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<p>BOUAKE, Ivory Coast Jan 7 (Reuters) &#8211; A delegation led by Ivory Coast&#8217;s Defence Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi reached an agreement on Saturday with mutinying soldiers to end a two-day revolt that has spread unrest across the West African nation, said a local official involved in the talks.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have a deal. There&#8217;s white smoke,&#8221; said Djande Lorgn, the sub-prefect in the city of Bouake where the talks took place. &#8220;This accord ends the mutiny.&#8221;</p>
<p>Earlier in the day mutinying soldiers entered Ivory Coast&#8217;s military headquarters and fired into the air inside the compound housing the defence ministry, a diplomatic source said.</p>
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<p>The uprising began early on Friday when disgruntled soldiers &#8211; mainly former rebel fighters &#8211; demanding wage increases and bonuses seized Bouake, the second-largest city, then spread to at least four other cities and towns later in the day.</p>
<p><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/western-africa/2017/01/06/ex-soldiers-seize-control-of-ivory-coasts-second-city/">Ex-soldiers seize control of Cote d&#8217;Ivoire&#8217;s second city﻿</a> </p>
<p>Residents and soldiers reported shooting in Man, Toulepleu, Bondoukou and Abidjan, a city of nearly 5 million residents where the president, administration and parliament are based.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of shooting in the air inside the ministry of defence,&#8221; said the diplomatic source who saw and spoke to the mutineers. &#8220;It&#8217;s in the hands of the bad guys.&#8221;</p>
<p>Rogue soldiers had also erected makeshift barricades around the nearby military headquarters, the source said.</p>
<p>President Alassane Ouattara was visiting neighbouring Ghana for the swearing-in of its new president, after which he returned to Abidjan in the afternoon for a special cabinet meeting.</p>
<p>Saturday saw the revolt rapidly gain momentum as angry soldiers took to the streets in town after town, often firing their guns in the air and warning residents to return home.</p>
<p>Defence Minister Alain-Richard Donwahi travelled to Bouake on Saturday in an attempt to negotiate with the mutiny&#8217;s leaders and quell the uprising.</p>
<p>&#8220;I came, as promised, to meet with our brothers. I am there to reassure them, as the president asked me to,&#8221; Donwahi said before meeting with leaders of the revolt. &#8220;We are going to listen and find a solution.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ivory Coast &#8211; French-speaking West Africa&#8217;s largest economy &#8211; has emerged from a 2002-11 political crisis as one of the continent&#8217;s rising economic stars.</p>
<p>However, years of conflict and a failure to reform its army, thrown together from a patchwork of former rebel fighters and government soldiers, have left it with an unruly force hobbled by internal divisions.</p>
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<p>STANDOFF</p>
<p>Heavy gunfire was heard during the night in the northern city of Korhogo and early on Saturday in Bouake.</p>
<p>The revolt then spread to the Akouedo military base located in a residential section of Abidjan, where gunfire was confirmed by a soldier inside the camp and a local resident.</p>
<p>Another diplomatic source said armed dissident soldiers &#8211; some of whom blackened their faces with ashes or wore scarves around their heads &#8211; blocked a main road near the camp and threatened people in passing cars.</p>
<p>Loyalist troops sought to reinforce security in Abidjan. A Reuters reporter saw elite Republican Guard soldiers deployed on two of the three bridges spanning the lagoon that divides the city&#8217;s northern and southern halves.</p>
<p>Members of a special police and military security unit were positioned near the third bridge, the first diplomat said.</p>
<p>Abidjan residents, meanwhile, rushed to supermarkets to buy bottled water and other provisions, fearing violence could eventually paralyse the city.</p>
<p>A Reuters reporter in Bouake, who met some of the mutineers, said they were composed of low-ranking soldiers but also included some demobilised combatants.</p>
<p>Nearly all appeared to be former members of the New Forces rebellion, which had used Bouake as its de facto capital and controlled the northern half of Ivory Coast from 2002 until the country was reunited following a 2011 civil war.</p>
