Chinese overfishing destroying West African ecosystem

 China has overfished and dug up the sea bed in the West Philippine sea, harming our fishing industry. But their fishing trawlers have also been busy stealing maritime resources from South America,

but now they are destroying the fishing grounds off of West Africa:

......

these reports are not recent. 

But Global voices has a report on what is going on recently:

The impact of China's fishing policies on West Africa Large trawlers are destroying the ecosystem in West African ocean

Senegal is one of many countries affected by devastating overfishing due to illegal Chinese fishing vessels. Senegal’s unemployment rate remains high because, according to Greenpeace, an environmental organization working in more than 50 countries in the world, including West and Central Africa, the introduction of mass-scale fishing techniques by Chinese vessels has devastated local fishing industries, leaving many without their livelihoods....

Nope. Ramaswami gets it wrong

 One of those using YOUTUBE to push ideas is Ramaswami.

He has this video discussing Mugabe against white farmers and compares it to the war against the white farmers in Rhodesia.

Well, it ignores how Africans were removed from good farmlands so that it could be sold to white immigrants and the Africans were resettled in other areas, including some of those resettled into lower altitudes where malaria, to which they had no resistance, was common.  

I post this even though I disagree with his idea that this was about ethnicity but post it for your information

Sudan genocide again

Nicholas Kristof in the NYTimes visited Dafur to report what is going on there.

NYTimes link

Wayback machine link

The atrocities underway near here are an echo of the Darfur genocide of two decades ago, with the additional complication of famine. But there’s a crucial difference: At that time, world leaders, celebrities and university students vigorously protested the slaughter and joined forces to save hundreds of thousands of lives. Today, in contrast, the world is distracted and silent.

and it's not just the war: It is the danger of a massive famine that could kill millions.

This is the BBC resport:

sigh.

Mali: Islamic terrorists vs Govt and Russian peacekeeprs

 

At least 77 people have been killed in an attack on Mali’s capital, Bamako, on Tuesday, according to AFP, in the first major attack on the Malian capital since 2015.

Here's what you need to know https://t.co/MS1g6ne2bO pic.twitter.com/rJVAhFWmBG

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) September 20, 2024

article here.

JNIM members appeared to have killed scores of Malian soldiers and Russian fighters from the Wagner mercenary group during the nine hours the attack is believed to have lasted for. The Wagner Group, now called Africa Corps, is deployed in the country to assist the government in repelling armed groups.

backstory 

When anti-French sentiment began to rise in the region around 2015, partly due to continued attacks by armed groups, Goita ordered French forces and MINUSMA to leave. The troops started withdrawing in 2022 and completed their exit by December last year. Goita’s government has instead turned to Russia’s Wagner forces for support. There are now about 2,000 Wagner fighters in the country.

 ========================

StrategyPage has a long discussion about the war in that country

it's not just islamicist vs the present Government, it has roots in tribal difference: the Tuareg (desert tribes) vs the Arab influenced culture of the north and the black tribes of the south. The Tuareg used to run the place and is now getting payback: and now the Islamic crazies have gotten involved.

CSP was formed in 2021 and mainly consists of Tuaregs, a North African Berber group that dominated the region for over two thousand years until European colonial forces showed up in the early 19 th century.,,,

 

The French colonial governments used the Tuaregs as their enforcers and this backfired on them when the French left and the newly independent governments of Niger, Mali, Algeria, Libya, and Burkina Faso sought to suppress Tuareg power in the region.....

 

In 2023 and 2024 the economic and political situation in Mali has gotten worse, with more Islamic terrorist violence and growing areas of northern and central Mali coming under the control of Islamic terrorist groups.

-------------------------

update: SP has more on the Russian merc losses. 

the World tour promotes the beauties of Zimbabwe

 the guys in the World tour (aka Top Gear 2) do their last show in Zimbabwe, showing the beauties of the land.

this is a big boost for tourism.

alas, not their best show, and it could have shown more of the country, but it is a welcome change from most of the reporting by western outlets, showing the good part of the country in their trip from Mutare to Botswana.

when society breaks down, barbarity commences

 Instapundit, which usually covers politics and science, took time to do a post about the atrocities in the DRC civil wars.

No, it's not the culture: The culture was destroyed by Arab slave traders (east Africa slave trade was documented by Livingstone, but sort of ignored by the western historians) and later the Europeans who wanted cheap labor, and of course, the desire of everyone to get gold (and now other rare earth metals).

here is the entire post.

The Calamitous Rape Crisis Unfolding in Congo’s War: Around 80% of women in camps for the displaced have been raped in brutal attacks, as international attention wanes. ‘If the war ends, I won’t have to be raped anymore.’

Over a decade ago, political leaders and celebrities from around the globe made a high-publicity pledge to put an end the use of rape as a weapon of war. Hillary Clinton, as secretary of state, met survivors in eastern Congo, which amid years of back-to-back and parallel conflicts, had become known as the “rape capital of the world.” The U.K.’s then-foreign secretary, William Hague, who visited Goma, the biggest city on Congo’s border with Rwanda, with actress Angelina Jolie, likened sexual violence in conflict zones, and the world’s quest to end it, to “the slave trade of our generation.”

But it gets worse: Congo’s Forgotten Curse: Epidemic of Female-on-Female Rape. “Rape in conflict zones has long been the subject of news reports and academic study and large amounts of donor funding is channeled to organizations that respond to it. But rape specifically perpetrated by women has received less attention. Recent studies suggest the problem is more widespread than many experts previously believed. In 2010, Harvard academic Lynn Lawry and a team of researchers conducted a survey of human-rights abuses in over 1,000 households in conflict-ridden eastern Congo. It was the same year that Margot Wallstrom, the U.N. special representative on sexual violence in conflict, dubbed Congo ‘the rape capital of the world.’ Lawry’s study asked victims of sexual violence to specify their assailant’s gender. It found that 40% of the women — and 10% of the men — who said they were subjected to sexual violence were assaulted by a woman.”

