Musings From Abroad

Ukraine in fresh charm offensive to Africa as FM plans tour of 3 countries

Published

3 months ago

August 5, 2024

Dmytro Kuleba, the foreign minister of Ukraine, will go to three African nations this week to garner support for Kyiv’s stance in its conflict with Russia, his ministry announced on Sunday.

According to a statement from the ministry, Kuleba will visit Malawi, Zambia, and Mauritius from August 4–8, marking his fourth diplomatic trip to Africa in the last two years.

“All meetings will focus on developing bilateral relations based on mutual respect and interests. Among the key topics will be the participation of African states in global efforts to restore a just peace for Ukraine and the world,” it said.

Kuleba’s tour would also cover the supply of Ukrainian grain to the region and the involvement of African companies in the reconstruction of Ukraine, according to the ministry.

Many African countries attended a conference on Ukraine hosted by Switzerland in June, but they have generally been hesitant to join Western efforts to isolate Russia, an important supplier of energy and commodities.

Africa has been caught in the middle of the war between Russia and Ukraine with the two European countries being te continent’s biggest sources of grains. Last year, a delegation made up of leaders from South Africa, Senegal, Zambia, and the Comoros Islands had visited Russia and Ukraine to share their “African Idea” of peace in the crisis, but Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted by Russian news media as saying it was “impossible to realize.”

Ukraine has continued to fortify its ties with Africa despite the recent depressing developments surrounding its conflict with Russia. During a visit to Africa in April, Maksym Subkh, the nation’s Special Envoy for the Middle East and Africa, formally opened new embassies in Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Rwanda, Botswana, Mozambique, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Musings From Abroad

UN head slams Sudan’s RSF as Britain seeks Security Council action

Published

3 days ago

November 2, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

While Britain announced it would work for a United Nations Security Council resolution on the conflict, which has been going on for more than 18 months, United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has denounced reported attacks on civilians by Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) on Friday.

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

The RSF is mostly to blame for the waves of ethnically motivated violence that have resulted from the current conflict.
According to activists, the RSF massacred at least 124 people in a village in El Gezira State last month, making it one of the bloodiest occurrences of the conflict.

The army is allegedly arming citizens in Gezira, according to the RSF. In the past, the RSF has denied causing harm to civilians in Sudan and blamed renegade actors for the action.

“Reports of large numbers of civilians being killed, detained and displaced, acts of sexual violence against women and girls, the looting of homes and markets and the burning of farms,” a U.N. spokesperson said, horrifying Guterres.

“Such acts may constitute serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law. Perpetrators of such serious violations must be held accountable,” U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

According to Britain, which took over as the Security Council’s November presidency on Friday, the 15-member council will convene on Sudan on November 12 to talk about “scaling up aid delivery and ensuring greater protection of civilians by all sides.”

“We will be shortly introducing a draft Security Council resolution … to drive forward progress on this,” Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward told a press conference.

She stated that the draft would concentrate on “developing a compliance mechanism for the warring parties commitments they made on the protection of civilians in Jeddah over a year ago in 2023 and ways to support mediation efforts to deliver a ceasefire, even if we start local ceasefires before moving to a national one.”

For a resolution to be enacted, it must have at least nine votes and not be vetoed by the United States, France, Britain, Russia, or China.

The action was taken because the U.N. and aid organisations’ three-month permission from Sudanese authorities to utilise the Adre border crossing with Chad to provide humanitarian aid to Darfur is about to expire in mid-November.

Sudan’s U.N. Ambassador Al-Harith Idriss Al-Harith Mohamed stated on Monday that the army-backed administration is dedicated to enabling humanitarian supplies throughout the nation, even in areas under RSF control.

Vassily Nebenzia, Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations, stated on Monday that it would be “inappropriate to put pressure on” the Sudanese administration to decide whether the Adre crossing would be open past mid-November.

“We’re categorically opposed to the politicization of humanitarian assistance,” he said. “We believe that any humanitarian assistance should be conducted and delivered solely with the central authorities in the loop.”

Musings From Abroad

Ivory Coast’s Ouattara becomes IMF executive board member

Published

3 days ago

November 2, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Wautabouna Ouattara of Ivory Coast has been appointed as the third director for Sub-Saharan Africa on the executive board of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which strengthens the region’s influence in policy-making by serving as the lender of last resort.

There are now 25 members of the executive board, which is in charge of the fund’s daily operations, thanks to the new role.

“The addition of a third African chair to our Board reflects the continent’s tremendous progress in developing its human and economic potential,” IMF Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva said in a statement on Friday.

After an election, an additional regional representative was formally appointed to the board, according to the IMF. It is its first expansion since 1992 when the Soviet bloc broke up and two postings were established for the former Soviet Union nations.

Despite having 18% of the world’s population, Africa’s 54 nations—the largest bloc in terms of number among the IMF’s 191 members—only have 6.5% of voting rights. About half of that comes from Sub-Saharan Africa’s vote portion.

A year ago, in Marrakech, Morocco, the new position for the area on the board was unveiled. However, detractors claim that, while the region struggles with debt, it does not adequately meet its requirements.

As nations like Zambia and Ghana restructured their loans and others, like Kenya, looked to the Fund for greater liquidity support because of rising debt interest obligations, the IMF has been playing an increasingly important role in the management of economies in Sub-Saharan Africa in recent years.