India-Africa News and Discussion

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ramana
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Folks I had heard of contract farming in Kenya and Somalia by Indians. Do we have any news reports?
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by mappunni »

ramana wrote:Folks I had heard of contract farming in Kenya and Somalia by Indians. Do we have any news reports?

Some old reports

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles ... ng-project
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Thanks. Quick response. 8)
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

India extends Line of Credit worth $28B to countries.

https://m.timesofindia.com/india/extend ... ssion=true
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by chetak »

Tanzania Suspends China-Funded $10 Billion Bagamoyo Port Project; Calls The Financing Terms ‘Exploitative’




In a major blow to Chinese President Xi Jinping's pet project Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), the Government of Tanzania has suspended the construction of the $10 billion Bagamoyo port which was to be constructed with funds from China, reports Economic Times.

The project had been signed by President Jinping in March 2013. However, the newly elected Tanzanian President John Magufuli refused to move ahead with the project, calling the conditions 'exploitative' and 'awkward'.

"Chinese financiers set tough conditions that can only be accepted by mad people," said President Magufuli.

As per the agreement, the port, once built, would have been leased to China for a period of 99 years, during which Tanzania would not have had any say on who else could come and invest in the port upon its operationalisation.


The project was a major connectivity initiative being pursued by China in East Africa under its BRI programme. The project included construction of several rail lines and roads to oil fields. The Bagamoyo port was intended to be built as the biggest port in all of East Africa.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by sooraj »

African nations offer India barter deal: Copper, gold for infra projects
Struck by liquidity crunch, low foreign exchange, African nations want to swap copper, gold for infra projects
At least three countries — Zambia, Ghana and Rwanda — have approached India with a proposal to export minerals in return for project import. Among the commodities that could be part of the barter deal are copper and gold. Two Indian companies, Ircon International and the State Trading Corporation of India (STC), are already in talks with these countries for a commodity-project swap deal.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

This is important. its barter as they don't have $ reserves.
And China will clean them out.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by Rony »

The most unusual ways many African countries got their names
The concept of nation states in Africa is only a bit over a century old, arising after the 1884 Berlin Conference and the subsequent Scramble for Africa by European superpowers of the time. It is therefore not surprising that the names of most African countries are remnants of a colonial legacy.

Nearly every country on earth is named after after one of four things—a directional description of the country, a feature of the land, a tribe name or an important person, most likely a man. For the most part, Africa mirrors this trend with a few exceptions. The stories of how African countries got their names ranges from the more mundane, to the fantastical and sometimes even the mind-boggling.

Cameroon, a country that has the complicated legacy of first having been colonized by the Germans, then later partitioned by the French and British, was actually named by a Portuguese explorer in the 15th century. Coming across the Wouri river, one of Cameroon’s largest rivers, he renamed it, Rio dos Camarões (shrimp river,) for the abundance of shrimp in it. The name stuck and evolved to become the country name.

Another 15th century Portuguese explorer would find his way further West where either the mountains that looked like a lion’s teeth or the impressive roar of thunderstorms would lead him to name the place, Sierra Lyoa (lion mountains.) In time, the name would change to Sierra Leone.

Centuries later, another mountain would yield a country’s name in East Africa, when the British came upon an imposing snow-capped mountain that the Kikuyu people called Kirinyaga (Where God dwells.) As they struggled to pronounce, Kirinyaga, they called it Mt. Kenya – the country would be named after this mountain.

Elsewhere it was not linguistic challenges that led to a country’s misnaming, but actually a sort of clerical error. Marco Polo, the 13th century Italian explorer never visited Madagascar, but is believed to be responsible for mistaking it for Mogadishu and including it in his memoirs. This is the first written reference to Madageiscar. Thus, the corrupted Italian transliteration of Mogadishu, Madageiscar, eventually gave the world’s second largest island country its name.

Mali derives its name from the original Bambara word for hippopotamus that evolved to mean “the place where the king lives.” In Malian culture, the hippopotamus signifies strength. There is a particularly fascinating Malian legend about how the founder of the Malian empire, Sundiata Keita, changed himself into a hippopotamus upon his death and continued dwelling in the Sankarani River, a tributary of the Niger River.

Close to Mali, two other countries got their name from Western Africa’s principal river, the Niger river. Niger (former French colony to the north of Nigeria) and Nigeria (a former British colony) were both named for the Niger river that flows through them. It was originally called Ni Gir (River Gir) in one of the local languages though there’s also the theory it was named for the Latin adjective for black, as in Black River.

The Arab legacy on the continent was also the source of some of the names of African countries. In Mozambique, it would be an Arab Sheikh, whose name would remain with the country. Mussa Bin Bique ruled the area at the time when the Portuguese arrived, and the Portuguese would call this country, Mozambique. Sudan would get its name from the Arabic phrase, Bidad as-Sudan (land of the blacks).

