FRENCH ORANO SQUEEZED OUT OF PRODUCTION IN NIGER

French mining company Orano has announced it will suspend uranium production in Niger from October 31, opting to perform only maintenance activities. The company cited strained relations with the new military government, financial challenges, and difficulties obtaining export licenses as reasons for the halt. Additionally, Niger’s closed border with Benin has impacted logistics, as the landlocked nation depends on Benin’s ports for export routes. Orano had proposed using air transport via Namibia for uranium exports, but Nigerien authorities did not respond. For years, the firm has benefited from favorable treatment, including tax breaks and exemptions from export and customs duties.

Continued......Niger’s government has been moving toward revising foreign mining regulations. In June, it revoked Orano’s license to mine the Imouraren site, one of the largest uranium deposits globally, with reserves estimated at 200,000 tons. Niger ranks as the world’s seventh-largest uranium producer and holds Africa’s highest-grade uranium ores. On September 19, Niger’s government passed a draft decree to establish the Timersoi National Uranium Company, signaling a shift toward greater national control over its resources.

While French interests have long dominated Nigerien uranium, fueling Europe for decades, Niger itself has seen little economic benefit. Although uranium comprises 80% of Niger’s exports, it accounts for only 5% of its economy, and only 10-20% of urban Niger has access to electricity.

Continued....... This reality also manifested in Niger being one of the world’s poorest nations, with a GDP per capita of $1,550 (PPP) in 2023. Under General Tchiani’s administration, Niger has seen impressive economic growth, with projections indicating a leap to 9.9% growth in 2024 from 2.4% in 2023, according to the IMF.

Sources:
News
https://www.barrons.com/news/nuclear-energy-firm-orano-halts-niger-uranium-production-ed2fd6b6

Niger GDP PPP
https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-poorest-countries-in-the-world.html

Nothing to show for uranium exports
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2214790X17301429

7th largest producer
https://www.neimagazine.com/news/nigers-uranium-remains-focus-of-international-interest/

IMF projections on Niger
https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO/Issues/2024/10/22/world-economic-outlook-october-2024

Opposition supporters took to the streets of the Mozambican capital, Maputo, to protest against the government's alleged electoral fraud shortly after the country's National Electoral Commission (CNE) announced that Daniel Chapo of the ruling democratic-socialist Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO) won the 9 October election.

According to the CNE, Chapo garnered 71 per cent of the votes, way ahead of his closest opponent, Venâncio Mondlane, who ran on the ticket of the Optimist Party for the Development of Mozambique (PODEMOS).

Since the day of voting, Mondlane has accused FRELIMO of tampering with the results. This has led to nearly daily protests in the capital and other major urban cities where the opposition leader enjoys significant support.

Mondlane accused security forces of orchestrating the 19 October double murder of his lawyer, Elvino Dias, and PODEMOS official Paulo Guambe, a charge that the government has denied. However, Mondlane's accusation has added fuel to the volatile situation.

Continued......More protests are expected in the coming days despite warnings from Filipe Nyusi, the outgoing president who served a maximum of two terms who is also a FRELIMO leader, of stern action against protesters who engage in acts of violence.

SOURCES:

https://www.enca.com/news/mozambique-warns-protesters-ahead-election-results

https://clubofmozambique.com/news/mozambique-elections-police-fire-tear-gas-in-maputo-to-disperse-marchers-who-were-beginning-to-gather-269171/

https://clubofmozambique.com/news/mozambique-elections-venancio-mondlane-confirms-general-strike-for-monday-aim-269142/

https://www.arabnews.com/node/2576463/amp

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c14lzy75355o

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/gunmen-kill-two-mozambique-opposition-figures-ahead-election-protests-2024-10-19

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/world/article/2001505104/mozambican-opposition-leader-says-security-forces-killed-his-lawyer

https://clubofmozambique.com/news/mozambique-nyusi-demands-speedy-action-over-murders-of-elvino-dias-and-paulo-guambe-watch-269414

MOROCCO’S FADING INDIGENOUS TATTOOS

The women of Morocco's Amazigh community - the largest in North Africa - have tattooed their faces for centuries. However, this tradition is slowly fading due to changing religious attitudes in recent decades. Many attribute the fading of facial tattoos to Morocco's changing religious attitudes in recent decades, with interpretations of Islam where inked skin and other body modifications like piercings are seen as against Islamic teachings. Some challenge this perception and argue the claim that it is haram has no basis in the Koran.

