The World Bank said on Wednesday it had approved a total of $1.08bn in concessional financing for Nigeria to enhance education quality, build household and community resilience, and improve nutrition for underserved groups.
African Union mediators arrived in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, on Wednesday for talks aimed at averting a new civil war after First Vice-President Riek Machar was placed under house arrest last week.
South Africa’s Parliament passed the Budget’s fiscal framework on Wednesday after weeks of political wrangling, but the future of the coalition government was thrown into doubt after a key coalition partner voted against the measure.
World Bank approves $1.08bn loan for Nigeria
The World Bank said on Wednesday it had approved a total of $1.08-billion in concessional financing for Nigeria to enhance education quality, build household and community resilience, and improve nutrition for underserved groups.
The loan, initially designed to respond to the Covid-19 pandemic, is intended to help strengthen the bank’s extensive reach and impact in Nigeria in the face of economic hardships, especially following the government’s economic reforms in 2023, said the World Bank.
The bank said $500-million would go towards an economic stimulus programme with another $500-million for education, and the balance would be used to boost standards of nutrition in Nigeria.
AU mediators arrive in South Sudan in bid to save peace deal
African Union (AU) mediators arrived in South Sudan’s capital, Juba, on Wednesday for talks aimed at averting a new civil war after First Vice-President Riek Machar was placed under house arrest last week.
President Salva Kiir’s government has accused Machar, a longtime rival who led rebel forces during a 2013-18 war that killed hundreds of thousands, of trying to stir up a new rebellion.
Machar’s detention last Wednesday followed weeks of fighting in the northern Upper Nile state between the military and the White Army militia. Machar’s forces were allied with the White Army during the civil war but deny any current links.
The AU delegation’s flight arrived at Juba’s airport on Wednesday afternoon with a “Council of the Wise” which included former Burundian President Domitien Ndayizeye and former Kenyan judge Effie Owuor.
Machar’s SPLM-IO party said it “warmly welcomes the arrival of the Council of Wise as part of ongoing efforts to de-escalate tensions and support the peace process”.
The AU’s Peace and Security Council called in a statement on Tuesday for Machar’s “immediate and unconditional release”, saying recent developments threatened the 2018 peace deal that ended the war.
Kenya’s former Prime Minister Raila Odinga came to Juba on Monday on behalf of an East African regional body to mediate between the rival camps. Odinga met with Kiir but said he was not allowed to see Machar.
Analysts say Kiir (73) appears to be attempting to shore up his position amid discontent within his political camp and that the war in neighbouring Sudan has worsened security conditions by leading to an influx of weapons.
The 2013-18 war was contested largely along ethnic lines, with fighters from the Dinka, the country’s largest group, lining up behind Kiir and those from the Nuer, the second-largest group, supporting Machar.
SA Budget vote passes, but key coalition partner dissents
South Africa’s Parliament passed the Budget’s fiscal framework on Wednesday after weeks of political wrangling, but the future of the coalition government was thrown into doubt after a key coalition partner voted against the measure.
The legislation passed by 194 votes to 182, with the biggest party, the African National Congress (ANC), securing the support it needed with the backing of an assortment of smaller coalition partners and parties outside the coalition.
The second-biggest party in the coalition, the pro-business Democratic Alliance (DA), rejected the fiscal framework along with opposition parties uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), calling into question the DA’s future in the coalition.
The Budget has been the sternest test of the multiparty government formed by the ANC last year when the former liberation movement of Nelson Mandela lost its parliamentary majority for the first time since apartheid ended in 1994.
Due to be presented in February, it was postponed at the last minute, before a revised version was tabled last month.
Its most contentious elements include proposals to raise value-added tax and not adjust personal income tax brackets for inflation.
The ANC and DA had negotiated for weeks to try to agree to pass the Budget together but failed to do so.
The rand has weakened against the dollar, and government bond yields have risen over recent days as the prospect of a deal between the ANC and DA receded.
Gabon junta leader seeks democratic legitimacy
Gabon’s Brice Oligui Nguema will try to ride the advantages of incumbency and a popular crackdown on corruption to make the jump from junta leader to democratically elected president in an election scheduled for 12 April.
The 50-year-old general seized power in the oil-producing central African country in an August 2023 coup against his distant cousin President Ali Bongo, one of eight successful putsches in West and Central African countries since 2020.
He promised in the days after the coup to hand over power to civilians in a transition back to constitutional rule, but declared his candidacy for president last month.
Nguema is favoured to win the eight-candidate race, in which his main challenger is seen as Alain Claude Bilie By Nze, Bongo’s last prime minister.
The coup was largely welcomed by Gabonese tired of 56 years of rule by Ali Bongo and his father, Omar, during which the country emerged as one of Africa’s leading oil producers, but poverty remained widespread.
A new Constitution championed by Nguema was approved with 92% of the vote last November, and his very public crackdown on corruption is widely viewed as popular.
