The ripple effect of the world’s 13th largest carbon emitter making such an undertaking will likely drive countries like Indonesia,India, Russia Brazil and Malaysia  to make more substantive pledges at the 26th conference of the parties on climate change.

With this mind, the climate envoys of Britain, France, the United States, Germany and the European Union are currently in South Africa.

They are seeing government , trades union, financial bodies, non governmental organisations and the energy generator ESCOM pressing for such a commitment.

Realising that it entails a monumental cost in jobs and to the fiscus the envoys are offering financial assistance.

No less than 90% of electricity generated by ESCOM’s is coal fired.

South Africa’s dependence on carbon-generated power has not diminished since it hosted the 17th COP in Durban a decade ago.

Indeed new plants like Madupe will ensure South Africa’s reliance on coal for decades to come.

But as generating sustainable energy becomes cheaper, coal-fired power become more expensive and increasingly difficult to finance..

The language in mining and energy sectors grown increasingly pro-transformation.

This is reflected in South Africa in recent pronouncements by SASOL – the oil from coal giant – and Ashanti.

The European Union is demanding tariffs that punish coal use.

The climate envoys are concentrating more on carrot than stick in their talks to a fellow G20 member committed to transformation.

Diplomatic sources say an agreement on helping finance this radical change in energy thinking will be a game changer.

Most importantly, it would come at a time when climate experts are saying the crisis is not decades or even years away but is with us right now.

The post Climate envoys seek an agreement with South Africa that could be a COP 26 game changer in Glasgow appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

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.

This dates backs to precolonial times when it was part of the Malian, Ghanaian  and Songhai empires of West Africa,

Historically, the landlocked, kidney-shaped country that shades South Africa to form the continent’s eighth largest was a key trading post connecting West Africa with the Maghreb.  Its central city of Timbuktu is still celebrated as  an islamic cultural outpost on the fringe of the Muslim world.

In 1892 it became French Sudan in the scramble for Africa and briefly federated with Senegal before independence in 1960. 

First president Modibo Keita turned his back on France and declared Mali a one-party state. Its political space remained closed after a 1968 military coup and did not open until another military coup led to multi-party elections in 1992 that brought Alpha Oumar Konarè to the helm.

It will be fascinating to see what members of the United Nations Security Council make of the latest development in Bamako when they meet today.

Was yesterday’s arrest and detention of President Keita and Prime Minister Boubou Cisse a military coup or were soldiers merely hoping to bring peace by responding to mounting civilian calls for Keita’s departure?

This will become apparent if and when the soldiers make good their undertaking to hand power to a transitional authority leading to fresh elections.

Ironically, his would entail the former French Sudan following the pattern of the latter-day Sudan after last year’s  military-led ousting of Omar Al Bashir.

The questions persist. Will yesterday’s putsch follow the 1992 military coup in boosting democracy inMali?

Or will it be a replay of the 2012 coup by Tuareg separatists in Northern Mali that led to the Islamist insurgency-still tearing at the country’s entrails?

French help was summoned then to assist and the 2013 operation Serval took three months clear out the insurgents.

France increased its military presence in Mali with Operation Barkhane – named for a desert dune blown into a crescent shape – countering Islamist terror in the Sahel.

The 4500 tricolor troops are backed by 13 300 blue-helmeted members of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali known by its French acronym MINUSMA.

There are also 620 troops of the European Union Training Mission (EUTM) and a smaller presence of the European Union Capacity Building mission (EUCB).

Mali’s Sahel neighbors Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad and Mauritania – comprising the so-called G5 – have deployed abut 4000 troops, still shy of the envisaged 5000 pairs of West African boots on the ground.

An unfortunate appellation has been detached to this billion dollar enterprise . It has become known as the deadliest peacekeeping operation on the planet.

This explains the frustration of Malians at their president’s inability to contain the insurgency.

The death toll of well-armed and equipped peacekeepers in Mali is easily eclipsed by the number of civilian victims of the terrorists 

If not restored to power President Keita will have at least have two memorable truisms

The first is:“What choice to I have?” when menaced by soldiers in his resignation broadcast yesterday.

The second is: “Mali is like a dam. If it is broken then Europe and the rest of Africa will be inundated”.

Clearly the EU and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) fully appreciate this.

The post Which historical model will the Mali coup follow? appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

They say they’re echoing the call by United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The ceasefire call comes from French Foreign Minister Yves le Drian and his counterparts from Germany  Heiko Maas and Italy Luigi Di Mayo.

EU foreign policy chief Joseph Borrell has endorsed the call which was spurred by the refusal of Tripoli’s  Government of National Accord led by Fayez Al Sarraj to accept an EU blockade of Libya to enforce the United Nations arms embargo.

The government, which is backed by the UN, says the naval action has failed to stop weapons getting through to rebels led by Khalifa Haftar who are bent on occupying the capital. 

The post European ministers call for Libya ceasefire during Ramadan appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The French envoy expects publication later this week by the European Union of an action plan spelling this out. .

