Month: September 2022

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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Russia’s war on Ukraine has seen scores of hospitals and clinics bombed and frequent power cuts that can turn off lifesaving machines. Medical aid groups are using a Kenyan-manufactured breathing device for premature babies that works without electricity, helping save vulnerable newborns in countries affected by conflict.

Staff at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching and Referral Hospital in Kisumu, Kenya, say this device — a bubble continuous positive airway pressure system, or bCPAP — brings some relief to those in respiratory distress.

Daisy Okech, a pediatric nurse at the hospital, said the device “helped us a great lot because before we had the machine there were babies who needed the CPAP, but we were not able to initiate. We were just using normal oxygen, but currently we have seen that there are babies who improve very well when we initiate CPAP.”

The device continuously delivers pressurized oxygen, making it easier for babies in respiratory distress to breathe. Workers say water bubbles in a jar signify that the user is breathing right.

Pressured oxygen source

Revital health care, a manufacturer in Kenya’s Kilifi County, and the U.S.-based Vayu Global Health Foundation took on mass production of the devices this year. Revital’s technical director, Krupali Shah, said the bubble CPAP just needs a pressured source of oxygen, such as a cylinder, to function.

“Once you have continuous 100% oxygen flowing in the blender, which is where the magic of the entire device is and is, literally, where the magic happens, it’s able to pull ambient air from the outside as well,” Shah said. “You can adjust the oxygen concentration between 30-100 before delivery to the baby. The blended air can be filtered, humidified, breathed in by the patient and breathed out. There is also a pressure generator jar which controls the pressure and keeps the baby’s lungs open.”

In August, the World Health Organization acknowledged that at least 25 facilities across Ukraine, 17 of which are perinatal centers, were using the bubble CPAPs provided by donors.

Officials say the device provides a non-invasive way of supporting newborns who are struggling to breathe. Doctors say oxygen blenders prevent lung and brain damage while giving babies pure oxygen.

Its inventor, American doctor Thomas Burke, told VOA that investing in the health of vulnerable newborns is key to controlling infant mortality.

“People actually have to make budget commitments, and it means that health systems have to prioritize babies,” Burke said. “I found in my 2 1/2 decades of work on maternal health that there is sometimes a lot of talk around saving mothers’ lives, but at the end of the day people aren’t willing to put finance behind saving mothers’ lives.”  

The bCPAP devices are available for about US $400 in Kenya.

The system is being used in at least 20 countries in Africa, as well as Belgium and the United States.

Nearly 1 million infants die annually from respiratory problems in low- and middle-income countries, according to the World Health Organization.  Advocates say more of the lifesaving machines are needed around the world.
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With monkeypox cases subsiding in Europe and parts of North America, many scientists say now is the time to prioritize stopping the virus in Africa.

In July, the U.N. health agency designated monkeypox as a global emergency and appealed to the world to support African countries so that the catastrophic vaccine inequity that plagued the outbreak of COVID-19 wouldn’t be repeated.

But the global spike of attention has had little impact on the continent. No rich countries have shared vaccines or treatments with Africa, and some experts fear interest may soon evaporate.

“Nothing has changed for us here. The focus is all on monkeypox in the West,” said Placide Mbala, a virologist who directs the global health research department at Congo’s Institute of Biomedical Research.

“The countries in Africa where monkeypox is endemic are still in the same situation we have always been, with weak resources for surveillance, diagnostics and even the care of patients,” he said.

Rich countries hoard vaccine

Monkeypox has sickened people in parts of West and Central Africa since the 1970s, but it wasn’t until the disease triggered unusual outbreaks in Europe and North America that public health officials even thought to use vaccines. As rich countries rushed to buy nearly all the world’s supply of the most advanced shot against monkeypox, the World Health Organization said in June that it would create a vaccine-sharing mechanism to help needy countries get doses.

So far, that hasn’t happened.

“Africa is still not benefiting from either monkeypox vaccines or the antiviral treatments,” said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO’s Africa director, adding that only small amounts have been available for research purposes. Since 2000, Africa has reported about 1,000 to 2,000 suspected monkeypox cases every year. So far this year, the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have identified about 3,000 suspected infections, including more than 100 deaths.

In recent weeks, monkeypox cases globally have fallen by more than a quarter, including by 55% in Europe, according to WHO.

Dr. Ifedayo Adetifa, head of the Nigeria Center for Disease Control, said the lack of help for Africa was reminiscent of the inequity seen during COVID-19.

