hatwib Katoto wondered.

When Mbabazi resumed his seat, he pulled out his copy of the Parliamentary Rules of Procedure and consulted cabinet colleagues, only to be shocked to see his fellow ministers cheering when Kadaga ruled against his wish.

“I think there was an opportunity to consult on this bill for so many years. The next chance will come at the time of (Presidential) assent; for us let us do our work,” Kadaga ruled.

Mbabazi stormed out and stood at the Central lobby, waiting to address journalists.

kustomkarkommando posted:

Botswana's reliance on mining as the main component of their economy definitely plays a role in the high HIV prevalence among the population (like in South Africa). Mining in Southern Africa relies on a highly mobile migrant workforce, men leave their families and travel to distant mining camps in the bush for month-long work shifts to financially provide for their families who remain at home. A shadow industry of prostitution developed around these isolated mining communities facilitating the spread of HIV, which would then be brought home when the miners returned to their families between shifts. Debswana and Anglo-American both instituted sweeping ARV programs when they realized the extent of HIV infection among their workforce (or when absenteeism began biting at their bottom line) and there have been some moves (in South Africa at least) to construct family housing to try to change the culture around mining camps. This isn't the whole reason of course, but it's certainly a factor in why Southern Africa was so badly hit by the AIDS epidemic.

quote:

Tens of thousands of people have staged an anti-government rally in Niger's capital Niamey, protesting against corruption, media censorship and what they said was the failure of the country's president to improve living standards.

Demonstrators in one of the world's poorest countries chanted "Down with the regime!" and "No to dictatorship" on Saturday in the country's first major rally against President Mahamadou Issoufou's rule since his 2011 election win.

"Mahamadou Issoufou promised an end to food insecurity but the population continues to be decimated by hunger and thirst," said Amadou Hama, president of the National Assembly whose Nigerien Democratic Movement (MODEN) broke away from the ruling coalition this year and joined the opposition coalition.

Police said about 20,000 people took part in Saturday's rally, while organisers put the figure at 30,000.

The protest, organised by a coalition of 15 opposition parties called the Alliance for the Republic, Democracy and Reconciliation in Niger (ARDR), was the first public show of strength after a court lifted a government ban on opposition marches last month.

'Bad governance and corruption'

Seini Oumarou, opposition leader and former prime minister, condemned "the bad governance and corruption" in a country with worsening food security, education and health systems.

Oumarou also criticised the government's oil deals with foreign firms and the ruling Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism's control of the media.

"We are witnessing the organised looting of our national resources," he said at an opposition meeting after the rally.

Niger, with a fast-growing population of 17 million people, has some of the lowest government revenues per capita in Africa despite the start of oil production in 2011. Output is running at around 16,500 barrels a day, the IMF said in September.

Niger, the world's fourth largest uranium producer, is also seeking to renegotiate long-term mining contracts with French nuclear power firm Areva to increase tax revenues.

The X-man cometh posted:

One huge problem is that many Chinese treat African projects as a Chinese jobs program and import all the labor, instead of hiring Africans. So licks have no connection to the huge project in their neighborhood, other than the fact that government officials get rich.

Orange Devil posted:

Isn't there a similar issue in Indonesia?