<p>Defence Minister Donwahi arrived in Bouake in the early afternoon accompanied by Lieutenant-Colonel Issiaka Ouattara, known as Wattao, a former rebel leader who is now the deputy commander of the Republican Guard.</p>
<p>Troop reinforcements were sent towards Bouake on Friday after word of the revolt reached the army headquarters in Abidjan, creating a standoff with renegade soldiers holding positions at the entrance to the city.</p>
<p>Soldiers from the country&#8217;s U.N. peacekeeping mission were also blocked on the outskirts of Bouake on Saturday after mutineers refused to let them enter.</p>
<p>During a similar uprising in 2014, when hundreds of soldiers barricaded roads in cities across Ivory Coast demanding back pay, the government agreed a financial settlement.</p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Loucoumane Coulibaly; Additional reporting and writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Dale Hudson and Stephen Powell)﻿</p>
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Côte d'Ivoire government reaches deal to end army mutiny as uprising spreads

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<p>ACCRA Jan 7 (Reuters) &#8211; Ghana&#8217;s new President Nana Akufo-Addo pledged to cut taxes to boost the economy at his swearing in ceremony on Saturday, whilst also promising to protect the public purse by getting value for money on services.</p>
<p>Akufo-Addo, 72, defeated incumbent John Dramani Mahama in peaceful elections a month ago, a rare peaceful transfer of power in a region plagued by political crises.</p>
<p>The major cocoa and gold exporter is half-way through a three-year aid programme with the International Monetary Fund to fix an economy dogged by high public debt and inflation.</p>
<p>It is not clear how the new president will be able to cut taxes and still stick to an IMF austerity plan that was a condition of a $918 million bailout.</p>
<p>&#8220;We will reduce taxes to recover the momentum of our economy,&#8221; said Akufo-Addo, wrapped in a traditional kaleidoscopic &#8220;kente&#8221; robe. &#8220;Ghana is open for business again.&#8221;</p>
<p>At the venue for the inauguration in Black Star Square, thousands of Ghanaians also draped in traditional kente garments clapped. Outside the perimeters, revellers drummed and danced.</p>
<p>Akufo-Addo suggested government money would be spent wisely.</p>
<p>&#8220;I shall protect the public purse by insisting on value for money,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Public service is just that: service, and (is) not be seen as an opportunity for making money.&#8221;</p>
<p>Ghana expects growth will return to above eight percent in 2017 as new oil and gas fields from Tullow and ENI come on tap.</p>
<p>Akufo-Addo served as foreign minister and attorney general in the NPP government that ruled between 2001 and 2009. He twice previously lost close battles for the presidency. He is the son of a former chief justice and non-executive president of Ghana.</p>
<p>During his campaign, he had accused the Mahama administration of corruption and incompetence, charges the outgoing president denied. Mahama attended the ceremony.</p>
<p>It was also attended by dozens of African leaders and other international dignitaries, including Chadian President Idris Deby, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia and former UN chief Kofi Annan.</p>
<p>Ghanaians are proud of having a stable democracy and acutely aware that it is a rarity in turbulent region.</p>
<p>Akufo-Addo&#8217;s New Patriotic Party also won a majority of 169 seats in Parliament while the former ruling National Democratic Congress now has 106 seats. (Editing by Tim Cocks and Stephen Powell)</p>
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Ghana's new President Akufo-Addo sworn in, promises to reduce taxes, protect public purse

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<p>LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; A court in London will decide in coming weeks whether Royal Dutch Shell can face trial in the UK over oil spill allegations in Nigeria, a decision some legal experts predict could attract more cases against multinationals in Britain.</p>
<p>The High Court will judge whether members from two communities, Bille and Ogale in Nigeria&#8217;s oil-rich Delta region, can sue the Anglo-Dutch company in British courts.</p>
<p>The communities say Nigerian courts are unfit to hear the case against Shell subsidiary Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC). Shell says the case should be heard in Nigeria because the matter is “uniquely a Nigerian problem”.</p>
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<p>Shell also denies responsibility for the spills, which it says were due to sabotage and illegal refining.</p>