Also rape by U.N. “peacekeepers.”

And of course, there’s lots of rape of men in Congo too. “During his escape from the civil war in neighbouring Congo, he had been separated from his wife and taken by rebels. His captors raped him, three times a day, every day for three years. And he wasn’t the only one. He watched as man after man was taken and raped. The wounds of one were so grievous that he died in the cell in front of him.”

blood cobalt

 

Starlink in Sudan

 LINK Global Voices article:

The ongoing war has severely damaged Sudan’s ability to offer essential public services, including national banking services. The Electronic Banking Services Company (EBS), which oversees governmental e-banking operations, lost the ability to offer clearing services, which disrupted bank-to-bank transactions. Furthermore, the RSF looted banks in several cities in Sudan, leading to long queues at bank offices and further complicating traditional banking operations.

long article about the internet which enables bank transfers, but alas the military on both sides are using it too.

MPox

Fear grips east DR Congo as displaced await mpox vaccine https://t.co/npVsWLni6y

— Inquirer (@inquirerdotnet) August 18, 2024

Zimbabwe vs pro democracy activists

 Global voices has a long report 

 Pro-democracy activists in Zimbabwe are being prosecuted for ‘public disorder’ Detained activists said they were tortured and threatened with rape Go to link (copyrighted article).

Yahoo News report here:

HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe police have arrested 18 political activists and hauled some of them off a plane, their lawyers said Thursday, in the latest clampdown by the government after warning it would crush opposition protests ahead of its hosting of a meeting of the southern African heads of state this month. The Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights group said it was representing the activists, who were detained on Wednesday. Among the activists arrested is Namatai Kwekweza, a 25-year-old pro-democracy campaigner and the inaugural winner of the Kofi Annan NextGen Democracy Prize in 2023. The prize is awarded by the late United Nations secretary-general’s foundation to young people committed to the principles of democracy.

and follow the money: 

Mnangagwa, Zimbabwe's first lady and others were sanctioned by the United States earlier this year for alleged involvement in gold and diamond smuggling and human rights abuses.

elite conservationists vs Masai

"Even if the Tanzanian government’s concerns about land use pressures on the biodiversity of the conservation area are valid, addressing them should not justify human rights abuses."

— #AJOpinion by @OryemNyeko and @NnokoMewanu. https://t.co/1brhGa4nhT

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 12, 2024

NIgeria: Cholera

maybe because the infrastructure for drinking water is lacking

this is from 3 years ago:

and this is from 9 years ago:

the movement of population from villages to the city outstrips the ability to provide services such as water.

a restricted article on the background:

Even if people can afford to pay the bills, the provision of urban services by state actors (or commissioned firms) is erratic and often not available. The daily infrastructure provision remains the responsibility of individuals and groups, mostly organised in complex yet fragile and changing networks. Drawing from the research on the existing, largely informal water supply in slum communities, this article argues for the recognition and pro-active implementation of hybrid approaches in the planning, implementation and administration of urban infrastructure. It calls for co-production and ‘hybrid water governance’.

here is another recent article:

the more recent articles blame global warming of course, but what is not mentioned: Corruption. How bad is corruption? So bad that it has a wikipedia page about it.Nigeria ranked 145th among the 180 countries in the Index, where the country ranked first is perceived to have the most honest public sector.

2021 BBC article.

Replacing aging infrastructure is often low priority even in the USA, but when aid money is easily diverted or shoddy work on the infrastructure is done, the result is disease. I cannot prove how much this contributes to the cholera epidemic, but in Harare and even parts of the Philippines, it was a major cause of cholera.

the resettlement of the Somali Bantus: an unreported story

 I worked with Ojibwe in northern Minnesota, but was aware of the large Hmong refugee population of Minneapolis, and later the resettlement of thousands of Somalis, who by the way did not assimilate with the small native African Americans who were living there.

However, on looking into why they were settled there as refugees, I found that many of them were actually Bantu Somalis: Webpage here.

https://somalibantumaine.org/somali-bantu-background/

When civil war broke out in Somalia, the Somali Bantus were sent from their homes and farms by armed people of the Somali clan. The legacy and stigma of slavery made the Bantu population particularly vulnerable and many Somali Bantus were killed, tortured, and raped by the ethnic Somalis as the famine increased. The ones who were able to flee walked anywhere from two to four weeks to reach the Kenyan border.

a long complicated history there about slavery, assimilation, the various tribes in Somalia, and the civil war (including the pasturalist vs the SomaliBantu agricultural workers being part of the background) and a report on how many ended up fleeing to nearby countries.

 So  how did a lot of them end up in Minneapolis?

The US State Dept resettled them as refugees.

the refugee program has come to be shaped by a global human rights agenda, divorced from the previous grounding in foreign policy and national interest. The most recent evidence for this is the decision to resettle a tribe known as the Somali Bantu from UN refugee camps to the United States, rather than explore the very real possibility of solutions within Africa itself.

... Under this new model refugees to the United States are more likely to be direct referrals from UN-run refugee camps. The U.S. State Department has committed to taking at least 50 percent of those refugees, ... Since 1992, 77 percent of refugees who were resettled permanently in industrialized countries came to the United States.

 

The UNHCR has three options for dealing with the refugees in its care, who by definition have fled their country of origin to another country of “first asylum.” Besides maintaining the supposedly temporary camps where the refugees reside, the UNHCR pursues “durable solutions” which include 1) voluntary repatriation — return to the country of immediate origin; 2) integration and permanent residence in the country of “first asylum;” or 3) resettlement to a third country. Repatriation is by far the most commonly used solution.

so who are the Somali Bantu? 