Comoros derives its name from 10th century Arab traders who called it kamar or kumr, meaning moon, perhaps because of the half-moon shape that the four original islands of Comoros form.

Gabon, would also be named based on a shape of a place. The country’s first European visitors were Portuguese traders who arrived in the 15th century and named it Gaboa (coat,) based on the shape of the Como River Estuary, where they first explored, that looked to them like a coat with sleeves and a hood.

In the South, Zimbabwe would reclaim its name in 1979 just ahead of independence from the 13th-15th century kingdom of Zimbabwe removing its colonial legacy name of Rhodesia, after Cecil Rhodes. The British colonialist, whose legacy on the continent and beyond is called to question these days, headed the British South Africa company that during colonial times, “owned” present-day Zambia and Zimbabwe.

Ghana on its part would also reclaim its name at independence from the Ancient West African Kingdom of Ghana after its British colonial legacy when it was known as the Gold Coast. Recently, in multicultural and multiracial South Africa, there have also been some calls to shake off the colonial legacy of its naming by changing its name to Azania. Interestingly, even this name has no African origin. It was the name used by 1st century Greek explorers to refer to Southern Africa.

Even a country without colonial heritage find its names have roots in Europe, such is the case with Ethiopia, which was never colonized but whose name also has Greek roots from the words “burnt-face” as a noun or “red-brown” in as an adjective. Liberia, the continent’s oldest republic which was established as independent country in 1847 by freed former African-American slaves was obviously named for liberty.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by Rony »

Why many Africans head to India for Cancer care
A large number of cancer patients from Africa are travelling to India every year in search of treatment.

Medical tourism from Africa is thought to be worth around $1bn a year.

In this BBC Life Clinic film, Esther Wafor explains why she travelled from her home country of Cameroon and why she chose India for her treatment.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by mmasand »

Camp Simba Bay under attack by Al Shabaab Sunni militants (Al Qaeda backed). Smoke seen billowing in the distance, base accommodates Kenyan and US forces that render training to Kenyans + Spec Ops for missions in Somalia. Almost all of drone operations over Somalia and Yemen are from Camp Simba.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Kenya needs to come to grips with its security problems and not rely on votebank politics.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ricky_v »

South africa is not concentrated upon enough, the only african country with the potential to pull the entire continent out of relative muck, is now sucked itself in the mire. A possible china move in the making of belt and road saffa edition cannot be far behind. Eskom which used to be one of the seven largest utility producer in the world is now struggling.
https://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comm ... r-1.963586
To complicate matters, the country’s once-reliable and cheap electricity has become the single biggest threat to the economy. Eskom, the state power utility, has struggled to keep the lights on for many months, as one plant breakdown after another have made the electrical grid woefully expensive and unstable.

Eskom authorities have turned to enacting forced blackouts to prevent total system collapse, hitting the economy as businesses and households alike have scrambled for more expensive back-up options like diesel generators – or risk staying in the dark. In December, Eskom was forced to shed so much power from the grid that even vital mining operations in the country were temporarily halted, impacting the country’s most critical sector.

Amid the blackouts, Pretoria has thrown billions of dollars at the problem, but to little avail. This is because constructing new plants and improving the existing decrepit infrastructure will take several years, meaning that South Africa’s fight to keep the lights on will continue to harm the economy for the foreseeable future. The consequences will be felt well beyond the electrical sector as Moody’s Financial Services, the last of the big three credit agencies to not downgrade South Africa to junk status, will review its position in November. It is likely that Moody’s will downgrade.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by kvraghav »

There might be a Chinese power generation equipment angle to this which is causing maintenance issues. Will dig the article which i remember reading.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by Rony »

Newsweek booster cover story on Nigeria

Black China: Africa's First Superpower Is Coming Sooner Than You Think
https://www.newsweek.com/2020/01/31/nig ... 81949.html


Nigeria Is Haunted by Its Civil War
The conflict’s legacy continues to hold the country captive, half a century later.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/15/opin ... rsary.html
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by Jarita »

This still exists and these people give racism odd names like culture. What culture, the culture belongs to the original indigenous people of the land. What culture do these colonisers have to prevent indigenous people from entering the town. This is the reason why the enclaves created by the Russians in Goa and other sundry foreigners in the hill states of India are worrisome.
This also explains why a spotlight must be shone on the mindset of this community. How bucolic it looks and how sinister it really is. Children swimming while there is "strange fruit hanging from a tree" nearby.
An indictment of South Africa': whites-only town Orania is booming

October in Orania can be charming. When the sun sets, long ribbons of burnt orange settle on the horizon. The flies and mosquitoes that come with the oppressive summer heat haven’t arrived yet. It is Magdalene Kleynhans’ favourite time of year. “You can sit outside until late into the night,” says the businesswoman, whose family spend much of their time outdoors. Her children fish from the banks of the Orange River whenever they choose. Kleynhans leaves the house unlocked. “It’s a good life. It’s a big privilege.”

