Sources:

https://www.voanews.com/a/rwandan-mining-soars-as-minerals-certified-conflict-free/1798931.html

https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/document/E-10-2024-002684_EN.html

https://www.mining.com/web/congo-rebel-gains-to-boost-illicit-mineral-trade-through-rwanda-analysts-say

https://amsterdamandpartners.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/2024.04.25-AP-DRC-Blood-Minerals.pdf

https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2021/mcs2021.pdf

https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/rwanda-mining-and-minerals

https://youtu.be/Opf0b_svQl8?t=3444

https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/5/2/blood-minerals-what-are-the-hidden-costs-of-the-eu-rwanda-supply-deal

https://www.forbesafrica.com/opinion/op-ed/2023/03/29/rwandas-mining-sector-is-poised-for-even-more-growth-as-commodity-prices-continue-to-rise

https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/congo-rebel-gains-boost-illicit-mineral-trade-through-rwanda-analysts-say-2025-01-28

https://www.politico.eu/article/eu-rwanda-minerals-agreement-coltan-ore-mining-conflict-smuggling-rubaya-democratic-republic-of-the-congo-paul-kagame

https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war

https://drcongo.iom.int/en/news/internal-displacement-overview-2024-published

https://docs.un.org/en/s/2024/969

https://rwandadispatch.com/rwandas-mineral-exports-rise-to-a-record-1-1-billion-in-2023

PAYPAL MAFIA’S LINKS TO APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA

Elon Musk’s role in the ongoing spat between Donald Trump and South Africa has brought to the fore ties between powerful US interests and individuals linked to the apartheid-era.

The tech tycoon is on everybody’s radar, but there are several other individuals in US business and political circles whose rise to the top can be traced to the privileges that the apartheid system gave to White people at the expense of indigenous Black South Africans.

In this interview, journalist and former South Africa correspondent for The Guardian newspaper Chris McGreal explains how men with links to apartheid South Africa created the payment platform PayPal.

Continued…….. It’s true that most of them were children during the apartheid era and played no role in the regime’s atrocities. However, the fact is that the privileges they derived from the system gave them a headstart that enabled them to rise to where they are today. Most importantly, it also shaped their political views - which, as Musk has shown in recent weeks, are largely anti-African.

Credit: Democracy Now!

Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream

@⁨Kristina⁩ , please replace the denoscription online for this story to this:

Kendrick Lamar’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl on 9 February set the Internet ablaze. The Pulitzer-winning hip-hop maestro brought along an all-Black dance crew. But not everyone was doing the happy dance.

US-based political analyst Dominic Michael Tripi took to X to express his dismay over the absence of white dancers, and his tweet has been viewed by over 17-million people.
Some are linking his gripe to US President Donald Trump’s attacks on DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) policies, saying that Lamar’s dancers were selected on merit—because who needs diversity when you can have a meritocracy, right?

Continued….. Kendrick’s performance was packed with symbolism, featuring A-list actor Samuel L Jackson dressed up as Uncle Sam, a kind of mascot of patriotic white people, representing the US government and the days of slavery. As the show’s master of ceremonies, Jackson took a moment to highlight the struggles of Black people, humorously asking Lamar to ease up on the ‘ghetto’ vibes before the rapper launched into his hit, ‘Not Like Us.’

Let’s not forget, Black people in the US have a tragic history filled with violent displacement, slavery and exploitation stretching back 400 years, not to mention modern-day police brutality against people of colour. In 2024, 28 per cent of those killed by police were Black, despite the community representing only 13 per cent of the population.

February is Black History Month, chosen because it’s the birthday month of civil-rights legend Frederick Douglass. So, let’s celebrate, but please, without any drama over dance lineups!

Sources:

https://www.theroot.com/imagery-symbolism-and-backstory-you-missed-from-kendri-1851759118

https://apnews.com/article/super-bowl-2025-halftime-show-review-1dc2bce615ebfba0c8af0ea7c3ce4b9d

https://www.newsweek.com/kendrick-lamar-symbolic-message-super-bowl-halftime-show-2028856

https://mappingpoliceviolence.us/

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/2025/01/national-black-history-month-2025/

NO SOLDIERS IN DRC? RWANDAN MILITARY CEMETERIES FILL UP

Despite Rwanda’s repeated denials that its troops are fighting alongside the M23 militia in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a wealth of evidence suggests that a large number of Rwandan soldiers has been killed since the Kigali-backed rebels intensified their insurgency in 2021.

