– NEWS –
Ethiopia lifts state of emergency two months early: Ethiopia’s parliament lifted its state of emergency two months early, after ministers voted that law and order has been restored in the country. The current state of emergency started in October 2016, following months of protests from Oromo groups in the country. It was reinstated in February of 2018 following the unexpected resignation of then prime minister Hailemariam Desalegn. The nation has been in an official state of emergency since February 16 and has experienced two years of protests. Ethiopia’s new leader Abiy Ahmed is Ethiopia’s first Oromo prime minister and he was sworn in in April as an attempt to bring calm to the country. Meanwhile, the country’s telecoms sector, a state-run monopoly, said it would allow local firms to use its infrastructure to provide internet services.
cnn.com, cnbc.com
Madagascar’s prime minister resigns: Madagascar’s Prime Minister Olivier Mahafaly has resigned from his post to comply with the terms of a court ruling that ordered the formation of a new consensus government to end a political crisis on the Indian Ocean island nation. Madagascar’s President Hery Rajaonarimampianina said he had appointed local International Labour Organisation representative Christian Ntsay as prime minister. Earlier this month, Rajaonarimampianina approved a new election law removing a provision that would have prevented the main opposition candidate, Marc Ravalomanana, from standing for office. The previous law had provoked a political crisis and triggered street demonstrations that resulted in two deaths. The High Constitutional Court ordered Rajaonarimampianina to dissolve his government and appoint a new prime minister with the support of all political parties. The next presidential election is due this year.
reuters.com, africanews.com
Congolese ex-Vice President Bemba acquitted of war crimes: The International Criminal Court on Friday overturned the war crimes conviction of former Democratic Republic of Congo Vice President Jean-Pierre Bemba. He was one of only four people convicted by the permanent war crimes court in its 16 years of operation, and the highest ranking among them. He had been convicted of murder, rape and pillage for actions by fighters he sent to Central African Republic to back CAR’s then-president Ange-Felix Patasse. Judge Christine Van den Wijngaert said Bemba, once the leader of Congo’s main opposition party, could not be held responsible for crimes carried out by troops under his control in CAR in 2002-2003. Dismissing his 18-year-sentence, she said trial judges had failed to consider his efforts to stop crimes committed by his Movement for the Liberation of Congo (MLC) once he became aware of them, and how difficult it would have been for him to control the troops’ actions from a distance.
reuters.com
Tunisia boat capsizes killing dozens of migrants: At least 48 migrants died after their boat capsized off the eastern coast of Tunisia, the Tunisian government says. The International Organization for Migration said over 70 migrants survived the accident near the Kerkennah Islands, off the coast of the city of Sfax. Tunisia has become an important new route for migrants trying to make the crossing to Europe in the past year. The latest boat to go down off Tunisia was packed with about 180 people, about 100 whom were Tunisian, the country’s interior ministry said. The boat was five miles from the Kerkennah Islands and 16 nautical miles from the city of Sfax, the ministry said.
bbc.com
Germany’s new Africa policy yet to be implemented dw.com
German FDP calls for new Africa-EU program welt.de
– BACKGROUND –
Controversy over usable land in Nigeria: In Nigeria’s Middle Belt, located in the center of the country, the mostly Muslim north meets the predominantly Christian south. The conflict area repeatedly reports massacres by the „Fulani terrorists“. But the Fulani feel wronged by these reports about them. „That makes me very unhappy. We are not terrorists. Who is killing our people?“ said farmer Suleiman Badembo, Fulani and Muslim. Conflicts between ethnic groups over dominance in Nigeria’s regions are nothing new. In the Middle Belt, settled farmers – most of them Christian – are fighting with roving cattle herders – mostly Fulani – over acreages. The conflict is aggravated by the fact that in the affected province the rearing of livestock has been prohibited since 2017.
taz.de
iHubs in Nairobi: The website www.herdy.co is turning into a Kenyan version of Amazon for groceries. The site was founded by 27-year-old Derrick Muturi, who made a virtue of necessity after a rabbit breeding deal didn’t go through and he ended up with too many animals. Muturi is not the only representative of this new generation of entrepreneurs in Kenya. There is an increasing number of digital start-ups being established in Nairobi: Whether it’s two young women selling tickets for long-distance buses over the internet, a tinkerer who wrote a mobile app for dairy farmers, or the girlfriend of a deaf man who is currently developing an app for learning sign language. Three dozen iHubs, which were developed in recent years with the help of state funds or private institutions, are acting as accelerators for business. They provide cheap access to the internet, allow for exchanges between colleagues, or offer access to expert advice.
berliner-zeitung.de
– NUMBER –
The economy in the 55 African countries has grown by only 1.5 percent. Especially the economic crisis in West Africa is causing problems for numerous regions.
welt.de
– QUOTE –
„Already 30 kilometers off the coast and the Italian industrial ships are still taking the catch away from us. I have about 60 percent less income than I did 10 years ago. Two trips a year with migrants to Italy give me more income than fishing does in all of the remaining months.“
A Tunisian fisherman explains why the transport of migrants is attractive to him.
taz.de
– AT LAST –
Copyright law in Africa: Copyright is not especially important in Africa. Music is usually bought at local markets. For a fee, merchants will load desired songs onto their customers‘ smartphones or USB storage devices. Artists are increasingly relying on concerts to combat music piracy, and more and more people recognize that artists must be paid for their work. „That is a big problem for artists,“ Cameroonian saxophonist Manu Dibango told DW. And it is not just musicians that are losing out, filmmakers are, too. Anything that can be digitalized can be easily stolen with the help of a computer. And now, even those selling pirated copies at markets are becoming superfluous: More and more lovers of African music simply download works onto their smartphones from home. „At some point, someone will have to pay,“ says Dibango. „Who is paying the price? Right now it’s the artists.“
dw.com