Musings From Abroad

South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, meets President Biden, insists on Africa’s neutrality on Russia

Published

2 years ago

September 17, 2022

South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa, who is on an official visit to the United States, is discussing close cooperation on health, security, and climate.

Ramaphosa’s meeting with the US president, Joe Biden on Friday at the White House also included relations with Russia as Wahington pushes to put a new focus on African powers after their reluctance to take on Russia.

The White House said, they committed to addressing several of “the world’s most urgent challenges over which we both share a concern, including the Russia-Ukraine conflict and its negative consequences for food security in Africa,”

President Biden also announced $45 million in funding for an $8.5 multinational venture aimed at accelerating the phasing out of coal-fired power generation in South Africa.

The additional U.S. funding for the Just Energy Transition Partnership comes at a time when declining natural gas and oil exports from Russia and Ukraine have boosted South African coal and set back decarbonization goals for one of the world’s most carbon-intensive economies.

South Africa was one of 17 African countries to abstain from the U.N. vote condemning Russia’s assault. Some have categorically maintained strong relations with Russia and its ally China within the period.

“Our position on this is respected, it is known and recognized,” Ramaphosa told reporters after the meeting. “Clearly the conflict has to be resolved. Our view is that it can best be resolved through dialogue and negotiations.”

“We have expressed our discomfort and our opposition,” Ramaphosa said in a video uploaded to Twitter. “We should not be told by anyone who we associate with and we should never be put in positions where we have to choose who our friends are.”

The United States has political, economic, and cultural ties with the independent African countries but the recent economic influence of China has watered the reach of the US amongst most African countries.

Related Topics:Cyril Ramaphosa Featured President Joe Biden

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Musings From Abroad

EU withdraws Niger diplomat after junta accuses it of mismanaging aid

Published

9 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The European External Action Service (EEAS) has announced that the European Union would return its ambassador from Niger after the governing military in the nation questioned how an EU team handled humanitarian supplies intended for flood victims.

In a statement released on Friday, the junta in Niger accused the EU ambassador in the West African nation of distributing a 1.3 million euro flood relief grant to many foreign nongovernmental organisations in an opaque way and without working with the government.

Consequently, it mandated an audit of the fund’s administration.

“The European Union expresses its profound disagreement with the allegations and justifications put forward by the transitional authorities,” the EEAS said.

“Consequently, the EU has decided to recall its ambassador from Niamey for consultations in Brussels.”

Niger has been under military rule since the junta seized power in a 2023 coup.

Musings From Abroad

Mpox remains health emergency, WHO insists

Published

10 hours ago

November 24, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has insisted that the Mpox epidemic remains a public health emergency.

WHO first declared an emergency when a new strain of mpox spread from the severely affected Democratic Republic of the Congo to neighbouring countries in August.

The WHO Director-General has decided that the increase in mpox still qualifies as a public health emergency of worldwide significance after the WHO called a meeting of its Emergency Committee and followed its recommendations.

According to WHO, the decision was made in light of the growing number and ongoing geographic dispersion of cases, field operating difficulties, and the requirement to establish and maintain a coordinated response across nations and partners.

Mpox is a virus that is spread by close contact and usually manifests as pus-filled lesions and flu-like symptoms. Although it is typically minor, it can be fatal.

More than 1,000 suspected deaths and more than 46,000 suspected cases have been reported this year throughout Africa, primarily in Congo.

The WHO’s highest level of warning, known as a “public health emergency of international concern,” was previously used to describe a worldwide epidemic of a different type of mpox in 2022–2023.

This year’s notice was issued in response to the transmission of a novel viral variation known as clade Ib. Among other nations, cases of this variation have been verified in the UK, Germany, Sweden, and India.

Following criticism for moving too slowly on vaccinations, WHO approved Bavarian Nordic’s mpox vaccine in September and listed Japan’s KM Biologics vaccine for emergency use earlier this month.