The Somali Bantu, which comprise several tribes, are viewed as two subgroups in their relationship to Somali majority society. One group’s ancestors migrated to modern-day Somalia roughly a thousand years ago and consider themselves to be Somalis. The other group, numbering about 300,000 to 400,000 are descendants of Bantu brought to East Africa by Arab slavers in the 19th century. Severely discriminated against by ruling class or “dominant clan” Somalis, part of this group, also known as Mushungulis, sought refuge in neighboring Tanzania and Kenya with over half of those who fled winding up in UN refugee camps in Kenya.

It is the Somali Bantu in Kenyan UN refugee camps that the United States has agreed to admit on its refugee program.

the article discusses the decision of resettling far away instead of what would be cheaper and better for all involved: Resettle in nearby countries.

a book on their resettlement in Maine.

Blood cobalt and the chaos in central Africa

StrategyPage has a long essay on the Congo, and the elections.

but the part I want to quote is this, and I wonder how China managed to control their mineral wealth.

Just defeating Kabila in an election was a remarkable feat because the former president had enriched himself with corrupt dealings. The worst corruption was in eastern Congo (Ituri, North and South Kivu provinces) and southern Congo (Katanga province). These provinces are where foreign firms mine and export valuable minerals.

what it comes down to is that China is investing in the cobalt mining, and it's easy to bribe and let authorities steal the profit (and probably the Chinese firms will also divert some of that money).

In southeastern Congo (Lualaba province) the state-owned cobalt monopoly, Entreprise Generale du Cobalt (EGC), had been paying artisanal, or informal, cobalt miners a minimum price of $30,000 a ton for cobalt that was selling for $50,000 a ton. The government contended that unregulated minral brokers paid artisanal miners much less than $30,000 a ton. For a long time these independent miners have produced about ten percent of Congo’s Cobalt. Most of those mineral brokers work with or for Chinese companies which control an estimated 70 percent of Congo’s mineral deposits and mining industry. The Chinese state-owned CNMC (China Nonferrous Metal Mining Company Ltd.) owns huge cobalt and copper reserves in Congo.,,,

Congo is the world’s biggest cobalt producer, each year producing a growing majority of the world’s total cobalt. In 2020 Congo produced about 100,000 tons of cobalt, which was 71 percent of the world total. By 2021 industry sources estimated that Chinese companies controlled around 40 percent of Congo’s cobalt mining capacity. 

Why cobalt? China is planning to take over the world with their electric cars.

it is not just exploiting the workers and stealing the profits: It is also destroying the environment and displacing people from their traditional land.

Human rights abuses are well documented

AlJazeerah reportAlJazeerah report

In the report Powering Change or Business as Usual? published on Tuesday, Amnesty International and the DRC-based organisation IBGDH, or Initiative pour la Bonne Gouvernance et les Droits Humains (Initiative for Good Governance and Human Rights), detail how the expansion of multinational mining operations has led to communities being forced from their homes and farmland.,,“Climate justice demands a just transition. Decarbonising the global economy must not lead to further human rights violations. The people of the DRC experienced significant exploitation and abuse during the colonial and post-colonial era, and their rights are still being sacrificed as the wealth around them is stripped away.”

Amnesty International report:“The forced evictions taking place as companies seek to expand industrial-scale copper and cobalt mining projects are wrecking lives and must stop now,” said Agnès Callamard, Amnesty International’s Secretary General.

NPR reports:How 'modern-day slavery' in the Congo powers the rechargeable battery economy

much of the DRC's cobalt is being extracted by so-called "artisanal" miners — freelance workers who do extremelyKara says the mining industry has ravaged the landscape of the DRC. Millions of trees have been cut down, the air around mines is hazy with dust and grit, and the water has been contaminated with toxic effluents from the mining processing. dangerous labor for the equivalent of just a few dollars a day.

 

even Joe Rogan is publicizing this atrocity:

South African Elections

 I hadn't been following the elections in South Africa, since essentially the president was reelected in early June

But the backstory is that the ANC lost it's majority so must join with other parties to form a government.

NPR report:

Tessa Dooms, a director at Rivonia Circle, a think tank in South Africa, said it was a historic result that diminished the ANC’s three decades hold on power. “The election in South Africa is an important watershed moment that fundamentally changes politics,” she said...The ANC will now have to form a coalition government with one or more opposition parties for the first time, to remain in power...

however, will the coalition stand?

,,,,,

Global Voices also has a long analysis from the local blogopshere and quotes a left wing politician as saying the ANC has now partnered with with the DA to form a government, who they claim is the same as joining with white money interests.

observation from Africafeeds:

The radical left Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and populist uMkhonto we Sizwe refused to participate in a government that included the DA. “History will judge you and judge you harshly,” Malema said. “This is not a government of national unity. This is a grand coalition between the ANC and white monopoly capital.”

Global voices has more discussion of the pact including social media commentary at the link.

this is not right vs left, but about the corruption in the ANC, and the economic problems making the income disparity there worse.

By the way: China is SA's major trade parner, so how does this affect the economy?
Here, cheap Chinese imports have destroyed local industries, and people resent the Chinese for not hiring locals. So economically the talk of worrying about white money is more complicated: Will this lead to more investment in the South African economy (and maybe lead to SA businesses being able to fight off Chinese competition)? 

I have no idea.

islamic extremists

West African rice recipe

 We grow organic brown rice here in the Philippines, but a lot of rice is grown in West Africa, and originally that rice , Oryza glaberrima was a slightly different type than Asian rice, and was domesticated 3000 years ago.according to Wikipedia.

