At least 85 civilians have been killed and dozens more injured in northern Nigeria following an accidental drone strike by the Nigerian Army. Many of the victims were women, children and the elderly who were celebrating the Muslim festival Maulud.

The army acknowledged that they mistakenly struck the village of Tudun Biri after they wrongly analyzed and misinterpreted patterns and activities resembling that of terrorists and bandits. The strike has caused outrage as President Bola Tinubu calls for a thorough investigation into the deadly incident.

Continued….This “error” is not the first for Nigeria. In January 2017, at least 112 people were killed when a fighter jet struck a camp housing 40,000 people displaced by terrorist violence in the town of Rann. The Nigerian military blamed the airstrike on "lack of appropriate marking of the area" in a report issued six months later.

Nigeria's armed forces often rely on air strikes in their fight against the militias who’ve terrorized civilians living in the northwestern region. Operating in the country for over a decade, these groups are based deep inside the forests and conduct raiding expeditions to loot and kidnap residents for ransom.

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VILE COP TASES, TAUNTS AFRICAN IN U.S.

A video’s gone viral for all the wrong reasons - as the US proves incapable of immunising itself against the virus that is cop brutality against Africans in America.

In it, we see 24-year-old Alabama resident Micah Washington being tasered point blank and taunted by a foul-mouthed female police officer during an arrest. Washington is compliant, but all the same she inflicts enough pain on him to reduce him to tears.

His girlfriend says he was just changing a burst tyre - though he was booked with drugs and weapons charges, as well as for resisting arrest. Dana Elmore, the officer in the video, was put on leave - but only after it was widely shared and condemned.

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AFRICA'S FORGOTTEN SCIENTIFIC HISTORY

Ivan Gladstone Van Sertima (1935-2009) was a Guyana-born professor of Africana Studies at Rutgers University in the United States.

He was best known for the pre-Columbian contact theory he presented in his 1976 book, They Came Before Columbus. While popular among Africans in the United States, the predominantly white academia dismissed the theory as 'Afrocentric.'

In this clip, he discusses ancient Africans' scientific contributions and the consequences of the great library of Alexandria burning down more than two millennia ago.

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AFRICANS ‘SOLD’ INTO ISRAELI ‘SLAVERY’?

Malawi’s done a shocker of a deal with Israel - the African country will provide cheap labour to work farms in the Middle Eastern state… farms abandoned by foreign workers after October 7th. The deal stinks to high heaven. Here’s African Stream’s Ahmed Ghoneim to explain why. What’s your reaction to this?

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Typical. The British army thinks African justice doesn’t apply to it.

A Kenyan court recently opened (but then immediately adjourned) a case into the 2012 death of Agnes Wanjiru - a 21-year-old mother who went missing in her hometown of Nanyuki. She was found months later in the septic tank of a local hotel with stab wounds.

Her family allege she was murdered by one or more British soldiers serving in Kenya - and a 2019 inquest agrees. A soldier was reported in The Sunday Times in 2021 to have confessed to the crime.

But the British Army has now asked the Kenyan High Court to dismiss the new case.

Continued….It claims the unit in question - BATUK, or ‘British Training Army Unit, Kenya’ - enjoys the immunity given to the British government.

Wanjiru’s 19-year-old niece wrote to Britain’s King Charles III ahead of his state visit to Kenya in October. She urged him to help bring about justice and closure.

But judging by the UK military’s latest intervention, her words fell on deaf ears. What is it trying to hide and why is it trying to stall justice for Wanjiru and her family?

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PLO EXPLAINS SAHEL COUPS,
ROLE OF FRANCE AS IMPERIAL POWER

The military takeovers of governments in the Sahel are a revolution. The French never left. These are key takeaways from PLO Lumumba during an African Stream roundtable discussion we were honoured to host. During our talk, the Pan-African scholar and lawyer explains how the French still manage the affairs of their former colonies, including printing their currency, the CFA franc, and the level of underhanded tactics employed, such as the assassination of Burkina Faso’s president Thomas Sankara, to ensure the continuance of French interests.

Continued….PLO Lumumba raises the issue of the ongoing insecurity crisis in the Sahel, as France, formerly dubbed the region’s ‘military partner’, is accused of backing the very terrorist groups it claims to fight. While this might sound a bit far-fetched, a lot of progress has been made in the battle against terrorism following France’s expulsion from the region, such as the recapture of Kidal in Mali and Djibo in Burkina Faso.

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UGANDA'S WAR ON SECOND-HAND CLOTHES

Although no official figures exist, the Uganda Dealers in Used Clothing and Shoes Association estimates that 16 million people, or one in three Ugandans, wear second-hand clothes. However, a potential government ban on the importation of used clothing may change that. The objective is to promote consumption of locally produced African-wear and Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni says that by protecting its local textile industry, the move will create thousands of new local jobs.

