Russia and China support US talks with the Taliban movement (outlawed in Russia) and show interest in immediate success of this dialogue, Russia’s Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said after trilateral consultations on Afghanistan in Washington with the US and Chinese envoys.

"Both we and the Chinese are certainly interested in immediate success of the US talks with the Taliban movement, five rounds of which were held in Doha. That’s why this is a key moment for further progress towards a stable peace in Afghanistan," the Russian diplomat said.

Since the initiative was proposed, China-Africa cooperation has seen all-round progress and presented new features. In March 2013, when visiting three African countries, Chinese President Xi Jinping proposed to build a China-Africa community with a shared future and summarized new concepts of future cooperation between the two sides as “sincerity, real results, amity and good faith”.

At the 2018 Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, Xi stressed again that China and Africa need to develop a community of shared future by sharing responsibilities and gains, achieving win-win cooperation and common cultural prosperity as well as improving security and harmonious coexistence. The proposal has gained wide wide support from African leaders.

The corruption in South Africa is so bad, it’s like a noxious fog that has settled on a once peaceful, prosperous, and prejudiced nation. South African’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is being pilloried, pulled, and pushed from many sides, and many of the political players are more radical than he. He is busy trying to stay in power and get reelected later this year, but he has to deal with many warring factions inside and outside the African National Congress (ANC), plus the murder for hire of wayward members and multiple acts of sabotage in many major cities. Everyone seems to carry guns or has bodyguards even low-level provincial (state) leaders.

The ANC no longer stands for African National Congress but for Accumulation, Nepotism, and Cronyism. Corruption is one of the most used words by South Africans. Of course, this does not surprise anyone since one-party rule always results in cronyism, chaos, and corruption.

More than 900 people were rescued Wednesday in Mozambique and at least 15,000 more await rescue on rooftops and trees a week after Tropical Cyclone Idai devastated three African nations.

"Yesterday, 910 people were rescued by the humanitarian community," said Caroline Haga of the International Federation of the Red Cross in Beira, The Associated Press reported. That included 210 who were rescued by five helicopters and 700 others saved by boats, she added.

"We're hoping to rescue as many as we can today as it is not raining," she said. "Rescue activities will continue until everyone is brought to safety."

The US military may be guilty of war crimes for killing large numbers of civilians in a sharply stepped-up campaign of air strikes in Somalia over the past two years, Amnesty International has said.

The organisation says it had been able to document 14 civilians killed in investigations of just five air strikes, a tiny fraction of at least 110 such strikes that the US military says it has launched since June 2017.

The US military rejected Amnesty's report. It says it has killed 800 militants in air strikes in Somalia over that period, but has not wounded or killed a single civilian.

Another 10 Christians were killed by jihadists in Nigeria last weekend, bringing the total number of Christians killed in the country to 140 since February 10.

Reports indicate that another 10 Christians were murdered in Nigeria on Saturday, March 16, as religious violence in the country continues to reach fever pitch. This brings the total number of Christians murdered to 140, with an additional 160 homes destroyed in the violence.

Morning Star News reported:

Muslim Fulani herdsmen killed 10 Christians in southern Kaduna state, Nigeria on Saturday (March 16), bringing the lives lost in the past five weeks to 140 with 160 houses destroyed, sources said.

US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Gen. Joe Dunford issued a statement Monday denying weekend media reports that the US plans to leave around 1,000 troops in Syria, saying the reports are “factually incorrect.”

Dunford presented the current planned “residual force” as 200, saying that this hadn’t changed since February. The US announced 200 would stay on February 21, but on February 22 officially increased that number to 400.

It’s not clear from Dunford’s statement where the “incorrect” aspect of the new report, which came out of a Wall Street Journal, exists. That report suggested that the 1,000 figure was not yet finalized, but was being discussed. Dunford’s comments didn’t include any details on what is actually being discussed, but just that nothing was finalized.

With so many little wars to keep track of, you probably haven’t noticed that the US has quietly been increasing its airstrikes against targets in Somalia.

When I see Western leaders smiling, shaking hands and offering sage and heartfelt advice on tours of Africa, I just can’t help settling in for the show because you know some top level hypocrisy is just around the corner.

By far, my favorite part of politics is watching its highest level practitioners ignore whatever inconvenient facts from the past are getting in the way of the blatant self-interest of the present. The French leader visiting Africa? Well you know this is going to be a good one.

Africa is full of elephants, and many of them are political, sitting in the corners of rooms and trumpeting away merrily at the likes of Emmanuel Macron. His ability to ignore the weight of history has proved commendable.

The recent death toll of Christians in Nigeria has reached 120 with this week’s slaughter of more than 50 by Fulani Muslim militants in the Kaduna state of Nigeria, the Christian Post reported.

The Fulani jihadists, who have become a greater threat to Nigerian Christians than the Islamist terror group Boko Haram, stormed the villages of Inkirimi, Dogonnoma, and Ungwan Gora in the Kajuru Local Government Area last Monday, destroying 143 homes, killing 52 people, and wounding dozens more.

The assailants reportedly split into three groups, the first of which fired upon the people, the second set fire to buildings, and the third chased down people fleeing from the scene. Victims of the assault included women and children.

With so many little wars to keep track of, you probably haven’t noticed that the US has quietly been increasing its airstrikes against targets in Somalia. It seems few people in Washington have either.

In recent months, dozens of Al-Shabaab terrorist suspects have been killed by American drones and planes in Somalia, reportedly thanks to a surplus becoming available from Syria. However, in a familiar pattern, the US military has denied any civilians were harmed, while locals and aid agencies deny that denial.