In comparison to Asian rice, African rice is hardy, pest-resistant, low-labour, and suited to a larger variety of African conditions.[1] It is described as filling, with a distinct nutty flavour.

This rice was the one originally planted in the Southern Unite states, but even in Africa, it has mainly been replaced by the Asian variety which is more productive, but there is a push to continue growing this valuable crop.

more at Atlas Obscura.

If you’ve been paying attention to the growth in interest in West African culinary traditions, you’ve probably noticed the increased popularity of Jollof rice. The name derives from one of the kingdoms of my Ancestors, the Wolof peoples living in modern-day Senegal, Gambia, and Mauritania. The Wolof have a great reputation as traders, artisans, musicians, and cooks, forming along with their neighbors the heart of the culture and cuisine of Senegambia...Jollof rice, or benachin, may be from Senegambia, but it spread through Wolof and Mande traders and unfortunately due to colonialism. Different countries have different names and styles of preparation to match. The fiercest rivalry may be between Ghana and Nigeria.

However, Jollof-style rice became the grandmother of Lowcountry red rice as well as jambalaya and rice from Mexico, Brazil, and various spaces in the Caribbean. All you need is tomato, onion, pepper, and spices.

Recipe at link

this video explains how you make it.

 

this one uses Jasmine rice, since the African rice is not available in most western countries.

This article at FlavorInsider compares Jollof rice and Jumbalaya. Some similarities but not the same.

Kenya provides peacekeeping troops to Haiti

alJ discusses here.

........the Euroweenies Germans of course are skeptical. The Germans see them as patsies for the USA. Huh?. Why are they going outside of Africa? Uh, fellahs, they were in Croatia as peacekeepers a decade ago. The NWO is trying to stop this from happening of course. I wonder why.

my sarcasm: Well, if the Germans are worried about genocide elsewhere in the world, why don't they see genocide in Haiti as a problem?, why don't they send their troops there? 

........

Kenyan peacekeepers have worked elsewhere: such as in the Congo.

more here:

were these vaccines harming Africans?

 We gave vaccines out in Africa (and America), and I saw how a lot fewer babies died of measles etc.

But after the Dengue vaccine deaths here in the Philippines, we have to realize there might be a problem.

Sudan war update

 

It has been nearly one year since war broke out in Sudan, causing a devastating humanitarian crisis.

Here's what you need to know about the war, the peacemaking efforts undertaken since its outbreak, and the current humanitarian situation ⤵️https://t.co/UN0asdGx0e

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) April 11, 2024

,,,,,,,,,,,,

:LINK

The two warring parties, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), have continued a longstanding struggle for power. Over the past year, violent clashes have killed nearly 16,000 people and displaced millions.

the Russian mercenaries were arming the rebels but no recent reports on what they are doing now. 

this Swiss newsite has a recent summary of what is going on now:

For the past year, Sudan has been the scene of a war that has turned the second-largest country in sub-Saharan Africa into a field of rubble. At the same time, Sudan is a geopolitical playground. Many countries are pursuing their interests in the region, generally not in a way that promotes peace. This includes neighboring Egypt, six other neighboring countries with their own concerns, nearby Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Then there is the United States and the European Union. And Russia and Ukraine. Despite this geopolitical jostling, the war has been receiving little media attention. This is in part due to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. And the complexity of the conflict. The main warring parties are the regular Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, a ruthless and well-armed militia that may include as many as 100,000 fighters. The war has taken on vast dimensions. In March, the U.S. State Department described it as «the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.» More than 8 million Sudanese people (out of a total of 45 million) have been displaced. More than 1 million people have fled across the country's borders. The state has collapsed. Only around a quarter of all health care facilities are still functioning.

so the Russian mercs (wagner group) are still there, and WTF, the Ukrainians are there hunting the Russian mercs.

For the past year, Sudan has been the scene of a war that has turned the second-largest country in sub-Saharan Africa into a field of rubble. At the same time, Sudan is a geopolitical playground. Many countries are pursuing their interests in the region, generally not in a way that promotes peace. This includes neighboring Egypt, six other neighboring countries with their own concerns, nearby Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Then there is the United States and the European Union. And Russia and Ukraine. Despite this geopolitical jostling, the war has been receiving little media attention. This is in part due to the wars in Gaza and Ukraine. And the complexity of the conflict. The main warring parties are the regular Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces, a ruthless and well-armed militia that may include as many as 100,000 fighters. The war has taken on vast dimensions. In March, the U.S. State Department described it as «the largest humanitarian crisis in the world.» More than 8 million Sudanese people (out of a total of 45 million) have been displaced. More than 1 million people have fled across the country's borders. The state has collapsed. Only around a quarter of all health care facilities are still functioning.

Terrorists in Mozambique

 

Western cultural imperialism; now being pushed by the antipope

 

fast forward to 8 minutes:

African culture

the grand tour of Zimbabwe

due to be released on Amazonprime in the near future:

Sudan's civil war

from globalvoices who likes to keep the copyright so go and read it.

two points: One is that all the hysteria about Gaza lets people overlook this war:

this article is about shutting down internet communication

Since conflict broke out in April 2023, both the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have deployed internet shutdowns as a weapon to block information flows in areas controlled by the opposing faction. This is exacerbating an already dire humanitarian crisis that has seen at least 13,000 people killed and over nine million internally displaced — the largest internal displacement crisis in the world.

The ongoing internet blackout has posed serious challenges for emergency assistance and humanitarian aid.

wikipedia on the RSF and their many atrocities.

they also are working with Europe to slow the migration of refugees there, and of course are busy getting gold for their allies such as the Wagner group from Russia.

Allies Wagner Group[3][4] Libyan National Army[5] United Arab Emirates Chad[6][7] Central African Republic[8]

Opponents Sudan Sudanese Armed Forces Egypt[9]

China and food

 The German media looks at how China is "taking over" the UN's food organization and is upset because they are encouraging using herbicides and pesticides.