On 7 February, the British newspaper The Guardian, quoting intelligence sources, reported that the number of Rwandan soldiers killed in the DRC in the last three years could be in the thousands. According to the report, military hospitals in Rwanda have recorded a surge in the number of soldiers hospitalised for war-related injuries. Morgues at some of the hospitals are reportedly running out of space.

Satellite images, meanwhile, show a major increase in the number of graves at military cemeteries nationwide. For instance, at least 600 new graves were added to the Kanombe military cemetery in the capital between August 2021 and 15 December 2024.

Continued……. But this likely only hints at the scale of the deaths, as many of the killed soldiers, especially of lower rank, are not repatriated home. Also, the number of graves is likely to have risen further in the last few weeks following M23’s violent capture of eastern DRC’s largest city, Goma, at the end of January.

These data not only confirm that Rwanda is the puppet master behind M23, they also show that Congolese people are not taking the invasion lying down but are defending their homeland and fighting back.

According to UN figures, since 26 January, more than 3,000 people have been killed, 2,880 injured and over 500,000 displaced - adding to the more than 7 million already displaced by the three-decade proxy mineral war in the Congo.

Video Credit: Planet Labs PBC

Source:

https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/feb/07/democratic-republic-congo-drc-paul-kagame-m23-rebels-goma-rwanda-troops-dying-denials

TRUMP’S ATTEMPT TO BULLY S. AFRICA SIGN OF WEAKNESS

Washington’s use of economic and soft-power coercion against South Africa reveals US weakness, says political commentator Saheed Bolsen in this clip. Aid freezes, economic pressure and disinformation campaigns are the tactics of an empire in decline.

Pretoria came under attack from the Trump administration after passing its Land Expropriation Law, a piece of legislation designed to correct historical injustices against South Africa’s Black majority. But the US president claims, falsely, that it persecutes the wealthy Afrikaner (Dutch settler origin) community.

It’s all part of an effort, Bolsoen claims, to create internal divisions, undermine the credibility of South Africa’s leadership and force the country into submission - tactics that can only succeed if the targeted nation permits them to work.

Continued….. Alternatively, Pretoria can choose to not be tied to an abusive relationship with the US - by diversifying its trade and cultural ties. It can see this as an opportunity to become more self-reliant and assume greater leadership on the global stage, as with its action against Israel at The Hague - in defiance of the US.

Video Credit: Shaheed Bolsen and his Nation

Sources

https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-02-06-we-will-not-be-bullied-resolute-ramaphosa-stands-up-to-us/?dm_source=dm_block_grid&dm_medium=card_link&dm_campaign=main

Rubio-Trump vs South Africa
https://www.reuters.com/world/us-top-diplomat-rubio-will-not-attend-g20-meet-south-africa-2025-02-06/
https://www.reuters.com/world/africa/trump-cut-off-all-future-funding-south-africa-2025-02-02/

U.K FOREIGN OFFICE TARGETS AFRICAN STREAM

A trove of confidential documents, e-mails and WhatsApp conversations has unveiled a ploy by the British Foreign Office to run a smear campaign against African Stream.

The Centre for Information Resilience (CIR) is at the centre of the scheme, the latest by Western governments opposed to our independent and African-centred reporting.

According to the documents, CIR is paying African journalists to write articles claiming that African Stream is a Russian-funded propaganda outlet - a claim not backed by any evidence other than similar accusations by the US government.

However, as African Stream’s editor-in-chief, Ahmed Kaballo, explains in this video, plenty of evidence indicates that CIR is firmly connected to the British government and other Western intelligence establishments.

Continued……The outfit, masquerading as an ‘independent counter-disinformation’ organisation, has not only received significant amounts of funding from the UK Foreign Office, USAID and the Australian Foreign Ministry, but most of its senior staff have worked with the aforementioned governments’ intelligence wings, including its two directors Ross Burley and Adam Rutland, who are ‘former’ Foreign Office employees.

