Month: May 2024

N’DJAMENA, Chad — Chadians go to the polls on Monday three years after their military leader seized power, in the first presidential election in Africa’s Sahel region since a wave of coups.

Analysts say Mahamat Idriss Deby, who seized power the day rebels killed his long-ruling father Idriss Deby in April 2021, is most likely to win, although his chief opponent has been drawing larger-than-expected crowds on the campaign trail.

Deby has promised to bolster security, strengthen the rule of law and increase electricity production.

The vote coincides with a temporary withdrawal of U.S. troops from Chad, an important Western ally in a region of West and Central Africa courted by Russia and wracked by jihadism.

Polls open at 7 a.m. and close at 5 p.m., with some 8.5 million people registered to vote.

Soldiers began early voting on Sunday.

Provisional results are expected by May 21 and final results by June 5. If no candidate wins more than 50% of the votes, a run-off will be held on June 22.

Since replacing his father at the helm of the oil-producing Central African country, Deby has remained close with former colonial power and longtime ally France.

While other junta-ruled Sahel countries including Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have told Paris and other Western powers to withdraw and turned to Moscow for support, Chad remains the last Sahel state with a substantial French military presence.

The U.S., however, announced a temporary withdrawal of at least some troops last month, saying it would continue with a review of security operations after the election.

Opposition concerns

Monday’s vote pits Deby against his prime minister Succes Masra, previously a political opponent who fled into exile in 2022 but was allowed back a year later. Also running are former prime minister Albert Pahimi Padacke and seven other candidates.

Yaya Dillo, an opposition politician who had been expected to run against Deby despite coming from the same clan, was shot and killed in the capital N’Djamena on Feb. 28, the day the election date was announced.

Padacke has accused Masra of collaborating with Deby. But Masra has attracted large crowds to his own rallies.

Some opposition members and civil society groups have called for a boycott, citing concerns about possible vote-rigging.

That has raised fears of potential violence.

“This presidential election is of capital importance for the country because an entire people aspires for change,” said Baniara Yoyana, a former minister and magistrate.

“The process must be conducted with transparency to avoid any risk of confrontation.”

One Deby supporter, however, said he expected no problems.

“We want the election to go well and peacefully,” said Abdelkhader Sougui, a 28-year-old student.

“My wish is to go out and vote the morning of May 6 to confirm our victory… in the first round.”
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Niamey, Niger — Several gold mines in northern Niger managed by a Chinese company were ordered to temporarily close after dozens of animals died from drinking wastewater, local authorities told AFP on Sunday.

Herders around the town of Tabelot had pointed to Sahara SARL’s mines as the only explanation for their animals’ deaths, saying the region was not suffering from drought or any epidemics.

“We counted 24 dead over two days and at the end of April we finally realized that the slaughter was being caused by harmful products in the water the mines were rejecting,” said Youssaf Houssa, the chief of Tamannit, one of the affected villages.

Almou Akoli, who lives in Fasso, another village, said he lost 16 animals while some of his “neighbors cannot keep track of how many they have lost.”  

China’s Sahara SARL started mining gold in January in the middle of grazing grounds where there are hardly any natural waterholes.  

Following a visit Friday by police investigators, Niger’s Ministry of Mines ordered the temporary closure of at least four of the mining sites, according to the sources.

“The Chinese have suspended work, and we are monitoring our animals,” said Houssa.

Private local newspaper Air Info said an official report confirmed that “the catastrophe” was caused by chemical products used in the mines that threaten the water table in what is already a hostile environment for animal husbandry.  

French company Orano (formerly Areva), which has been extracting uranium in northern Niger for more than 40 years, is regularly accused by NGOs of polluting the environment.   
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Some residents of Nairobi’s suburbs are up in arms over what they say is illegal construction of high-rise buildings in their neighborhoods, mainly by Chinese developers. Juma Majanga reports from Nairobi. Camera and video editing by Amos Wangwa.
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Nairobi — Kenya said Sunday that the death toll from weeks of devastating rains and floods had risen to 228 and warned that there was no sign of a let-up in the crisis.

While Kenya and neighboring Tanzania escaped major damage from a tropical cyclone that weakened after making landfall on Saturday, the government in Nairobi said the country continued to endure torrential downpours and the risk of further floods and landslides.

In western Kenya, the River Nyando burst its banks in the early hours of Sunday, engulfing a police station, school, hospital and market in the town of Ahero in Kisumu County, police said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties but local police said water levels were still rising and that the main bridge outside Kisumu on the highway to Nairobi was submerged.

