Continued……. In 2022 and 2023, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger pulled out of the G5 Sahel Joint Force, citing the need to regain control over their security from foreign-backed entities. (G5 was set up in 2017 to coordinate anti-terrorism efforts, with an initial grant of €100 million from the European Union.) In 2024, they left ECOWAS and established the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) with a focus on unified defence, economic and foreign policies.

Commenting on the AES’s latest move, Niger’s defence chief stated, “We are in the same place, we face the same type of threats, especially this threat of criminal groups. We have to join forces.”

Could this inspire other African nations to strengthen their self-reliance?

Sources:

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/junta-led-sahel-states-ready-joint-force-5000-troops-says-minister-2025-01-22/

https://www.africanews.com/2025/01/22/alliance-of-sahel-states-to-form-5000-troop-military-unit/

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2023/9/16/mali-niger-and-burkina-faso-establish-sahel-security-alliance

https://www.rusi.org/explore-our-research/publications/commentary/frances-strategic-failure-mali-postcolonial-disutility-force

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2024/09/17/the-alliance-of-sahel-states-implications-challenges-and-prospects-in-west-africa/

https://ecfr.eu/special/sahel_mapping/operation_barkhane

https://www.leidensecurityandglobalaffairs.nl/articles/operation-serval-the-french-intervention-in-mali

ARE ISRAEL & U.S. PLANNING REGIME CHANGE IN ERITREA?

Is Israel manufacturing consent for regime change in Eritrea? In a 16 January article in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz, author Habtom Ghebrezghiabher argues Asmara poses a threat to Israel and the US due to its warm relations with Iran, China and Russia.

The Haaretz article argues that Asmara is an Iranian proxy used to disrupt the maritime routes used by Israel’s allies, citing the detention of a vessel of Azerbaijan, an Israeli ally. The author argues Eritrea and Yemen effectively grant Iran control over both sides of the southern Red Sea. Iranian vessels using Eritrean territorial waters is another sticking point, with the author taking issue that Eritrea accused Israel of violating Eritrean sovereignty when Tel Aviv attacked an Iranian vessel.

Continued……. Eritrea’s anti-Zi*nist stance has been a headache for Israel. Asmara has consistently voted against Israel at the UN, rejected an Israeli ambassador, opposed Israeli presence in the African Union, downgraded its embassy in Israel, and expressed solidarity with Ansar Allah (colloquially known as the Houthis) attacks against Israeli-linked ships in response to Israeli massacres of Palestinians.

For the US, Eritrea’s China-Russia ties could explain the hostility. China has helped develop Eritrea’s infrastructure, such as in healthcare. Eritrea has also benefited from China cancelling debt and imposing zero tariffs on Eritrean exports to China.

The author also cites Eritrea’s cordial relations with Russia as a point of contention. With Eritrea voting in favour of Russia at the UN during a 2022 vote on withdrawing Russian forces from Ukraine, and recent high-level visits between officials in the two countries, it makes sense why the West would be increasingly hostile. In 2019, negotiations began for Russia to establish a logistic centre in Eritrea to bolster military and logistical capabilities in the Horn of Africa region. Eritrea is also interested in attracting investment, particularly in the face of Western sanctions against the country.

Sources
News, fearmongering Iran
https://archive.ph/SHTZP

Eritrea China ties
https://www.thenewhumanitarian.org/news/2001/06/18/china-cancels-debt
https://chinaglobalsouth.com/2022/06/07/new-mining-project-in-eritrea-proves-again-china-willing-to-invest-where-others-dare-not/
https://www.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202305/16/WS6462ee66a310b6054fad3354.html
https://research.hktdc.com/en/article/MTE0NTk2NTMyOQ

Eritrea Russia ties
https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2023/06/02/the-strategic-partnership-between-eritrea-and-russia
https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/2024-08-13-russia-eritrea-to-continue-developing-economic-humanitarian-cooperation-moscow-says
https://www.africanews.com/2018/08/31/russia-plans-investment-in-eritrean-port-as-foreign-ministers-meet

A LUTA CONTINUA IN GUINEA BISSAU


On this day in 1963, one of Africa's most illustrious revolutionary organisations, the PAIGC - that is, the African Party for the Independence of Guinea-Bissau and Cape Verde - launched its armed struggle against the Portuguese colonial forces in the two countries.

The organisation was formed in 1956 by anti-colonial revolutionaries such as Pan-African theorist and intellectual Amílcar Cabral.

Continued…….. In its early years, the organisation attempted to pursue independence using dialogue and peaceful protests. However, like other African liberation movements, the PAIGC soon found out that the oppressive colonial system could not be dismantled through pacifist resistance.