The designs of the tattoos vary among the different tribes and were originally used to symbolise the wearer's origins, fertility, and protection.

U.S. FUNDED PROPAGANDA WAR AGAINST GOVERNMENT OF ZIMBABWE

Over a month ago, the US accused African Stream - without evidence - of being a Russian propaganda outfit. Since then, we’ve been banned by social media giants such as Google, Meta and TikTok. Yet the irony is that it’s actually Washington funding propaganda abroad - including in Africa.

Zimbabwe in particular has been in its sights. In the last two decades, Washington has pumped money into two radio stations that Harare accuses of being mediums of 'Western imperialist propaganda.'

Continued.....The first is the now-defunct Short Wave (SW) Radio Africa, which broadcast from its London-based studios into Zimbabwe and other neighbouring countries from 2001 till 2013. The station's news and programmes were widely seen as biased towards the Western-aligned opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change. The government of Zimbabwe accused the station of having a 'regime-change agenda' at the behest of Western nations that had imposed economic sanctions on the Southern African country in the early 2000s in the wake of its land redistribution programme. A 2005 diplomatic cable from the US embassy made public by Wikileaks revealed that the station had received funding from the US government to enable it to carry out its broadcasts. The allegations of Western funding and a regime-change agenda were given further credence in 2014 when the station announced it was shutting down.

Continued.....In an interview with the BBC station, founder and manager, Gerry Jackson attributed the closure to the decision by 'donors' to turn off the money tap due to 'massive disarray' in the opposition camp.

The second station is the Washington-based Voice of America Studio 7, which has been beaming its signal into Zimbabwe for over 20 years using a transmitter in neighbouring Botswana, an act that the government of Zimbabwe has in the past described as piracy and an attack on its sovereignty. Like SW Radio Africa, Studio 7's broadcasts have been highly critical of the Zimbabwean government. The US government wholly funds Studio 7 through the State Department's US Agency for Global Media, which, on its website, explicitly states that its mission is to ensure that 'the long-range interests of the United States are served by communicating directly with the peoples of the world by radio.'

The hypocrisy is clear: while funding media entities to spread its propaganda to African audiences, the US is using unfounded allegations to gag independent outlets such as ours from reaching our fellow Africans with a radical anti-imperalist and pan-african message.

SOURCES:

https://allafrica.com/stories/200310140498.html
https://www.theguardian.com/media/2002/jan/24/Zimbabwenews.zimbabweandthemedia
https://www.newsweek.com/gerry-jackson-independent-radio-zimbabwe-president-robert-mugabe-zimbabwe-broadcasting-corp-london
https://insiderzim.com/us-funded-sw-radio/
https://www.voazimbabwe.com/a/zimbabwe-gerry-jackson-sw-radio-africa/2685595.html
https://www.herald.co.zw/govt-to-quash-pirate-radio-stations/

https://mg.co.za/article/2005-03-16-fact-or-fiction-what-the-papers-say/, https://cpj.org/2006/07/overseas-broadcaster-reports-jamming/
https://www.insidevoa.com/a/a-13-34-zimbabwebroadcastsfeb2005/177921.html


https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/05HARARE147_a.html


https://wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/06HARARE977_a.html

This week's African proverb encourages us to embrace an open mind and be adventurous. There's a wealth of opportunities and experiences waiting for us to discover, so keep an open mind and go outside into the big world. Mama's soup will still be there when you get back.

KENYA GRANTS GATES FOUNDATION IMMUNITY AND SPECIAL STATUS

The Gates Foundation, previously known as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has been granted special diplomatic status and immunity by the Kenyan government. Musalia Mudavadi, the Kenyan Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, confirmed the new cooperation agreement with the foundation. He announced that it qualifies for benefits under Section 11 of the Privileges and Immunities Act. In his statement, Mudavadi said, “The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, hereafter referred to as ‘the Foundation,’ is a charitable trust that fights poverty, disease, and inequality in over 140 countries. The Government of Kenya has agreed to cooperate with the Foundation, which is hereby declared an organisation to which Section 11 of the Act shall apply.”