Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed says the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will be filled with or without an agreement with the riparian countries Sudan and Egypt who view the dam as an existential threat.

They rely on the Nile for more than 90% of the water needs in their largely desert countries.

Ahmed recalls that Ethiopia was left out of negotiations on the use of the Nile waters between Britain, as the colonial power, with Egypt and Sudan.

He maintains that building the dam, which will make Ethiopia a hydro-electrical-generating power, is its sovereign right.

His predecessors warned that they would go war to protect their access to the Nile waters. Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi subsequently ratcheted things down in favour of negotiations.

Recently though, both he and his Sudanese neighbour have resorted to bellicose language.

Egypt would not allow a drop of Nile water to be stolen from it, he said.

Sudan’s Irrigation Minister Yasser Abbas warned “all options are open” in safeguarding his country’s access to the water.

Both the riparian countries and Ethiopia have in turn gone to the United Nations Security Council swapping accusations of negotiating in bad faith.

As African Union Chairman last year, President Cyril Ramaphosa attempted, without success, to mediate an agreement on the filling and operation of the GERD.

Current AU chair, Congolese President Felix Tshisikedi had a bash at mediation earlier this month that also ended in deadlock.

Al Sisi has taken yet another diplomatic initiative, sending his Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry on a six-nation African safari, hoping to win support from continental partners.

Shoukry visited the Comoros, South Africa, the DRC, Niger, Senegal and Tunisia.

In South Africa, the minister engaged in some fence mending.

He thanked President Cyril Ramaphosa for his mediation last year.

It is no secret that Egypt was highly suspicious of these efforts, suspecting that Ramaphosa was biased in favour of Ethiopia

Shoukry’s trip will be viewed favorably by African leaders who hold fast to the principle of African solutions to African problems.

However Al Sisi maintains his wish to see the United Nations, the European Union and the United States involved in trying to get Ethiopia to take a more understanding view of Egyptian and Sudanese fears.

The post Egypt tries for African support on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Like the rest of the world caught up in the pandemic, Africa waits impatiently for a vaccine.

Baffling the experts, Africa has had comparatively low numbers of infections.

These infections are starting to increase, but thus far Africa accounts for just over two million of the more than 60 million cases worldwide.

Medical experts say there has been an increase in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria as the winter weather closes in.

South Africa, with more than 502000 infections and over 21 000 deaths tops the continental COVID list.

These experts fear it will later next year and perhaps even 2022 before Africa sees widespread distribution of vaccines.

It is unlikely, they say, that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which are currently the frontrunners in the northern hemisphere, will be distributed in Africa.

Cost is not the chief obstacle.

According to the International Vaccine Access Centre at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,  the storage and transportation of the vaccine are the chief obstacles.

The Pfizer vaccine has to be kept at minus 80 degrees.

Distributing it requires special refrigerated storage facilities and refrigerated aircraft and vehicles to move it around.

Africa requires a more hardy medication that does not require such expensive care.

There is also a question of safety.

Fourteen years ago Pfizer had to pay compensation to the 11 families in Nigeria’s Kano state who lost children in tests on the anti meningitis vaccine Travan.

African nations responded angrily early in the pandemic to French doctors suggesting Africans would be good subjects for testing a COVID vaccine.

The movement calling itself Africans Are Not Lab Rats has silenced similar suggestions.

However it is undeniable that if a vaccine is be effective in Africa, it needs to be tested here..

The post Africa will have to wait until later next year for a COVID vaccine appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

They are all small, relatively remote and have tests rates either extremely low or not all.

South Africa continues to top the continental table of COVID 19 infections.

Its1462 cases recorded this morning are far and away ahead of second place Algeria which has 986 cases.

Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia follow that.

The African countries that have not recorded COVID19 cases are Comoros, Lesotho, Sao Tome and Principe, South Sudan  and Western Sahara.

All of these fall into the World Health Organisation’s remote category mentioned when it confirmed that the global infections exceed one million.

The total number of African deaths from COVID 19 is currently 290.

The post Five African countries have not recorded COVID19 infections appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

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 

The post Israeli firm pulled from Facebook for targeting Africa with fake news appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Women’s groups are saying it does not go far enough to address the problem one in seven Moroccan woman experiencing some sort of sexual violence.

The new Moroccan regulation outlaws child marriages.

Women’s groups welcome this, but say the new legislation is mere window dressing.

It does not criminalize marital rape and domestic violence.

Only three percent of rapes are reported in Morocco.

Victims who cannot prove criminal intent by their attackers risk being prosecuted for sex outside marriage which is illegal in Morocco.

Activists say the conservative government in the kingdom should have followed the template of regional partner Tunisia which last year obliged government to provide shelter for victims of sexual violence and to jail rapist husbands.

The post Morocco passes new sexual violence legislation appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

There were 25 338 migrants that made this journey in the first 19 weeks of this year.

628 died attempting it.

Italy,  with 41% of the traffic, once again took in the lion’s share of African migrants.

This was followed by Greece with 38%, leaving Spain with 21%. 

This year’s number is less than half the number who landed in the same period last last and about 13% of the number of migrants in 2016.

The International Organisation For Migration says the largest number of migrants coming to Europe from North Africa are Tunisians, followed by Eritreans, Nigerians, Sudanese, Pakistanis, Malians, Guineans and Senegalese.

The post Decrease in number of illegal migrants crossing to Europe from North Africa appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Security and business will top the agenda in talks with his counterparts from Algeria, Mauritania, Senegal and Mali .

ends intro

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is a frequent visitor to African countries as his government strives to play an increasing role on the continent.

Having estranged many traditional allies by overreacting to a coup attempt in 2016, Erdogan is looking for support in multinational fora like the United Nations.

He’s taking with him some of Turkey’s business captains to participate in bilateral trade talks in Algeria and Senegal.

His first stop is Algeria where he has made a previous presidential visit.

He was in Sudan, Chad and Tunisia two months ago.

The post Turkish president embarks on four-nation safari appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

It’s his first visit as Indian leader to the African mainland.

ends  intro

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives in South Africa on Thursday with the issues of energy, food security, trade, maritime cooperation and diaspora interactions high on his agenda.

His safari is the third segment of India’s high-level engagement with Africa this year.

Vice President Hamid Ansari visited Morocco and Tunisia and President Pranab Mukherjee’s called on Ghana, Ivory Coast and Namibia.

Modi will hold bilateral talks with his counterparts in Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania and Kenya.

At each stop he’ll meet representatives of the Indian community – numbering a total of around 2,7 million in the four countries he’s visiting.

The post Indian premier Narendra Modi start his four-nation safari in Mozambique appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.

Yves Rossier says Switzerland today leads the field in repatriating money illegally stashed there by corrupt rulers.

Speaking after meeting his South African counterpart Luwellyn Landers, Swiss State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Yves Rossier admits he’s fighting an uphill public relations battle.

He says in its dealings with Tunisia and Angola Switzerland’s shown its ahead of the game in repatriating dirty money.

Indeed its pulling European partners in the same direction.

The problem in repatriating stolen funds is often difficulties with the legal systems in the countries trying to recoup them.

Switzerland’s played a leading role in building tough enabling capacity in Egypt and the Philippines to help them achieve this.

The post Switzerland’s better than its dirty money reputation – minister appeared first on Jean-Jacques Cornish.