The next eleven years would be brutal as the Portuguese did everything to crush the independence movement. However, no amount of repression can stop a determined people. On 10 September 1974, the PAIGC's dream of an independent nation became a reality as Guinea-Bissau was finally recognised as a fully independent sovereign nation.

The party led the nation until early 2000 when it lost that year's presidential elections. It bounced back in 2005 and remained in power until 2020, when it lost control in a vote that's widely thought to have been rigged in favour of Western-backed Umaro Sissoco Embaló.

Embaló, who also has the blessing of regional bloc ECOWAS, has strengthened Guinea-Bissau's relationship with France and with former coloniser Portugal since assuming the presidency. As befits a Western puppet, he threatened to invade Niger after the start of its anti-imperialist revolution.

Despite losing state power, the sun has not set on the PAIGC. Today, many in Guinea-Bissau are working hard to ensure the party regains power and are trying to live up to the values and teachings of Amílcar Cabral. Former combatants who fought in the revolutionary struggle between 1963 and 1974 are guiding and educating the next generation.

These efforts are already bearing fruit. In 2023, the PAI-Terra Ranka coalition, led by the PAIGC, won the country's legislative elections. Parliament was, however, dissolved in December of that year by Embaló over an alleged coup attempt. He promised to hold fresh legislative elections in November 2024, but he later postponed them.

He also postponed the presidential election that was set to be held in December 2024. Is someone afraid of facing the PAIGC at the ballot?

Sources:


https://www.africanews.com/2023/08/10/niger-the-future-of-ecowas-at-stake-according-to-the-president-of-guinea-bissau/

https://observador.pt/2024/06/10/presidente-da-guine-bissau-condecora-consul-portugues/

https://cnnportugal.iol.pt/guine-bissau/umaro-sissoco-embalo/presidente-da-guine-bissau-em-visita-a-portugal-ate-quarta-feira/20231023/65361364d34e371fc0b8fea7

https://www.voaafrica.com/a/macron-wraps-up-africa-tour-in-guinea-bissau/6677668.html

https://hoodcommunist.org/2023/12/14/peoples-democracy-in-guinea-bissau/

RUTO 2ND-MOST CORRUPT PERSON AFTER ASSAD?

Kenya’s President William Ruto has been pipped to the post by Syria’s deposed Bashar al-Assad as 2024’s Corrupt Person of the Year. The award is made annually by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP), which solicited nominations from the public.

Kenyans, though, have been left wondering whether the OCCRP itself has been handed a kickback, as their president got a record 40,000 online nominations - yet only came second, despite swimming deep in allegations of mis-governance and overseeing a deadly crackdown on protests. Ruto is also reportedly the world’s highest paid leader when adjusted for Kenya’s economic output - something that hardly sits right, given his county’s dire financial state.

Continued….. The jury said they ultimately picked Assad because of his “far-reaching and devastating” influence. Some aren’t buying that, speculating that the competition was rigged to bring greater legitimacy to Assad’s removal from power by (supposedly ex) extremists in late 2024.

What do you think?

Sources:

https://www.occrp.org/en/person-of-the-year/bashar-al-assad

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0q0w1g8zqvo

https://theconversation.com/hotbed-of-corruption-kenyas-elite-have-captured-the-state-unrest-is-inevitable-233562

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c39nyvvmne8o

https://www.citizen.digital/news/ruto-receives-record-breaking-nominations-for-occrp-corrupt-person-of-the-year-noscript-n355189

https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/22/what-the-west-got-wrong-in-syria/

‘GREATEST BRIT’ CHURCHILL’S IMPERIALIST RACISM

Britain still lionises its war-time prime minister Winston Churchill who died on this day 24th January 1965 .

He’s credited with being a driving force against Hitler and the Nazis.

Yet the dyed-in-the-wool imperialist oversaw some Hitleresque policies of his own. Here’s a real lion’s perspective on Churchill’s deep racism and imperialism

JOSHUA MAPONGA: AFRICA’S SOUTH NEEDS A TRAORÉ!

The Sahel region has become emblematic of what is possible when Africans decide to smash the chains of neo-colonialism and seize their sovereignty. Incredibly inspirational has been the revolutionary leadership of Burkina Faso’s Captain Ibrahim Traoré. Africans across the continent see him as a unifying role model. Among those who think so is the pan-African Zimbabwean author and thinker Joshua Maponga. He’s just set off on a fact-finding mission to the Sahel to see what lessons the south of our continent can learn from the tremendous changes happening up there. As he says in this video, our leaders have been licking non-African boots for too long and allowing the West to set Africa’s agenda. It’s time we set our own agenda.