A former US ambassador to Somalia told the New York Times: “It could be there is some well-thought-out strategy behind all of this, but I really doubt it.”

A United Nations plan to resolve the issue of African migrants in Israel has been secretly revived by the government, Ynet has learned. The renewal of the plan was leaked by activists from South Tel Aviv who are furious at the prospect of around half of the almost 40,000 migrants being allowed to remain in the country. Even more shocking, the activists say, is a call by the head of Israel's Immigration Authority for the IDF to open fire on any Africans who subsequently sail to Israel seeking asylum.

On February 28, 2019 the last financial wire transactions between the small socialist country of Eritrea and all the western countries were stopped with no further wire transfers in USD$ or Euros to or from Eritrea being allowed .

Unjust and illegal UN sanctions against Eritrea were lifted recently but the damage being done continues. During the 9 year-long UN sanctions period the US shut down all Eritrean government bank accounts and cut off all access to USD$ international transfers. The USA and its European lackeys even tried to prevent Eritreans in the diaspora from paying their national 2% income tax (something all US citizens outside the country must do), critical to the creation and survival of the country.

As if the United States wasn’t already pursuing enough murky and dubious military missions in such places as Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen, a push appears to be underway to expand Washington’s involvement in Sub-Saharan Africa.

U.S. troops are more deeply engaged in “anti-terror” in Niger, Somalia, and other countries than most Americans realize. When four American Special Forces personnel died in Niger in 2017, even members of Congress were surprised.

A lobbying effort now seems to be taking place for U.S. intervention to alleviate suffering in the Central African Republic (CAR), because of that country’s ongoing civil war. NBC News took the lead with a story on the March 6 Today show and followed it up with a more detailed segment on the Nightly News that same evening. Cynthia McFadden was the lead journalist for the report that included searing footage of suffering in one UN-run refugee camp.

A rapid and alarming deterioration of the security situation in Burkina Faso is threatening to spread to its three southern neighbours, a senior US military figure has warned, heralding the potential destabilisation of a vast area of west Africa.

The three coastal nations of Ghana, Togo and Benin were racing to “insulate or inoculate at-risk populations” to try to stop unrest, violence and criminality leaking through their northern borders, the head of Special Operations Command Africa said.

Speaking during Flintlock, the US military’s biggest annual exercise on the continent, Maj Gen Marcus Hicks said an “alarming deterioration” had taken place in Burkina Faso over the past five months.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has said that his government is planning to downgrade its diplomatic mission to Israel.

This, he said, comes in response to recommendations from the National Conference of the National African Party which was held more than a year ago, Safa news agency reported yesterday.

Speaking before the parliament, Ramaphosa said that his government stands with the Palestinian people in their fight to achieve self-determination, but also recognises Israel’s “sovereign right”. He also noted that the ministry of international cooperation and foreign affairs is working to implement the decision.

“This [decision is being taken] due to the violation of the rights of the Palestinian people,” Ramaphosa said, adding: “We are putting pressure on Israel [but,] at the same time, we are ready to broker the process to achieve peace in the Middle East.”

As part of Tel Aviv’s diplomatic strategy in Africa, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) are providing military training to local troops in several countries. The Times of Israel has described this venture as “a dramatic upsurge of military cooperation.”

Israel’s military attaché to Africa, Colonel Aviezer Segal, has said that the Israelis treat African leaders “with respect and appreciation and deal with them as equals, in a language of true camaraderie, personal friendship and professionalism.”

Last year, the Jerusalem Post ran an article in which it attempted to put Israel on a par with African countries involved in anti-colonial struggle. According to the article, the settler-colonial state “was itself part of the great counter-colonial movement that freed millions from Europeans’ yoke.” When the Chadian Prime Minister Idris Deby visited Israel in November last year, Israeli President Reuven Rivlin declared, “For us, Africa is the future.”

Unprecedented numbers of women are taking to the streets to join daily nationwide protests that erupted in mid-December.

Despite a violent crackdown by the security forces and reports of sexual harassment, they remain undeterred.

More than 50 people are thought to have died at the hands of security agents and many have been tortured, rights groups say.

Yet women make up 70% of marchers at some protests, observers say, defiant in the face of the repressive laws of the conservative, Islamic state.

In a nation that has been plagued by terror attacks in recent years, a major soccer game represents a prime target. US troops were on hand this week to help oversee a large-scale training exercise in Burkina Faso, where local forces were drilled on how to cope with an attack that could potentially target thousands of fans.

CNN was on the ground when the scenario played out on Wednesday with a simulation of an attack at a major downtown stadium complex in the country's capital, Ouagadougou, where the game turned deadly after terrorists stormed the facility, firing their AK-47s into the crowd and shouting as players and spectators fled in panic.

Within minutes an elite team of police commandos backed by soldiers arrived on the scene in an armored vehicle, driving through the entrance, taking cover and engaging the terrorists in a lengthy firefight until the attackers were eliminated or captured.

Two years ago, American Marines battled Al Qaeda militants in western Tunisia along the border with Algeria. A Marine and a Tunisian soldier were wounded and two other Marines were later commended for their valor in the gunfight.

Yet many details of the February 2017 clash remain murky, largely because of the Tunisian government’s political sensitivities over the presence of American forces on their territory.

Publicly, American officials will say only that the battle happened in a North African “host” country. The Tunisian authorities have refused to confirm that anything happened at all.

Rwanda has deployed the army along its common border with Uganda as a diplomatic rift continues to rage between the two East African neighbours.

Uganda’s privately-owned Observer news portal reported on Monday that Rwandan soldiers could be seen along the hills at Mukaniga, Byumba and Buganza.