Nguema, who was the commander of Gabon’s Republican Guard at the time of the coup, has styled himself since taking over as a crusader against the endemic graft of the Bongo era.
A week after seizing power, he publicly dressed down the heads of public agencies, ordering them to return any stolen money within 48 hours.
The clampdown has resulted in the arrests of several corporate executives and testimony by government officials before a commission investigating graft.
But Nguema has also faced questions about his own finances. A 2020 investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), a global network of investigative journalists, found he had bought three properties in the US state of Maryland for a total of more than $1-million in cash.
The election will be Gabon’s first since the August 2023 vote that directly precipitated the coup. Opposition leaders alleged fraud after Bongo was elected to a third term.
DRC commutes death sentences for US citizens in failed coup
The death sentences of three US citizens convicted for their role in a failed coup in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) last year have been commuted to life imprisonment, said the presidency, ahead of a visit by the new US senior adviser for Africa.
The Americans were among some 50 people, including US, British, Canadian, Belgian and Congolese citizens, who stood trial last year following the botched attempt to overthrow the government in May.
A total of 37 defendants were sentenced to death by a military court in September, including US citizens Marcel Malanga, Tyler Thompson and Benjamin Zalman-Polun.
All three were found guilty of criminal conspiracy, terrorism and other charges.
They denied any wrongdoing and unsuccessfully appealed against the verdict. But DRC’s justice ministry then proposed a pardon, which the public prosecutor requested from the presidency.
President Felix Tshisekedi on Tuesday signed three orders to commute their sentences to life in prison, said his spokesperson Tina Salama on national television.
Guinea to hold referendum, in potential step to democracy
Guinea’s military leader has set 21 September as the date for a constitutional referendum, according to a decree read out on state television on Tuesday evening, in a potential first step towards returning to constitutional democracy.
Mamady Doumbouya seized power in a coup in September 2021 and in 2022 proposed a two-year transition to elections but then did not take steps to organise a vote.
Guinea, a bauxite and iron ore-producer, is one of several West African countries where the military has taken power and stalled a return to civilian rule.
It missed a 31 December 2024 deadline that military authorities had set for a return to a civilian administration.
In July 2024, the junta presented a draft of a new Constitution that may allow Doumbouya to participate in the next presidential election.
Authorities have said a referendum on the draft Constitution would be a precursor to any election and a return to constitutional rule.
Guinea’s two former ruling parties are currently suspended.
The other major opposition party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea (UFDG), has been placed under surveillance.
Kenya retracts comment on China debt talks, sowing confusion
Kenya denied on Wednesday that it had discussed debt restructuring with China’s finance minister after amending a reference in a social media post released in the wake of a meeting between the two countries’ top finance officials.
China’s Finance Minister Lan Foan and his Kenyan counterpart John Mbadi had held talks in Beijing, aimed at securing stronger trade and investment ties between the East African nation and the world’s second largest economy.
“He [China’s finance minister] also expressed China’s willingness to facilitate discussions on debt restructuring and concessional financing to support Kenya’s economic stability,” said the finance ministry in a post on X on Wednesday morning.
The post was then deleted and later reposted without the reference to restructuring or concessional financing.
Kenya, which is struggling with a heavy debt load and the accompanying high debt service costs, caught investor attention last month when it ditched the final review of its programme with the International Monetary Fund, sending its dollar bonds lower.
Asked for more details, the Kenyan finance ministry said there had been no discussions on restructuring debt at the meeting in Beijing. China’s finance ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
China has become Kenya’s biggest bilateral lender after Nairobi took a spate of loans to finance infrastructure construction projects, including a modern railway line from the port of Mombasa into the hinterland.
Kenyan officials have been engaging with their Chinese counterparts to secure funds for more projects, including the extension of that railway line to the border with Uganda.
Angola needs $240m to clear civil war minefields, says official
Angola required $240-million from government or donor funding to clear nearly 1,000 minefields from the civil war that ended more than two decades ago, said the National Mine Action Agency head.
The landmines, planted during the 27-year civil war up to 2002, have left people with disabilities and continue to cause harm. Many remain displaced because of the minefields.
About 975 minefields need clearance, and demining costs an average of $3.10 per square metre, meaning $240-million is required, said Brigadier General Leonardo Sapalo, the National Mine Action Agency’s head.
About 192 of the minefields are in areas close to the Benguela Railway, a critical component of the Lobito Corridor — a US-backed rail project linking resource-rich DRC and Zambia to the port of Lobito in Angola to facilitate the export of minerals and other goods.
“The railway has been completely demined so that it can be rehabilitated. The train runs naturally, but there are specific areas that have not been completely cleared of mines,” said Sapalo during a visit by Western ambassadors to British charity the Halo Trust, which assists in landmine clearance.
“The work is not at a standstill, but we need to energise it.”
The demining process along the Lobito Corridor has already removed 43,142 anti-personnel mines, 2,460 anti-tank mines and 235,050 unexploded explosives, according to the Halo Trust. DM