Month: September 2024

Windhoek, Namibia — Wildlife conservationists, scientists and researchers in Namibia and Southern Africa have warned of impending legal action to halt the culling of wildlife as a “mitigation strategy” to address hunger.

Hunger affects about 700,000 people in Namibia, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization — especially in rural Namibia — and it has worsened because of the drought facing the southern African region.

Officials there have started a wildlife cull — a selective killing of wild animals to save the remaining herds and habitat — and in this instance, some of the meat will be shared with communities in need.

The cull, which began August 14, targets 723 animals: 30 hippos, 60 buffalo, 50 impala, 100 blue wildebeest, 300 zebras, 83 elephants and 100 eland antelopes.

But the Namibian cabinet decision requiring the country’s ministry of environment to aid the government’s drought relief effort has drawn the ire of conservationists and made international headlines. It’s also dividing public opinion on the timing of the decision and the logistics of culling and distributing the meat to affected communities, who are severely affected by drought.

Conservationist Izak Smit said Namibia’s constitution makes provision for the protection of its natural wildlife and heritage, and the cull could have detrimental effects on the balance of wildlife in their environment.

“It’s very irresponsible to do so after a drought before the rainy season when you actually need the population to procreate in order to bounce back from the drought,” Smit said. “And also culling means that you do not allow nature to take its course by weeding out the weak genetic material through natural selection, from which the best genetic pool will then emerge on the other side after the draught when the rainy season again starts.”

Opponents threatened legal action if Namibia authorities do not stop the cull on the grounds that it is detrimental to Namibia’s natural resources, not sustainable, and not justifiable and unscientific.

Herbert Jauch, of the Economic and Social Justice Trust, said a court of law may not be the right avenue to resolve the disagreement between the government and the conservationist, which seems to be centered on the need to protect Namibia’s Desert Adapted Elephants, which are a huge tourism attraction and an iconic heritage wildlife species in the country.

“Their chances are not really good,” Jauch said. “If there are scientific reasons, and from what I heard so far, this is largely around the desert elephants, then that should certainly be discussed with the ministry. But I think the principle is quite understandable that in drought years you might have to reduce the population.”

Romeo Muyunda, a spokesperson for Namibia’s Ministry of Environment, said the cull has been blown out of proportion and Namibia’s Desert Adapted Elephants are not the target of elephants earmarked for culling.

“We have millions of wildlife species in the country, approximately over 3 million animals in the country,” Muyunda said. “So, 723 does not even make up 1% of the total population that we have. Another example we have is the 24,000 elephants that we have in Namibia, we are only going to cull 83 elephants, and it still doesn’t make 1% of the population of elephants especially given the fact that elephants are currently the main concern here.”

The animals intended for culling will be stored at various meat processing factories in the country and will be distributed through the drought relief program. It will be headed by the office of the prime minister in a joint effort to address drought and hunger in the country.

Namibia’s cull has made international headlines, and conservationists are concerned it may create a harmful precedent for other African countries that do not have as successful conservation products as Namibia.
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gaborone, botswana — Botswana, Africa’s longest democracy, will hold its general election on October 30, President Mokgweetsi Masisi announced Tuesday. Masisi will seek a second and final term after his ruling party endorsed his candidacy over the weekend.

In a public address, Masisi said Botswana will continue with its long-standing principle of holding regular elections. Masisi’s ruling Botswana Democratic Party has been in power since independence from Britain in 1966.

“The constitution of the Republic of Botswana mandates that we, as a nation, hold general elections every five years,” Masisi said. “This is not just a legal obligation but a fundamental principle that underpins our democracy, a commitment we have honored, and we will continue to honor in the future.”

The president urged voters to turn out in large numbers after previous elections in 2019 experienced voter apathy and low turnout.

Out of a target of 80% set by the country’s electoral body, the Independent Electoral Commission registered only 63% of the eligible voters.

Masisi declared October 30 and 31 as public holidays to encourage citizens to vote.