The report added that: “… at Chanika in Kisoro district, the Rwandan army can be seen patrolling the Rwandan side of the border.”

It added that Uganda’s Internal Security Organization, ISO, officials and locals had also confirmed the development. On their side Ugandan authorities say they have not seen the need for such a deployment.

The two countries in 2000 fought a deadly war in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Kisangani. It is reported that the duel led to over 1,000 casualties.

Over 50 people are missing after an oil pipeline connecting a local source and an Exxon refinery exploded in Nembe, Nigeria, according to reports.

The explosion of the petroleum trunk line — operated by the Port Harcourt-based Aiteo Group — occurred early Friday morning local time, according to Reuters.
In the panic following the early morning explosion, at least 50 were confirmed dead even as injury counts remained unreported and the uncontained rupture continued to spout enormous amounts of flame and smoke.

The blast was reportedly followed by a large oil spill in the Nembe kingdom in Bayelsa state, according to Nembe chief council spokesman Chief Nengi James-Eriworio, cited by the Associated Press.

The head of Mossad met his Sudanese counterpart in Germany last month as part of a secret plan by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the UAE to oust President Omar al-Bashir, the London-based Middle East Eye has reported.

Salah Gosh, the head of Sudan's National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), met with Mossad chief Yossi Cohen on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on February 15-17, it cited a senior Sudanese military source as saying.

The meeting was arranged by Egyptian intermediaries with the backing of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, the leading online news outlet added.

According to the source, the three Arab countries consider Salah as “their man” to replace Bashir and put an end to his three-decade rule in Sudan.

“There is a consensus that Bashir will go within the ruling party and the army,” said the source, “The battle is about who is coming after.”

Over 30 Nigerian Christians were killed in a brutal early morning attack by radical Islamic Fulani herdsmen, who have been systematically targeting believers living on lands the extremists claim to be their territory.

The Guardian reports that the deadly assault occurred at around 4 a.m. near the town of Maro, in Kajuru County of Kaduna state, where the attackers set fire to several buildings, including homes and churches. The extremists shot civilians with rifles as they fled the burning establishments.

A second clinic serving patients affected by the escalating Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has been set alight, as concerns mount over widespread distrust of health agencies.

Seven months since the start of the outbreak, which has claimed 548 lives, experts warned that the virus is still not under control and said suspicion of agencies is severely undermining Ebola services.

Médecins Sans Frontières, which runs treatment centres in Katwa and Butembo that were attacked, and is one of the agencies leading the wider Ebola response, said key partners needed to reconsider their approach.

“Within the response, and ourselves, MSF, we need to think what more we could have done, because right now it’s clear that we do not have enough trust within the community,” said Pierre Van Heddegem, project coordinator of the Ebola response in Katwa, adding that all agencies needed to engage in greater consultation with communities.

Thousands of asylum seekers from Darfur – most of whom have been in Israel for years – still hold visas that treat them like “infiltrators, with insulting sanctions, instead of recognizing them as refugees.” Interior Minister Arye Dery has decided to keep them that way, at least until after the Israeli elections in April.

The U.S.-China trade war started reaching the boiling point last year, with “tit for tat” exchanges between the two countries adding tension to an already uncertain economic outlook in both countries.

But now it appears the trade war is reaching a fever pitch, and it’s expanding to include areas with much smaller economies like Venezuela and Africa. According to Forbes (emphasis ours):

The next US-China trade war won’t be fought in Washington or Beijing over trade frictions. It will be fought in Venezuela and Africa, where China has been an active investor, antagonizing the US.

The short version: A “contagion” could be created as a result of new trade sanctions placed on Venezuela, a country already teetering on collapse.

Botswana is moving towards culling elephants by lifting its wildlife hunting ban after a group of the country's ministers endorsed the idea, but the proposal has drawn heavy criticism.

The southern African country's President Mokgweetsi Masisi had previously tasked a government subcommittee with reviewing the hunting ban - which had been put in place by his predecessor Ian Khama in 2014.

The committee decided to recommend lifting the ban last Thursday, and the country's minister of local government and rural development Frans Solomon van der Westhuizen advocated 'regular but limited elephant culling', NPR reports.

Elephant meat canning - including for pet food production purposes - was also recommended by some.

President Omar al-Bashir has declared a one-year state of emergency and dissolved government in Sudan. He is facing the most sustained challenge to his 30-year rule with repeated protests in recent weeks.

Israel opened an embassy in the Rwandan capital of Kigali in central Africa. The new ambassador, Ronny Adam presented his credentials to the Rwandan FM on Friday while extolling the cooperation between the two nations.

Get past Hitler, and shouts of “We must prevent another Rwanda!” will stop you in your tracks, unless your education has overcome a nearly universal myth that runs as follows. In 1994, a bunch of irrational Africans in Rwanda developed a plan to eliminate a tribal minority and carried out their plan to the extent of slaughtering over a million people from that tribe — for purely irrational motivations of tribal hatred. The U.S. government had been busy doing good deeds elsewhere and not paying enough attention until it was too late. The United Nations knew what was happening but refused to act, due to its being a large bureaucracy inhabited by weak-willed non-Americans. But, thanks to U.S. efforts, the criminals were prosecuted, refugees were allowed to return, and democracy and European enlightenment were brought belatedly to the dark valleys of Rwanda.

The African National Congress Youth League has affirmed its support for the international Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. Speaking to Middle East Monitor on Monday, the Secretary General of South Africa’s ruling party, Njabulo Nzuza, stressed that its National Executive Committee (NEC) even took a decision to work together with BDS South Africa (BDS SA).