The French Ambassador was briefing journalists on President Emannuel Macron’s unprecedented inclusion in an African Union board meeting and his subsequent talks with AU chairman, President Cyril Ramaphosa.

He says a four-pillared programme has been devised covering immediate health imperatives; a massive economic stimulus package; provision of food and logistics to the most vulnerable countries; and scientific cooperation in developing a vaccine and the fair allocation of resources and information sharing.

The post France and South Africa working for multilateral aid to Africa fighting COVID19 appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

He describes post-BREXIT Britain as Africa’s partner of choice.

Britain is pushing out the boat to attract new African  trade and investment after it leaves the European Union.

He says ending the free movement of Europeans into Britain will allow his country to attract the best talent and put people ahead of passports as it gives fairer more equal access to  Africans.

Ahead of leaving to join his family in Canada Prince Harry, no longer his Royal Highness,  attended the summit to speak to the 15 African presidents present.

The post Africans will get fairer access to post-BREXIT Britain appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Anastacio Matavel from the Hall of Peace organization was gunned down by unknown assassins in the government stronghold of Gaza.

The killing of the Anastacio Matavel , as he left a training session in the Gaza capital Xai Xai, has been condemned by election observation groups from the Commonwealth, the African Union, the European Union and the Johannesburg-based Electoral Institute for Sustainable Democracy in Africa.

Two of his assassins were killed in a car crash minutes after fleeing the scene.

Another two escaped and are being hunted by police.

Mozambique’s election campaign has been marred by violence. 

The post Election observer gunned down in Mozambique appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

The Johannesburg based organization shared international observation of the Tunisia poll with the European Union and the Carter Center.

Former Mauritian President Cassam Uteem, who headed the EISA observer mission in Tunisia has glowing praise for the poll.

“We consider that this has been one of the best elections that we have been given to observe,” says Uteem. “Personally, if Imay speak for myself, this has been one of the best elections that we have observed so far.”

He says more needs to be done to motivate young people to become involved in the democratic process.

By staying away in droves, disenchanted with the country’s stagnating economy, young people drove the participation in the Tunisia’s second democratic election below 50 percent.

No single candidate among the 26 contestants is expected to emerge with an outright majority, meaning Tunisians will vote in a run-off election next month. 

The post African observers give a rousing thumbs up to Tunisia’s Presidential election appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

UN envoy Ghassan Salame says the attack that wounded more than 80 people could constitute a war crime.

Warlord Khalifa Haftar’s self styled Libyan National Army, that threatened to increase air strikes on the capital, now denies that it hit the migrant detention centre.

The attack has put the spotlight on the European Union’s deal with Libya militia to take African migrants turned back from trying to cross the Mediterranean into Europe.

United Nations High Commission for Refugees spokesman Charlie Yaxley says the safety of migrants is paramount.

“We have to see a change now. There has to be an immediate release of all the detainees in these centers and we have to make sure that no rescued refugees rescued on the Mediterranean are taken to Libya,” he says.

Migrants returned to Libya are kept in appalling conditions and often fall prey to traffickers.

The post Air strike on migrants in Libya clearly might be a war crime appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

A.C. Grayling expounded on the threat to democracy in an eye-opening “Democracy And It’s Crisis”

Times  columnist, Editor of Spiked and self-proclaimed leftie Mick Hume goes to the mattresses against those undermining  democracy. And among those he takes on is Grayling, whom he accuses of being among the cleritocracy who believe democracy requires a clear-thinking elite guiding the unwashed, ignorant masses on how to vote.

So who is this whippersnapper? asks my friend Quinten who is on first name term with Grayling.

This makes Hume’s point exactly.

Denegrate and belittle opponents  and those daring to speak out against the conventional wisdom!

Grayling uses the Brexit vote and Donald Trump’s ascent to the White House as the pegs for allowing that democracy is failing us.

Hume find both these developments deeply regrettable.

However, his point is they are both democracy in action.

More Britons voted for Brexit than for anything else in British democratic history.

Their vote, like Americans who cast their ballot for Donald Trump, was a revolt against the elite preferring to tell them how to vote rather than engage them and address their issues and misgivings. In fairness, Grayling also make this point.

Hume insists democracy will often not give the desired outcome . The only way of addressing this is engaging in more debate to win the battle of ideas.

He fears that too much power has been handed to unelected groups, like judges and the European Commission, by the political elite determined to keep this out of the hands of the demos: the people.

Both he and Grayling draw on the first democracy in Athens 2 500 year ago which failed dismally to the extent that no one dared propose the idea for 2 000 years.

Hume argues that a successful democracy should go back to the Athenian roots with a careful removal of sexism and others mistakes .

This will mean taking power away from the unelected directors who dismiss opponents as racist and ignorant.

I am particularly drawn to the late Tony Benn’s acid test of anyone in power: exactly what power do you have;  where did yo get it from; how are you sing it for the good of the people; and how do we get ride of you. 2015-05-18

The post Important polemic on the existential threat to democracy appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.