U.S. GENERAL DEMANDS ‘ACCESS AND INFLUENCE’ ACROSS MAGHREB

How close is North Africa to NATO? Well, according to the head of US Africa Command, it’s part of the alliance’s southern flank, and Russia is trying to ‘capture’ it.

Michael Langley made the sweeping statements while justifying America’s military presence in the region. But can he seriously present the US as the protector of African interests in the Maghreb?

It was not Russia that destroyed Libya, one of the wealthiest countries on the continent. Nor was Russia behind a string of coups and assassinations across Africa. Neither does Moscow have military bases in the Maghreb, unlike the US.

Continued…..However, there is one thing the four-star general is honest about - his own country’s interests. Langley happily admits: ‘We need to be able to maintain access and influence across the Maghreb from Morocco all the way to Libya.’

America is clearly shaken by the anti-colonial wave passing through the Sahel. But it makes us wonder, if he’s saying this openly, what is the US is planning behind closed doors?

Do you feel the same or are we being paranoid?

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AFRICA TOPS LIST OF FASTEST GROWING ECONOMIES

Some of the world’s fastest-growing economies are in Africa. And one of the biggest success stories on the continent is Niger. It’s predicted to enjoy 11.2% growth this year, after teaming up with Mali and Burkina Faso to form the Alliance of Sahel States. They’ve all cut ties with their former coloniser France and have also exited the regional economic bloc ECOWAS. Surely the financial success that’s followed can’t just be coincidence?

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AFRICA: ‘SUNNY HORROR’ OR ‘GARDEN OF PARADISE’?

The word ‘Africa’ is a mix of Greek and Latin - and the meaning, when you unpack it, isn’t great: sunny horror! Yes, we do get a lot of sun, and some days the sun feels horrid, but there’s a much better name for our lands that our ancestors used: ‘Alkebulan.’ It means garden of Eden or mother of mankind. African Stream’s Erick Gavala asks, ‘What’s in a name?’

What name do you prefer?

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ANC SUPPORTING GENOCIDE - MALEMA

Is South Africa’s ruling ANC party serious about supporting Palestine? If so, why has it not shut the Israeli embassy in Pretoria, as promised?

Julius Malema, the leader of pan-African EFF party, asked the question during a recent TV interview. And he has a point. Parliament voted to close down the mission in November last year, but President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration still hasn’t followed through on the wishes of lawmakers.

Admittedly, South Africa’s government took the bold step of taking Israel to the UN’s top court over genocide claims, but why is it not severing ties with Tel Aviv completely?

Malema claims voting for the ANC is the same as backing Israel’s destruction of Gaza. Is he going too far?

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AKALA PT. 3: SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS DRIVE UK CRIME, NOT RACE

Knife crime in the UK is not a race issue, but a socio-economic one - so contends rapper and activist Akala in this clip, pushing back against suggestions by journalist Piers Morgan that racial and cultural issues could be at play.

In the UK, Black people are 18 times more likely to be searched than their White counterparts. Black children make up 28% of Britain’s child prison population. 60% of Nigerians and 40% of Jamaicans were released before spending 28 days in detention compared with 90% of arrested Australians, according to a 2019 study.

Akala does give a small bit of ground: he says that some Black teenagers feel an internalised self-hatred related to their skin colour and that this can get vented on others like them.

What do you make of this?

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SOUTH AFRICA’S IMPACT AT THE ICJ

In early March, South African Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor attended the 2024 Antalya Diplomacy Forum, where diplomats and academics exchanged ideas on international policy.

During the event, Turkish state media outlet TRT World interviewed Pandor on the impact of South Africa’s case charging Israel with violating the 1948 United Nations Genocide Convention. After the International Court of Justice’s 26 January provisional ruling that Israel avoid acts of genocide, Israel killed an additional 5,000 Palestinians, bringing the death toll to more than 31,000.

Pandor has been an outspoken campaigner for the Palestinian liberation cause. Palestine also openly supported the South African anti-apartheid movement until apartheid ended in the early 1990s.