Masisi is seeking a second term, which would be his final one, if he is reelected. The president is allowed two terms in office, according to the constitution

The BDP’s main threat is from a coalition of parties, the Umbrella for Democratic Change, or UDC, and the Botswana Congress Party, which has broken away from the opposition alliance.

UDC spokesperson Moeti Mohwasa said they expected the announcement of the election date to come earlier.

“We welcome the date. However, it is regrettable that such an announcement is made at such short notice,” Mohwasa said. “We would have liked a situation whereby the date of elections is announced well in advance, but what we are happy with is that after so much suffering under the BDP rule, this will come to an end on October 30.”

Mohwasa said the election should be free and fair after his party alleged rigging in the previous poll, claims that were dismissed in court. The ruling party also denied the allegations.

Leonard Sesa, a political analyst at the University of Botswana, said it was right for the president to make the election date public as concerns over a delay were mounting.

“We were going to get worried if it was going to be postponed,” Sesa said. “Remember, we are talking about a beacon of shining democracy in Africa. Small things matter when gauging democracy. So, issuing a writ to say October 30, we are on the right track.”

Sesa said political parties are not yet ready for the election as they are still battling to field candidates in all constituencies.

“There was a delay for political parties to conduct their intra-party primary elections, within the political parties themselves, and people were worried,” he said. “There are some constituencies that all the political parties including the ruling party, have not posted anyone to stand.”

In the previous election, the BDP secured a comfortable victory, where its share of the popular vote increased from 47% in 2014 to 53% five years later.
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Abuja, Nigeria — Barely 48 hours after Nigeria’s state-owned oil company made a startling revelation, hundreds of commuters joined a line stretching many kilometers for fuel at an NNPC outlet in the capital.

In a statement Sunday, Nigeria’s state oil firm, NNPC Limited, said that financial constraints are hampering its ability to import gasoline.

The statement acknowledged local media reports in July that the oil regulator owed oil traders more than $6 billion — double its debt compared with April.

Nigeria depends on imports to meet its daily demand for gasoline — more than 66 million liters — and NNPC is the sole importer of fuel.

Abuja resident John Prince said he’d been waiting in line for hours.

“When I came in the morning, they were not selling [gasoline]. They said they were waiting for orders from above. [Now] I’ve been here for the past two hours,” he said.

Prince said that while customers waited, the gasoline station increased prices by nearly 30%.

NNPC said the situation could worsen supply in coming days but also said it is working with the government and other partners to fix the problem.

Fuel shortages have been recurring in Nigeria since last year, despite Nigerian President Bola Tinubu scrapping the fuel subsidy.

Tinubu doubles as petroleum minister, but authorities later reinstated a partial subsidy to curb inflation, the high cost of living and growing public tensions triggered by economic reforms.

But the founder of the Center for Transparency Advocacy, Faith Nwadishi, said corruption and incompetence are to blame.

“It’s just a cocktail of corruption, impunity and no regard for the people of the country,” she said. “I think it’s just another ploy to make Nigerians pay for impunity. It’s quite disheartening. This morning, I had to queue so that I could get fuel to come out. You know — man hours lost, no productivity, and nobody is making any compensation for that. It’s unfortunate.”

Last month, NNPC announced a record $1.9 billion in profits for 2023 but said it was covering for shortfalls in the government’s petrol import bill.

Ogho Okiti, an economic analyst, said, “Every other oil-producing country is smiling now except Nigeria. So, it’s a transparency problem. There’s so much uncertainty. And that heightened uncertainty and volatility will continue to drive the price and, of course, drive the conditions that we see.

“As it is, we’re losing in all ramifications — we’re paying exorbitant prices for fuel, the government is not getting the resources, and the exchange rate is worsening,” Okiti said.

Meanwhile, authorities say the Dangote Oil Refinery in the Lagos area has begun gasoline production and could supply up to 25 million liters this month.

On Tuesday, the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority entered an agreement with the NNPC to sell crude oil to Dangote refinery in the local currency, the naira.

