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‘Africa, learn to fend for yourselves’

African leaders must learn to fix the challenges confronting them

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African leaders must learn to fix the challenges confronting them.

These were the exhortations of President Emmanuel Macron of France Tuesday when he paid a scheduled visit to President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria. He told his host that Africa should not expect France to fix her problems but that his country would only strive to create enabling security and good economic environments for the African leaders to solve their problems.

“First of all I think the main plan is an African plan and France is not the one to solve or fix African situations. So what we want to do is that we will intervene and make our presence in Africa and Sahel to fight against terrorism especially in Mali and in the region,” he said.

While acknowledging the challenges facing his hosts, he said that France was committed to having a strong bilateral relations with Nigeria in the areas of fighting terrorism, improving the economy, sports and cultural development.

This bilateral talks held at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja during which agreements for French assistance totalling $475 million for some projects in Lagos, Kano and Ogun states were sihned.

The Lagos deal is a letter of intent for the financing of urban mobility improvement project via a loan of $200 million.

In Ogun State, a French firm in conjunction with the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority is to mobilise from investors about $200 million for land reclamation to correct the massive degradation of arable land being witnessed in the state.

The project aims to reforest 108,000 hectares of depleting forest in Ogun, which the State governor, Ibikunle Amosun, hailed as very vital to not only addressing climate change challenges.

France, through its foreign development agency, Agence Francaise de Development (AFD), will also extend a credit facility of $75 million towards improving water supply in Kano city.

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Kenya: Senior ICC prosecutor drops probe into 2007 post-election violence

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A senior official of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Nazhat Shameen Khan has announced an end to all further investigations into crimes committed in Kenya relating to violence that erupted following elections in 2007.

The ICC Deputy Chief Prosecutor said the 13-year legal saga, which involved senior Kenyan politicians, had been dropped

“I have reached this decision after considering the specific facts and circumstances of this situation,” she said in a statement.

“Accordingly, the Office will not pursue additional cases into the alleged criminal responsibility of other persons.”

Prosecutors claim that during the nation’s post-election violence in 2010, some 600,000 people were left homeless, and 1,300 people killed in a case in which suspects included former and current Kenyan presidents, Uhuru Kenyatta and President William Ruto. The Hague-based tribunal began looking into the incident in 2010. Six suspects were initially charged with crimes against humanity, which included deportation and murder.

However, in 2014, former chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda dropped the charges against Kenyatta, and in 2016, the prosecution’s case against Ruto was also dropped due to insufficient evidence. The lack of evidence caused the case against all six to fall apart.

Prosecutors opened a new investigation into witness intimidation and bribery after Bensouda claimed that an unrelenting campaign of intimidation against victims and witnesses prevented a trial.

Decades after the “third wave of democratisation,” widespread violence still occurs in sub-Saharan Africa after elections. Nigeria, Ivory Coast, and Zimbabwe, among others, have had their share of election conflicts.

Kenya is still not free from election disturbances, as levels of violence also played out during and after the 2022 elections.

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Sierra Leonean govt finally labels weekend attack ‘failed coup’

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The Sierra Leonean government has finally labelled attacks on several locations in the capital, Freetown, on Sunday as failed attempt to overthrow the government, having previously refraining from so classifying it.

Authorities in the West African nation said that gunmen stormed a military barracks, a prison, and other locations on Sunday, freeing roughly 2,200 prisoners and leaving over 20 people dead. On Monday, everything had returned to normal.

“The incident was a failed attempted coup. The intention was to illegally subvert and overthrow a democratically elected government,” said President Julius Bio.

“The attempt failed, and plenty of the leaders are either in police custody or on the run. We will try to capture them and bring them to the full force of the laws of Sierra Leone.”

The tense situation in Sierra Leone, which is still recuperating from a civil war that claimed over 50,000 lives between 1991 and 2002, has persisted since Bio was re-elected in June.

International allies, such as the US and the EU, questioned the outcome, and the major opposition candidate rejected it.

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