Musings From Abroad

Brazil’s Lula da Silva keen on resuming ‘good and fruitful’ relations with Africa

Published

1 year ago

July 20, 2023

Brazilian President, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva says he is keen on strengthening bilateral relations with African states which existed when he was in office for the first time in the 2000s.

Lula wants to resume the “good and fruitful” relations his country once enjoyed with Africa.

Lula said he looked forward to visiting “several” African countries this year and the next as “Brazil has the potential to help Africa in several aspects.”

Lula, who took office in January for his third non-consecutive term, mentioned that his country could have helped African nations to purchase COVID-19 vaccines during the pandemic.

“Now I want to have meetings with African leaders so we can see how Brazil can advance in helping the African continent,” the leftist leader said after meeting with Cape Verdean President, Jose Maria Neves.

Brazil and Africa have had diplomatic ties since the 16th century when the slave trade was at its height. Around five million Africans were sent to Brazil during this time, making it the transatlantic slave trade’s primary destination. Three factors served as the foundation of Brazil’s colonial economy: foreign dependence, extensive land ownership, and slavery.

Many African leaders were quick to congratulate Brazil’s President on his election. They are counting on da Silva to improve relations.

Africa’s relations with Brazil suffered under former President Jair Bolsonaro. The re-election of President da Silva drew hopeful comments from Africa when he returned to power in January. One of such comments was credited to Guinea-Bissau’s President, Umaro Sissoco Embalo who remarked that “Africa will again be a priority in Brazil’s relations with the world.”

The chairperson of the South Africa-based Democracy Works Foundation, William Gumede, was also credited in an international publication with the quote, “I think we’ll get back to the original Lula strategy of a closer relationship with Africa and much closer relations again with South Africa and BRICS.”

At the moment, South Africa is the only African state in the BRICS, but interest in joining has continued to grow in African countries.

Membership in BRICS could facilitate the strengthening of Africa/Brazil relations as the South American country is a critical stakeholder in the group, sharing the space with China, India, and Russia, which experts believe will be the dominant suppliers of manufactured goods, services, and raw materials by 2050.

Related Topics:Africa Brazil diplomatic ties Featured

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Musings From Abroad

UN Security Council deliberates stance on Sudan war

Published

2 days ago

November 13, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

The UN Security Council is discussing a British-drafted resolution calling on Sudan’s warring parties to stop hostilities and permit safe, quick, and unimpeded assistance supplies across borders and front lines.

The world’s largest relocation crisis began in April 2023 when the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces engaged in a power battle ahead of a planned transfer to civilian administration.

Waves of ethnically motivated violence have resulted, with the RSF mostly to blame. The RSF has blamed the action on rogue actors and denies causing harm to civilians in Sudan. Two RSF generals were named last week by a Security Council committee in the first U.N. sanctions levied during the ongoing conflict.

“Nineteen months into the war, both sides are committing egregious human rights violations, including the widespread rape of women and girls,” Britain’s U.N. ambassador, Barbara Woodward, told reporters at the start of this month as Britain assumed the Security Council’s presidency for November.

“More than half the Sudanese population are experiencing severe food insecurity,” she said. “Despite this, the SAF and the RSF remain focussed on fighting each other and not the famine and suffering facing their country.”

According to diplomats, Britain wants to vote on the draft resolution as soon as possible. A resolution must receive nine votes or more to pass and not be vetoed by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, or China.

Nearly 25 million people, or half of Sudan’s population, require aid, according to the U.N., since 11 million people have abandoned their homes and famine has spread to displacement camps. Of those, around 3 million have departed for other nations.

In its draft language, Britain “demands that the warring parties immediately cease hostilities” and “demands that the Rapid Support Forces immediately halt its offensives” throughout Sudan.

It also “calls on the parties to the conflict to allow and facilitate the full, safe, rapid, and unhindered crossline and cross-border humanitarian access into and throughout Sudan.”

Additionally, the draft urges that assistance deliveries continue to be made through the Adre border crossing with Chad “and stresses the need to sustain humanitarian access through all border crossings, while humanitarian needs persist, and without impediments.”

Sudanese authorities have permitted the U.N. and relief organisations to enter Darfur through the Adre border crossing for three months, ending in mid-November.

Musings From Abroad

South Africa worry Trump’s victory might affect climate fight

Published

5 days ago

November 10, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

South Africa’s environment minister has expressed concern about the potential effects of Donald Trump’s victory on climate change negotiations.

The demise of Germany’s coalition government this week and Trump’s election coincide with COP29 negotiations to address global warming, which experts credit for this year’s devastating hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves.

“We are concerned about America because we don’t know what they’re going to do … how (it) is going to approach COP,” South African Environment Minister Dion George told Reuters.

“Mr. Trump said that he would withdraw from the Paris Agreement, but we don’t know what will happen,” George added in a telephone interview on Friday.

International partners are concerned that the prospect of an administration led by Trump, who has called climate change a hoax, will de-motivate poor and middle-income countries who want rich nations to shoulder more of its financial burden.

South Africa, which is one of the world’s top 15 greenhouse gas emitters and accounts for 30% of the continent’s emissions, has accepted $11.6 billion from rich nations, mainly in loans, for a switch from coal to renewable energy.

This is seen as a potential model for other ‘Global South’ countries who say financing pledges of $100 billion, which took years to come through, are insufficient.

“It’s certainly not enough. We need another target,” George said. “But then the question is: as the voter base is shifting in developed economies, are they actually going to pay it?”

The South African minister said he had been reassured by German officials that Europe’s stance at the COP29 climate talks will not be hurt by Berlin’s political crisis.

George said that Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s state secretary for international climate action, had contacted him to say it will be up to the European Union to maintain leadership.

“Their position is not changed and that is how they will approach COP,” George said, adding: “They’re on Team Europe. The European Union and German have clearly set out their objectives.”