In 2016, Museveni sought to ban used clothing as part of an East African initiative to develop domestic industries. The policy faced significant opposition at the time.

Continued..Initially, the East African Community regional bloc mounted a united front against the importation of used clothes but the alliance wavered after Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda backed off at the prospect of retaliatory loss of duty-free access to U.S. markets through AGOA, the African Growth and Opportunity Act. Ratified by the U.S. congress in May 2000, the stated goal of this piece of legislation was to assist sub-Saharan Africa economies, as well as improve economic relations between the United States and the region.

Rwanda decided to go it alone, imposing steep taxes on used clothing. In a tit-for-tat move, the U.S. retaliated, suspending duty-free benefits for made-in-Rwanda products. East Africa imports about an eighth of the world's used clothing but as the millions of hand-me-down clothes make their way from donation bins in the U.S. and Europe to East Africa, the trade stifles the growth of the continent’s own textile industry.

Whether Uganda’s proposed ban will be implemented remains to be seen. However, this time, President Museveni seems fully committed to live up to his promise.

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BRITAIN FM IN RWANDA TO REVIVE ASYLUM DEAL

Britain has been dogged in its attempts to expel refugees. On 15 November, the UK Supreme Court ruled unlawful a previous agreement to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. This week, the government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak returned with a draft for a new bill, saying it should lay to rest the court’s concern about Rwanda’s poor human rights record.

NGOs, such as Asylum Aid and Human Rights Watch, have called the plan ‘cruel and ineffective.’ The United Kingdom is considered better placed to handle an influx of asylum seekers, as it is exponentially wealthier, with its $3 trillion Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Its small East African counterpart generates $11 billion in GDP. The UK has already paid 140 million pounds to Rwanda, considered the first installment to ensure the plan’s execution.

Continued….Moreover, Rwanda is the second most densely populated country in mainland Africa, according to United Nations population division forecasts available on the Worldometer website. It has a population density of 571 per square kilometres. Meanwhile, the UK, has 276 people per square kilometres. So, if the UK is full, as right-wing politicians claim, how should we describe Rwanda?

Meanwhile, key proponents of the deal, including Sunak and other former government officials, are themselves beneficiaries of the UK’s immigration policy. Talk about gatekeeping.

Have a watch, and please share your thoughts in the comments.

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TRAORÉ SHARES BURKINABÉ VISION WITH SCHOOLKIDS

As world renowned anti-imperialist scholar Michael Parenti said in 1986, ‘The revolution that feeds the children gets my support.’ That seems to be the spirit in Burkina Faso under Captain Ibrahim Traore’s leadership as president. In this clip from a live television appearance, he explains to school children the many ways Burkina Faso is rich, dispelling colonial myths that have painted Africa as a wasteland.

Burkina Faso has been busy over the past year. After the 30 September 2022 coup that created the Transition of Burkina Faso, France's ambassador, its troops and its media outlets were dismissed. Meanwhile, the landlocked Sahelian country has doubled down on efforts to recover its territory.

Continued….Up to 40 per cent of the country had been in terrorist hands before Traoré took the reigns. He has advocated for the formation of a Sahelian confederation that would include Mali and Niger, with the countless benefits that such an alliance can bring the region. This is unlike the Sahelian Alliance that France helped put together in 2014 and is nicknamed the 'G5.' The good news is Chad and Mauritania, the other two members of the G5, have just announced the Sahel Alliance should be dissolved, as they say it has failed at securing the region against terrorism.

With only one year in office, Traoré has reminded many of his predecessor, Thomas Sankara (1983-87), whose life was unfortunately cut short by a French-backed assassination. This time, Africa hopes the motherland will win. And, with folks like Captain Traoré in power, it is difficult to see why not.

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MANDELA CALLS OUT THE US!

10 years ago, on the 5th of December, Nelson Mandela, “Madiba,” passed away. He is remembered as a man who helped to lead South Africa out of the crimes and excesses of apartheid. The western mainstream media try whitewash him as just a fluffy old man that liked to dance and forgive his oppressors but we remember him as an anti-imperialist until the end.

In this video Mandela calls out America as warmongers—a country that supports carnage—a country that consistently breaks the rules and is more than willing to go to any lengths, even at the expense of basic human rights, to push its own hegemonic agenda.

Continued…He calls out the US on their invasion of Iraq and the war it initiated 20 years ago, a totally unnecessary military campaign resulting in the deaths of anywhere between one and two million men, women, and children. And, as former US secretary of State, Madeleine Albright, made clear when asked were US sanctions that claimed the lives of up to 500,000 Iraqi children justified, she responded, “we think the price is worth it."

Mandela was instrumental in tearing down South Africa’s oppressive apartheid regime, as well as speaking up for other oppressed African states. May he continue to rest in peace and power!

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