Alas, say the Germans. Look at the problems.

Ah but does it mean more food for locals? Heck, this is a green ecology report, so who cares about eating. Yes I'm being sarcastic.

central Africa war gets worse: blame your cellphone

 

Thousands flee in eastern DR Congo as M23 rebels advance near Goma https://t.co/zsL5dmj4Wz

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) February 8, 2024

it is an ethnic conflict, but also it is about Coltan oreColtan (short for columbite–tantalites and known industrially as tantalite) is a dull black metallic ore from which the elements niobium and tantalum are extracted. The niobium-dominant mineral in coltan is columbite (after niobium's original American name columbium), and the tantalum-dominant mineral is tantalite.[1] Tantalum from coltan is used to manufacture tantalum capacitors which are used for mobile phones, personal computers, automotive electronics, and cameras.[2] Coltan mining[3][4] is widespread in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.[5][6][7]

DR Congo has 70% of the world's coltan and it comes from the Kivus.

AlJ Article here

.In a region already plagued with militia violence, M23 rebels launched a major new offensive in March 2022, sparking a conflict that has led to military intervention and mediation efforts by East African regional leaders. They brokered a ceasefire last year but it has been repeatedly violated. Clashes between the rebels, army forces and self-defence groups that support them have escalated recently, forcing entire communities in Masisi and Rutshuru territories to flee to perceived areas of greater safety on the outskirts of Goma.

BBC 2012 report here:

wikipedia page on M23 rebellions. and this page on the origin (M23 means March 23). They are ethnic Tutsi. and Ruanda used to help them.

A United Nations report found that Rwanda created and commanded the M23 rebel group.[12] Rwanda ceased its support because of international pressure and the military defeat by the DRC and the UN in 2013.[13] In 2017, M23 elements resumed their insurgency in the DRC, but the operations of this splinter faction had little local impact.[14] In 2022, a larger portion of M23 started an offensive, which eventually resulted in the capture of the Congolese border town of Bunagana by the rebels.[15][16] In November 2022, M23 rebels got close to the city of Goma and forced about 180,000 people to leave their homes after the Congolese Army had withdrawn from the region near the village of Kibumba.[17]. In June 2023, Humans rights watch reported human rights abuses by M23 rebels in the democratic republic of Congo, including unlawful killings, rapes and other war crimes.

African immigrants: The backstory

To understand the story of immigration in the United States, one must delve into the experiences of these men, @simonateba and @elonmusk.

Both were born in Africa. Elon Musk, the son of an electromechanical engineer and a dietitian/model, had a relatively privileged background.… pic.twitter.com/4ALZmjoDDC

— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) February 3, 2024

..................

...

China in DRC

Unraveling the Complexities of China’s Mining Deals in Congo: Broken Promises and Lawlessness

Since 2015, only $822 million has been spent out of the $3 billion investment promised by China.
👉https://t.co/m61urOvhOe pic.twitter.com/U9DM3gabMk

— The Epoch Times (@EpochTimes) February 3, 2024

Sudan atrocities

Sudan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group are committing war crimes in Darfur, says the International Criminal Court’s (ICC) chief prosecutor. https://t.co/DOFsCYL0oq

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 30, 2024

////////

Mohamed said the RSF “militia” is committing large-scale, systematic attacks which aim “to force ethnic cleansing and identity killing” of Darfur’s Masalit ethnic community. He said it is up to the prosecutor to determine if this amounts to genocide.

More on the Rapid support force here.

 

* The RSF evolved from so-called Janjaweed militias that fought in a conflict in the 2000s in the Darfur region, where they were used by the government of long-ruling President Omar al-Bashir to help the army put down a rebellion. More than 2 million people were displaced and as many as 300,000 killed from 2003-2008. International Criminal Court prosecutors accused government officials and Janjaweed commanders of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur.

Beginning in 2015, the RSF, along with Sudan's army, began sending troops to fight in the war in Yemen alongside Saudi and Emirati troops, allowing Hemedti to forge ties with the Gulf powers.

the saudis are opposing the Houthis in that civil war. So essentially they are mercenaries for Saudi

the article describes their part in the present civil war in the Sudan which is tribal, and is about who gets to keep the gold.

LINK

and Russian mercenaries, the Wagner group, was involved because they wanted some of the gold.... are they still involved? Last article a couple months ago.

Sudan, Houthi and the overlooked wars there.

 in the last week, we saw Iran hit Balochi rebels who hid in Pakistan, and now Pakistan hit them back. And today there are reports that Jordan is hitting drug smugglers in Syria.

so although Gaza dominates the news, a lot of other stuff is going on in the Middle East and is spilling into Africa.

if you really want your head to spin, check out what is going on in Sudan, where recent fighting has displaced 7 million people. 

It's about gold and petroleum. The Wagner group of Russian mercenaries were there, and the local so called Rapid Reaction force is busy spreading war all over the region, including helping the Saudis fight the Houthi.

Sigh. So many bad guys.

African christian report on western progressive dogma

 Apparently the NYTimes finally got around to noticing that the African bishops were sort of angry at the so called Pope for pushing the gay agenda by blessing irregular sexual relationships.

Of course, in Africa this would impact polygamists who want to convert, but the real push back is against the homosexual part, for many reasons

NYTimes is behind a paywall, but the blog GetReligion who reports on the western media's inability to get religion correct in their reports, has a summary here.

NYT puts in the word fear, implying the evil idea of homophobia, but GR asks if maybe they are talking about fear of Islamic attacks. 