But there is much more to this small Northern Cape town than the bucolic ideal painted by Kleynhans. Incredibly, 25 years after the fall of apartheid, Orania is a place for white people only.
https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2019 ... is-booming
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by darshan »

Africa at par with Pakistan, Afghanistan in terrorism, here's how terrorism grew in the Dark Continent
https://zeenews.india.com/world/mapping ... 01252.html
NEW DELHI: Any conversation on radical Islamic terrorism leads us to the images of the war-torn Middle East, North Africa (MENA) region or South Asian countries.

However, the imageries might change soon as another part of world might replace the dominance of the said regions. Trends have started suggesting so. For example, according to the Global Terrorism Index 2019 (GTI), the number of terror-related deaths in Sub-Saharan Africa has already surpassed the number of deaths in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA).

The spread of radical Islamic terrorism is largely going unnoticed by the International community, including India. Recent data suggests that Africa has been at par with countries like Afghanistan, Pakistan and Syria in terms of terror-related incidents. The terrorism is advancing downwards from North Africa towards the central and southern parts and from internal to the coastal areas.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by Haresh »

Anybody have any news on what's happening in Mozambique ?

The peaceful one's are causing chaos, they are besieging a town in the north called Palma.

70 K Indians in Mozambique.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indians_in_Mozambique
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by Haresh »

Conflict in Mozambique is bad for India’s food, energy and maritime security

https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/opini ... 72111.html
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

Chad President of 30 years was killed by rebels.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ricky_v »

https://www.opindia.com/2021/07/south-a ... f-defence/
South Africa is in a state of chaos and unrest ever since the arrest of former President Jacob Zuma on July 7. As riots, arson, violence and lootings escalate in the country, the Indian community living there faces dangers to their homes and businesses. In a desperate attempt to protect their businesses from looting, Indians have now stepped up their fight against the arsonists and looters.
Zuma, once known for his fight against apartheid, was imprisoned in the Estcourt Correctional Center for 15 months for disobeying court’s orders.

It soon escalated to arson, and killings on the streets of Gauteng, and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) provinces.
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Willem Petzer, the Chairman of Taxpayers Union of South Africa, tweeted, “I have to say, after watching everything that happened today, I am looking at the Durban Indian community in a whole different light. These guys showed us they are willing to go all the way to defend their communities when they are threatened, whatever it takes.
https://twitter.com/willempet/status/14 ... 75680?s=20
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by khatvaanga »

We have to amend our small arms laws pronto.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by m_saini »

Been following the situation in SA and it seems there's quite a lot of rhetoric for "them bad indians" going on SA teetar. Also some very questionable tweets, some bordering on call for violence against Indians.

https://twitter.com/Nkinga_/status/1414688022755430410
White people & Indians have declared war. In the war there are no rules. When our people target their children & their mothers,fathers it won’t be nice and no I’m not calling for violence but our people didn’t not kill or beat up anyone. If they are wrong police must arrest them
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Don't know what the actual sentiment on the ground is but FWIW, from twitter it looks very grim.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by nachiket »

The pictures and videos circulating on twitter look very scary. 72 people already dead and many wounded. Widespread looting and rioting with entire malls ransacked. There were some pics and videos of Indians who seemed to be well armed protecting their communities by firing on mobs and pretty much anyone suspected of being a looter. Since the people indulging in this are mostly Zulu supporters of Jacob Zuma, the looters are almost certainly going to be from that community. So now there are people alleging that Indians have declared a race war and black South Africans need to retaliate when the reality is that they are protecting themselves and their property. This is what happens when the state cedes control to the mobs and fails to act to stop them. Same thing happened during the LA riots when the Korean community had to protect themselves with guns after the police vanished.

They are saying 25000 armymen are going to be deployed now to stop the violence so hopefully this will end for the time being.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by Pratyush »

South Africa is turning into yet another failed African failed state.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by arshyam »

Amid Unrest In South Africa, India Raises Concern Over Attacks On Indian Expats, Indian-Origin South Africans: Report - Swarajya
India has raised concern over the recent attacks on the Indian expats and people of Indian-origin in South Africa.

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar is said to have spoken with his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor to convey India's concern over the violence against the Indian-origin people amid the unrest in the country, reports Times of India.

Further, MEA secretary Sanjay Bhattacharya also met with the high commissioner of South Africa to India Joel Sibusiso Ndebele and expressed reservations about the issue, official sources were quoted in the report as saying.