If that happens, it could significantly address local supply issues and save the country several billions of dollars in foreign exchange.
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Nairobi — Kenyan officials have long pushed for milk to be pasteurized before it reaches the marketplace, but much of the milk sold is not pasteurized because small-scale vendors and producers can’t afford the expensive machines used in the process. Now, Canadian university graduates have developed a portable, affordable pasteurization machine that could help African farmers cheaply sterilize the dairy product and reduce milk-related disease.

In Kenya, smallholder farmers produce 56% of the milk, with five million dairy cattle generating five billion liters annually. According to Kenya’s Dairy Board, only 28% of that milk is processed by dairy companies, which pasteurize it to kill harmful bacteria.

The remaining 72% is sold directly to consumers by vendors who traditionally heat and reheat the milk over a fire, a method that fails to ensure complete safety.

To address the challenge faced by millions of farmers in Africa and around the world, a group of recent university graduates from Canada has developed a portable pasteurizer machine to help farmers sterilize milk cheaply and in a healthy way.

Miraal Kabir is the head of the startup Safi, which means “pure” in Swahili. She said her technology provides health and economic benefits to users and milk consumers.

“It solves two problems. The main one being the problem of unsafe milk. It allows all of the milk being sold in the market to be safe, which isn’t the case right now. That’s leading to a lot of deaths, a lot of diseases, especially for children under five. And then on a secondary problem that it’s solving, right now in the dairy supply chain, the people who are winning the most are these large processors,” she said.

“They sell milk extremely cheap to these processors who then sell it at a huge premium. And so by allowing small scale farmers to pasteurize the milk themselves and earn the premium of pasteurized milk themselves, we’re actually empowering them financially as well.”

The device is placed on top of a pot. It has a whisk to stir the milk and ensure that it is heated uniformly. It also has a screen and LED lights, which guide the user through pasteurization. A temperature sensor tells the user when the milk is ready.

Moses Sitati is a dairy farmer in western Kenya. His cows produce 60 liters of milk per day, of which 10 liters spoil, meaning it is not suitable for human consumption.

The 40-year-old farmer has been using the pasteurizer for the past 12 months.

“I can sell milk, people can just buy milk and take it at the same time without going and boiling it fast. Now you know when you boil, wait until again by tomorrow so you boil, you are losing the milk, the first thing and also the nutrients. Now the pasteurizer helps to at least store the milk, it helps at least to preserve the milk for a long time,” he said.

In addition to farmers losing their income, raw and unpasteurized milk contains harmful bacteria like salmonella, E. coli, Brucella, tuberculosis, and Q fever.

Sitati is among the 20 farmers and vendors in Kenya and Rwanda who have purchased the pasteurizer.

The father of three happened to get the first product developed by the Safi team, which didn’t satisfy him, but he says he is happy with the final product for its safety and energy consumption.

“The first one could pasteurize milk from two to 10 liters, but this one pasteurized milk from two to 20 liters. The first one didn’t have a lid, so when pasteurizing the milk, it could spill out, so they improved this to put a lid so that there is no milk spilling out when you are pasteurizing. The first one used electricity, and this one uses solar energy. When you charge, you can use it for four hours,” he said.

Last month, the Safi company said it partnered with the Rwandan government, which helped them open for commercialization after taking part in pilot programs.

Kabir said the device tracks pasteurization data, letting farmers prove milk safety and helping regulators monitor it.

“We’ve also incorporated the data software side of things. Our device is actually able to capture all the key pasteurization data and provide it to the farmer themselves or the vendors so that they can prove that they have pasteurized their milk to their customers, but then we’re also able to aggregate all of this data and provide it to governments. Governments and regulators, they’re able to see where milk has been pasteurized, when it was pasteurized, where safe milk is being sold,” said Kabir.

The innovators say they hope to find a good manufacturer to start producing the device next year and make billions of liters of milk disease-free.
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Algiers, Algeria — Abdelmadjid Tebboune, who assumed Algeria’s presidency during mass pro-democracy protests, is touting his achievements as he seeks another term. Yet, five years after the movement faded, some say real change remains elusive.