Knowing who funds the CIR makes it clear why they are coming after us and accusing us of being Russia-affiliated. Our reporting, which exposes the atrocities committed by the imperialist powers against our people, has rubbed them the wrong way.

This attack is not the first; we know it won’t be the last. But when the next one comes, it will also find us on our feet, not our knees. No number of assaults by imperialism’s attack dogs will deter us from our duties as pan-African, anti-imperialist journalists.

Hear Us Roar: https://news.1rj.ru/str/AfricanStream

On this day, 14 February, we celebrate the estimated birth date of the abolitionist, orator, author and great thinker Frederick Douglass (1818-95). Although his date of birth was not recorded, Douglass believed he was born in February and chose this date to celebrate it.

During his famous 3 August 1857 address on ‘West India Emancipation’ in Canandaigua, New York, he emphasised that we must obtain systemic change through collective organisation. Douglass noted that both moral and physical dilemmas require struggle and ‘if there is no struggle, there is no progress.’

His words reiterate the reality that as long as the oppressed ‘hug their chains,’ the oppressors will never relinquish power.

Continued……Douglass echoes the sentiments of many of our predecessors that we, as Africans, both at home and abroad, will only win our freedom when our collective demand for liberation becomes too powerful to be ignored by those who wield power.

Douglass died of a heart attack at age 77 on 20 February 1895.

Sources:

https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/1857-frederick-douglass-if-there-no-struggle-there-no-progress/

https://www.britannica.com/biography/Frederick-Douglass

KEMI BADENOCH: PALESTINIAN FAMILY DOESN’T DESERVE TO LIVE IN U.K.

The UK Conservative Party’s first Black leader, Kemi Badenoch, has faced widespread criticism for her xenophobic and anti-African rhetoric, with many accusing her of catering to the outwardly racist far right. For instance, late last year, she distanced herself from Nigeria, stating that she identifies more with her ethnic Yoruba heritage and that she shared little in common with northern Nigerians. 

In this video clip, lawyer, author and activist Dr Shola Mos-Shogbamimu called Badenoch the ‘mouthpiece of white supremacy’ for urging the British government to revoke a Palestinian family’s refugee status obtained through a scheme meant for Ukrainian refugees. No surprise there, as just five months ago, she spoke against a wave of migrants who allegedly oppose Israel, saying, ‘not all cultures are equally valid.’

Continued……Mos-Shogbamimu (@sholamos1 on IG, TT and X) reminded us that Britain has supported Israel’s military onslaught in Gaza, which the Gaza media office recently reported led to 61,000 civilian deaths. However, the Lancet medical journal suggested in July 2024 that the death toll could be as high as 186,000.

Video credit: @sholamos1 

Sources:

https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/feb/12/judge-granted-palestinian-family-asylum-made-wrong-decision-keir-starmer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVPN8q_Hb0M

https://www.bbc.com/news/live/clynj94llp5t?page=2

https://www.informationng.com/2024/12/kemi-badenoch-denounces-nigerian-heritage-says-she-only-identifies-as-yoruba.html

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/i-will-die-protecting-this-country-kemi-badenoch-on-where-she-plans-to-take-the-tories

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2024/sep/29/kemi-badenoch-not-all-cultures-equally-valid-immigration

https://www.kemibadenoch.org.uk/news/kemis-column-statement-ukraine

BURKINA FASO NATIONALISES ALL LAND

Major land reform has come to Burkina Faso, bringing the country’s trajectory back to a ‘Sankarist’ direction.

On 5 February, Burkina Faso Minister of the Economy and Finances Dr. Aboubakar Nacanabo announced all land belongs to the state and foreigners are no longer allowed to hold rural land noscripts. This is similar to the land reform measures adopted by assassinated socialist Pan-Africanist President Thomas Sankara (1949-87), who nationalised land in Burkina Faso in 1984. Under the counter-revolutionary government of Blaise Compaoré, found guilty in Sankara’s assassination, the government privatised land in 1991. 