“South African side assured that their government was doing its utmost to enforce law and order... They expected the situation to improve soon,” a source was quoted as saying.

"Regarding reports of arson and looting against Indians and Indian-origin South Africans, the South African side conveyed that opportunistic elements were taking advantage of the situation to engage in violence,” the source added.

It should be noted that the violence erupted in South Africa last Wednesday after the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma. As many as 72 people have reportedly been killed in the violence.

Among areas affected by the rioting and looting are Durban, Pietermaritzburg and Johannesburg, all of which have a sizeable population of Indian expats. Further, businesses owned by Indians and Indian-origin South Africans are reportedly also being targeted by looters.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by g.sarkar »

https://swarajyamag.com/world/lessons-f ... ring-gifts
Lessons For India From South Africa: Beware Of Those Bearing Gifts
Rajeev Srinivasan - Jul 15, 2021

As I write this, there are riots in South Africa over a court order to jail former President Jacob Zuma on corruption charges. It may escalate to a quasi-civil war. It was startling to hear that model-minority Indian-origin South Africans are facing threats to their lives and livelihoods, and that some of them are defending themselves with firearms.
As a teenager, I read several novels by the Afrikaner author Laurens Jan van der Post about the days of apartheid, and I was struck by the trisanku nature of the Indians there: disrespected by both blacks and whites, living a tenuous and uncertain existence. We saw what happened to Indians in Idi Amin’s Uganda, and we saw how the Chettiars were ejected from Burma.
A big reason for the assaults is the certainty that Indians are soft targets: that they do not fight back, and they often have assets because they are diligent and save whatever they can. Indian businesses are being torched, and their very lives are in jeopardy.
It is important to pay attention to this because India’s future is entwined with the Indian Ocean Rim and with the fast-growing (at least till the pandemic struck) economies of that huge and relatively empty continent. The Chinese have made massive inroads there, but there is also a backlash. India needs to have an Africa strategy. India, meanwhile, merely gets second-hand information about Africa from the Anglosphere.
This has to change. There are serious commercial opportunities. For example, Indian digitisation and payment options may be attractive to African nations: UPI, RuPay, Aadhar, Cowin, India Stack etc., along with a bridge between UPI and Kenya’s M-PESA.
More to the point, there are lessons for us from the African encounter with the West. The net result has been the impoverishment and suffering of the Africans, including arbitrary lines drawn across the continent tearing apart traditional ethnic identities, leading to endless wars and displacement and ethnic cleansing. That must sound familiar to the subcontinentals: the legacy of the European empire.
I shall confine myself to three examples: Rwanda, Ethiopia and South Sudan.
Rwanda
There are two ethnic groups in Rwanda, the ‘tall, fair’ Tutsis and the ‘short, dark’ Hutus. Well, that’s the theory, but to the impartial observer, they seem identical: they are very close genetically, and they had generally lived peacefully with each other for centuries.
Christian missionaries arriving in Rwanda ‘discovered’ that the minority Tutsi were lording it over the Hutu. I don’t remember if they ‘discovered’ that the Tutsi were also migrants who had defeated and now oppressed the Hutus. In any case, under the missionaries, cleavages in society were manufactured or at least dramatically magnified. In the end, there was a horrific genocide. The Hutus attempted to wipe out the Tutsis with the collusion of the church.
If you get away from the gruesome killings, this might sound vaguely familiar to Indians: yes, it is the 'Aryan Invasion Fairytale' in a slightly different form. But the intent was the same: divide et impera. The goal was to maintain white control by fomenting fratricide and civil war.
......
Gautam
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by chanakyaa »

Not related to India and away from usual geographies. Conflicting situation building up between Egypt and Ethiopia...Chinese dam, water, and possibly surgical strike or war.

Ethiopia’s Grand Renaissance Dam: Assessing China’s Role

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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by srin »

This sounds ominous and a shot across the bow.

Indian vs. Black: Vigilante Killings Upend a South African Town
As rioting and looting swept the country this summer, Indians in the suburb of Phoenix set up roadblocks to police their streets. Dozens of Black people passing through wound up dead.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by g.sarkar »

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GaSZRqAksA0
Corruption in South Africa | DW Documentary
Sep 1, 2021