The Hirak protests, which led to the ousting of longtime autocratic president Abdelaziz Bouteflika in 2019, aimed for a comprehensive political overhaul.

Tebboune, a minister under Bouteflika, took over as president in December that year after widely boycotted elections, as the movement was stifled and its leaders were imprisoned.

Now, as he campaigns for the September 7 election, Tebboune says he has succeeded in rectifying the country’s past wrongs with broad achievements and is promising more if re-elected.

Despite more than 100 weeks of demonstrations, Tebboune “dismissed the democratic transition demanded by millions of citizens”, said Hasni Abidi, an Algeria analyst at the Geneva-based CERMAM Study Center.

Abidi said a change in leadership alone was insufficient to bring about a “new era”, despite Tebboune’s frequent references to a “new Algeria.”

Even as his first term nears its end, Tebboune still faced the “difficulty of bringing about profound change,” he said.

Algeria-based political commentator Mohamed Hennad said this change should primarily be political.

“As long as political questions are not legitimately resolved, any economic, cultural, or diplomatic discourse is pure diversion,” he told AFP.

The Hirak movement withered away with the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic, coupled with a sweeping crackdown on protesters. Hundreds were arrested, and dozens remain behind bars or are still being prosecuted, according to prisoners’ rights group CNLD.

‘We suffered a lot’

Since taking office, Tebboune has claimed to have put Algeria back on track, frequently referring to Bouteflika’s last years in power as the “mafia decade” where control of the oil-rich country was concentrated in the hands of a “gang.”

During his tenure, several businessmen, ministers and political figures from that era, including Bouteflika’s brother Said, were convicted on corruption charges and imprisoned.

Tebboune also says he has successfully transformed Algeria into an emerging economy, now Africa’s third-largest.

Abidi, however, points out that Tebboune’s success has been aided by a “favourable international setting”, with the Ukraine-Russia war driving up natural gas prices to the benefit of Algeria, the continent’s top exporter.

This economic windfall has allowed Tebboune to deliver “local-interest speeches steeped in populism”, said Abidi, with promises of free housing, raising the minimum wage and higher social pensions.

At a recent rally in Oran, Tebboune pledged to create 450,000 jobs and increase monthly unemployment benefits if re-elected.

Launched in 2022, unemployment benefits now provide 13,000 dinars ($97) to people aged 19 to 40, and Tebboune has promised to raise this to 20,000 dinars — currently the minimum wage.

Despite these pledges, critics have said social and economic progress under Tebboune has been slow.

But the president often defends his record by saying his achievements have come despite “a war against Covid-19 and corruption” following the Hirak movement.

Abdelhamid Megunine, a 20-year-old student in Algiers, recalls that period with bitterness.

“We suffered a lot,” he told AFP. “Prices and the cost of living have since increased.”

Although Algeria’s economy has grown at a rate of about 4% over the past two years, with foreign exchange reserves reaching $70 billion, it remains heavily dependent on oil and gas.

Hydrocarbon exports account for about 95% of the North African country’s hard currency revenues, which are crucial for sustaining social assistance programs.

Diplomacy

On foreign policy, Tebboune’s tenure has seen a mix of successes and challenges.

Algeria gained international attention in January when it became a non-permanent member of the U.N. Security Council, where it has been a strong advocate for Palestinian rights.

However, relations with neighboring countries, especially Morocco, have worsened, largely due to the ongoing dispute over Western Sahara.

Algeria, a strong supporter of the territory’s pro-independence Polisario Front, severed diplomatic ties with Morocco in August 2021 following escalating tensions over Western Sahara and Rabat’s decision to normalize relations with Israel.

Similarly, relations with France, already strained due to a history of colonialism, recently suffered a blow.

Last month, French President Macron said Morocco’s autonomy plan was the only solution for Western Sahara, which the United Nations still considers as a “non-self-governing” territory.

In response, Algiers withdrew its ambassador to France, condemning the move as a “step that no other French government had taken before.”
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