Over the weekend, a Youth League member, Thembi Siweya, sparked controversy when she published an article titled “BDS SA, undermining South Africa” wherein she criticised the BDS movement. In particular, Siweya made clear that she is against any opposition to an Israeli company’s intended takeover of South Africa’s largest dairy producer, Clover.

“BDS SA ought to listen to what ordinary Palestinians yearn for,” claimed Siweya. “Its messaging on Palestine is not coherent and fails to benefit the Palestinians living in Palestine.” Nzuza was emphatic that Siweya’s views are “not the position of the Youth League.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told American-Jewish leaders that Israel has “potential” diplomatic relations with Mali and Niger, reported The Times of Israel.

“Israeli officials have long acknowledged their goal to restore formal ties with Mali, though never publicly referred to the status quo of relations in this way,” the report added.

On Monday evening, “Netanyahu addressed the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations’ annual Israel mission in a Jerusalem hotel.”

During his speech, the premier “talked participants through a slide show about Israeli achievements in various fields, including diplomacy.”

Commissioner of the International Human Rights Commission (IHRC) in the Middle East Haitham Abu Said affirmed the US’s involvement in smuggling and transporting terrorists from Raqqa countryside and others areas in northern Syria to countries in Africa , in collaboration with the Turkish regime’s army.

Chronic incompetence, affirmative action, poor maintenance and Third World chaos have plunged South Africa into yet another power supply nightmare with nationwide blackouts—euphemistically called “load-shedding”—while new video from a recently built power station show that it is on the verge of a dangerous collapse.

Elections are big business, and look no further than the ongoing frenzy over the upcoming Nigerian election for proof. It is hard to miss how much money is being made in both the main event and the ecosystem around it.

Politicians are no longer just candidates, but also brands, backed by elaborate merchandising and advertising apparatuses that are designed to catapult their public image to victory. Outside the core tug of war, media companies around the world wrestle for the attention of viewers, listeners and readers with elaborate, attention-grabbing infographics and chyrons.

The triumph of political style over substance in the capitalist election is almost complete, and with it the unparalleled influence of money over political decision-making. As Nigeria inches towards this critical vote, it does so in the shadow of profound questions about the changing nature of elections in Africa and beyond.

Facebook's automated ad approval system can be tricked fairly easily, making it possible to buy ads to spread misinformation and fake news in advance of the Nigeria elections, an Al Jazeera investigation has found.

Last month, Facebook said it would temporarily disallow political ads targeting Nigeria from being purchased outside the country in an attempt to prevent foreign influence in the February 16 elections.

The ads Al Jazeera was able to get Facebook to approve included a false claim that armed group Boko Haram would take part in the elections.

Other claims included US President Donald Trump voicing his support for opposition leader Atiku Abubakar, the deadline for collection of personal voter cards in Nigeria being extended by a week, and thousands of Nigerian refugees getting a voting extension after the February 16 election date.

Nearly 100 children have died in during the most recent Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Health officials are warning that it isn’t over yet as the disease continues to infect more people and spread further.

“We are at a crossroads,” Heather Kerr, Save the Children’s Country Director in DRC, said in a press release. “If we don’t take urgent steps to contain this, the outbreak might last another six months, if not the whole year.” According to the press release from Save the Children, 65 of the 97 children who have died since August were under the age of 5 years old. More than 180 other children have been orphaned by the disease’s most recent outbreak.

US African Command (AFRICOM) has reported that airstrikes against targets in Somalia have killed at least 15 “fighters” from al-Shabaab. Both strikes were in the Lower Shabelle region, with 11 killed Wednesday and 4 killed Thursday.

These are the latest in an ever-growing number of strikes inside Somalia. The US strikes have increased substantially in the past few years, and this year’s bombings have been even more frequent than the last year.

Following the strikes, AFRICOM head Gen. Thomas Waldhauser warned the Senate that despite the escalations, airstrikes were “not enough” to defeat al-Shabaab, and that Somalia’s local forces need to get more deeply involved in the conflict.

The African Union leaders are meeting in Addis Ababa for their annual summit.

The pan-African body, comprising 55 member states, was founded in 2001 and launched a year later to much funfair and lofty ambitions.

The continental body replaced the Organisation of African Unity, established in 1963 to end colonialism in Africa.

The AU leaders promised African solutions to African problems. But has the organisation been successful?

AFRICOM claims al-Shabaab was trying to 'illegally tax' civilians
Jason Ditz Posted on February 8, 2019Categories NewsTags AFRICOM, Somalia
US African Command (AFRICOM) has reported that airstrikes against targets in Somalia have killed at least 15 “fighters” from al-Shabaab. Both strikes were in the Lower Shabelle region, with 11 killed Wednesday and 4 killed Thursday.

These are the latest in an ever-growing number of strikes inside Somalia. The US strikes have increased substantially in the past few years, and this year’s bombings have been even more frequent than the last year.

Following the strikes, AFRICOM head Gen. Thomas Waldhauser warned the Senate that despite the escalations, airstrikes were “not enough” to defeat al-Shabaab, and that Somalia’s local forces need to get more deeply involved in the conflict.

Halimo Mohamed Abdi said the blast broke both her hips, left shrapnel embedded in her thigh, and caused terrible burns that cost her both breasts. Before she lost consciousness, she told me, she saw three boys—ages 9, 10, and 16—die in the explosion, which occurred at night in a field outside Bariire, a village 30 miles west of the Somali capital of Mogadishu. She also said the strike came from the sky and that afterward she had to be hospitalized for three months.