A country falls into the hands of kleptocrats, a state is taken over. This happens again and again, all over the world. Including in South Africa, of all places, where the fight for democracy against a brutal apartheid regime was so hard-won.
For years, a small group of investigative journalists in South Africa had been on the trail of a gigantic corruption scandal. When they discovered signs of far-reaching corruption involving Jacob Zuma, then president of South Africa, a pernicious disinformation campaign was mounted against the integrity of the journalists.
Then one day in early 2017, the journalists unexpectedly received a hard drive containing thousands of photos, emails and videos - evidence that laid bare the way the South African state had been taken over by private individuals, with the help of politicians.
The so-called Gupta Leaks not only proved that the journalists had been right in their suspicions, but showed that the situation was much worse than they thought. Since taking office as president, Jacob Zuma had systematically awarded lucrative government contracts to three brothers from India, the Guptas.
Thanks to their good friend Zuma, members of the Gupta family were able to use the proceeds of an entire nation for their own gain, acquiring holdings in coal mines, media and IT companies, and even government positions.
.....
Gautam
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by srikandan »

https://indianexpress.com/article/world ... t-7750291/

EU tensions with Russia spilling into Africa
Since the second coup in May 2021 and the arrival of Prime Minister Choguel Maiga, tension has grown between the transitional authorities in Mali and the French government. The situation worsened when some European countries, including France, claimed that Mali had deployed mercenaries from the Russian company Wagner.

Mali has been battling an Islamic insurgency in the north since 2012, and in 2013 France intervened in its former colony to stop jihadists who had seized swaths of the sprawling country, also at the request of Malian leaders.
https://www.africanews.com/2022/01/26/m ... deploying/
Mali's Interim Prime Minister Choguel Kokalla Maiga said foreign forces will need to be agreed by the government before deploying after it asked Denmark to take back its special forces.

Bamako on Monday asked Denmark to take home its contingent of hundreds who were recently deployed to the country to take part in a French task force intended to accompany Malian soldiers against Jihadist groups.

"We told the Danes 'If you want to come to Mali then it's an agreement between the Danes and the Malians'. We will no longer accept that people come to our country. Above all when they say they will put in place a standby force. Why are they coming? Are they not coming to prepare something against our country. So we will not accept this. That's why we have asked the Danes to go home," said Choguel Kokalla Maiga, the Malian interim Prime Minister.

The force, whose deployment was announced in April 2021, is stationed in Menaka in eastern Mali. Its mandate was due to run until early 2023. The Malina government insisted forces will no longer enter its territory through proxies.

"Nobody will come here by proxy anymore. That used to happen. But now it's finished. It won't happen any more under the authority of Assimi Goita. If someone has to come to Mali then we will come to an agreement. We will agree on what you will come here to do," said Choguel Kokalla Maiga, the Malian interim Prime Minister.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

From Prasar Bharati


India-Africa relations prospering on mutual respects & co-operations among others


Dating back several centuries, the relations between India and African countries are driven and shaped by a number of factors, including trade and investments, cultural, historical and political engagements. A youthful demography, fast-growing economies and vast amount of natural resources are something that both sides enjoy, causing envy and interest in rest of the world. These are the things that have prompted the 5 days visit of Vice President Venkaiah Naidu from 30th of May to 3rd of June, 2022 to Gabon and Senegal. In the last leg of his visit, the Vice President will be in Qatar from 4th to 7th of June.

This is the first visit from India at the level of Vice President to all three countries and the first-ever high-level visit from India to Gabon and Senegal. The visits to Gabon and Senegal are set to add momentum to India’s engagement with Africa and emphasise India’s commitment to this continent as Africa is increasingly becoming important to India’s foreign policy calculations also.

Vice President completed his first leg of visit to Gabon from 30th of May to 1st of June 2022. During the visit, he held delegation level talks with Prime Minister of Gabon H.E. Rose Christiane Ossouka Raponda. Vice President also called on President of Gabon H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba and met other dignitaries. He also interacted with the business community in Gabon and addressed Indian diaspora. Both sides held a series of bilateral engagements advancing cooperation across spheres including trade, investment, energy, ICT, capacity building, health, pharmaceuticals and more.

More than 50 Indian companies are engaged in Gabon Special Economic Zone (GSEZ), the place Vice President visited Wednesday. Both sides signed two MoUs for establishing Joint Commission and Diplomats’ training. Around 800 Indians are living in Gabon, engaged in infrastructure projects, trading and exports of timber and metal scrap.

India and Gabon are currently non-permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) and bilateral trade between the reached 1.12 US dollar in 2021-22. Under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) and ICCR schemes, a number of Gabon nationals pursue education in India under scholarship and training programmes offered here.

Similarly, India and Senegal bilateral trade reached 1.65 billion in 2021-22 with Indian offering a total of 16 lines of credit amounting to 350 million US dollar and Buyers Credit of about 305 US dollar in various sectors. However, comparing with these African countries India has much larger trade and people to people relations with Qatar and other Muslim countries. India-Qatar bilateral trade has already cross 15 billion US dollar in 2021-22 with Qatar committing investments of over 2 billion US dollar in various Indian companies over the past two years. Besides, more than 7.5 lakh Indian are living in Qatar.