<p>If the High Court rules in favour of the communities, some legal experts say other claimants against British-based multinationals would be emboldened to pursue legal action through the British courts.</p>
<p>Some legal experts also warned that a victory by the communities could encourage unscrupulous residents to let oil spills worsen at remote sites by denying clean-up access, as payouts are often linked to the scale of the damage.</p>
<p>&#8220;This case brings home the message that multinationals may increasingly face claims in the English courts arising from disputes which have little or no connection to England,&#8221; said Tom Cummins, a partner at law firm Ashurst.</p>
<p>The Bille and Ogale groups launched their claim just months after Shell agreed a 55 million pound ($68 million) settlement in 2015 with another Nigerian group, the Bodo community.</p>
<p>That case covered two pipeline leaks in 2008, which Shell accepted were its fault due to corrosion, and marked the largest ever out-of-court settlement relating to Nigerian oil spills. Law firm Leigh Day, which is representing the Bille and Ogale communities and also brought the Bodo case in London against Shell, says Nigeria&#8217;s court system is not robust enough to give a fair ruling in reasonable time.</p>
<p>Leigh Day, which is licensed only to practise in Britain, has also raised concerns over whether companies will conduct clean-up operations properly without international pressure.</p>
<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got a dual problem: the systemic ineffectiveness of the courts and the fact that people (in local communities) just can&#8217;t get the evidence together or even representation to take on these companies,&#8221; Daniel Leader, partner at Leigh Day, told Reuters.</p>
<p>For its part, the Nigerian government’s National Oil Spill Detection and Response Agency defended the effectiveness of the Nigerian court system, saying it had successfully sanctioned and sued several companies locally, including SPDC.</p>
<p>Shell said it settled the Bodo case in part because it admitted responsibility for the spill, but never agreed that the case should be tried in London.</p>
<p>It said it would fight to stem a potential landslide of cases from groups whose lands Shell says were spoiled by sabotage, oil theft and illegal refining that are endemic across the Delta.</p>
<p>&#8220;We fully intend to have this (jurisdictional issue) decided by a trial judge, to determine the issue once and for all,&#8221; said Gaurav Sharma, senior legal counsel for Shell&#8217;s global litigation team.</p>
<p>Shell said 92 percent of all oil spilled from SPDC facilities in 2009-13 was a result of theft, sabotage or illegal refining.</p>
<p>In part due to such attacks, the oil major is divesting pipelines and other onshore assets after more than 50 years of operations in Nigeria.</p>
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<p>FEW GOOD SOLUTIONS The Bodo case was hailed by some as a victory for communities, but more than eight years after the spill, the clean-up has not yet begun.</p>
<p>Shell paid the agreed damages, but said the community denied it access in August 2015 when work was set to begin – asking instead for cash to do it themselves.</p>
<p>Barisi Kkabe, a Bodo youth leader, told Reuters the community was unhappy with the contractor picked by Shell, and &#8220;out of fear that (the clean-up fund) may be misappropriated, decided that &#8230; they should share it among the people&#8221;.</p>
<p>An SPDC spokesman said the company was unable to meet the Bodo community’s request to distribute clean-up work to local contractors because it was “not procedurally correct”.</p>
<p>A United Nations Environmental Programme report into oil pollution in Nigeria’s Ogoniland said communities should avoid protracted negotiations over access to spill sites as delays result in far greater environmental damage.</p>
<p>&#8220;Communities deserve compensation for damages when it&#8217;s Shell&#8217;s fault,&#8221; said Aaron Sayne of the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a non-profit group that advises nations on how to manage oil, gas and mineral resources without financial links to the oil industry.</p>
<p>&#8220;But I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s going to be easy for a foreign court to get its head around how complicated it is.&#8221;</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Additional reporting by Anamesere Igboeroteonwu in Onitsha, Nigeria; Editing by Dale Hudson)</p>
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Shell battles Nigerian communities in high-stakes London lawsuit