And of course the NYTimes doesn't see what Cardinal Sarah has pointed out: that this so called blessing a threat to the institution of the family, which is the core of Africa, (and is already under attack from a capitalism that forced men to work away from family, and under attack by various NGOs and UN treaties that are pushing contraception, abortion and promiscuity including in the schools).

Left out of most western press stories quoting him: The part where he says Africa will defend the family. (a recent book by African bishops essentially said the same thing: That Africa will be the ones who defend the family just as Africa protected the Christ child and Holy Family when they fled to Egypt from Herod).

No, here is how the NYT frames the problem:

Home to 236 million of the world’s 1.3 billion Catholics, Africa accounted for more than half of the 16.2 million people who joined the church worldwide in 2021. As bishops and other church leaders on the continent deal with the fallout among their parishioners over the declaration, broader concerns have been raised about whether it could lead to a rift between Pope Francis and a region that is a demographic bright spot for Catholicism.

yup. it's about politics and power.

The GR article then notes something we also see: African priests in the USA who are missionaries. When I lived in Oklahoma, we were essentially mission territory and yes we did have African priests.

 

this recent USA Today headline: “African priests fill American pulpits as 'reverse missionaries,' revitalizing parishes.” Why are so many priests from Africa ending up in America? That’s pretty simply: African Catholics have more children, more converts and more new priests than Americans.

USA Today noted: 

After decades of U.S. missionaries traveling to Africa to convert and preach, the trend is reversing: Across the country, parishes now rely on the ministry of international priests, many from East Africa and Nigeria. ... working in the black areas? Well maybe. but the culture is different.

Actually, there are also a lot of Polish and Vietnamese priests, who seem to be Catholic, out there too. Why?

Meanwhile, the number of American priests is tumbling: there are 10,000 fewer priests now than there were two decades ago. maybe because a lot of seminaries were hostile to men who wanted to be Caholic. Goodbye Good Men...which we saw in the Altoona diocese when I worked there. Is it still that bad? Don't ask me: I live in the Philippines where those leading tend to be into green theology and hip stuff but here in the rural areas, are still into traditional fiestas etc. but alas many are now joining Protestant churches to find Jesus.

But the push of the gay agenda into churches is also splitting other churches,such as the Anglicans and Methodists, including those in the USA.

Rice growing causes methane. Duh.

 We Asians are aware that growing rice causes methane release.

Asians have long been blamed by the global warming crazies because we eat rice.

Flooding rice paddies and plowing weeds etc into the mud to rot and fertilize the crops results in methane, a greenhouse gas. So we rice farmers are under pressure to limit the flooding of the rice paddies.

dirty little secret: this method lowers methane release, but increases Nitrous oxide release, which is another greenhouse gas even worse than Methane.

But now Nature magazine is blaming Africa because they too are busy growing rice.

Africa has been identified as a major driver of the current rise in atmospheric methane, and this has been attributed to emissions from wetlands and livestock. Here we show that rapidly increasing rice cultivation is another important source, and we estimate that it accounts for 7% of the current global rise in methane emissions.

so what is their answer? Stop growing rice and starve you peasants. 

Continued rice expansion to feed a rapidly growing population should be considered in climate change mitigation goals.

This will alert the western green NGOs to stop Africans from doing this.

In contrast, China is helping them to grow rice.

getting them to plant hybrid rice with a higher yield, and helping with loans to update their farming practices.

The article goes into details how they are doing this, including finding which type of rice grows best and making a rice institute there to grow seeds for locals to plant.

 

More than 20 African countries are planting hybrid rice, and China continues to provide agricultural technical support to countries and regions in need, helping countries strengthen agricultural capacity building related to hybrid rice.

Internet for Africans off the web

 

Starlink now available in Mozambique! https://t.co/j2t09i8wJo

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 5, 2024

EU Treaty dangers

 From MSNews

they note that it favors Europe in a way that could undermine local industries and even agriculture.

The EU-ACP treaty could exacerbate existing trade imbalances. The EU, as a highly developed economic bloc, may have the upper hand in negotiations, potentially leading to terms that favour European interests....

Signing the EU-ACP treaty may expose local industries to stiff competition from more advanced European counterparts. This could jeopardize the growth and sustainability of Nigerian industries, leading to job losses and hindered economic diversification.

 

...  The agricultural sector, a crucial component of Nigeria’s economy, could face challenges under the EU-ACP treaty. The influx of subsidized European agricultural products might undermine the competitiveness of local farmers. This could have detrimental effects on food security and the livelihoods of those dependent on agriculture. 

and I suspect the protect the environment types will pressure their farmers to stop growing food because global warming... 

Bullying Africa to accept the gender agenda of the UN

 LINK article from Nov 2023

Holdouts cast shadow over new EU pact with African, Caribbean and Pacific states

The EU this week finally sealed an agreement on a new treaty that will govern relations with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) community, but the refusal of 35 of the 79 ACP states to sign it has cast a shadow over its merits. ....

so 45 percent of those supposed to sign the agreement refused to go along with it. 

The new treaty is designed to serve as a legal framework guiding relations between the EU’s 27 nations and 79 African, Caribbean and Pacific countries for the next two decades.

However, at the formal signing ceremony in Samoa on Wednesday (15 November), 35 ACP countries refused to sign the agreement which will provisionally enter into force in January 2024.

The holdouts include 20 African countries, 9 Caribbean states and six in the Pacific.

The repeated delays have been a growing source of frustration for EU officials, with many worrying that the bloc’s failure to ratify the treaty would be viewed as bad faith by its partners.,,...

Obey the EU or else? who died and made them king? 

The article says they won't sign because these countries are mad at the EU's position on the Ukraine and Gaza, but you know, those two wars post date the writing of the treaty.

So maybe it's about something else. 