“Everybody looked after their (own) problem and left everybody else,” he said. Adetifa lamented that monkeypox outbreaks in Africa never got the international attention that might have prevented the virus from spreading globally.

Rich countries have stretched their vaccine supplies by using a fifth of the regular dose, but none have expressed interest in helping Africa. WHO’s regional office for the Americas recently announced it had struck a deal to obtain 100,000 monkeypox doses that will start being delivered to countries in Latin America and the Caribbean within weeks. But no similar agreements have been reached for Africa.

“I would very much like to have vaccines to offer to my patients or anything that could just reduce their stay in the hospital,” said Dr. Dimie Ogoina, a professor of medicine at Niger Delta University in Nigeria and a member of WHO’s monkeypox emergency committee.

Since WHO declared monkeypox a global emergency, Nigeria has seen the disease continue to spread, with few significant interventions.

“We still do not have the funds to do all the studies that we need,” Ogoina said.

Research into the animals that carry monkeypox and spread it to humans in Africa is piecemeal and lacks coordination, said Mbala, of Congo’s Institute of Biomedical Research.

Last week, the White House said it was optimistic about a recent drop in monkeypox cases in the U.S., saying authorities had administered more than 460,000 doses of the vaccine made by Bavarian Nordic.

Cases drop in U.S.

The U.S. has about 35% of the world’s more than 56,000 monkeypox cases but nearly 80% of the world’s supply of the vaccine, according to a recent analysis by the advocacy group Public Citizen.

The U.S. hasn’t announced any monkeypox vaccine donations for Africa, but the White House did make a recent request to Congress for $600 million in global aid.

Even if rich countries start sharing monkeypox tools with Africa soon, they shouldn’t be applauded, other experts said.

“It should not be the case that countries only decide to share leftover vaccines when the epidemic is declining in their countries,” said Piero Olliaro, a professor of infectious diseases of poverty at Oxford University. “It is exactly the same scenario as COVID, and it is still completely unethical.”

Olliaro, who recently returned to the U.K. from a trip to Central African Republic to work on monkeypox, said WHO’s emergency declaration appeared to offer “no tangible benefits in Africa.”

In Nigeria’s Lagos state, which includes the country’s largest city and is hard hit by monkeypox, some people are calling for the government to urgently do more.

“You can’t tell me that the situation wouldn’t have improved without a vaccine,” said Temitayo Lawal, 29, an economist.

“If there is no need for vaccines, why are we now seeing the U.S. and all these countries using them?” he asked. “Our government needs to acquire doses as well.”
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U.S. special envoy on climate John Kerry has pledged U.S. support to help Nigeria mitigate the effects of climate change, saying Africa’s most populous nation would benefit from a $12 billion fund for climate action.

Kerry began a two-nation West Africa visit Monday in the Nigerian capital, where he met with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari. In Abuja on Tuesday, Kerry met with top government officials including ministers of environment, petroleum resources and agriculture, and signed the Clean Energy Demand Initiative. 

He said the agreement allows the U.S government to assist Nigeria in developing technologies for cleaner fuel sources, including gas, wind and solar energy. 

“Nigeria is a very important, if not one of the most important, countries in terms of the direction of dealing with climate for all of Africa, because Nigeria is a major producer of gas and oil and how Nigeria approaches the climate crisis will send a message to the rest of the continent, will help set the direction of our dealing with the climate crisis,” Kerry said. 

But Abba Ali Yarima, co-founder of the Green Panthers Foundation, a nonprofit that advocates for those affected by climate change, said the gesture was long overdue.  

Africa is a continent of 55 countries, but its carbon emissions account for no more than 3.8 percent compared to the global north, Yarima said. “We believe there should be reparations by all these developed countries who have emitted more carbon gases than we did here in Africa. Even the $12 billion is quite small.” 

Nigerian authorities have been making efforts to address climate change issues. 

In November of last year, authorities passed a climate change bill targeting net zero emissions by 2060. Last month, authorities launched an energy transition plan focused on greater use of solar power and doubling natural gas generation.  

However, Yarima worries any funds given by the U.S. will be mismanaged or stolen. 

“I’m also looking at other aspects of accountability when it comes to Nigeria,” Yarima said. “We’re still battling with corruption and how we’re very good with policy papers but not very good when it comes to implementation. So I’m just scared with this huge amount of money, I suggest there should be a mechanism in place that will help checkmate how this money is going to be spent.” 

Kerry, a former U.S. secretary of state, said the world needs to cut carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030. 