Coming back to the growing relations with Africa- not only India but rest of the globe is also far more interested in this continent today than any time in history.



India and Africa’s historical links and relations have experienced a revival in recent years and both sides understand the fact that it is a win-win situation as growing relations are mutually beneficial. India-Africa trade has grown to around 66.7 billion US dollar in 2019-20. Around 8% of Indian imports are from Africa and around 9% of Africa’s imports are from India. The investment of India’s public and private sector enterprises are increasing in Africa, making it the 8th largest investor in African.

In recent years, besides loan and investment, India has also given ample amount of aid to Africa to fight the Covid-19 pandemic. Under the Vaccine Maitri initiative, India supplied 24.7 million doses of Made of India Covid vaccines to 42 countries in Africa.

Clearly, India looks to engage with Africa meaningfully, focusing much on its core competencies like human resource development, training and skill development, IT, ITES, education and healthcare services unlike China who focuses majorly on developing manufacturing capacities and infrastructure in Africa. While, China’s economic model of engagement with Africa looks attractive and has also paid rich dividend in recent years, the fascination for India’s support for democratic practices, processes, institutions and people to people engagement is high in Africa.

India also has an advantage of language and cultural affinity. English is far more prevalent among the people in African countries than any other language, making it much easier for Indian to interact with African people. Moreover, over 3 million strong Indian diaspora in Africa also proves to a crucial strategic asset for India to further its relations with African countries.

Over half a dozen countries in Africa are among the fastest developing economies including Rwanda, Senegal, and Tanzania, making it one of the growth pole of the world. Real GDP in Africa in the past decade has grown almost twice. African continent has a population of over one billion with a combined GDP of 2.5 trillion dollars, which makes it a huge market.

Taking these all things into account, India is making consistent efforts towards strengthening relations with Africa. Launched in 2008, India’s duty-free tariff preferential scheme for Least Developed Nation has benefited 33 African states. The India–Africa Forum Summit- the official platform for the African-Indian relations, is also contributing immensely to this building up process.

In the past, the geographical proximity and easy navigability in Indian Ocean resulted in well-established trade relations between India and Africa, much before the European exploration.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

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Prasar Bharati
PM Modi meets South African President Cyril Ramaphosa on sidelines of G7 Summit

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met South African President Cyril Ramaphosa as part of the multiple bilateral meetings scheduled on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Germany.

The talks covered the entire gamut of the existing bilateral relationship between the two nations, including expanding ties in trade, investment, defence, pharmaceuticals, health and more. The leaders also held in-depth talks on food security and agreed on further enhancing their countries close cooperation in both regional and multilateral forums, including in BRICS and IBSA.

Speaking of his meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, PM Modi said, “Glad to have met President Cyril Ramaphosa in Germany. Our talks covered diverse sectors including economic cooperation, improving connectivity and deepening ties in food processing and FinTech.”

According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the leaders during the meeting jointly expressed satisfaction over the WTO agreement reached in June 2022 that includes waiving patents for COVID-19 vaccines, thereby allowing developing countries to produce vaccines.

“We discussed the cooperation between our two countries in the fight against COVID-19 which resulted in the WTO acceptance of the TRIPS Waiver,” the South African President said.

It is pertinent to note that, ‘India and South Africa have submitted the first proposal suggesting a waiver for all WTO members on the implementation of certain provisions of the TRIPS Agreement in relation to the prevention, containment or treatment of COVID-19’.

Both sides also stressed the need for a comprehensive reform of the United Nations Security Council.

PM Modi who is on a two-day visit to Germany, at the invitation of the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, earlier also addressed the session on ‘Investing in a better Future: Climate, Energy, Health’ at G7 Summit.

Highlighting India’s efforts for green growth, clean energy, sustainable lifestyles & global wellbeing, PM Modi said, “We have achieved the target of 40 percent energy-capacity from non-fossil sources 9 years before time. The target of 10 percent ethanol-blending in petrol has been achieved 5 months before time. India has the world's first fully solar-power operated airport. India's huge railway system will become net zero in this decade.”