Warsaw had withheld its signature in protest at the treaty’s language promoting non-discrimination, LGBT+ rights and gender equality, while a handful of African states had previously indicated their reluctance to ratify the treaty over its provisions on non-discrimination which, they say, promote homosexuality....

.

so the problem is that these countries just won't agree to being bullied into the EU's gender agenda, which they hide by using the language of human rights. 

it establishes “common principles” in key areas such as human rights, climate change and migration...

“Now it’s imperative that both the EU and ACP states translate their commitments into concrete actions, involving youth and civil society organisations in working towards the achievement of shared goals,” Goerlitz said.

 shared goals? No, the goals of the EU.

Pope Francis once called this cultural imperialism.

But one Trad Catholic source pointed out that maybe Pope Francis arranged his brand new dogma chief who has only had the job for a couple months to quickly put out a pro gay blessing to impose this on the African church.

From the Remanant

...Fiducia Supplicans – the Vatican Declaration approving blessings for same-sex couples. This has nothing to do with pastoral sensitivity, and everything to do with politics, Agenda 2030, the SDGs of the United Nations, and the EU-ACO Treaty between the European Union and seventy-nine poorer countries...

So why are the African Catholic Bishops resisting Pope Francis to his face? Because forty-seven African countries will be most negatively impacted by the EU-ACP Treaty, which will force African nations to embrace the ... European Union position on human sexuality.

With the Vatican signaling change to the Church’s teaching on sexual morality, African bishops will be cut off at the knees.

the African bishops are of course refusing to sign off on the Pope's so called blessing of gay couples, (and divorced people living with another spouse, and polygamous couples). But no one in the west is listening to them.

So will the prophecy that Africa, who nurtured the Christ child when Herod persecuted him, also nurture the Catholic church faithful when the world decides to persecute them by destroying the faith?

Don't ask me. I'm a doctor, not a prophet.

Death in Dafur

No, not Gaza: Dafur. Video from Democracy Now

,,,,BBC REPORT:

,,,,,,,,

article from WSJ via MSN from two weeks ago:

The Sudanese-Arab militia worked its way systematically through the tents, shacks and mud houses of the Ardamata camp, shooting male residents. The settlement in western Darfur was home to about 30,000 non-Arab Sudanese people who had fled earlier bouts of fighting in the country’s civil war, which started nearly seven months ago. The United Nations Refugee Agency said Friday that around 800 people were killed in the camp and the surrounding community between Nov. 4 and 6. Local activists said the number of victims could be above 1,000. The killings, these activists and international officials say, raise the specter of a repeat of the bloodshed inflicted on Darfur two decades ago, when Sudanese-Arab militias killed an estimated 300,000 people, most of them members of the region’s non-Arab minority.

follow the money: The area is full of gold reserves.

And the govt is supported by the Russian mercs, aka Wagner group who want the gold.

CNN Article 2022: They were plundering gold to pay for the war in the Ukraine.

Human rights watch report from this November: 

“The Rapid Support Forces’ latest episode of ethnically targeted killings in West Darfur, has the hallmarks of an organized campaign of atrocities against Massalit civilians,” said Mohamed Osman, Sudan researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The UN Security Council needs to stop ignoring the desperate need to protect Darfur civilians.”

This CNN report notes how the Wagner group is backing the RSF

“What is not in doubt is Wagner’s role in this, it has been supplying the RSF with arms and supplies through Darfur,” one Western intelligence official told CNN.

“It follows Wagner’s modus operandi. Create chaos and seize power,” another intelligence source active in the region 

just a reminder to the left in the USA who blame the CIA and Israel for all the problems in the world: Lots of bad guys out there oding their thing. And the UN, alas, is pretty helpless to stop it.

Sigh.

informal banks in Zimbabwe

"At the banks, I can’t get loans because they are very strict and require you to be formally employed and to have collateral."

How a hawker in Zimbabwe joined an informal savings club for financial support ⤵️ https://t.co/7Nkmtyy6Tb

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) October 8, 2023

................full article at AlJ:---------

The Collapse of the French ex colonies?

 Not my area of expertise, but these reports are about several recent coups in the southern Sahel which used to be French colonies, and where the French usually kept the peace, but now we see the Wagner group manipulating the local military and of course the Muslim charity money that is diverted into jihadi groups.

=======

.........

Strategypage has an article on what is going on in Mali:

apparantly the Wagner group, is now considered as formally Russian troops, and the government will have to deal with the Russian Government

Backstory is the head of the Wagner group attempted a coup against Putin and died in an accident (/s).

so what is important about Mali?

Gold

Mali is a major producer of gold and the Russians have always been willing accept payments in gold. Russia maintains a huge gold stockpile (about 2,300 tons), the fifth largest in the world. The Russian gold is an emergency fund that is now being tapped to pay for military operations in Ukraine. 

backstory:

 The military government in Mali had hoped that hiring Russian Wagner Group mercenaries would enable Mali to maintain control of northern and central Mali. ...

The problems began when the military government ordered the independent French Barkhane counter-terrorism force out of Mali and it was gone by the end of 2021. Since then, Mali forced the 15,000 UN peacekeepers to start withdrawing. The government forced the French and G5 peacekeepers out by the end of 2021.

lots of details at the link. cated article on what is going on in Central Africa.

again not my area of expertise.

But this part is about refugees in Malawi:

August 10, 2023: Malawi is seeking emergency funds and donations to feed more than 50,000 refugees who are crammed into the Dzaleka Camp. This is the only refugee camp in the country. Most of the refugees in Dzaleka are from Rwanda, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia and Somalia. The government says the camp will run out of food by December 2023. Foreign aid groups have already cut food supplies because of funding shortages. The government says it needs an additional $6.3 million in order to feed the refugees through June 2024. There are also about 8,000 refugees living outside the camp and are regarded as illegal migrants by the government that they are trying to relocate.

sigh 

Refugees are a world wide problem.

