Africa Briefs

Quick links, with commentary as apropos, on stories that have caught my eye today:

Even as tensions in the Niger Delta have abated (for the time being) things have exploded in the northeast as police have clashed with members of an Islamist fundamentalist sect, leaving scores dead and more injured. Now the Nigerian military has intervened in order to try to take out the leader of the group, Mohammed Yusef.

United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be taking a trip to Africa in which she will visit seven countries, starting with the U.S. – Sub-Saharan Africa Trade and Economic Cooperation Forum (known as the AGOA Forum) in Nairobi, Kenya beginning on 5 August. She will also visit South Africa, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Liberia, and Cape Verde. According to the State Department’s press release:

In each nation, she will emphasize Africa as a place of opportunity, built on an ethic of responsibility. She will underline America’s commitment to partner with governments, the private sector, non-governmental organizations, and private citizens to build societies where each individual can realize their potential.

In her bilateral meetings and other events, she will encourage new solutions to old challenges, harnessing the power of innovation and technology to provide a foundation for future stability, human development, and sustainable economic growth. She will stress the importance of facilitating social and economic entrepreneurship, encouraging a new generation of young African scientists, small business leaders, entrepreneurs and civic leaders who are solving real problems and establishing new models for economic success and social advances, with women as full partners in this progress. And she will discuss ways to foster good regional governance, partnering with regional leaders to band together to prevent conflict and violence, including gender-based violence, democratic erosions, and transnational threats.

As with all things related to the United States relationship with Africa, talk is cheap. Let’s see how it all translates into policy.

Kenya is poised to establish Africa’s largest wind farm. If all goes well, it will allow Kenya to help take the lead in alternative energy in the region.

Rural areas of Zimbabwe are seeing increasing amounts of politically-oriented violence. In the words of an IRIN report, “Families are turning on each other in Zimbabwe’s rural areas, where a higher premium is being placed on political allegiance to either President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party or Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), than ties of blood” Just always remember that ZANU-PF always has the upper hand in these clashes.

Guinea-Bissau has held its run-off vote to determine the successor to President Joao Bernardo Vieira, who was assassinated in March. The runoff pits two former heads of state, Malam Bacai Sanha, widely believed to be the favorite, and Kumba Yala against one another. There are no results yet, but there were no reports of violence and the 600,000 voters represented 60% turnout.

Finally, South African municipal workers have gone on strike, asking for a 15% raise. But the walkouts have been marred by violence. It’s pretty clear that the labour unions expect Jacob Zuma’s ANC to respond to their needs. In a tough economy, and with Zuma as the leader of the ANC and of the country as a whole the unions might be well served not to overplay their hand.