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LOWKEY: ISRAEL’S DIRTY PAST IN S.AFRICA PART 2

More telling it as it is from Lowkey. The rapper, journalist and activist gives further examples of why South Africa felt compelled to take a bold stand against Israel. It’s not just the unfolding genocide in Gaza, which has seen Pretoria take Tel Aviv to the UN’s top court. It’s about Israeli actions over decades.

Continued….In this clip, Lowkey gives us two more examples: the Anti-Defamation League and the nuclear collaboration between Israel and apartheid South Africa. The ADL is a New-York based international Jewish non-governmental organisation. It claims to fight anti-Semitism and extremism. However, during the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, the ADL spied on the anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu. Even the FBI believed it was serving the Israeli government despite being registered as an NGO in the US. Israel and South Africa also helped each other with nuclear development at the height of their isolation.

Context like this helps us understand why Pretoria stepped forward and took Tel Aviv to the International Court of Justice.

If you’ve got more examples to share, please add them in the comments below.

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UNIVERSITY VP REFUSES TO SAY PALESTINIANS ARE HUMAN

A video of Columbia University’s Senior Executive Vice President Gerry Rosberg refusing to respond to the question, ‘Are Palestinians human?’ has angered the public.

Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine shared the 6 December video on X (formerly Twitter) on 12 March. In response to the students, Rosberg was heard replying, ‘I will not be intimidated.’

On 10 November, Rosberg announced student groups Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) were suspended until the autumn semester ended on 22 December, saying they ‘repeatedly violated university policies related to holding campus events, culminating in an unauthorized event [on 9 November] that proceeded despite warnings and included threatening rhetoric and intimidation.’

Continued….While support for Palestinian liberation has raged for decades on US campuses, social media has amplified the solidarity movement, bringing more people into the struggle against Israel’s occupation, military attacks, evictions, checkpoints, surveillance, intimidation and the blockade of Palestinian territories.

For example, 34 Harvard University student groups issued a statement on the day the 7 October escalation began in the Gaza Strip. It mentioned, ‘We … hold the Israeli regime entirely responsible for all unfolding violence. Today’s events did not occur in a vacuum.’

The US Congress ordered four university presidents to testify on 6 December about alleged anti-semitism on their campuses. Within a month, the presidents of Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania resigned.

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ISRAELI WOMAN ATTACKS BUSES CARRYING PALESTINIAN CHILDREN

Independent news organisation Middle East Eye posted this video. It claims to show an Israeli woman attacking Israeli buses transporting Palestinian children from Gaza to an orphanage centre in Bethlehem in the West Bank. They were reportedly being moved to safety after pressure from the German embassy in Tel Aviv.

It's not an isolated case of depraved behaviour. Recently, CNN reported on Israeli settlers blocking aid from getting into Gaza, even as children die from malnutrition in the besieged city.

Continued….Israel’s massacre of Gaza has taken a heavy toll, with more than 31,000 dead so far, the majority being women and children. The number of children killed in Gaza in four months is higher than the number killed in four years of global wars. The horrifying slaughter has also given rise to a terrible new acronym, WCNSF: Wounded Child No Surviving Family.

All this is happening with the complicity of the West, which gives the occupation a blank check, no questions asked. Germany has shipped at least 10,000 tank shells; the UK has conducted surveillance flights above Gaza, and the U.S. approved $14-billion to Israel after October 7th. It has also repeatedly vetoed UN calls for a ceasefire and even threatened action against South Africa for taking Israel to the ICJ for 'genocide'.

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KEMI SEBA BURNS FRENCH PASSPORT

Pan-Africanist Kémi Séba has burned his French passport after authorities threatened to revoke it. The French-born Beninese activist performed the stunt at a press conference at the weekend. He also aimed a fiery speech at the French state, claiming it treated Black people ‘like dogs.’

Séba’s strong anti-imperialist views on Africa and the Caribbean have long been a source of irritation for Paris. He’s the founder of the international Pan-African organisation, Urgences Panafricanistes, and has travelled the world fighting French neo-colonialism. In 2018, he set fire to CFA franc banknotes in Senegal to protest the use of the French colonial currency.