In his address, PM Modi further called on G7 countries to support India’s effort in clean energy technologies. “The scale that India can provide for every new technology can make that technology affordable for the whole world,” PM Modi said.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by Lisa »

Missing men: Bones found in Aberdares flown to Nairobi

https://nation.africa/kenya/news/missin ... bi-3993726

"Bones, clothes and belts believed to belong to the two missing Indians and their Kenyan driver were transported from Aberdare forest to Nairobi for forensic analysis yesterday as investigations into their disappearance shifted a gear higher."

https://nation.africa/kenya/news/close- ... ns-3993204
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

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https://www.rediff.com/news/report/two- ... 221023.htm
Two Indian techies missing in Kenya killed by cops, claims prez aide
Senjo M R, October 23, 2022

Two Indian techies who went missing in Kenya in mid-July, were killed by a special unit of state police, according to an aide of President William Ruto.
Former Balaji Telefilms COO Zulfiqar Khan and another Indian national Mohamed Zaid Sami Kidwai went missing more than two months ago after leaving a popular club in an affluent residential neighbourhood in Nairobi.
Both Khan and Kidwai were in Kenya to join President William Ruto's election campaign information and communications technology team.
"Asante sana (Thank you very much) President Ruto for DISBANDING the DCI Elite unit. This was one unit that was literally used to Kidnap, assault, maim and Kill innocent people. They targeted those who supported the election of Ruto as President. Zaid was such one person," Ruto's aide Dennis Itumbi said in a Facebook post.
"Zaid and Ahmad were just good people who became my friends and in the process connected with some in our team," he added.
Earlier, the police officers said that the CCTV footage had been retrieved from the scene of the abduction in a bid to retrace the missing people. A section of local detectives was also detained to help with the probe.
The detained officers were ordered to hand over a file with their findings on the missing case to a new team of sleuths, the Kenyan media.
"Evidence shows them getting into the cab, minutes later, a vehicle, the ones used by the ROGUE DCI Unit blocked the cab. Zaid and Ahmed were dragged into the car. Their cab driver too," Itumbi said in the post.
.....
Gautam
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

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From Telegram
The Islamic State activity in Africa

Part 1

After the military defeat of the Islamic State (IS) in the Middle East, its leaders decided to aim at expanding the influence in other regions.

Today, Africa is the most important springboard for the spread of IS ideology. The organization has a network of branches there, which consistently increases the combat potential.

The IS largest African branches

▪️The Islamic State – West Africa Province settled in the north-west of Nigeria near Lake Chad. As the state authorities haven’t done anything to counter the terrorist threat, the militants created a kind of a quasi-state with an administrative hierarchy there.

The group is also active near the borders with Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

▪️The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara annually commits dozens of attacks in the Sahel states. The most difficult situation is present in the cross-border region between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger.

Government troops do not actually control the region. IS militants have taken over the smuggling routes and receive income from the traffic of gold, weapons and drugs to the Gulf of Guinea states.

▪️The Islamic State – Central Africa Province is represented by two groups:

➖ Ahlu Sunna Waljama'a is active in the northern part of Mozambique. Its attacks jeopardized a multibillion-dollar international project to develop gas fields in the Cabo Delgado province which the EU is trying to urgently revive and use as an alternative to Russian gas.

➖the Allied Democratic Forces are active in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Last year, the faction carried out a series of bloody attacks against civilians, which forced the country's authorities to declare state of martial law in several areas.

IS branches in other parts of Africa

▪️In North Africa, there are sleeper cells of the Islamic State Sinai Province militants in Egypt and the Islamic State in Libya in southern Libya.

Although both factions do not have large areas of control and become the targets of anti-terrorist raids, they sometimes also launch attacks. For example, in the terrorist attack in May, 11 Egyptian soldiers were killed.

▪️On the east coast, the IS leadership planned to absorb the Al-Qaeda-affiliated Somali group Al-Shabaab to attack Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.

The attempts ended in failure, but some of the militants nevertheless broke away and formed the Islamic State in Somalia. The organization settled in the mountains of Puntland in the north-east of the country.

#IS #terrorism #analytics

@africaintel
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

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The Islamic State activity in Africa

Part 2

The leaders of the Islamic State seek to create a network of quasi-states in the territories under its control.

Territories where the state control is weak are an ideal place to create new terrorist cells. Therefore, in the future, IS militants will both capture gray zones and expand their influence around already occupied areas in order to gain as many supporters and sources of income as possible.

Does IS have competitors?

In areas of their activity, Islamic State militants face ideological rivals from al-Qaeda affiliates or groups:

➖ Jamaat Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin in Mali, Burkina Faso and other countries of the Sahel,
➖ Boko Haram in Nigeria,
➖ Al-Shabaab in Somalia.

All of them have serious combat capabilities, but they are inferior to IS in terms of financial capabilities and propaganda tools.

Therefore, Al-Qaeda branches and other radical Islamist groups can only slow down the spread of the IS in the areas of their activity: in other regions, they cannot do anything to oppose the groups.

What about anti-terrorist operations?

Although there are regular reports on the Web about raids against the IS African branches’ militants, they do not cause them significant damage. Indeed, they only were aimed at curbing the groups’ activity or just at promoting themselves in the media.

No one really needs a major international anti-terrorist operation in Africa: for the West, it is much more profitable to destabilize countries with mineral reserves.