When Abdi was finally able to leave the ward, she found her house in ruins and 25 of her goats dead. Now she lives in Salama camp, one of the 996 squalid settlements lining the 20-mile road that runs from Afgooye to Mogadishu. The camps are filled with tens of thousands of Somalis who have fled American air strikes and the fighting between government militias and Al Shabab, the extremist group linked to Al Qaeda.

The French armed forces have intervened in northern Chad and launched airstrikes at an armed group coming in from Libya, according to France’s Defense Ministry. The operation took place on Sunday and was organized in cooperation with the Chadian Army. A patrol of Mirage 2000 airplanes hit a column of 40 pickups coming from Libya that penetrated “deep into Chadian territory,” AP reported. The “intervention, in response to a request from Chadian authorities, helped hinder this hostile progression and disperse the column,” the ministry said.

Following the January 12 declaration of an official fuel price hike in Zimbabwe, civil unrest and political paranoia has rocked the nation.

President Emmerson Mnanagagwa announced that fuel prices at $1.30 USD per liter would go up by 150 percent, making Zimbabwe’s fuel among the most expensive in the world. The next day he left for a five-day tour of Russia and Eastern Europe, purportedly in search of investment deals. Chaos and anarchy broke out the following Monday.

The military was immediately deployed to quell protests after angry mobs looted and set ablaze several supermarkets and chain stores. Reports of state agents gunning down unarmed civilians circulated on social media before the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (POTRAZ) completely shut down the Internet and all forms of social media from January 14-January 20, 2019.

The United States armed forces said it has killed 24 members of the al-Shabab armed group in an air strike carried out on Wednesday.

In a statement released on Thursday, the United States Africa Command said the strike took place on a camp near Shebeeley, Hiran region in central Somalia.

"Precision strikes are part of our strategy. Strikes continue to help our partners make progress in their fight against the transnational terrorists who oppose peace in Somalia and the region," Director of US Africa Command Major General Gregg Olson said in the statement.

According to the press release, "no civilians were injured or killed in this airstrike".

The recent outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo is the second worst in recorded history. So far, 743 people have been infected with the virus and 461 of those have died.

In just one day, the DRC recorded 7 new cases of Ebola. There are now 174 cases remain under investigation, which is up from 161 yesterday. Four of the new cases were reported in Katwa, the latest hot spot in the outbreak that has swept across North Kivu and Ituri provinces in the DRC during the past 6 months. According to the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, one of the two deaths confirmed today was a community death in Katwa. Community deaths, which take place outside of a hospital or Ebola treatment center, raise the risk of Ebola transmission.

Forget the hype. Israel’s ‘security technology’ has nothing to do with why some African countries are eager to normalize relations with Israel.

What is it that Israel is able to offer in the technology sector to Chad, Mali and others that the United States, the European Union, China, Russia, India, Brazil, South Africa and others cannot?

The answer is ‘nil’, and the moment we accept such a truth is the moment we start to truly understand why Chad, a Muslim-majority country, has just renewed its diplomatic ties with Israel. And, by extension, the same logic applies to Mali, another Muslim-majority country that is ready to normalize with Israel.

Chadian President, Idriss Deby, was in Israel last November, a trip that was touted as another Benjamin Netanyahu-engineered breakthrough by the Israeli government and its allied media.

This afternoon I sat in dazed disbelief at a “news” story from Financial Timesproclaiming Vladimir Putin’s “shift” to Africa. With a couple of centuries of imperialist mayhem behind the Anglo-European cohort, any photo op with Vladimir Putin and a desperate leader ends up a headline. Here’s the truth of the matter of Africa. With nowhere else to turn except to face ravaging tigers, Africa’s leaders look to the best alternatives.

A violent crackdown continued Friday in Zimbabwe as rights groups alleged that women had been raped during house-to-house searches, while the government criticized a report by its own rights commission that said security forces had used “systematic torture.”

Zimbabweans say abuses have not calmed since President Emmerson Mnangagwa on Tuesday denounced the violence as “unacceptable.” The unrest began last week as people protested a steep increase in fuel prices that made gasoline the world’s most expensive. The government accuses the opposition of stirring up trouble.

The army asserts that uniformed perpetrators of abuses are “bogus elements” out to tarnish its image.

The more than 600 people confirmed to have contracted Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) could “double,” in what is already the largest outbreak in that country’s history and the second deadliest ever recorded, the director of a non-governmental organization (NGO) reportedly predicted over the weekend.

Health officials in the DRC recorded six cases daily from October to December across all affected areas and the number is increasing, Jean-Philippe Marcoux, the director of the NGO Mercy Corps in the DRC, reportedly revealed.

“Now it’s doubling – it’s very possible that it can double again,” he explained, the Guardian reported Friday. “If we don’t significantly increase the resources, it will keep increasing. It will spread progressively to other health areas, and it will be there for a long time.”

Zimbabwe’s government exceeded its mandate in ordering an internet blackout during civilian protests last week, a court ruled on Monday, as authorities pressed on with rounding up opposition figures blamed for the unrest.

In his interim ruling, High Court Judge Owen Tagu told mobile operators to immediately and unconditionally resume full services. The biggest, Econet Wireless, compiled with the order late on Monday, it said in a message to subscribers.

The sporadic blackout began on Tuesday following the start of protests against a rise in fuel prices that turned violent.

With evidence growing that the country is slipping back into authoritarian rule, critics of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government had accused it of shutting off the internet to prevent a security clampdown being broadcast to the world.

Mnangagwa was due back in Zimbabwe late on Monday after cutting short a foreign trip.

The Italian deputy prime minister has blamed France for the European migrant crisis, accusing it of impoverishing African nations with "colonialist" policies. He promised to take the issue to the EU and other international bodies.

