Is AFCON the latest African ‘sports washing’ case?
- Hosting President Alassane Ouattara is being accused of “sportswashing”, after he spent an estimated $1 billion to host the tournament.
- The term sportswashing refers to the use of sport to help launder the image of controversial leaders or policies.
- The last four editions of AFCON have been hosted in Cameroon, Egypt, Gabon and Equatorial Guinea – countries with long-term leaders, including one recently deposed after a coup. In most of these cases, the tournament has helped these regimes to gain international attention and utilize propaganda to justify their continued stay in power.
Former Nigerian President deployed for peace talk amid Ethiopia-Somalia tensions
- African Union's Peace and security Council (PCB) deployed former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo for negotiations with the aim to prevent a potential war,
- The issue started after Somaliland's agreement with Ethiopia, granting control over a maritime port and a military base on the Red Sea.
- The African Union considers Somaliland a province of Somalia. There are challenges in mediation efforts, including Somalia’s refusal to engage until Ethiopia reverses its agreement with Somaliland.
Read more : https://www.africanews.com/2024/01/19/nigerian-ex-president-sent-to-mediate-ethiopia-somalia-tensions/
NAM voices criticism on Israel's war on Gaza at Kampala summit 
- The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM), founded in 1965, is the largest global bloc after the UN, and its current summit in Kampala addresses the Gaza conflict and other global issues.
- Leaders of NAM countries denounced Israel's military campaign in Gaza, demanding an immediate ceasefire.
- Cuba's vice president Salvador Valdés Mesa calls it one of the cruelest genocidal acts in history, questioning the justification of targeting civilians and infrastructure.
- African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat urges an end to the "unjust war against the Palestinian people."
Kenya cult leader charged with ‘terrorism’ over starvation deaths
- A Kenyan court has charged cult leader Paul Mackenzie with “terrorism”-related crimes over the deaths of 429 of his followers.
- The self-proclaimgd pastor was charged along with 94 others on Thursday over the deaths of followers whose bodies have been exhumed from the Shakahola forest near the Indian Ocean.
- Mackenzie was arrested last April after the bodies began being discovered.
Somalia rejects mediation with Ethiopia government over Somaliland port deal
- The Ethiopia-Somalia feud continues with Mogadishu claiming its territorial integrity has been violated by the deal.
- Tensions in the Horn of Africa have escalated after landlocked Ethiopia reached a memorandum of understanding with Somaliland on January 1 that gives it access to the sea.
- “There is no space for mediation unless Ethiopia retracts its illegal MOU and reaffirms the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Somalia,” the country’s foreign ministry said in a statement posted on its official social media accounts.
Zimbabwe opposition party claims an activist was kidnapped and discovered dead.
- The Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) party announced late on Monday that an opposition party member from Zimbabwe has been found dead following his kidnapping on Saturday during a political campaign just outside of Harare. This is the second kidnapping of an opposition party member in recent weeks.
- Ahead of the Dec. 9 by-elections, Tapfumaneyi Masaya was allegedly forced into a car by unidentified males while she was campaigning for the candidate of the main opposition party, the CCC.
- After that, Masaya's body was sent to a mortuary at Parirenyatwa Hospital, which is located roughly 5 kilometres outside central Harare. There, CCC members who had been looking for Masaya identified his body. Mkwananzi stated
Explosion in southwest Nigeria results in two deaths and numerous injuries.
- In Oyo state, southwest of Nigeria, the governor said on Wednesday that the detonation of explosives placed in a private property resulted in at least two fatalities and numerous injuries.
- Witnesses reported that the explosion on Tuesday night in the Bodija neighbourhood of Ibadan caused several buildings to fall, forcing terrified people into the streets.
- Locals reported that the effect was felt throughout the city.The governor, Seyi Makinde, stated in a statement that 77 individuals received medical attention for injuries, the majority of whom were released. Two fatalities were reported.
Read more: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/1/17/two-dead-dozens-injured-in-explosion-in-southwest-nigeria
In Somali capital, a suicide explosion claims three lives and injures two, according to police
- According to the authorities, a suicide bombing in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, has left three persons dead and two injured.
- The attack was attributed to the armed group al-Shabab, which is connected with al-Qaeda.
- Police spokesperson Sadik Ali said on Tuesday that the suicide bomber, who was under pursuit, detonated himself outside an Indian eatery in the Hamar Weyne neighbourhood of Mogadishu.
- In a statement, Al-Shabab claimed that the explosion was directed at local security personnel. It mentioned casualties but did not give an exact figure.
- For years, Somalia has been beset by instability, with al-Shabab and the terrorist organisations ISIL (ISIS) posing the biggest dangers.
Rights groups claim that femicide is a national crisis in Kenya.
- Following the gruesome murders of two women, rights groups are pleading with the Kenyan government to look into and prosecute cases of femicide immediately.
- Femicide Count Kenya reported 152 homicides in a year, the most in the previous five years. According to representatives of the NGO, which only keeps track of cases that are recorded, the real number of killings is probably far higher.
- Since the year's beginning, there have been at least four instances of femicide.
Ethiopian government forces bombarding civilian areas following an infantry defeat.
- Abiy Ahmed government forces are accused by fano forces operating in Ethiopia's Amhara region's Jawi area of killing people in the zone's Jawi district.
- A spokesman for the local forces unit told Anchor Media that "several regiments of government troops were routed." But once the government began "to shell civilian targets and residential homes," the forces were forced to realign. Numerous people thought to have died.
One Sudanese city saw up to 15,000 ethnic massacres; UN report.
- The first review of a 36-month loan deal with Ghana was authorized by the International Monetary Fund board on Friday, releasing $600 million in desperately needed money.
- Ghana, which was experiencing its worst economic crisis in decades, consented to a $3 billion loan from the IMF in order to strengthen its public finances and improve the way it managed its substantial debt load.
- Ghana and its foreign creditors came to a debt restructuring agreement last week, which cleared the way for Friday's much-needed money disbursement.