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<p>DAR ES SALAAM (Reuters) &#8211; The number of tourists visiting Tanzania rose 10.4 percent in the 10 months to October compared with the same period last year, the finance and planning ministry said on Friday, despite higher prices for some attractions.</p>
<p>Tourism is the main source of foreign currency in Tanzania, best known for its beaches, safaris and Mount Kilimanjaro.</p>
<p>As part of an initiative to boost revenue, the government lifted an 18-percent VAT exemption in July on some tourist attractions, including wildlife park entry.</p>
<p>Tour operators had opposed the tax, saying it would stifle the tourism sector which employs more than 500,000 people.</p>
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<p><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/east-africa/2017/01/03/tanzanias-president-john-magufuli-the-bulldozer/">Tanzania’s President John Magufuli: The bulldozer crushing corruption﻿</a></p>
<p>However, arrivals increased to 1,020,816 in the most recent period, according to the ministry of finance and planning.</p>
<p>Tanzania made $2.23 billion in 2015 from 1.1 million tourist arrivals, a slight decrease from 1.14 million arrivals in 2014.</p>
<p>&#8220;Claims that tourists have run away from Tanzania because of the introduction of value added tax (VAT) on some tourism services are without merit,&#8221; the ministry said in a report.</p>
<p>Last month, Tanzanian president John Magufuli announced plans to revamp the cash-strapped national carrier in a bid to boost the tourism and transport sectors, aiming to double annual foreign visitor arrivals.</p>
<p>(Reporting Fumbuka Ng&#8217;wanakilala; Editing by Aaron Maasho and Louise Ireland)</p>
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Tanzania's tourism industry is booming

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<p>ABIDJAN, Jan 6 (Reuters) &#8211; Demobilised soldiers seized Ivory Coast&#8217;s second-largest city on Friday and gunfire erupted at a military camp in another town, according to military sources who said reinforcements had been sent to manage the uprising.</p>
<p>The unrest comes weeks after parliamentary elections that had been viewed as a further step towards cementing stability in the West African nation, which has emerged from a 2002-2011 political crisis as one of the continent&#8217;s rising stars.</p>
<p>Heavy gunfire was heard from around 2 a.m. (0200 GMT) in Bouake &#8211; a city of around a half million inhabitants in the centre of the country &#8211; and sporadic shooting continued into the late morning.</p>
<p>Military sources said demobilised soldiers &#8211; mainly former rebels from the decade-long conflict &#8211; broke into police stations across the city, looting weapons before taking up positions at entry points into the city.</p>
<p>&#8220;The city is under the control of former (soldiers),&#8221; said an army officer, who spoke by telephone from Bouake. &#8220;There are many of them at the north and south entrances to the city. We are on alert and await instructions from the hierarchy.&#8221;</p>
<p>He added that the second in command at the main military base in the city had been taken hostage by the ex-soldiers.</p>
<p>Shooting also broke out mid-morning at a military base in Daloa, the main trading hub in Ivory Coast&#8217;s western cocoa belt. Residents said demobilised soldiers were behind the unrest.</p>
<p>Bouake was the seat of a rebellion that controlled the northern half of the world&#8217;s top cocoa grower from 2002 until Ivory Coast was reunited following a civil war in 2011.</p>
<p>Residents stayed home and businesses remained closed on Friday morning. A helicopter from Ivory Coast&#8217;s U.N. peacekeeping mission patrolled above the city, they said.</p>
<p>&#8220;The city is deserted. Men in balaklavas are patrolling the city on motorcycles or in cars. They aren&#8217;t attacking residents &#8230; They told us to stay at home,&#8221; said Ami Soro, a teacher living in Bouake.</p>
<p>An officer at Ivory Coast&#8217;s military headquarters in the commercial capital Abidjan said reinforcements had been sent to Bouake.</p>
<p>&#8220;The situation remains unstable and serious in Bouake &#8230; Some civilians and even active-duty soldiers have started to rally to them,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p>He added that, while the ex-soldiers had not yet stated their demands, it was believed that they were seeking payment of money they believed they were owed by the government.</p>
<p>A facility in Bouake housing around 200 former soldiers, who were initially brought into the army before later being demobilised, was closed in November.</p>