Weeks of heavier than usual seasonal rains, compounded by the El Nino weather pattern, have wreaked chaos in many parts of East Africa, a region highly vulnerable to climate change.

More than 400 people have been killed and several hundred thousand uprooted from their homes in several countries as floods and mudslides swamp houses, roads and bridges.

“It’s a serious situation and we should not take it lightly,” Kenyan government spokesman Isaac Mwaura said at a briefing on the crisis on Sunday.

‘Concerns of wider humanitarian crisis’

Across the border, the Tanzania Meteorological Authority declared that Tropical Cyclone Hidaya, which had threatened to pile on more misery, had “completely lost its strength” after making landfall on Mafia Island on Saturday.

“Therefore, there is no further threat of Tropical Cyclone ‘Hidaya’ in our country,” it said.

Tanzania remains one of the countries worst hit by the floods, with 155 people dead since early April.

In Kenya, Mwaura said while the cyclone had weakened, it had caused strong winds and waves on the coast and heavy rains were likely to intensify from later Sunday.

One fisherman had perished and another was missing, he added.

Across the nation, the disaster has claimed the lives of 228 people since March with 72 still missing, according to government figures.

More than 212,000 people have been displaced, with Mwuara saying many were “forcibly or voluntarily” evacuated.

The government has ordered anyone living near major rivers or dams to leave the area or face “mandatory evacuation for their safety,” with many dams or reservoirs threatening to overflow.

Mwaura also warned of the risk of waterborne diseases, with one case of cholera reported as well as incidents of diarrhea.

Jagan Chapagain, head of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), said on X on Saturday that forecasts of more rains raised “serious concerns about a wider humanitarian crisis.”

The Kenyan government has been accused of being unprepared and slow to respond to the crisis despite weather warnings, with the main opposition Azimio party calling for it to be declared a national disaster.

President William Ruto said in an address to the nation on Friday that the weather picture remained “dire,” blaming the calamitous cycle of drought and floods on a failure to protect the environment.

In the deadliest single incident in Kenya, 58 people perished when a dam burst on Monday near Mai Mahiu in the Rift Valley north of Nairobi, the interior ministry said.

Several dozen remain missing.

Rescuers are also hunting for 13 people still missing after a boat capsized in Tana River County, killing seven, the ministry said. 
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Dar es Salaam, Tanzania — Tanzania said a cyclone that made landfall on Saturday has lost its strength and was no longer a threat to the country.   

Tropical Cyclone Hidaya had triggered heavy rains and winds as it rolled towards Tanzania and neighboring Kenya, countries already battered by torrential downpours and floods that have left more than 400 people dead across East Africa in recent weeks.  

In a statement published early Sunday on X, the Tanzania Meteorological Authority said that Hidaya had “completely lost its strength” after making landfall on Mafia Island in the Indian Ocean on Saturday.   

“Therefore, there is no further threat of Tropical Cyclone ‘Hidaya’ in our country,” it added.   

Beaches on the Indian Ocean coast were deserted, shops were closed and marine transport suspended in the Zanzibar archipelago as the country braced for the cyclone.   

As it approached, the storm had caused much heavier rainfall than normal in coastal areas but no casualties or damage were reported.   

At least 155 people have died in Tanzania as heavier-than-usual torrential rains linked to the El Nino weather pattern triggered floods and landslides last month.   

In neighboring Kenya, which had also taken precautions for the cyclone, a total of 210 people have been killed in flood-related incidents. 

 
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NAIROBI, Kenya — When Ademola Adesina founded a startup to provide solar and battery-based power subscription packages to individuals and businesses in Nigeria in 2015, it was a lot harder to raise money than it is today.

Climate tech was new in Africa, the continent was a fledgling destination for venture capital money, there were fewer funders to approach and less money was available, he said.

It took him a year of “running around and scouring” his networks to raise his first amount — just under $1 million — from VC firms and other sources. “Everything was a learning experience,” he said.

But the ecosystem has since changed, and Adesina’s Rensource Energy has raised about $30 million over the years, mostly from VC firms. 

Funding for climate tech startups in Africa from the private sector is growing, with businesses raising more than $3.4 billion since 2019. But there’s still a long way to go, with the continent requiring $277 billion annually to meet its climate goals for 2030.

