Musings From Abroad

US to provide $414 million in relief supplies to Congo

Published

4 months ago

August 7, 2024

In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where over 25 million people—nearly a quarter of the country’s population need humanitarian assistance— the United States has announced on Wednesday that it would send nearly $414 million.

The American ambassador to the United Nations Agencies for Food and Agriculture, Jeffrey Prescott, was quoted in a Reuters report that a sizable portion of the funding would go to UN agencies and aid groups that provide urgent food assistance, healthcare and nutrition support, shelter, water, sanitation, and hygiene.

“This funding also includes direct support (of) agricultural commodities from American farmers,” said Prescott, who will formally announce the aid in Kinshasa on Wednesday with U.S. Ambassador to the DRC Lucy Tamlyn.

Prescott stated that the entire amount of U.S. financing for DRC since October is now $838 million. As a result of intensified combat in the east of the country, the Congolese army has been fighting M23 insurgents since 2022.

This has forced over 1.7 million people from their homes, bringing the overall number of Congolese displaced by numerous conflicts to a record 7.2 million, according to U.N. estimates.

Prescott hopes that US funding will inspire other nations to “step up as well” and help the DRC. The US will also donate 50,000 mpox vaccines and $10 million for health assistance.

The World Health Organization warned last month that over a million children in Congo are at risk of acute malnutrition. Only one-third of the $2.6 billion requested in U.N. aid for DRC this year has been funded.

The virus known as Mpox, which is contracted through intimate contact, is normally harmless but can occasionally be fatal. It results in pus-filled sores on the body with flu-like symptoms.

Since the beginning of 2023, the current Mpox outbreak in Congo has resulted in around 27,000 illnesses and more than 1,100 deaths, the majority of which were children.

Musings From Abroad

Seeking to expand ties in Africa, Indonesia’s Prabowo attends D-8 economic meeting in Egypt

Published

14 hours ago

December 18, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

According to the government, Indonesian President, Prabowo Subianto, travelled to Egypt on Tuesday to attend meetings of the D-8 Organisation for Economic Cooperation, a group of eight significant Muslim developing nations.

To enhance collaboration between the nations spanning from Southeast Asia to Africa, the D-8 was formed in 1997 and consists of Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Malaysia, Nigeria, Pakistan, and Turkey. Beginning in January 2026, Indonesia will serve as the group’s chair.

Prabowo said that he would meet with Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, the president of Egypt.

“Egypt is our close friend, our strategic partner and an important country in the Middle East,” he said before his departure, adding he would also meet the Egyptian business community.

He would go to Malaysia from Egypt and then return to Indonesia.

Since taking office in October, Prabowo has stated that his administration will uphold Indonesia’s long-standing non-alignment foreign policy.

Since winning the presidency earlier this year, he has been to more than 20 nations, including China, the US, Japan, and Russia.

Musings From Abroad

UN warns Sudan rebels may be getting weapons in Chad from UAE cargo planes

Published

4 days ago

December 14, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Flight data and satellite photographs reveal that dozens of UAE cargo planes have landed at a small Chad airstrip since Sudan’s civil war began last year, which some U.N. experts and diplomats fear is being used to transport guns into the fight.

At least 86 UAE planes have landed at Amdjarass airfield in eastern Chad since the war started in April 2023.

According to flight data and business records examined by Reuters, three-quarters of them were operated by airlines accused by the U.N. of transporting Emirati weaponry to a Libyan warlord.

The UAE, a key Western partner in the Middle East, insists it sends Sudan aid through Chad, not armaments.

The UAE denied “credible” allegations that it was supplying Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group fighting the Sudanese army in a conflict that has killed tens of thousands and displaced millions, via the Chad airstrip in January.

Reuters uncovered footage from Amdjarass this year, revealing two pallets loaded with khaki containers, some labelled with the UAE flag, on the tarmac.

Reuters is obscuring the footage’s date and provenance for fear of reprisals.

Three weapons specialists, two of whom were U.N. inspectors, said the containers were unlikely to convey humanitarian material, generally bundled in cardboard boxes coated in plastic and stacked high on pallets due to its lightweight. The footage shows metal containers packed low on pallets.

One U.N. weapons inspector said the contents were “highly probably ammunition or weapons, based on the design and colour of boxes,” but requested anonymity due to the sensitivity of the information.

He stated that right-hand pallet cases are long and slender, suggesting weaponry.

Reuters could not independently verify the containers’ contents. The filming date is being withheld to protect the source.

The UAE government told Reuters it has deployed 159 relief planes with more than 10,000 tonnes of food and medical assistance to feed its Amdjarass field hospital.

“We firmly reject the baseless and unfounded claims regarding the provision of arms and military equipment to any warring party since the beginning of the conflict,” the statement said.

To counter Islamist militants, the oil-rich Gulf kingdom has interfered in crises from Yemen to Libya since the Arab Spring protests of 2011. The UAE views Muslim Brotherhood and other groups as threats to internal stability.

In Sudan’s army, Islamists affiliated with deposed President Omar al-Bashir have long held power.

Senior RSF official Brigadier General Omar Hamdan rejected foreign help. He told Nairobi media on Nov. 18 that Sudanese firms made its guns and ammunition. The RSF declined to comment on this topic.