French Ambassador Aurélien Lechevallier is calling for a repeat of the international stamina that brought about the Paris Climate Change Agreement five years ago.

The envoy was speaking at a reception marking the event and calling for a renewed international commitment to save the planet.

“The next year is going to be very important,” he said, “because  we will have to determine the next steps we must take to end the climate disruption.

“Last month was the hottest November in Europe ever.

“We are experiencing dramatic climatic events like fires, floods and hurricanes.

“We require collective effort to save the planet.

“We achieved this in Paris five years ago with 195 countries in the same room.

South Africa played a decisive role coordinating the African position,” said Lechevallier.

“We saw a new way of negotiating multilaterally with all the stakeholders joining the government representatives.

“We are hoping this spirit will be carried to the climate summit in Glasgow next year so the expectations of the planet can be met.”

British High Commissioner Nigel Casey said the light at the end of the tunnel of the COVID pandemic was seen this week with the first vaccines being administered in Britain.

The Glasgow climate summit is being designed to bring similar relief on financing, mitigating and adaptation on global warming

A virtual summit on Saturday, the fifth anniversary of the Paris agreement, will see the leader of 81 countries improve on their pledges to fight climate change.

The leaders of Kenya, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are due to participate from Africa.

“Britain’s original undertaking was to achieve zero greenhouse gas emissions by the year 2050,” he said.

“We are now undertaking to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 68% by the year 2030.

“We are hoping that similar bold initiatives will be made by other participants in next years Glasgow summit. 

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I rely on watching where people hang out as a barometer of what is happening.

Large numbers of young people lazing about during working hours shouts unemployment to me.

It tells me that countries of the Maghreb and the Middle East where I have observed this have grown up economic problems.

In those oil-rich countries of the Gulf I see men drinking coffee, smoking nargilla  and chatting in the cafes it tells me that their wives are keeping house and cooking the delicious but laborious meals that only oppressed women have the time to prepare.

The other large gatherings in these salubrious lands are outside the offices of the foreign exchange firms.

The people there are workers from Africa and other poor countries paying the premium and completing the tiresome paperwork to send money home to their families.

Remittances to Africa are a massive industry.

They amount to $48 trillion a year, according to the World Bank.

This money from more than ten million Africans working abroad eclipses both aid paid to and foreign direct investment in their countries.

Calling this a lifeline is a rank understatement.

The workers pay dearly to maintain this.

They work without protection from exploitation, social benefits and medical aid.

They pay nearly 9% commission, at least three points higher than counterparts sending money to other parts of the globe.

When the COVID 19 lockdown began this year, the World Bank was predicting a 24% reduction in remittance to Africa.

The prospect of fewer people being permitted to go abroad to earn money to send home was devastating.

The World Bank this week rather pulled its neck in.

Its latest migration and development brief  forecasts that remittances will be 9% lower this year and 6% down in 2021.

Economically painful, without doubt. But Africans, who have proven wrong the apocalyptic expert medical predictions of how damaging the corona virus would be to their countries with the poorest medical facilities on the planet, have confounded the economists too.

We learn from the central bank in Harare that diaspora remittances to Zimbabwe increased by 45 percent to $658 million during the first nine months of 2020.

Zimbabwe joins Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Senegal and the DRC.and top remittance earners south of the Sahara.

Remittances from the three million Zimbabweans living abroad are a key source of foreign currency

Last year Zimbabwe earned $635 million in remittances.

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At least 19 truck drivers from Kenya and Tanzania have brought the virus into Uganda, bringing the total number of cases in the landlocked country to 74.

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Uganda’s Health Minister Jane Aceng is insisting  trucks bringing goods from Indian Ocean ports to and through Uganda be stopped at the border.

Under a scheme being called relay trucking, they will transfer their cargoes into Ugandan-driven trucks to will deliver to local destinations or drive them on to the DRC and the Great Lakes.

Companies have three weeks to recruit the extra drivers.

Ugandans are on lockdown.

The truckers carrying critical goods like food are considered essential workers.

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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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Nine African countries have reported cases of COVID 19 with two deaths on the continent from the virus.

A month-long international travel ban has been placed on Kenya’s sports stars.

This particularly affects road runners as the lucrative European season approaches.

The current ban ends before the London and Boston marathons. So athletes like world record holder Eliud Kipchoge are hoping the scare is quickly over.

Ghana and Gabon have stopped their officials from traveling abroad until the coronavirus  all- clear is sounded.

Lesotho this week  stopped foreign travel for its citizens to avoid spreading COVID19

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Bashir Mohamed Qorgab had a five million dollars price on his head.

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Washington has not commented on the death of Bashir Mohamed Qorgab.

Last month Al Shabban attacked a military base in neighbouring Kenya, killing three US soldiers.

The US is winding down its military involvement in Africa, but persists with  joint operations alongside the Somalia forces. This includes drone strikes against Al Shabaab jihadis.

Qorgab was killed last month in the town of Sakow.

His family has confirmed his death.

Seven Al Shabaab fighters died with him.

There were reports last month that Qorgab had fallen out with the Al Shabaab leadership and was operating more and more independently.

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The worst plague brought on by excessive rains in Yemen have moved into  Uganda and Tanzania having passed through Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia.

Experts say desperate measures being used to combat the locusts are ineffective.

In Uganda, soldiers have been deployed the chase the insects off crops.

Motorised spray units are being used to kill them.

Experts say locusts can fly as a high as 200 meters and easily avoid these.

This is the worst plague in a quarter of a century and there are no signs of its abating with new hoppers hatching in areas already stripped bare by the adults.

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President Peter Mutharika will stay in power until then.

The Constitutional Court found there had been widespread irregularities in Malawi’s Presidential election last year.

Peter Mutharika won a second term in that poll with a margin of 160 000 votes.

Second placed Lazarus Chakwere maintains he won.

Third placed Saulos Chilima also cried foul.

The annulment is the second in African history.

Kenya’s Supreme Court, citing irregularities,  annulled the August 2017 election won by President Uhuru Kenyatta.

It ordered the appointment of a new electoral commission.

Kenyatta won the re-run in October after his main opponent Raila Odinga withdrew.

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It could spread to at least five other countries in the region.

In one Somali town the residents have started eating the pests.

The locust plague is the worst in a quarter of a century.

It has stripped the cereal grass teff and maize being harvested on 70 000 hectares in Somalia and eastern Ethiopia.

With climatic conditions favourable to their breeding and governments in the region poorly equipped to fight the plague, locusts could spread in to Kenya, Eritrea, Djibouti, Sudan and South Sudan. 

In the central Somali town of Adado, residents have started eating the locusts after Islamic scholars reportedly declared them Halaal. 

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Kenya got the  continental body’s support in a secret ballot last week.

But Djibouti, which has been passed over three times, now says it will seek support from its friends at the world organization.

Somalia is believed to be behind the Djibouti move that has thrown the African Union into confusion.

Djibouti has powerful friends like the United States, China, France and  Japan who have military bases on its strategically-placed Red Sea port.

The question is will these countries also break with tradition and overrule the AU choice in the vote next June for the next East African country to fill a rotating seat on the UN powerhouse.

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