<p>There was no clear sign of a link between the Bouake events and outbreak of shooting at a military base in Daloa, but the fact the rebels were also demobilised soldiers could indicate the uprising was spreading.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is gunfire at the Second Battalion in Daloa. It&#8217;s young demobilised soldiers,&#8221; said a Daloa resident, speaking by telephone from a cocoa processing factory near the army camp.</p>
<p>A similar uprising occurred in 2014 when hundreds of soldiers barricaded roads in several cities and towns across the country demanding payment of back wages. The government agreed a financial settlement with the soldiers, who returned to barracks. (Reporting by Ange Aboa, Loucoumane Coulibaly and Thierry Gouegnon; Writing by Joe Bavier; Editing by Tom Heneghan)</p>
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Ex-soldiers seize control of Cote d'Ivoire's second city

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<p>The <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/bank-of-england/" target="_blank">Bank of England</a>&#8216;s (BoE) Chief Economist bemoaned the inherent risks of placing too much faith in economic forecasting given the failure to foresee the <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/back-from-the-brink-timeline/" target="_blank">financial crash</a> in 2008 as well as the <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/brexit/" target="_blank">Brexit</a> vote.</p>
<p>Andrew Haldane conceded the economics profession was in &#8220;some degree of crisis&#8221;, when speaking at the Institute for Government on Thursday.</p>
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<p>However, he reiterated the central banks view that the U.K. economy would suffer in 2017 as a consequence of the country&#8217;s vote to leave the <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/european-union/" target="_blank">European Union</a> (EU).</p>
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<p>Crisis mode</p></div>
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<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a fair cop to say the (economic) profession is to some degree in crisis,&#8221; Haldane said.</p>
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<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not someone who would say that all that&#8217;s been done in the past is terrible. It&#8217;s just that the models we had were rather narrow and fragile. The problem came when the world was tipped upside down and those models were ill-equipped to making sense of behaviors that were deeply irrational,&#8221; he added.</p>
<p>The BoE&#8217;s chief economist noted the apparent &#8220;disconnect&#8221; between the historically high levels of political uncertainty and the &#8220;remarkably placid&#8221; response evident in the financial markets at present.</p>
<p>Before the referendum took place in June 2016, BoE Governor Mark Carney warned that the likelihood of a &#8220;technical recession&#8221; would be superior if the majority of citizens voted to leave the EU. Instead, the U.K.&#8217;s economy outperformed all other advanced economies in 2016.</p>
<p>More recently, Britain&#8217;s benchmark stock index, the FTSE 100, extended its record breaking streak on Thursday as the index closed higher for the sixth consecutive day for the first time in two decades.</p>
<p>Moreover, the U.K.&#8217;s services sector grew at its fastest pace in almost 18 months in December. The Markit/CIPS services purchasing manager&#8217;s index (PMI) hit 56.2, its highest level since July 2015.</p>
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<h4 class="subtitle">&#8216;Michael Fish moment&#8217;</h4>
<p>Haldane described the lack of foresight among the economic community to prepare for both the financial meltdown in 2008 and the Brexit vote as a &#8220;Michael Fish moment&#8221;. This was in reference to the U.K. weather forecaster&#8217;s famous blunder in which, during a live broadcast, he dismissed the possibility of a hurricane hitting the south of England in 1987. Hours later the hurricane struck the south coast of England and caused widespread destruction and casualties.</p>
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<p>&#8220;I think, near-term, the data, the evidence we&#8217;ve been accumulating since the referendum, has surprised to the upside. [There&#8217;s been] greater resilience, in particular among consumers and among the housing market, than we had expected. Has that led us to fundamentally change our view on the fortunes of the economy looking forward over the next several years? Not really,&#8221; Haldane concluded.</p>