I wonder how many of those the fleeing to Europe is due to such disorder. 

Zimbabwe election: disputes as usual

 a new elected government, opposition yells fraud, counter story is that the USA/West is trying to manipulate the opposition, and the elephant in the room: What did China do behind the scenes?

I congratulate President Emmerson Mnangagwa on his re-election. I wish him and the people of Zimbabwe well for the upcoming term.

— Cyril Ramaphosa 🇿🇦 (@CyrilRamaphosa) August 28, 2023

🟡Dear @ZECzim,

You have consistently denied summoning polling officers to the command center for the signing of new V.11 forms. However, to expose your dishonesty, our team was deployed this afternoon to Nyika, where they witnessed the opening of ballot boxes in the absence of… pic.twitter.com/yGpCOhSX6s

— Citizens' Coalition for Change (@CCCZimbabwe) August 28, 2023

China's official news story LINK

and they say in other articles that China is willing to help the government, (but not so much the west who are suspicious and cautious about helping).

Background: Article from the Economist 12 22 about China building a surveillence state in Zimbabwe.

most of the article is behind a paywall, but here is how it starts:

Registering to vote in Bulawayo, Zimbabwe’s second city, isn’t easy. The only registration centre is two bus journeys from the most populous suburbs. Nationwide there are just 71 voter-registration centres, or one for every 216,000 people (though some mobile ones are operating ahead of a general election next year). And this is not the only worry. Since 2018 Zimbabwe has collected fingerprints, photos, addresses and phone numbers to clean up the voters’ roll, which was reportedly full of “ghost voters”. This frightens many Zimbabweans, especially those belonging to the minority Ndebele ethnic group, much of which is concentrated near Bulawayo. In 1983 some 20,000 mostly Ndebele people were massacred by the army. Emmerson Mnangagwa, now the president, was head of the security services at the time. Now, people fear data collection “is a way to re-identify and target us,” says Rodwin Sibanda of the Habakkuk Trust, an ngo in Bulawayo.

China Projects blog has an article about Chinese projects in Zimbabwe: it's the mines, stupid.

China is Zimbabwe’s biggest foreign investor and kept the nation afloat amid Western sanctions, but is now estimated to control 90% of Zimbabwe’s mining industry (with the largest lithium reserves in Africa) and helps keep the economically disastrous Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) in government.

Over the years, Chinese interests have been a power behind the throne — once again, ZANU-PF triumphed in national elections last week; once again, amid accusations of rigging the system — with a hand in making and breaking its leaders.

Corruption is why military coups don't work

Strategypage has a long essay on the implications of the coup in Niger and points out that often military coups are to fight corruption in civilian governments, but that it leads to a loss of western aid until they restore democracy.

But the bad news is that the problem is corruption and that corruption is so widespread that the military reforming government doesn't work.

part of the essay is about the Amreican and French military in the area trying to fight Islamic terrorism.

This is mainly a technical article outside my area of expertise, so if you are interested read the whole thing.

Election news from Zimbabwe

Emmerson Mnangagwa has won his second and final term as President of Zimbabwe, securing 52.6% of the vote against challenger Nelson Chamisa's 44% https://t.co/ozRk763LDj pic.twitter.com/tQhxk7AzXH

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 27, 2023

wagner group in Africa: what next

 Al J has an article discussing the Wagner group in Africa, and what will happen since their leader just was killed and Putin is insisting that these mercenaries pledge loyalty to Russia.

African governments had also been caught in a delicate balancing act between the shadowy mercenary group and the Russian government. The Malian coup-makers continue to refer to the armed group as “Russian instructors”, though CAR authorities are more forthcoming. “CAR authorities have always been uncomfortable,” Charles Bouessel, senior analyst on CAR for International Crisis Group, told Al Jazeera. “They did not know who to praise for Wagner’s assistance. Sometimes, they are thanking the Russian authorities and sometimes, they are thanking Prigozhin. But what they want is that the Russian assistance continues, and they would be cautious in expressing their opinion [on Prigozhin’s death] intimately.”

 

Election time

 

Voting is under way in Zimbabwe’s second general elections since a 2017 coup deposed the late ruler Robert Mugabe.

🔴 Follow our LIVE coverage: https://t.co/o8eUaqg0rI pic.twitter.com/0isoviOOZT

— Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) August 23, 2023

What's wrong with this picture?

 

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has accused the World Bank of seeking “to coerce” his country over its anti-LGBT legislation.

The bank had said that it was suspending new loans to the country due to its law against same-sex relations. https://t.co/pVTegu0KPZ pic.twitter.com/mrtcBlJoTe

— BBC News Africa (@BBCAfrica) August 10, 2023

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,and this is similar to what I have posted on several blogs about the pushing of the sexual agenda on small countries:

About a decade ago, the US had laws like "Don't ask, don't tell" in their military. In the US, LGBTQ is not accepted by everyone. Why do the US and the west think they can force Africa to accept LGBTQ? Let the west keep pushing us like slaves. We will embrace Russia and China.

— Edo DNA (@EdoDNA) August 10, 2023

UN against human trafficking

from a Japanese paper:

 Globally, there is a growing need to address the sexual abuse of children. Taylor said that there has been an explosion of sexual violence in the digital space. This includes an increase in the number of sexual images of children.

Main factors behind this were changes imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic and the increased use of the internet by children. In some cases, sexual violence against children takes place via live streaming.

Currently, one in eight adults worldwide experienced sexual abuse as a child, according to one statistic. That rate is increasing in the digital age. Already one in five children has experienced sexual abuse in the digital space in a country, a survey funded by GPeVAC found. The survey was conducted in 13 countries in Africa and Southeast Asia.