Ahmed won the coveted prize last year largely for forging a complex and difficult peace with neighboring Eritrea.

In doing so he greatly assisted stability in the Horn of Africa, one of the most dangerous hotspots on the planet.

He has yet to match domestically what he has achieved regionally.

In that respect he’s like the 1991 peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

She richly deserved the prize awarded for her doughty resistance to the brutal military regime in Myanmar.

Her star has faded of late because of her stubborn refusal to speak out against what is to all intents and purposes a genocide against the Rohingya people – a Muslim minority in a majority Buddhist country.

Ahmed has decided to show his muscle against the minority Tigray people.

Comprising only six percent of Ethiopia 110 million people they dominated business and politics until Ahmed from the majority  Oromo ethnic group took the helm.

The Tigrayan have a special place in Ethiopia’s history.

Legend has it their land bordering Eritrea was the home of the  Queen of Sheba.

A church in Tigray is said to house the Ark of the Covenant.

In 1991, the same year Aung San Suu Kyi won her Nobel Prize the Tigrayan led the fight to topple the cruel Derg regime in Ethiopia.

They have, of late become hugely angry at Ahmed reforms, claiming that they are becoming increasingly marginalized.

They are not the only ethnic group to oppose Ahmed’s reforms.

On November 4, Tigrayan rebels attacked a government military base.

There is no reliable indication of casualties.

Indeed the toll from three weeks of fighting is difficult to ascertain.

It is said to be hundreds, perhaps thousands.

The United Nations says if reports of attacks against civilians are true, it would amount to war crimes.

At least 40 000 Tigrayan have fled into neighboring Sudan to escape the fighting.

The Tigrayan have ratcheted up things with rocket attacks into Eritrea to the north and the Ethiopian province of Amhara to the South.

Ahmed’s assurance that the insurrection would not become a war has proved to be optimistic.

Fearful of a regional conflagration, the United Nations, European Union and African Union have all urgently called for an immediate ceasefire.

Ahmed is having none of it.

He says he will talk to the three AU envoys named to broker a peace.

Indeed he is open to negotiations with anyone except the Tigrayan leadership.

He has surrounded the Tigray capital of Mek’ele and warned residents to save themselves.

His uncompromising call to the Tigray leadership at the weekend was: “You have 72 hours to surrender.” 

He believes that Ethiopia will be pulled apart if he does not completely subdue Tigray. 

Angry and undoubtedly provoked, his bellicose language can be understood.

Nevertheless, it is not the behavior of an internationally acclaimed peacemaker.

The post Not the behavior of a Nobel Peace Prize laureate appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Kenyan farmers are posting pictures of swarms like the Biblical plague, so large that they block out the sun.

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The desert locusts have hit  eight African countries where at least 20 million people are food insecure because of the three deadly ‘C.s’ : conflict, climate change and COVID 19.

In addition to Kenya they include Somalia, Uganda, South Sudan, Eritrea, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Sudan,

They have stayed and produced a new generation because of favorable conditions including above-average rainfall.

Pesticide to eradicate or at least thin them has been blocked by the coronavirus lockdown.

The swarms generally number 150 million per square kilometer, devouring every leaf where they land. Driven by the wind they can travel 150 kilometers a day.

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Warring parties in the oil-rich North Africa state have also called a ceasefire to enable medical teams to deal with the pandemic.

Countries the world over, including South Africa, are pondering at this time of pandemic over whether to ease prison conditions that are a breeding ground for passing on infections like COVID 19 by reducing the populations.

Ethiopia was the first in Africa to take this step.

Egypt followed close behind. Libya made its decision yesterday

It’s a bold and inevitably controversial step. When does looking after the greater issue like public health trump punishment for crime – however low down the criminal totem pole it falls.

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Earlier this week the UN health body  identified Algeria, along with South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia and Egypt as the African countries where coronavirus was most likely to access the continent.

Algeria’s Health Minister Shamsuddin Shitor says the COVID19 carrier is an Italian man who entered the North African country nine days ago.

He has been quarantined.

Shitor says the coronavirus carrier was identified thanks to Algerian authorities vigilance at all land, sea and air entries into the country.

Another foreign national thought to be Africa’s first coronavirus case was identified in Egypt seven days ago. 

He has since been cleared, say Cairo authorities.

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The World Health Organization is looking to help Africa to prepare for and respond to the storm.

South Africa, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Algeria and Egypt are identified as the African countries with the highest risk importing COVID19.

As China insists its winning the battle to contain coronavirus, markets are reacting to the  spread of 77 000 cases to 30 countries.

Any complacency has been swept aside by the substantial increase of cases in Iran, South Korea and `italy

The Down Jones industrial index plunged more than1000 points – its biggest fall in two years.

The FTSE index suffered its worst fall in three years.

Shares in Apple, Disney and Nike all fell indicating how much is made in China and how important it is.

Airline stocks fell reflecting the mass cancellation  of travel to avoid the virus.

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Two years ago, his boss President Donald Trump deplored land grabs and the killing of white South African farmers.

The United States Government is unswerving on the issue of protecting property rights.

It is adamant that failure to uphold these is disastrous as has been shown in Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

South African opponents of the ANC Government’s land redistribution plans have found a sympathetic ear in the administration of President Donald Trump.

He has blamed land reform in South Africa for the of white farmers even though this is really a crime issue not restricted to whites.

The post Pompeo’s criticism of SA land redistribution is an old refrain appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Pompeo was speaking to reporters at the end of a three-nation African safari designed to counter China’s growing influence in Africa.

The United States Secretary of State Mike Pompeo says the South African Government plan to expropriate land without compensation is an example of centralized planning that has failed in other African countries like Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Ethiopia.

He says it will be a disaster for the economy and most importantly for the South African people.

Pompeo says African countries need strong rule of law, respect for property rights and regulation that encourages investment for inclusive and sustainable growth.

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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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If successful it will obviate the need for President Cyril Ramaphosa to broker further negotiations in his capacity as chair of the African Union.

Minister sfrom the three riperian countries have agreed that the Ethiopian Grand Renaissance Dam across the Blue Nile will start being filled in July.

Taking the water level to 595 meters above sea level will continue for six to seven years during the wet season.

Water will be sent to Sudan and Egypt downstream during severe droughts.

Hydro-electric power will be generated early, making Ethiopia the major power supplier in Africa.

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They’re sitting at the table in Washington for talks mediated by U.S. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchen.

Since Ethiopia’s at the root of the Nile Water issue by building the Grand Renaissance Dam, it is hardly surprising that they are sounding less than compromising

The talks are not negotiations, insist the team from Addis Ababa.

The largest hydro electric dam will be completed across the Blue Nile, which provides 80% of the water to the world 12th largest drainage basin.

What has to be decided is how much water Egypt will get after Sudan has taken its share upstream.

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