<p>Haldane is not the first to lament the crisis within economics, billionaire financier George Soros called for new thinking as &#8220;the entire edifice of global financial markets has been erected on the false premise that markets can be left to their own devices.&#8221; In 2009, Soros pledged $50 million to fund the Institute for New Economic Thinking, which has a star-studded economic advisory board that includes, Joseph Stiglitz, Kenneth Rogoff and Jeffrey Sachs.</p>
<p>Britain&#8217;s central bank has maintained its view that the economic performance of the U.K. is likely to deteriorate once formal negations for the U.K. to divorce from the EU begin. Theresa May, U.K. prime minister, has pledged to trigger article 50 in March 2017.﻿</p>
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Economics is in "some degree of crisis" – Bank of England's chief economist

<p class="Heading">Meet the Uber driver and rapper who has been on a hard road of debt and despair. He has a tale to tell and a song to sing. <em>T<em>he article below first appeared in Forbes Africa and is republished with its permission. Subscribe today by contacting Shanna Jacobsen <a href="mailto:Shanna.Jacobsen@abn360.com">Shanna.Jacobsen@abn360.com</a>﻿﻿</em>﻿</em>﻿</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">These are the words from the chorus of Uber dadi, a hip-hop song written for Uber by Fuzile Nhlapo, one of thousands of Uber drivers across Africa.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">On a hot afternoon in Johannesburg, Nhlapo walks into our offices in Sandton and, like most taxi drivers, he’s talkative and has many stories to tell.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy"><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/special-report/2017/01/05/africa-cigarettes-and-smoking/">The price of Africa&#8217;s puff﻿</a></p>
<p>He grew up singing in a boys’ choir in high school, in Tweeling, in eastern Free State. His love for music grew. After matriculating he moved to the Vaal to seek greener pastures. </p>
<p class="Bodycopy">“I had to hustle. My first job when I came to Vaal was as a storeman at a supermarket, then I became a merchandiser and then got a modelling job in Bloemfontein,” says Nhlapo.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">The 30-year-old rapper did a series of studies, eventually earning a certificate in media studies, marketing and sports administration, before working for the South African Football Association (Safa).</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">In 2008, luck was on his side, when a friend didn’t pitch for work at Safa. The company offered him the job instead.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy"><a href="/video/?bctid=5224106023001"><strong>Video:</strong> Uber&#8217;s Africa expansion plans &#8211; CNBC Africa &#8211; CNBCAfrica.com﻿</a></p>
<p>“I did sports administration and coaching courses. I was responsible for the Northern Cape regions until after the World Cup in 2010 and then I was without a job again,” he says.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">Nhlapo desperately wanted to be an entrepreneur in music. He got his foot in the door by landing a job as a marketer at South African producer, Arthur Mafokate’s production company. Here, he got to learn the music industry.       </p>
<p class="Bodycopy">“I was searching for a job but I was ready to go for my passion. It happened that I met Chomee, Arthur’s artist and we exchanged contacts. I then got Arthur’s number from his website and called him, I approached him as a groupie, but I knew I had a mission to work for him. But then one day Chomee called me and said Arthur was looking for a marketer.”</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">He applied and got the job. </p>
<p class="Bodycopy">“What I can tell you about Arthur is that he’s a great mentor. He hired me for a marketing job but taught me the ins and outs of entertainment. He played a big role in my entertainment career,” says Nhlapo.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">He left to start his company, Black Excellence, with the aim to produce his own music. This wasn’t easy.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">“I decided to open my own company, thinking that now I’m groomed enough, I can do this. I obviously made a premature decision and money was wasted because there were other aspects of business I didn’t take into consideration. I ended up getting deep into debt.”</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">He had to sell his car to pay off his debts.