Politics

Chad: Interim President Deby begins campaign ahead of election

Published

2 weeks ago

April 15, 2024

With a promise to improve security and the economy, Mahamat Idriss Deby, Chad’s temporary president, started his campaign for president on Monday.

The election is set for next month and will end three years of military rule. Concerns of a democracy backslide have been raised about Deby’s government and others that have taken power in West and Central Africa since 2020.

Chad is one of the countries in Central and West Africa that is run by the military. There is still a push from both inside and outside of Africa for the country to switch to a democratic government.

Mahamat’s father had been in charge for a long time and was killed in rebel fighting in 2021. At first, Deby promised that polls would happen in 18 months. Later, however, his government passed measures that let him run for president and pushed the election date to 2024.

Some countries in the region and around the world have been pressuring Chad to quickly hand power back to people, but the country has been the first to hold elections.

“Today we are at the final turn on the road to constitutional return,” Deby told a large crowd gathered in scorching weather at the high-security event in Chad’s capital N’Djamena.

“You know me, I am a soldier and I hold my promises,” he said, barely visible behind a barrier of bodyguards crowding the podium.

“We will strengthen internal security to guarantee peace and stability in our country,” he said.

Deby made it official that he was going to run at the beginning of March. The news came a few days after Yaya Dillo, an opposition politician, was killed in a gunfight with security forces. This caused worries about the safety of the upcoming election.

Since then, forensic experts have said that Dillo was most likely shot from close range. Among the nine other candidates for president is Succes Masra, who was recently named Prime Minister of Chad and is a strong opponent of the junta.

Politics

African leaders want record World Bank financing to address climate change

Published

34 mins ago

April 29, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Ahead of a World Bank conference scheduled for later this year, African leaders on Monday called for rich countries to commit to record contributions to a low-interest World Bank facility for developing nations.

The leaders stressed that most African countries depend on the fund to sponsor development and combat climate change.

At a meeting in Japan in December, donors will promise to give money to the International Development Association (IDA), a World Bank organization that gives loans with low-interest rates and long terms.

“We call on our partners to meet us at this historic moment of solidarity and respond effectively by increasing their IDA contributions… to at least $120 billion,” Kenya’s President William Ruto told a meeting of African leaders and the World Bank to discuss IDA funding.

African economies were facing a “deepening development and debt crisis that threatens our economic stability, and urgent climate emergencies that demand immediate and collective action for our planet’s survival,” Ruto said.

He talked about the terrible floods in Kenya and the serious drought in Southern African countries like Malawi. If donors promise the least amount that African leaders have asked for, it will be a new high.

The previous high was $93 billion, which was raised in 2021. IDA loans are given out every three years, and donors usually give their money at a world meeting before the loan is given out.

The World Bank said that IDA lends money to 75 poor countries around the world at low interest rates. More than half of these countries are in Africa. Governments use the money to improve access to healthcare and energy, put money into farms, and build important things like roads.

The president of the World Bank, Ajay Banga, promised to cut down on the “burdensome” rules that guide lending to countries under the IDA. This would make the process more efficient and get money to countries that need it more quickly.

“We believe a simpler and reimagined IDA can be deployed with more focus to make a meaningful impact,” he said.

Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

1 day ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.