Luigi Di Maio, leader of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement and Italy's Deputy PM, launched a scathing attack on France, which he argued is to blame for the inherent causes of the ongoing migrant crisis at EU borders.

U.S. forces killed an estimated 52 members of the militant Islamic terrorist group al Shabab in airstrikes in Jilib, Somalia, on Saturday, U.S. Africa Command reported.

Al Shabab, an organization linked to al Qaeda, claimed responsibility for an attack on a Nairobi hotel in Kenya Wednesday that left 14 dead, as well as seven attackers.

"U.S. Africa Command conducted the airstrike in response to an attack by a large group of al-Shabaab militants against Somali National Army Forces," U.S. Africa Command, the branch of the military that coordinates with allies on the continent, said in a statement. The strike was part of a broader effort to prevent the terrorist group from "taking advantage of safe havens from which they can build capacity and attack the people of Somalia."

Why are there so few great African leaders?

It could be because so many of them have been assassinated.

The story of Patrice Lumumba, murdered by the connivance of US and Belgian intelligence agencies which then turned the Congo over to a savage dictator…to make it easier to loot the country.

Patrice Émery Lumumba was a Congolese politician and independence leader who served as the first Prime Minister of the independent Democratic Republic of the Congo (then Republic of the Congo) from June until September 1960. He played a significant role in the transformation of the Congo from a colony of Belgium into an independent republic. Ideologically an African nationalist and Pan-Africanist, he led the Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) party from 1958 until his assassination.

Reports suggest that at least eight people have died in protests against skyrocketing gasoline prices in Zimbabwe as of this Wednesday, which continued into the day despite President Emmerson Mnangagwa reportedly claiming the demonstrations were “fizzling out.”

Riots throughout Harare triggered violent disputes and threatened businesses as opposition leaders called for only peaceful demonstrations against the ruling Zanu-PF party, which Mnangagwa has run since the forced removal of dictator Robert Mugabe in 2017. The government responded, according to opposition leaders, by beating and arresting opposition leaders and protesters. Some witnesses claim that police went door-to-door in opposition-held neighborhoods looking to beat and threaten men believed to be sympathetic to the protests. The government also temporarily shut down access to the internet in the country, arguing that opposition groups were succeeding too much at using social media to galvanize protesters.

Islamic State West Africa (ISWA) insurgents overran the town of Rann in northeastern Nigeria on Monday evening, security sources said, a blow to President Buhari’s efforts to defeat the militants just weeks before national elections.

Buhari came to power in 2015 on promises to defeat the Boko Haram Islamist insurgency, from which ISWA split in 2016. ISWA has since become the dominant group in Nigeria’s northeast, with a surge in attacks renewing debates around security in the run-up to elections on Feb. 16.

Nigerian government forces fled during ISWA’s attack, along with residents of the town, the sources said, adding that the militants were setting buildings ablaze.

The year 2018 was one of the most critical for African refugees in Israel. Under threat of imminent deportation, the community and their local supporters took to the streets, pleading for their rights to be recognized.

The mass deportations did not materialize.

First, it became clear that African governments were unwilling to accept refugees who had been forced out of Israel. That prompted Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, to reach a deal with the United Nations aimed at resettling African refugees in the West.

Netanyahu scrapped that deal after being criticized by lawmakers in Israel’s ruling coalition who viewed the arrangement as insufficiently tough on refugees. The lawmakers objected to how the deal was contingent on allowing approximately half of African refugees to remain in Israel for five years.

Zimbabwe is once again at the brink of economic collapse, making a mockery of President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s claim that the country is open for business.

As Bloomberg reports, many shops and factories have shut their doors because of a lack of customers and those that continue to trade are open to haggling over prices to secure hard currency. At an appliance shop in the capital, Harare, a salesman whispers that a Whirlpool Corp. washing machine priced at about $5,000 if paid for electronically will sell for $1,500 in cash, while at a nearby electrical warehouse, a $600 invoice is whittled down to $145 for payment in dollar bills.

But, as OilPrice.com's Tsvetana Paraskova reports, Zimbabwe is on a three-day nationwide strike and protests are erupting in the streets after the government of the southern African country doubled fuel prices, making gasoline sold in Zimbabwe the most expensive gasoline in the world.

Kenya will teach Mandarin in classrooms in a bid to improve job competitiveness and facilitate better trade and connection with China.

The country’s curriculum development institute (KICD) has said the design and scope of the mandarin syllabus have been completed and will be rolled in out in 2020. Primary school pupils from grade four (aged 10) and onwards will be able to take the course, the head of the agency Julius Jwan told Xinhua news agency. Jwan said the language is being introduced given Mandarin’s growing global rise, and the deepening political and economic connections between Kenya and China.

The visitors started coming in 2013. The first one who came and refused to leave until he was let inside was a private investigator named Roderick. He was looking for an abducted girl, and he was convinced she was in the house.

John S. and his mother Ann live in the house, which is in Pretoria, the administrative capital of South Africa and next to Johannesburg. They had not abducted anyone, so they called the police and asked for an officer to come over. Roderick and the officer went through the home room by room, looking into cupboards and under beds for the missing girl. Roderick claimed to have used a “professional” tracking device “that could not be wrong,” but the girl wasn’t there.

This was not an unusual occurrence. John, 39, and Ann, 73, were accustomed to strangers turning up at their door accusing them of crimes; the visitors would usually pull up maps on their smartphones that pointed at John and Ann’s backyard as a hotbed of criminal activity.