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">“I was penniless and unemployed. A friend then got me a job as a merchandiser again, [but] I was not making enough money, I decided to quit.”</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">He ended up washing dishes at a Chinese restaurant for a small pay. Here, he met his future wife, from Zambia, who worked as a cashier.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">Because life was hard in Johannesburg they returned to Tweeling.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">“I was at home and someone called me and asked if I had a professional driving permit and licence, and she said there’s a job for a shuttle driver and host at Emerald Resort &amp; Casino.”</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">He had to use his last penny to return to Johannesburg. While working at the casino, he heard, by word of mouth, about Uber, a technology company connecting riders with drivers, through a smartphone app. Nhlapo says being a part of the Uber network gives him the opportunity to be the CEO of his own cab.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">“I started to research Uber and after a few weeks a cousin called to tell me about a guy who wants a driver. Since then, I have never been this happy and financially secure,” he says.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">Nhlapo says he joined Uber because he could work according to his own schedule. It has also afforded him the chance to connect with people in a way that neither of his other jobs really had. </p>
<p class="Bodycopy">“There is more to Uber than transporting people from A to B. It gives us the chance to network and acknowledge other cultures because as black people we only know of our culture,” he says.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">He jokingly says his communication skills have also improved, especially his English. He’s planning to release three songs; a hip-hop song for Uber and others, Kwaito and house.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">“I’m mostly gonna play the songs in the car because I also want our riders to enjoy it,” he says.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">This ambitious lad believes his songs will top the charts.</p>
<p class="Bodycopy">He says Oliver Mtukudzi is his favorite African musician. Like Mtukudzi, Nhlapo loves playing the guitar.</p>
<p>Unlike Mtukudzi, you can summon Nhlapo with an app.  ﻿</p>
<p> </p>


An Uber driver with the ambition to top the music charts

<p class="NText">2017 outlook: We expect the marked divergence to continue between what asset prices can do and what goes on in terms of macroeconomics, risk events and politics. Put simply, we expect some recovery in headline real GDP growth, albeit still shrinking per capita income growth, with the ANC elective conference dominating throughout the year to December. However, with South Africa looking somewhat better than peers such as Turkey, we believe asset prices and ZAR especially can do ‘ok’ until potential downgrades come – the timing of which remains uncertain, if still on the horizon.</p>
<h2>Forecast overview</h2>
<p>Are we bullish or bearish for 2017? This is a difficult question. We are only marginally below consensus forecasts for the coming two years on growth (though below official estimates marginally); we are roughly in line with them on CPI inflation (though above the SARB). That might be described as fairly neutral.</p>
<p class="NText">However, in 2016 the market appeared to define a narrative of “off the bottom” as being positive because we have passed the worst of the height of the Nene-gate impact on the economy. We think this is true – and the economy showed its resilience by not going into recession in 2016 despite all the political negativity – as we forecast a year ago. We think in 2017 the key investor question will be “what are the drivers of growth?” We think the answer is likely to be a very loud in 2017: “not much at all”. Indeed, in 2017 we believe the market will become more disappointed about the reforms already proposed and the lack of meaningful new ones forthcoming. Political constraints on government in this area may become more obvious as growth remains low in absolute terms and vs peers and as unemployment grinds higher as the level of employment grows far too slowly to absorb the bulging labour force. The negative effects of a national minimum wage should start to appear, although in our opinion, these will only become evident in the years after as data and studies emerge. Overall, we think negative per capita income growth and negative TFP growth will be the ‘low lights’ of the year in data terms. Looking at it in this way, we are not off the bottom and real incomes are still falling. The market should be more sceptical of official spin on such matters in 2017.</p>
