Sincerely from Takoradi, Ghana ,13th August 2023

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TRAORÉ’S BID FOR NUCLEAR POWER

Much was chewed over at the recent Russia-Africa Summit - including the prospect of bringing nuclear power to West Africa. Burkina Faso's leader discussed a possible joint project to create a plant in his country with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin. This, argued Ibrahim Traoré, would be a key strategic asset that could also provide power to neighbouring countries. Most nations don’t have nuclear power stations, and only two in Africa currently do. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

What do you think, is it a good idea?

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PUTIN CALLING OUT WEST OVER GADDAFI

As Western countries ratchet up yet another military intervention in Africa, this time in Niger, an old speech from Russian President Vladimir Putin is worth remembering.

With reference to the Libya conflict in 2011, he highlights how Western goals went beyond their stated intentions.

Wikileaks revealed incentives included controlling Libya’s vast oil reserves and reducing the threat of Gaddafi who campaigned for Africa’s economic independence.

NATO's bombing turned Africa’s most prosperous country into an open slave market.

The organisation is entrenched in Africa under AFRICOM, whose largest presence - coincidentally -is in Niger.

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KENYANS ON RUTO’S OFFER TO ‘POLICE HAITI’

Kenya’s offered to help bring law and order to Haiti by deploying 1,000 officers to the Caribbean - to help train local forces. Is it a welcome show of solidarity between the African and Afro-Haitian nations? Or - given Kenya’s own law-and-order difficulties, especially in the form of violent anti-austerity protests and riots, as well as the threat from al-Shabaab terrorists - a misguided use of precious few resources? We got reactions from locals in the capital Nairobi.

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HOW COUPS CAN MAKE YOU CARE!

Today, across The Sahel, terrorism and armed groups have become part of the landscape. In the latest edition of ‘Africa in 90 Seconds,’ host Ahmed Ghoneim looks at how the NATO bombing of Libya in 2011 unleashed a tempest that’s still wreaking havoc across the West African region. In 90 seconds, he’ll bring it right up to the recent coup in Niger and how, all of a sudden, in 2023, countries like France might be wishing they could put that 2011 genie back in the bottle again!

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TALE OF TWO COUPS

Well, what a difference a few months can make. The West has backed calls for a potential military intervention to reinstate Niger’s ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. The thing is, while they’re against this coup, back in 2021 they were all for the putsch in neighbouring Chad. In fact, Bazoum went out of his way to say the junta in N’Djamena should be left for fear of civil war breaking out.

Forward wind to now and he and his Western allies happily threaten to plunge West Africa into a fully-blown war. Sometimes it’s hard to fathom the about-face of politics. Or is it? Listen to what Bazoum said at the G5 Sahel Summit in Paris in 2021, alongside an attentive Emmanuel Macron.

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UK’S MIGRANT ‘PRISON SHIP’

Migrants fleeing war and seeking asylum in the UK are being housed on a 'prison ship'.

That’s how refugees are describing a huge barge that will accommodate them while their claims are assessed.

Human rights groups say their treatment is inhumane, and a deadly bacteria has already been discovered onboard.

We look at the UK government's latest far-right policy aimed at reducing migrant numbers.

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BOYCOTT BRICS OVER PUTIN?

World leaders from China, India and Brazil should boycott the upcoming BRICS summit in solidarity with Vladimir Putin. That's the call from South Africa’s opposition leader Julius Malema. Johannesburg is set to host the two-day event from August 22nd - but in the absence of the Russian President. He’s ruled out coming, over fears he’d be detained in accordance with an arrest warrant from the International Criminal Court.

Malema believes South Africa’s President Ramaphosa should have guaranteed his freedom. And at a rally, appealed to other BRICS leaders to stay at home in support of Putin.

What do you make of Malema’s call for action?

TINUBU THE BAGMAN AND ECOWAS HYPOCRISY

African Stream’s very own William Sakawa was invited to share his views on what’s going on in Niger and the Sahel region at the moment by former British Member of Parliament George Galloway’s Mother Of All Talk Shows (MOATS).

Up for discussion were the prospects of war, direct Western intervention in Niger, lessons from Libya, and how democratic ECOWAS really is. Some of Galloway’s remarks in the episode concerning Nigeria’s president Tinubu have ruffled feathers with several politicians close to the Nigerian President who have denounced any suggestions he had any links to organised crime in the US.

Take a watch, and let us know what you think of Galloway’s and William’s assessments.

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FRANCE’S VERY SURVIVAL AT STAKE IN SAHEL SHAKE-UP?

Could France be relegated to a third-world economy? It seems a wild notion, but that’s what writer and African politics professor Everisto Benyera says lies in store for the former coloniser. He says that much of France’s economy is underwritten by resources exploitatively obtained out of the Sahel - and now that one country after another there is rising up against this kind of neocolonialism, the odds are on that it won’t end with just French troops being kicked out of the region, but with France losing its privileged access to West African minerals as well. Watch him argue the case and let us know if you think he’s right.

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MALI PM: DON’T BE PUPPETS OVER NIGER INTERVENTION!

As war drums sound throughout West Africa, Mali's prime minister has appealed directly to the leaders of Senegal and Ivory Coast to reassess their relationships with foreign powers pushing for a military resolution to the ‘crisis’ in Niger.