Experts say to unlock financing and fill this gap, African countries need to address risks like currency instability that they say reduce investor appetite, while investors need to expand their scope of interest to more climate sectors like flood protection, disaster management and heat management, and to use diverse funding methods.

Still, the investment numbers for the climate tech sector — which includes businesses in renewable energy, carbon removal, land restoration and water and waste management — are compelling: Last year, climate tech startups on the continent raised $1.04 billion, a 9% increase from the previous year and triple what they raised in 2019, according to the funding database Africa: The Big Deal. That was despite a decline in the amount of money raised by all startups in total on the continent last year.

That matters because climate tech requires experimentation, and VC firms that provide money to nascent businesses are playing an essential role by giving climate tech startups risk capital, said Adesina. “In the climate space, a lot of things are uncertain,” he said.

The money raised by climate tech startups last year was more than a third of all funds raised by startups in Africa in 2023, placing climate tech second to fintech, a more mature sector.

Venture capital is typically given to businesses with substantial risk but great long-term growth potential. Startups use it to expand into new markets and to get products and services on the market.

Venture capitalists “can take risks that other people cannot take, because our business model is designed to have failures,” said Brian Odhiambo, a Lagos-based partner at Novastar Ventures, an Africa-focused investor. “Not everything has to succeed. But some will, and those that do will succeed in a massive way.”

That was the case for Adetayo Bamiduro, co-founder of MAX, formerly Metro Africa Xpress, which makes electric two- and three-wheelers and electric vehicle infrastructure in Nigeria and has raised just under $100 million since it was founded in 2015.

Adetayo said venture capitalists “are playing a catalytic role that is extremely essential.”

“We all know that in order to really decarbonize our economies, investments have to be made. And it’s not trivial investment,” he said.

The funds can also bridge the gap between traditional and non-traditional sectors, said Kidus Asfaw, co-founder and CEO of Kubik, a startup that turns difficult-to-recycle plastic waste into durable, low-carbon building material. His company, which operates in Kenya and Ethiopia, has raised around $5.2 million since it was launched in 2021.

He cites waste management and construction as examples of traditional sectors that can connect with startups like his.

“There’s so much innovation in these spaces that can transform them over time,” he said. “VCs are accelerating that pathway to transforming them.”

Besides venture capital, other investments by private equity firms, syndicates, venture builders, grant providers and other financial institutions are actively financing climate initiatives on the continent.

But private sector financing in general lags far behind that of public financing, which includes funds from governments, multilaterals and development finance institutions.

From 2019 to 2020, private sector financing represented only 14% of all of Africa’s climate finance, according to a report by the Climate Policy Initiative, much lower than in regions such as East Asia and Pacific at 39%, and Latin America and the Caribbean at 49%.

The low contribution in Africa is attributed to the investors putting money in areas they’re more familiar with, like renewable energy technology, with less funding coming in for more diverse initiatives, said Sandy Okoth, a capital market specialist for green finance at FSD Africa, one of the commissioners of the CPI study.

“The private sector feels this (renewable energy technology) is a more mature space,” he said. “They understand the funding models.”

Technology for adapting to climate change, on the other hand, is “more complex,” he said.

One startup working in renewable energy is the Johannesburg-based Wetility, which last year secured funding of $48 million — mostly from private equity — to expand its operations.

The startup provides solar panels for homes and businesses and a digital management system that allows users to remotely manage power usage, as it tries to solve the problems of energy access and reliability in southern Africa.

“Private sector financing in African climate is still rather low,” said founder and CEO Vincent Maposa. “But there’s visible growth. And I believe that over the next decade or so, you’ll start to see those shifts.”

Investors are also starting to understand the economic benefits of adapting to climate change and solutions as they have returns on investment, said Hetal Patel, Nairobi-based director of investments at Mercy Corps Ventures, an early-stage VC fund focused on startups building solutions for climate adaptation and financial resilience.

“We’re starting to build a very strong business case for adaptation investors and make sure that private capital flows start coming in,” he said.

Maelis Carraro, managing partner at Catalyst Fund, a Nairobi-based VC fund and accelerator that funds climate adaptation solutions, urged more diverse funding, such as that which blends private and public sector funding. The role of public financing, she said, should be to de-risk the private sector and attract more private sector capital into financing climate initiatives.

“We’re not gonna go far enough with just the public funding,” she said. “We need the private sector and the public sector to work together to unlock more financing. And in particular looking beyond just a few industries where the innovation is writ large.”
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