He will complete his visit in Senegal, where he’ll be attending the African Ministerial Conference on the Environment (AMCEN). 

 
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Mozambique’s President Filipe Nyusi has called on Western energy companies to resume work in Cabo Delgado Province, saying security has improved around the town of Palma. But clashes are continuing between federal forces and other African allies against Islamist militants.

Addressing the Mozambique Gas & Energy Summit in Maputo Wednesday, Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi assured foreign investors the security situation in troubled northern Cabo Delgado Province had improved.

He said locals were returning to the town of Palma and other areas they had abandoned because of terrorist attacks.

Nyusi urged Western energy companies to do the same. He said the success in combating the terrorists in the districts of Mocimboa da Praia and Palma improved stability since the attacks on the town of Palma.

But insurgent attacks last week spread to Mozambique’s northern Nampula Province.

Authorities said the militants attacked several villages, beheaded six Mozambicans, killed an Italian nun, abducted three people and torched scores of homes.

The Islamist militants are linked to Islamic State and call themselves al-Shabab, though they have no direct connection to the Somali militant group by the same name.

In March 2021, France’s Total Energies halted exploration of a major gas field and a $20 billion plant in northern Mozambique after Islamist militants’ attacks.

There was no immediate response from the energy companies to Nyusi’s call to return.

Total Energies’ CEO said in April the company did not expect to resume work in Mozambique, which has Africa’s third largest-known gas reserves, until 2023.

Cabo Delgado Province has suffered increasingly violent attacks by the insurgents since 2017, many targeting towns and communities near the gas project.

Critics blame the project for stoking the insurgency by not investing enough to develop the impoverished region.

The conflict has left thousands of Mozambicans dead and more than 800,000 displaced.

Troops from Rwanda and the Southern African Development Community have helped retake towns from the insurgents but have not been able to contain or end the fighting.
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On Sunday, Ethiopians marked “Enkutatash,” the new year holiday. However, renewed fighting in the country’s two-year long civil war meant a curfew was in place in some areas close to the conflict, putting a damper on celebrations.

“Enkutatash,” which roughly translates to “gift of jewels,” marks the end of the rainy season and the first month of Ethiopia’s calendar. It is 2015 in Ethiopia and people celebrated their new year — a time of new beginnings, for many.

Not least in Kombolcha, about 120 kilometers from where fighting in Ethiopia’s civil war erupted again just three weeks ago, after a five-month cease-fire. Most people VOA spoke to said they hope peace will return to the country soon. Yet they still fear fighting could resume in the town.

Due to the nearby clashes, a curfew has been imposed, which cut short the celebrations. Elyas Abate is a local resident at St. George Church in Dessie.

He says the church services that usually take place at night can’t happen like they usually do. People have to follow the law, so the services end early and the worshippers have to go back home early to meet the curfew.

A couple of hours before the curfew comes into effect, the streets are still busy. Afterward, empty. Police stop those who fail to observe the new rules. Kedir Seifu is a butcher at a shop and runs a food outlet attached to a local bar.

“Because of the curfew, everyone goes home early, around 7 p.m. By 8 p.m., people’s movements have stopped. Our business has declined as we are not serving dinner, it’s really not going as well as before,” he says.

Kombolcha was overrun by Tigrayan forces last year, before they were driven back by the government and its allies, including Amhara militia and Amhara regional forces.

When fighting erupted nearby in recent weeks, there was a run on the banks, as people tried to flee the town, one local resident, Dessiye Asres, says.

There were long lines of people waiting to pull their money out of the Commercial Bank Asres noted and that most of them were from the occupied and nearby towns further north, adding that they pulled out their money for food, accommodation and for transport, either to stay here or go south to the next town.

In a statement on Ethiopia’s New Year’s Day, the Tigray External Affairs Office said on Sunday that it had appointed a team to negotiate peace and said it would agree to mediation by the African Union, which had been a major sticking point between the two sides in the conflict. However, on Tuesday, there were reports of government airstrikes hitting a business campus in the Tigray region’s capital, Mekelle.

Before the airstrikes, VOA asked a monk and religious leader, Melake Selam Komos or Aba Samuel, what aspirations the community had for the new year. He responded they still hold out hope for a return to peace.

He says religious leaders hope to fill the people with brighter hope and preach the words of God. He admits there are still problems in Komboulcha, but in the new year, God will make everything better. “Only God can help us,” he adds.

Ethiopia’s civil war has been going on for nearly two years. Belgium’s Ghent University estimates up to half a million have already died due to fighting, starvation and lack of medical attention.
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