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KW 43: Thousands rally in Sudan’s capital to demand civilian rule, Zimbabwe’s Dangarembga receives German peace prize, Ethiopian government airstrike on Tigray forces UN to abort flight in midair

– NEWS –

Thousands rally in Sudan’s capital to demand civilian rule: Thousands of people rallied in the streets of Sudan’s capital city Thursday, demanding a fully civilian government as the relationship between military generals and pro-democracy groups deteriorated over the country’s future. Sudan has been ruled by an interim civilian-military government since 2019. The military ousted longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir in April that year, following four months of mass protests against his rule. With al-Bashir toppled, the ruling generals agreed to share power with civilians representing the protest movement. The aftermath has been volatile. Thursday’s rallies come after a rival group rallied in support of the military leaders.
apnews.com

Zimbabwe’s Dangarembga receives German peace prize: Accepting a prestigious German prize Sunday in honor of her work, Zimbabwean writer and filmmaker Tsitsi Dangarembga called for a “new Enlightenment,” saying a fundamental shift is needed to overcome the structures of racial hierarchy that have led to violence in her home country and across the world. Dangarembga is the first Black woman to win the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, which is endowed with 25,000 euros ($29,100) and has been awarded since 1950.
apnews.com

Ethiopian government airstrike on Tigray forces UN to abort flight in midair: An Ethiopian government airstrike on the capital of the northern Tigray region has forced a United Nations (UN) aid flight to abort a landing in midair. The UN has suspended its twice-weekly passenger flights to Mekelle for humanitarian personnel after the plane with 11 passengers had to abort the landing on Friday and return to the capital, Addis Ababa. The airstrike, the fifth on the city since Monday, according to the government, coincided with ramped-up fighting farther south in the Amhara region.
theguardian.com

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Climate crisis increasingly threatens Africa: More than 100 million extremely poor people in Africa are threatened by accelerating climate change that could also melt away the continent’s few glaciers within two decades, a United Nations (UN) report warned in a report ahead of the COP 26 climate summit in Glasgow. The UN highlighted Africa’s „disproportionate vulnerability“ last year from food insecurity, poverty and population displacement.
africanews.com

Libya conference attempts to salvage election hopes: Rival factions in Libya launched a last-ditch attempt on Thursday to shore up support for their efforts to hold democratic elections in December. At an international conference, representatives of the legislature based in the east of the country and the High State Council that sits in the capital Tripoli met with delegates from the the United Nations as well as regional and western powers. Holding national elections on December 24 is a key provision of a UN-backed peace plan that has seen the warring factions cease hostilities for nearly a year after a decade of conflict brought on by the toppling of dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011.
dw.com

Smear campaign against Angola’s opposition: One year ahead of the elections, Angola’s Constitutional Court has forced the leader of the largest opposition party to resign on the grounds that he held two nationalities – Angolan and Portuguese – when he was elected in November 2019. Observers see this as an attack spearheaded by the ruling party. Shortly before his ouster, Adalberto Costa Júnior and UNITA had forged a new alliance with two other opposition parties with the aim of ousting the MPLA, which has ruled for 50 years. The Angolan population is observing the events with increasing concern. Many fear an erosion of democracy and therefore regularly take to the streets to protest.
dw.com

Almost 600 prisoners on the run after prisoner release in Nigeria spiegel.de
More and more people flee Burkina Faso dw.com
Police continue to crack down on pro-democracy marches in Eswatini hrw.org
Covid cases in Africa are increasing rapidly spiegel.de

– BACKGROUND –

Fight for the rainforest in Congo: The rainforest in the Congo Basin is the second largest in the world. Companies sense a huge business, a lot of wood is cleared illegally. Some villagers now want to take back control of their forest. Armed with smartphones and satellite links, the so-called forest observers go on patrols in the forest around their villages several times a month. If they detect a violation, the forest watchers use their smartphones to set off an alarm. ForestLink is the name of this system, which is also used in Cameroon and Ghana with the support of the British organization Rainforest UK. There is actually a moratorium to protect the forest. Since 2002, no new areas may be cleared for logging; only on the old concessions may timber still be felled. But even now, the country doesn’t manage to control companies sufficiently – there is massive illegal logging. Experts estimate that a large part of Congo’s timber exports comes from illegal sources.
tagesschau.de

Erdogan on Africa tour: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s four-day visit to Africa has put Ankara’s policy on the continent under the spotlight again, as Turkey positions itself as an alternative ally for African countries. The visit was part of a bid by Turkey to break the economic hegemony of former colonial powers such as France, and to counter the rising influence of China on the African continent. Erdogan’s trip to Angola, Nigeria and Togo has been an opportunity for the Turkish president to build on Ankara’s desire for a partnership with African economies.
rfi.fr

– NUMBER –

A giant owl that has gone almost unseen in African rainforests for 150 years has been photographed in the wild for the first time by British scientists working in Ghana.
independent.co.uk

– QUOTE –

„The Global North has achieved a substantial part of its prosperity through the exploitation of resources in the Global South. This exploitation is still taking place.“

Rwothomio Gabriel, from the education campaign No White Saviors in Uganda, on development aid.
zeit.de

– AT LAST –

African film festival shows multifaceted view of continent: Africa’s largest film festival, FESPACO in Burkina Faso, reflects the crises the continent currently faces. The films show a diverse picture of Africa.
dw.com