Continued….Clearly, his activism got too much for French authorities, who recently sent him a letter stating: “A French person who actually behaves as a national of a foreign country may, if he has the nationality of that country, be declared to have lost French nationality by decree with the assent of the Conseil d’État.”

But should they make threats like this? Séba makes his views loud a clear. Give us yours.

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NIGER CANCELS MILITARY AGREEMENTS W/ U.S.

Niger has cancelled all military cooperation with the United States. During a 16th March address, Niger's military spokesperson, Colonel Amadou Abdramane, called the 2012 agreement unconstitutional, saying it violated Nigerien sovereignty, given the people had not consented. He further criticised the United States' condescending attitude and its threats to retaliate. The move comes just three months after Niger forced the French military to pack its bags.

The announcement follows the unannounced visit of a US delegation that included Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee and US Africa Command head Michael Langley. Niger said the group broke diplomatic protocol, but received it 'out of courtesy.'

Continued…..According to Abdramane, the United States has required Niger to pay billions in CFA francs for bills linked to taxes on US military aircraft. The United States is not obligated to report on the base's activities, so Niger does not know how many US military and civilian personnel and equipment are present. Plus, the US military is not required to respond to requests for support in the fight against terrorism.

Niger was from where the United States conducted military activities in North Africa and West Africa. Airbase 201 in Agadez, 920 kilometres from the capital of Niamey, is the US military's most expensive construction project at $110 million. The White House announced in December that about 650 troops were on site. Aneliese Bernard, a former State Department adviser, told the New York Times that the Ivory Coast and Ghana are possibilities for new bases.

In 2023, conflict fatalities increased by 38 per cent, while civilian deaths spiked by more than 18 per cent across Africa's central Sahel region, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. The 2011 NATO-led ouster of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi flooded the Sahara Desert and Sahel with armed insurgents.

Take a look and let us know what you think.

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IBRAHIM TRAORÉ ON FOOD SOVEREIGNTY

Burkina Faso President Ibrahim Traoré recently visited students in the rural commune of Bagré. They are students of a state-led initiative known as the Technology Incubator Project. They work on agro-silvo-pastoralism, a form of production that combines pastoralism and agriculture in lightly forested areas.The government supplies seeds, water pump wells, and other resources. So far, the students have grown tomatoes, potatoes, wheat and onions.

Continued….Traoré has emphasised food sovereignty since the September 2022 military coup that ousted a Western-aligned leader. Burkina Faso imports 11 per cent of food, according to the collective data of the World Bank compiled by tradingeconomics.com. The Ivory Coast, the United States and France account for the most food exports by dollars into the country. The US Agency for International Development says agriculture generates one-third of Burkina Faso’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). About 20 per cent of the population is food insecure, while approximately 50 per cent of rural households are not producing enough food for themselves.

Does your country have a programme similar to Burkina Faso’s? Let us know in the comments.

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ISRAELI AUDIENCE APPLAUDS ‘BURN THE VILLAGE’ CALL

This clip of an Israeli TV audience applauding the call to burn Palestinian villages has gone viral.

The clip, posted on X (formerly Twitter), shows several guests during the 10 March episode of a talk show on Israel’s Channel 14 discussing Israeli soldiers recording themselves singing Israeli artist Kobi Peretz’s song ‘May Your Village Burn.’ One guest said that may be used against Israel in the ongoing South Africa-initiated genocide case at the International Court of Justice.

Continued……The court issued a provisional ruling on 26 January that Israel was ‘plausibly’ committing genocide against Palestinians.

Other guests disagreed with him, applauding Israel burning Palestinian villages. Then, the audience reacted with cheers and whistles.

In February 2024, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said the Israeli military destroying Gaza Strip buildings that are within a kilometre of the Israel-Gaza fence to create a ‘buffer zone’ constituted a ‘war crime.’ The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees said in February that Israel’s military operation had destroyed 70 per cent of civilian infrastructure since 7 October. The attacks have killed more than 31,000 Palestinians, with about 80 per cent being women and children.

Let us know what you think of the call to burn Palestinian villages.

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