Video credit: Make Africa Great (YouTube)

PANIC IN GOMA AFTER M23 CAPTURE SAKE

The Democratic Republic of Congo’s eastern city of Goma is in turmoil after Rwanda-backed M23 rebels seized control of Sake town on Thursday, January 23rd.

M23 is now set to push towards Goma, just 25 km (15 miles) away from Sake.

The resurgence of fighting comes after peace negotiations between the presidents of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which were slated to take place in Luanda, Angola, on December 15th, 2024. Since the beginning of 2025, M23 has achieved a series of successful offensives, tightening its grip on Goma by capturing surrounding mineral-rich towns.

Goma, home to 2 million residents and thousands more streaming in after fleeing intense fighting between M23 and Congolese troops, is effectively sealed off, with M23 blocking the two primary supply routes from the west and north.

Continued……The only escape route is via Lake Kivu, notorious for its dangerous conditions and frequent boat accidents due to overcrowding and inadequate safety measures in the conflict-ridden area.

The capture of Sake follows M23’s earlier takeover of Masisi, a key location in the mineral-rich territory, just weeks prior. In a clear indication of the escalating situation, Congolese Communication Minister Patrick Muyaya stated on January 22nd to France24 that war with Rwanda is “an option to consider.”

A report from UN experts in June 2024 indicated that Rwanda had deployed approximately 3,000 to 4,000 troops to support M23, facilitating their territorial expansion in eastern Congo. The M23 group has faced accusations of committing atrocities against civilians, exacerbating the already dire humanitarian crisis in the Great Lakes region.

This ongoing resource-driven conflict, which has persisted for three decades, is recognised as one of the most devastating and prolonged wars in modern history. It involves over 120 militias and armed groups, many allegedly backed by foreign governments and interests. The conflict has resulted in approximately 6-million deaths, over 7-million internally displaced individuals and numerous reports of sexual violence.

Sources:

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-68255614

https://www.trtworld.com/africa/m23-rebels-battling-drc-army-approach-goma-city-after-seizing-sake-town-18257339

https://www.voanews.com/a/fighting-reaches-outskirts-of-eastern-congo-s-largest-city-as-rebels-close-in-/7948493.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR8p4lxujI8

On 14 January, then-outgoing US President Joe Biden announced he’d remove Cuba from the list of countries that Washington claims are 'state sponsors of t*rrorism.'

However, before the ink of Biden's signature could dry, US President Donald Trump reversed the decision as soon as he began his second stint at the White House.

To the uninitiated, this act could portray Biden as the good guy and Trump as the bad guy, but the truth is that there is no good guy or lesser evil here—only politricks at play.

Biden's last-minute removal of the 2021 designation of Havana as a state sponsor of t*rrorism was not an oversight; it seemed like a deliberate ploy to mock the people of Cuba because as soon as Trump walked into the White House, the removal went up in smoke.

Continued…….. If Biden wanted to help the Cuban people, he would have worked to ensure the US Congress ended more than six decades of a unilateral US embargo. Similarly, the US designated Cuba as a state sponsor of t*rrorism in 1982, rescinded it in 2015 and placed it back in 2021.

To US politicians like Biden, the Cuban masses are nothing more than pieces on a political chessboard that politicians in the empire can shuffle around to make political points. However, such 'games' have had a devastating effect on the lives of ordinary Cubans, whose access to essential commodities, such as drugs and food, is hampered by the embargo and the other related economic and political sanctions that Washington has imposed on the island nation. In 2018, the UN's Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean revealed the blockade had cost the island nation $130 billion since the early 1960s.

The unilateral measures are not only unethical but violate the United Nations charter. For the last 32 years, the UN General Assembly has overwhelmingly voted to end the US policy that economically strangles the Caribbean island nation.

However, the US has arrogantly ignored the resolutions, essentially giving the international community a one-finger salute.

The US has maintained the embargo on Cuba for, among other reasons, as a warning to other states that dare challenge the empire. However, in reality, what has shone is the Cuban people's resilience and steadfastness in the face of the world's biggest bully.

Trump can reverse the designation, but the world knows who between Washington and Havana has spread war and t*rror across the world, especially in the Global South.

As Uganda's representative stated at the 2023 UN General Assembly, 'All we know about Cuba is friendship and solidarity; we know nothing about t*rrorism.'