The chaos allows multinational corporations and entrepreneurs to fish in troubled waters – stealthily pump out resources or organize smuggling flows of drugs, weapons, slaves and other lucrative goods.

And in case problems pop out, you can always bring a limited military contingent into the region – the EU mission or even UN peacekeepers. They will successfully control the fight against the militants, making it difficult to stabilize the situation.

What are the prospects for IS?

A significant number of African governments don’t have the resources to counter the terrorist organization, nor its ideological influence.

As defeating ISIS branches is of absolutely no interest to the West, African governments should not hope for its help. China does not resort to military intervention, and the Russian Wagner’s PMC’s resources are clearly not sufficient to solve problems on the entire continent.

Under these conditions, the influence of the Islamic State in Africa will very likely grow, as well as spread to other regions.

#IS #terrorism #analytics

@africaintel
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ricky_v »

not strictly india related, but the demographics of the country, the country, and its economy (in that order) are forecast to play a major role in the coming years.

also, it has the wonderful sentiments of "youth involvement" enmeshed in the current process, a sentiment that has not always been robust for the host country historically
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https://www.fpri.org/article/2023/02/ni ... evolution/
People under thirty constitute 70 percent of Nigeria’s population but, until the current election cycle, the country’s youth have been checked out of the political process.

The general elections scheduled for February 25, however, could see a change—a surge in voter registration by young people could very well determine the outcome and usher in a new and younger national leadership. While young voters have typically made up the majority of registered voters, they have seldom voted. In the 2023 general election, however, one of the three leading candidates, Peter Obi, has attracted the attention of youthful voters, and while it is not by any means a sure thing, seems poised to set Nigerian politics on a new course. Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and most populous country with over 216 million people,
The current front runner is Obi, a member of the social democratic Labour Party and former governor of Anambra state. At sixty-one, Obi is the youngest of the three main candidates in a field of sixteen total contenders. Formerly a member of the opposition People’s Democratic Party. Obi resigned shortly before the primaries in July 2022, and became the Labour Party candidate. Obi seems to have the best understanding of what young Nigerians want and can speak the language of the young and the diaspora. An Igbo from the country’s southeast, his support, from young people and celebrities, transcends ethnic and socio-economic divisions.
a formidable combo, though celebrities are distinguished by their perceived superiority and general fickleness, and the combo might be slightly more malleable / open to mind viruses of all kind
Obi has attracted support from younger voters who have traditionally been apathetic, and has also won the support of a number of celebrities, including former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who publicly declared his support on January 1 in an open letter to the youth of Nigeria. In addition to praising Obi’s competence and ability to govern, Obasanjo reinforced to the young people that it was time for the young to take awa lokan (our turn), not with a sense of entitlement but with a commitment to unity and transformation. In a September 2022 poll conducted for Bloomberg News, 72 percent of decided voters of all ages, genders, and ethnicities were for Obi and 45 percent of those who were undecided still expressed a preference for Obi. Among decided voters, Tinubu got 16 percent and Abubakar 9 percent. Since declaring his candidacy, Obi has built up a base of enthusiastic supporters known as “Obidients.” Initially only online, they are increasingly talking to the streets.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ramana »

There is a breakaway movement in Nigeria getting revived. Biafra was the old name. It has Christian leadership.
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

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British Chatham House weighs in before the election calling into doubt technical counting.

https://twitter.com/ChathamHouse/status ... 02976?s=20
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Re: India-Africa News and Discussion

Post by ricky_v »

I dont think that the chatham house even has a preference in this show, they are just muddying the name as they are wont to.
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the regions of north west and north east are stated to be under insurgency and lightly ruled by the centre; the division is a christian south and a muslim north in addition to the prior tribal affiliations, boko haram is active in the north, biafra was the nation formed from the southern, and south-eastern regions.
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this is the product export by nigeria, after the crude though, which is bountiful, they do not have much, and should be diversifying their economy rapidly, what the gulf states (most) are doing; the problem is the vast population difference; the gulf with their limited population and vast expats can tide the storm and make a safe landing, nigeria, without crude and limited industrial heft would crash and burn spectacularly, if their economy is not diversified and fast; which is why i stated that their demographics and not their nation is the most vital tool in western africa, they can make their way for the shores of europe.

this is the gdp per capita of the african continent
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gabon and equitorial guinea have the similar mix of what i would suppose to be early gulf years
this is gabon
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this is equitorial guinea
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cameroon has its own war of secession underway at the moment, the ambazonian crisis with participants from nigeria, chiefly the igbo, who were also at the forefront of the biafra movement, so that way is also barred.

Logically, the nations of ghana, ivory coast and nigeria seem to be most closely aligned, founders of the ECOWAS
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dark green - present members
light green - suspended members
though at the end of the day, this is territory where french writ runs true
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