Choguel Maïga pleaded with Macky Sall and Alassane Ouattara not to tarnish their legacies by supporting any deployment of the regional standby force to undo the coup in Niamey.

Diplomatic efforts to restore ousted Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum have failed, and ECOWAS has just reiterated its threat to use force if its demands aren’t met.

What do you think - will Sall and Ouattara heed Maïga‘s call? Let us know below.

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ODINGA TO U.S. ENVOY: SHUT UP OR GO HOME!

The US envoy to Kenya got a scolding from the country’s opposition leader Raila Odinga - who branded Meg Whitman a “rogue ambassador” and told her to keep her mouth shut or go back home. He also reminded her that Kenya’s not a US colony. Odinga’s tirade came during the ongoing Devolution Conference (15th-19th August) in Eldoret, where a day earlier Whitman had hailed last year’s presidential election, which saw William Ruto elected, as “remarkable” and “the freest, fairest and most credible in Kenyan history.” Although the results have been bitterly disputed - with widespread protests - the country’s Supreme Court has upheld the result as valid.

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Continued - ODINGA TO U.S. ENVOY: SHUT UP OR GO HOME!

It’s worth pointing out that President Ruto has recently faced accusations of being a Western poodle - firstly, in response to his demands to reverse the coup in Niger; but also, over his offer to send 1,000 Kenyan police officers to Haiti to help ‘restore order,’ which critics say is basically him just agreeing to act as the face of the latest Western intervention in the Caribbean nation.

So is Raila exposing a deeper Ruto-US alliance, or is he a sore loser, or both? Share your views below.

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ECOWAS RENEWS THREAT OF FORCE AGAINST NIGER

ECOWAS has reminded Niger’s coup leaders that the regional alliance is poised to use force if they don’t step down. Commissioner Abdel-Fatau Musah - speaking at a meeting of the regional bloc’s defence chiefs - said the ball was in Niamey’s court. However, there is strong opposition even within the bloc to any intervention: Cape Verde has said no, as have suspended members Guinea, Mali and Burkina Faso - the latter two going so far as to warn that any attack on Niger would be seen as an attack on them. People across West Africa have been showing their opposition to military involvement, while the African Union is also against the use of force. As for the coup leaders themselves, they remain defiant. Their plans to put the country on a new course - away from neo-colonial exploitation by the West (and by France in particular) - are backed by the lion’s share of the population, according to a recent poll by The Economist.

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NO AFRICA NO INTERNET

Yassin Bey, formerly known as Mos Def, isn’t just a world-famous MC, lyricist, songwriter and actor from Brooklyn, New York.

He’s also a powerful voice regarding social issues, police brutality and geopolitics. Here, he outlines why Africa’s on the rise and why he likes the Chinese approach to business on the continent. You may have heard academics make the same point but unlike Yassin Bey.

After all, he has a way with words.

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US-AFRICA SUMMIT: ANOTHER USELESS MEETING?

The US is getting increasingly worried about China and Russia winning over new friends in Africa - and becoming rather popular. So last December, Uncle Sam held a ‘party’ in the form of its ‘US-Africa Leaders Summit 2022.’ But while this highlighted the growing importance of Africa, the charm-offensive was a flop on a number of fronts - chiefly, because the US still insisted on speaking from a position of dominance and presumed superiority, and wanted to set the agenda all by itself. (It’s like a party host insisting on what people should talk about over drinks.) Arikana Chihombori-Quao - the African Union’s former envoy to the US - was unimpressed, for one. Here she explains why.


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TRUMP: DEMISE OF $ WORSE THAN LOSING WAR!

The days of the dollar’s global dominance could be numbered - and 45th US President (plus wannabe 47th) Donald Trump doesn’t like it one bit. In this clip, watch him claim that it would be “worse than losing any war.”

Others would disagree, of course. Ever since the USD was made the global reserve currency at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, Washington has been weaponising it via sanctions - for example, by cutting off ‘pariah’ countries from the global banking system. Africa in particular has been a target.

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Continued - TRUMP: DEMISE OF $ WORSE THAN LOSING WAR!

And the US has taken catastrophic action to ensure the dollar remains top dog among currencies. In 2011, the world watched as US-led NATO jets pummelled Libya with bombs on the pretext of a humanitarian intervention. But leaked e-mails from Hillary Clinton later revealed another key aim behind the intervention: to stop Gaddafi from launching his Pan-African Gold Dinar. This oil-backed currency could have freed Africa from economic bondage, rivalling the dollar and the euro, as well as putting an end to the exploitative Paris-controlled CFA franc.

Dollar dominance is one reason why the US has remained the epicentre of global economic power. But moves are afoot to change this. The BRICS bloc of economies - currently embracing Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa - accounts for 16% of the world's trade, and a larger share of the world's GDP than the G7. It wants to harness this collective might by launching a new currency. With over 40 additional countries reportedly interested in joining the alliance, such a currency would surely diminish the power of the dollar and thereby that of the United States.

It might be a doomsday scenario as far as Trump (and America) is concerned, but it would be a liberation for much of the rest of the world. What do you think?

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‘GIVE NIGERIENS PEACE, SECURITY, GOOD JOBS’

The people of Niger just want peace and security.
Listen to African writer @djbwakali give his take on the coup and its causes.
As we’ve heard many times, the country’s uranium should be a source of wealth. Instead, it's become a root of conflict and exploitation.

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