Sources:

https://www.politico.com/live-updates/2025/01/20/donald-trump-inauguration-day-news-updates-analysis/a-quick-reversal-on-cuba-00199531

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/trump-revokes-biden-removal-cuba-us-state-sponsors-terrorism-list-2025-01-21

https://press.un.org/en/2023/ga12552.doc.htm

https://www.reuters.com/article/world/us-trade-embargo-has-cost-cuba-130-billion-un-says-idUSKBN1I93JM

https://press.un.org/en/2024/ga12650.doc.htm

https://cu.usembassy.gov/u-s-announces-designation-of-cuba-as-a-state-sponsor-of-terrorism

https://www.state.gov/reports/country-reports-on-terrorism-2019/cuba

CONGO NEEDS OUR PRAYERS - AND ACTION

Focus Congo activist Pappy Orion has made a heartfelt appeal for people to pray for DRC, and to help however possible. His message was posted on Thursday, as M23 rebels seized control of Sake town near the provincial capital Goma in mineral-rich North Kivu, sealing off the last viable escape route from the 2-million strong city.

As Pappy points out, Congo is suffering due to a new tech boom, driven by electric mobility and smart devices, which rely on Congolese minerals such as coltan and cobalt. The DRC is believed to hold an astonishing $24 trillion in untapped mineral resources, attracting the interest of powerful outside forces, eager to exploit these assets.

Continued………DRC’s 30-year resource war involves over 120 militias and armed groups, some of which are reportedly backed by foreign governments. For example, a UN report recently said there was convincing evidence that neighbouring Rwanda is arming and supporting the M23.

Approximately 6-million Congolese lives have been lost, with more than 7 million displaced internally, and countless women and girls suffering from sexual violence.

Judging by the latest developments on the battlefield, more dark days are ahead.

Video credit: @pappyorion (Instagram)

Sources:

https://trtafrika.com/news/dollar24-trillion-deposits

https://hcss.nl/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/HCSS_21_05_13_Coltan_Congo_Conflict_web.pdf

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-53017188

https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/belgian-king-establishes-congo-free-state/

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/05/tech/big-tech-child-labor-congo-lawsuit/index.html

Kenya’s newly appointed Cabinet Secretary for Agriculture and Livestock Development Mutahi Kagwe has sparked controversy by rejecting the entry of genetically modified (GM) foods and livestock vaccines into the East African country. Kagwe emphasised he intends to foster domestic innovation to strengthen the agricultural sector. The cabinet secretary stressed the importance of ensuring outsiders don’t use the Kenyan people to test their GM products.

Continued…….. His statements contradict the government’s support for such imports, raising questions about whether it will put him at odds with the government. 

Kagwe’s remarks come amid a long-standing debate over GMO foods. After a decade-long ban on biotechnology foods, first implemented by former President Mwai Kibaki in 2012 and upheld by his successor, President Uhuru Kenyatta, the government lifted the ban in October 2022. This decision led to court petitions citing health, environmental, and biodiversity concerns. However, the High Court dismissed these petitions, stating that Kenya has established adequate safety measures under a robust biosafety regulatory framework.

In late December 2024, President William Ruto called for the vaccination of 22 million cattle and 50 million sheep and goats to boost meat exports. The move raised questions about the involvement of US billionaire Bill Gates, known for promoting GMOs, in the planned nationwide vaccination program, a claim denied by the government. A Gazette Notice in October 2024 announced that the government would grant certain privileges and immunities to the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation’s operations in the country. However, the High Court later issued orders to suspend the foundation’s special status pending further hearings.

Will Kagwe’s new action plan be effective?

Sources:

https://eastleighvoice.co.ke/national/104526/mutahi-kagwe-only-locally-developed-gmos-will-be-allowed-in-kenya

https://www.msn.com/en-xl/africa/kenya/blow-for-bill-gates-foundation-as-high-court-suspends-immunities-issued-by-kenyan-govt/ar-AA1uJ6oJ

https://www.the-star.co.ke/news/realtime/2024-12-30-ruto-to-critics-provide-alternatives-to-livestock-vaccination

https://www.voanews.com/a/kenyan-president-strongly-defends-animal-vaccination-program/7905837.html

https://new.kenyalaw.org/akn/ke/act/ln/2024/157/eng@2024-10-18

UN PEACEKEEPERS ABANDONING GOMA RESIDENTS?

With Goma in east DRC now surrounded by Rwanda-backed rebels after the fall of Sake on Thursday, videos emerged online of what‘s claimed to be UN troops leaving the region. It’s left people furious that supposed peacekeepers are leaving a city of 2 million (plus the influx of people fleeing the surrounding towns and villages) in the lurch.

The main objective of UN operations has been to protect Congolese civilians from armed groups and to support government efforts to stabilise eastern Congo. However, there have been growing protests against the mission over its abject failure to secure those goals. There are now fears that the M23 could capture Goma again, as they did in 2012.

For three decades, the people of Congo have endured unspeakable violence, including death, displacement, sexual violence, hunger and disease.