The United States has maintained some degree of military presence inside Somalia for much of the last three decades, but a pattern of escalation that began late in former President Barack Obama's second term has markedly accelerated in the two years since President Donald Trump took office.

Airstrikes are on the rise; hundreds of U.S. boots are on the ground; and Trump's March 2017 decision to designate portions of Somalia as "areas of active hostility" means military operations can proceed with less oversight and greater tolerance for civilian casualties.

Donald Trump's presidency has coincided with a sharp rise in US-led airstrikes in Somalia and the trend is set to continue in 2019.

In a speech in December outlining the US' Africa policy, President Trump's National Security Adviser John Bolton said "terrorists operating in Africa have... repeatedly targeted US citizens and interests".

He gave the impression that there would be no let up in the struggle against militant Islamist groups, such as the Somalia-based al-Shabab, which is affiliated to al-Qaeda.

In March 2017, the Pentagon received White House approval to expand its fight against the militants in the Horn of Africa nation.

There are now more than 600 confirmed or probable cases of Ebola in Congo, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Friday.

The majority of new cases occurred in cities and urban areas in eastern North Kivu province, where an Ebola outbreak was declared in August.

On January 5th, the US deployed 80 heavily armed troops to Libreville, Gabon to be in position to assist US citizens, personnel and diplomatic facilities just a few days ahead of the military coup in the country, which took place on the morning of January 7th.

The reason given for the deployment was the fear of violent protests in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Elections in the country took place on December 30th, two years after they were supposed to take place, to elect a successor to President Joseph Kabila, who has assumed the seat for 18 years.

U.S. Africa Command is hoping to finish two new air bases in 2019, one in Niger and one in Somalia, to stage operations against militants in the region.

Niger Air Base 201, a future hub for armed drones and other aircraft, was supposed to be completed this year. The region’s difficult weather and harsh conditions are pushing completion back to the middle of 2019, officials told Air Force Times.

Air Base 201 will eventually house the U.S. armed drone mission in Niger that currently operates out of Niger’s capital, Niamey.

The price of bread is, yet again, at the heart of protests in Sudan.

On Dec. 19, demonstrations began in the eastern city of Atbara after the government phased out wheat and fuel subsidies at the suggestion of international lenders. Before long, protests had turned deadly and spread to several towns and major cities including Omdurman and the capital Khartoum.

To quell the uprising, authorities disrupted internet connectivity, arrested opposition figures and critical journalists, and used tear gas to disperse growing crowds chanting, “The people want the fall of the regime.”

While the election in Congo was relatively quiet, the US is expecting that there will be protests when the results are announced. The anticipation is enough that President Trump has ordered to send troops to neighboring Gabon, and is warning the Congolese not to protest.

US President Donald Trump announced Friday that 80 US military personnel had been deployed to the central African country of Gabon in response to violence in the neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo centering on its disputed presidential elections.

Trump sent a letter to congressional leaders noting that the first troops of the deployment had arrived in Gabon's capital of Libreville on Wednesday. The letter notes that further troops may be deployed "if necessary" until the "security situation in the Democratic Republic of the Congo becomes such that their presence is no longer needed."

The Democratic Republic of Congo has reached a grim new milestone in the Ebola outbreak that began August 1: The total number of probable patients is 608 as of Wednesday, with 368 deaths, the Ministry of Health said. An additional 29 people who doctors suspect may be sick with Ebola are under investigation. The ministry also reported that 207 people have recovered from the life-threatening illness.

On average, Ebola -- which causes fever, severe headache and in some cases hemorrhaging -- kills about half of those infected, but fatality rates in individual outbreaks have varied. The latest outbreak has a case fatality rate of about 60%.

The outbreak is the second-deadliest and second-largest in history, topped only by one in West Africa in 2014, when the disease killed more than 11,000 people, according to the World Health Organization.

Political commentator Lawrence Freeman predicts a volatile situation for the Congo, with demonstrations and counter-demonstrations going on for days.

At any time for nearly four years as many as 14,000 Sudanese militiamen have been fighting in Yemen in tandem with the local militia aligned with the Saudis, according to several Sudanese fighters who have returned and Sudanese lawmakers who are attempting to track it. Hundreds, at least, have died there.

Almost all the Sudanese fighters appear to come from the battle-scarred and impoverished region of Darfur, where some 300,000 people were killed and 1.2 million displaced during a dozen years of conflict over diminishing arable land and other scarce resources.

Some families are so eager for the money that they bribe militia officers to let their sons go fight. Many are ages 14 to 17. In interviews, five fighters who have returned from Yemen and another about to depart said that children made up at least 20 percent of their units. Two said children were more than 40 percent.

The patients, some of whom had not yet been tested, broke out of the treatment centre in the Congolese city of Beni.

Officials have tracked three of them, but the rest remain at large, sparking a fear of the deadly disease spreading.

The attack was orchestrated by demonstrators angry at being excluded from voting in the weekend's election.

Beni and its surrounding area has had voting cancelled by the government due to the ebola outbreak and militia violence.

China is likely to take over Kenya’s Mombasa port if Kenya Railways Corporation defaults in the payment of a loan from Exim Bank of China. Kenya used Mombasa port to secure the loan which was taken from the Chinese bank to finance construction of the standard gauge railway (SGR).

A leaked audit report shows that the government waived sovereign immunity on the Kenya Ports Assets on signing the agreement with China thus exposing Kenya Ports Authority to foreclosure by China Exim Bank.

The report said “The payment arrangement agreement substantively means that the Authority’s revenue would be used to pay the Government of Kenya’s debt to China Exim bank if the minimum volumes required for [rail] consignment are not met,” auditor F.T. Kimani wrote. “The China Exim bank would become a principle over KPA if KRC defaults in its obligations, reports African Stand and All Africa news.

