They will have easier access to highly profitable ivory and rhino horn for clients in Asia and the Middle East.

But locals will be forced to turn to hunting game simply for meat to survive.

The loss of tourism revenue which is their  lifeblood has forced game reserves to lay off or furlough rangers and maintenance staff.

They’ve been forced to shelve or even abandon projects in East and Southern Africa providing a safe habitat for wildlife and jobs for the local population. 

The lockdown and the fear of contracting COVID 19 has driven away the nearly 70 million tourists who brought nearly R4 trillion to Africa, That 8,5% of the continent’s GDP.

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President Donald Trump’s foreign policy point man came virtually empty handed to counter China’s growing influence in continent he is trying to court.

Ironically Mike Pompeo’s last stop on his three- nation safari was Addis Ababa which has China written all over it.

The airport where he landed and the highway that carried him into the city are both built by China, as is the metro system, the modern railway to Djibouti, factories and the African Union headquarters where he saw the president of the continental organization.

The US Secretary Of State promised $8-million to fight a plague of locusts in East Africa and the Horn.

But he came with no new investment initiatives in a continent largely ignored by his administration.

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The gathering comes weeks after refugees besieged the United Nations High Commission For Refugees offices in Cape Town and Pretoria demanding to be moved away from xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

The Global Refugee Forum in Geneva brings together governments, business and relief agencies.

UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi says the burden of housing refugees must be shared more fairly.

The number of refugees  driven out by war in Africa and the Middle East, violent drug lords in Colombia and repressive regimes in Asia are now four times more than the people displaced by the Second World War.

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He says by embracing populist nationalism and rejecting rules-based multi-lateralism, US President Donal Trump is risking this.

Speaking at meeting of South African envoys and foreign diplomats, Aziz Pahad, who heads the foreign policy review panel, labelled President Donald Trump’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly the most undiplomatic and belligerent address the world organization has heard.

He compared it to Soviet leader Nikita Kruschev removing his shoe and banging it on the table in the 60s and says its a new level of debate that does not bode well for a stable future.

Pahad says Trump is making the Middle East even more explosive and risks nuclear holocaust – intentional or unintentional – with China and Russia.

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