The new law is the second and most expansive land reform policy enacted under President Ibrahim Traoré. In June 2023, the government enacted a law to exclude private real estate developers from urban planning operations and limit the number of hectares a private entity could possess for urban real estate to five hectares.

Continued……In addition, real estate developers and urban landowners who plan to build on their land must submit their intentions to the government and begin construction within a specified delay time. This law aims to prevent land grabbing and speculation and to increase mass access to Burkina Faso’s land.

As Sankara told his people, ‘Improve your land and farm it in peace. The time is over when people, sitting in their parlours, can buy and re-sell land on speculation.’

With all these changes, Burkina Faso seems to be following Sankara’s path. Do you agree?

SOURCES

Burkina Faso announcement
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GpzC6XymutM

Blaise Compaore found guilty
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-61008332

1984 law
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B2-J7okDA3FO6WRuN8DEwkkkYJQ6XX0u/view?usp=sharing
(Page 39)

1991 law
https://www.iied.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/migrate/7308IIED.pdf

New law
https://www.afrique-sur7.fr/reforme-fonciere-au-burkina-faso-letat-affirme-sa-souverainete-sur-les-terres

New law
https://www.agridigitale.net/article/burkina-faso-le-titre-de-propriete-sur-les-terres-rurales-refuse-aux-etrangers

Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) President Félix Tshisekedi has chosen to attend the 61st Munich Security Conference in Germany as his country faces a Western-backed conflict over natural resources that has internally displaced 700,000 people since January. A tweet from the official presidential account on 13 February confirmed his arrival in Munich, where global leaders plan to tackle global security challenges over three days.

Tshisekedi’s presence in Germany means he’ll be absent for the 38th African Union (AU) Summit scheduled for 15-16 February in Addis Ababa, which includes a meeting of the AU’s Peace and Security Council focused on the ongoing crisis in eastern DRC. His communications team informed news agency Agence France-Presse that Prime Minister Judith Suminwa would represent him.

Continued….. This isn’t the first time Tshisekedi has skipped significant regional meetings. He missed the East African Community (EAC) virtual summit on 29 January. On 8 February, he again was a no-show at a crucial meeting in Tanzania involving the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the EAC.

His repeated absence from these key African gatherings raises concerns about his commitment to direct dialogue, with some seeing it as a setback for a Pan-African effort to address the escalating crisis in the Great Lakes region. 

Congo’s 30-year resource war had k*lled around 6 million people by 2010, with many more casualties since then. Many have blamed Western corporations that exploit the country’s mineral resources, estimated at $24 trillion, for exacerbating the war. In March 2024, a US court ruled against former child miners in a case against five major US tech companies: Alphabet (the parent company of Google), Dell, Apple, Tesla, and Microsoft.

Sources:

https://x.com/Presidence_RDC/status/1890097466462093689

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/africa/congo-s-president-to-skip-east-african-community-summit-on-goma-crisis/3465756

https://www.barrons.com/news/congolese-president-to-miss-au-meeting-on-eastern-drc-violence-b1db788c

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/main-staging/business/africa/article/2001510651/drc-crisis-tshisekedi-snubs-meeting-as-eac-heads-of-state-call-for-ceasefire

https://chimpreports.com/drcs-tshisekedi-misses-sadc-eac-summit-sends-prime-minister

https://news.un.org/en/story/2025/01/1159541

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

https://www.caritas.org/2010/02/six-million-dead-in-congos-war

CEASEFIRE AS A WAR TACTIC BY M23 REBELS

The Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group has become skilled at using ceasefire agreements to regroup - warns Claude Gatebuke, a survivor of the Rwandan Genocide and a human-rights advocate.

He notes that this strategy was honed by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and his Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) during their collaboration with Ugandan leader Yoweri Museveni in the bush war of the 1980s.

On 4 February, M23 announced a unilateral ceasefire, claiming it was for “humanitarian reasons.” Yet, they have since taken control of Nyabibwe city and are moving south towards Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province. The UN reports that over 700,000 people have been displaced since January 2025, with thousands killed.

Regional organisations such as the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) and the East African Community (EAC) have convened summits to try to negotiate an end to the conflict.