Presidents Yoweri Museveni and Paul kagame have signed an extradition treaty aimed at stopping subversive activities by their respective nationals.

Presidents Joao Lourenco of Angola and Felix Tshisikedi of the Democratic Republic of Congo witnessed the signing of the extradition treaty.

The four leaders’ summit agreed that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will verify Rwandan claims of hostile activities on their border.

Within 15 days of  Museveni publishing his findings, he’ll be back at Gatuna/Katuna with Rwandan President Paul Kagame to talk about opening borders and normalizing relations.

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His visits to Senegal, Angola and Ethiopia start tomorrow.

Once Democracy was high on the agenda on an African visit by US Secretary of State.

Not so today with the autocratic President Donald Trump who has virtually  ignored the continent he dismissed with a vulgar epithet.

Mike Pompeo will concentrate on China’s increasing role in Africa – particularly in Angola which is paying back in oil shipments the $25-billion debt to Beijing.

He also has to talk about African countries calling  for a reduction in the small numbers of US troops on the continent

Pompeo will have to explain the tightening of visa restrictions on many Africans visiting the United States .

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Portugal’s Euro Bic bank has cut ties with the daughter of former  Angolan President Josè Eduardo Dos Santos.

Portuguese authorities are investigating media reports citing 70 000 leaked documents of how Isabel Dos Santos illegally used her family ties to become Africa’s richest woman.

Angola’s prosecution service says it will use all possible means to bring Dos Santos back home to face prosecution.

She currently lives in London from where she denies any impropriety and says she is the subject of a politically-inspired witch hunt.

International financial services company Price Waterhouse Cooper says  heads could roll over its links with Dos Santos.

Euro Bic is probing the transfer of tens of millions of dollars by the former president’s daughter. 

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Of course President Donald Trump would back his Brazilian counterpart Jair Bolsanaro.

They both put the short-term political benefit of climate change  denialism above the long-term interests of generations too young to vote for them. And the man known as the Trump of the tropics showed at the G7 summit in Biarritz last weekend that he shares the American leader’s convenient incoherence.

Without regard for the ten other countries in the Amazon region, Bolsanaro refused to accept the $22 million from the group of seven richest nations on Earth to help fight the thousands of forest fires threatening the area known as the planet’s tree lung.

Then he said, he would take the money if French President Emmanuel Macron withdrew that statement calling him a liar and hoping Brazil would get a better leader.

Finally he cast aside the need for an apology and agreed to accept the G7 help, provided Brazil given a free hand to determine how it would be spent.

Macron spoke at the meeting he hosted of the need to address the fires raging around Africa’s rain forests which are second largest lung on Earth.

There was no reticence expressed by any of the five African leaders – President Cyril Ramaphosa included –  invited to the G7 summit.

They have yet to hear details, most importantly the magnitude of the help.

Experts advise against making too easy a comparison between  the fires in Angola and the Democratic Republic of Congo showing up on  NASA maps and actually out numbering those in the conflagration in the Amazon basin.

The African fires are not actually in the rain forest. They are a seasonal phenomenon caused by farmers conducting slash and burn agriculture.

Denis Maclean of UN Disaster Risk Reduction   says the damage from fires is unacceptably high on both sides of the Atlantic. 

155000 square kilometers of rain forest have been lost  to fire in the last decade , commercial logging and palm oil cultivation in the past decade.

West Africa has lost 90% of its forest coverage in the past century.

Forest fires kill 300 000 people a year.

With population growth projected to increase fivefold by the end of the century, it impacts dramatically on the sustainability of the planet.

Any money directed to Africa should be used not only to immediately fight the fires but on educating people on their relationship with their environment.  

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Climate experts warn against over-simplifying comparisons.

ends intro

The 2127 fires in Brazil has leaders at the G7 summit in France in high dudgeon.

Yet NASA maps show there are currently 6902 fires in Angola and 3395 in the neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo.

French President Emmanuel Macron says  the G7 which pledged R306 million to put out fires  in Brazil should step in to help in the 3,3 million square kilometers of African forests that is called the world’s second green lung. Experts say the African fires are not in rain forests, as they are in Brazil.

They are a seasonal phenomenon with framers burning brush ahead of planting. 

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The social media giant says the company posed as local news organizations to spread fake news about politicians.

R13-million worth of Facebook and Instagram advertisements were posted by the Israeli Archimedes Group targeting Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Angola, Niger and Tunisia.

The group, which has more than three-million followers,  was also active in Southeast Asia and Latin America.

According to Facebook it was seeking to influence the outcome of elections.

The company has not responded to requests for comment on assertions that that it has been involved in fake flag operations of the kind that Facebook has pledged to protect consumers against 

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In talks with King Mswati III they discussed ways of clearing up backlog in border boast between South Africa and kingdom it surrounds.

In the process of getting to know his regional counterparts better, President Cyril Ramaphosa has visited Angola, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Mozambique.

In eSwatini he discussed regional, continental and world affairs with King Mswati III.

South Africa and the Kingdom have a joint bilateral commission and the 21 agreements between the countries cover cross-border movement of goods, trade and industry, health, defense and policing.

South Africa is Swaziland largest trading partner. Two-day trade of 33-and-a-half billion rand is roughly evenly split.

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German Chancellor Angela Merkel, like her British counterpart Theresa May, is on a three-nation African tour.

The Africa visits by Chancellor Angela Merkel and premier Theresa May are both dominated by maximizing trade and investment on the continent.

Merkel, however, has her preoccupation with limiting the number of irregular migrants from Africa.

Before leaving she said she recognized the very difficult conditions in Africa but also its potential as a good market. 

She visited Senegal yesterday, which has economic growth of seven percent a year, and moves on to Ghana which is seen as a haven of stability in West Africa.

Her third destination is Nigeria.

Merkel has recently hosted the presidents of Angola and Niger in Berlin.

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Ramaphosa’s the current chair of the regional Southern African Development Community.

Angola currently heads SADC’s Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation. So Presidents Cyril Ramaphosa and Joao Lourenco have a heavy schedule of regional priorities to cover  in Luanda tomorrow.

The South African President has first hand experience as regional mediator in Lesotho’s protracted political miasma.

Ramaphosa moves on to Windhoek for discussions with Namibian President Heine Giengob.

On Saturday, Ramaphosa will be in Gaborone, the site of the secretariat for the 15-nation grouping,  for talks with Botswana President Ian Khama.

He’ll be accompanied by his new Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Lindiwe

Sisulu and Defence Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa Nqakula

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The continents three largest economies – South Africa, Nigeria and Angola – remains low.

The World Banks reports a modest recovery is underway in Sub-Saharan Africa, supported by an improvement in commodity prices.

Although growth rebounded in Angola, Nigeria, and South Africa—the region’s largest economies—it remains low.

The region is projected to see a pickup in activity over the forecast horizon, on the back of firming commodity prices and gradually strengthening domestic demand.

Downside risks continue to predominate, including the possibilities that commodity prices will remain weak, global financing conditions will tighten.

However, a stronger-than-expected pickup in global activity could further boost exports, investment, and growth in the region.

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