South Africa’s and Togo’s parliaments this month ratified the agreement establishing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). The total number of countries committing to the deal has thus grown to 49.

Once the agreement comes into effect, it will create a tariff-free continent, covering a single market of 1.2 billion people in 55 nations with a combined gross domestic product of about $3 trillion.

It will constitute the largest free trade area globally, according to South African Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies.

Since Nelson Mandela and the communist African National Congress (ANC) took over South Africa, more than 70,000 whites have been murdered and untold numbers have been robbed, raped and tortured.

Official statistics on farm attacks are non-existent, due to what human rights groups have described as a “cover-up” by the notoriously corrupt — and potentially complicit — South African government.

Victims are often restrained, harmed with weapons such as machetes and pitchforks, burned with boiling water or hot irons, dragged behind vehicles and shot. Female victims are often raped during attacks.

The Americans wager that they can exercise veto power over African political alignments by force of arms, through AFRICOM’s massive military infiltration of the region.

“The ‘West’s’ political economies are spent forces, incapable of either keeping up with China’s phenomenal domestic growth or of competing with China in what used to be called the Third World.”

Donald Trump last week trotted out his war dog, National Security Advisor John Bolton, to growl and snarl over China’s attempts to “gain a competitive advantage” in Africa through “predatory” practices that supposed include “bribes, opaque agreements, and the strategic use of debt to hold states in Africa captive” to Beijing’s global schemes.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF), one of the world’s biggest conservation organizations, is breaking the law in its backing of a conservation zone in the Congo Basin, according to letters released today.

The letters demonstrate that the new protected area, known as Messok Dja, is being created without the free, prior and informed consent of the people who rely on that land for survival, members of the Baka and Bakwele tribes.

The letters also document human rights abuses committed by ecoguards funded and supported by WWF.

According to national and international law, indigenous people must give consent for any project affecting their lands, territories, and resources. Without the consent of the people who rely on the land for survival, the establishment of Messok Dja park is illegal.

Over a hundred people from six villages in Republic of Congo have signed the letters, which also describe horrific violence and abuse by ecoguards funded and supported by WWF.

British MP Andrew Bridger has called on Prime Minister Theresa May to condemn South African authorities, who have approved land expropriation from white farmers. Addressing Theresa May Wednesday, Bridger slammed the decision, saying: “This is not only wrong, it is also risking putting another African country from a bread basket into a basket case”.

Several weeks ago, South Africa's National Assembly endorsed a proposed amendment to the Constitution that will allow for mainly white-owned farmland to be taken without compensation. Sputnik has discussed this with Jack Miller — Cape party leader, a political party in the Republic of South Africa.

Sputnik: What is your take on the British MP's statement?

Dozens of protesters have been wounded in demonstrations across Sudan, including the capital Khartoum, over rising food prices and economic mismanagement.

Thousands of people across the country took to the streets after Friday prayers to demonstrate against the government’s economic policies and called for President Omar Al-Bashir to step down. Today’s protests, organised under the hashtag “The cities of Sudan rise”, are the culmination of numerous rallies that have taken place throughout the week, resulting in a state of emergency being declared in several cities and schools closing until further notice.

Some militant groups, after their defeat in Syria and Iraq, have been relocating to Africa, where they create large enclaves of the Daesh terrorist group, al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, Alexander Venediktov, the Russian Security Council secretary's assistant, told Sputnik.

"Let's take the problem of terrorism, which today is acute for African countries. After the defeat in Syria and Iraq, some militants have been on their way to the Sahel and further southward. As a result, bandit enclaves under the banners of ISIS [Daesh], al-Qaeda and Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to IS [Daesh] militants, are emerging on the vast territories," Venediktov said.

Over the weekend, US warplanes carried out at least six airstrikes against the coastal town of Gandarsh, Somalia. US African Command (Africom) says 62 people were killed in the strikes, and all were “terrorists” from al-Shabaab.

34 people were killed on Saturday, and 28 more on Sunday. The identities of the slain are not clear, and there is no way to verify Africom’s claims. This is, however, standard operating procedure for them, to both label all slain as militants, and to say they don’t think any civilians were killed or wounded.

This often doesn’t remain the case, however. When the US is striking a large number of people inside a populated area, it’s very unusual not to have some civilians killed along the way. Yet in remote places like Somalia, it often takes days to find that out.

Over the weekend, US warplanes have carried out at least six airstrikes against the coastal town of Gandarsh, Somalia. US African Command (Africom) says 62 people were killed in the strikes, and all were “terrorists” from al-Shabaab.

34 people were killed on Saturday, and 28 more on Sunday. The identities of the slain are not clear, and there is no way to verify Africom’s claims. This is, however, standard operating procedure for them, to both label all slain as militants, and to say they don’t think any civilians were killed or wounded.

This often doesn’t remain the case, however. When the US is striking a large number of people inside a populated area, it’s very unusual not to have some civilians killed along the way. Yet in remote places like Somalia, it often takes days to find that out.

The US military says it has killed 62 militants in six airstrikes in the vicinity of Gandarsh in Somalia's south-central Banaadir province.

The military's Africa Command (Africom) said four strikes were carried out on Saturday, killing 34 militants, and two more on Sunday, which killed 28.

"Africa Command and our Somali partners conducted these air strikes to prevent terrorists from using remote areas as a safe haven to plot, direct, inspire and recruit for future attacks," Africom said in a statement.

The air strikes, among the deadliest this year, did not kill any civilians, the statement said.