<p class="NText"><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/southern-africa/2015/12/22/sa-economic-insight-2016/">South Africa&#8217;s 2016 risk report, forecast update &#8211; CNBC Africa﻿</a></p>
<p>We expect politics to remain very noisy, but the market has largely become bored of attempting to follow the intricacies of the ANC’s internal machinations. We think the markets will still overplay the tail risk of Zumxit, even though this seems highly unlikely before the December elective conference. In our opinion, internal compromises keeping Jacob Zuma in office after the November ANC NEC meeting will prevent PGxit; however, we believe there is a meaningful (if difficult to pin down) likelihood of a wider reshuffle that could shock the market.</p>
<p class="NText">South Africa however is not as dramatic a risk case at all vs peers and especially Turkey for 2016. Hence, we see South Africa outperforming Turkey at least in H1 2017 or longer if the TCMB’s credibility does not recover. If Turkey overcomes its current obstacle to the executive Presidency by mid-year this should allow the market to focus more on South Africa politics in the region in H2 in the run-up to the ANC elective conference in December.</p>
<p class="NText">Broadly, we see more of a magnified focus on EM under a Trump Presidency with the prospect of higher US policy rates and a stronger USD, which should weigh on South Africa as a dual-deficit country, albeit maybe less so than some of its peers. We see little meaningful upside of US policy on US growth in 2017 and hence are unable to be over-enthusiastic about it and the positive effects on South Africa, especially with a weaker Asia and prospects of US protectionism. The real unknown for 2017 is if South Africa’s yield offering – which since the US elections has provided adequate compensation – will still be protective enough. We think the curve may have to steepen somewhat, but again can outperform peers.</p>
<p class="NText">Ratings again will be an important factor wrapping together medium run growth and fiscal risks as well as the noise from parastatals. Indeed the ebb and flow of events around Eskom, particularly with regard to the issues of contingent liabilities and its nuclear build programme will dominate again.</p>
<p class="NText">In summary, with inflation likely to move lower (but less dramatically than expected by the market previously), growth grinding slightly higher and the labour market stabilising at a (very) weak level, 2017 might be described as ‘ok’, but from a developmental and inequality perspective will not be positive and result in another challenging year.</p>
<h2>Risk timeline</h2>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="/media/19295733/nomura2_600x504.jpg"  width="600"  height="504" alt="Nomura2"/>﻿</p>
<p><strong>Putting all this together we see several broad sweeps of risk narrative:</strong></p>
<p class="NText">Political from President Zuma consolidating at the8 JanuaryANC anniversary celebrations through to the elective conference at thestartofDecembervia the endJune/start JulyANC policy and consultative conference. The9 FebruaryState of the Nation Address from President Zuma, as in previous years, will be an important marker. We then see reshuffle risk throughend Januaryand start February. We also need to keep a continual watch on ANC splits within parliament.</p>
<p class="NText">A fiscal and ratings narrative arch encompassing the Budget expected in thelast week of February, ratings updates to come betweenApril and June(in a longer period than 2016 which saw the agencies more tightly bunched), the MTBPS in thelast week of Octoberand then further ratings updates atend November and start December.</p>
<p class="NText">We see growth broadly constant through the year in y-o-y terms after a step-up in Q1 data out inMarch. Inflation should fall from a December peak (and rebase and reweight published) inJanuarythrough to a bottom in June data out inJulyand then a rise back up to the top end of the SARB’s target.</p>
<p class="NText">We believe the SARB will be steady but hawkish throughout the year, ready to act on a weaker ZAR, higher inflation expectations or an unanchoring of the long end of the inflation forecast.</p>
<p class="NText">Much of the event risk is hard to put on the calendar. For example, the raft of court cases against state institutions and political leadership by opposition parties and the Zuma 783 corruption charge appeals procedure. These narratives will grind on in the background with some regularity.  ﻿</p>
<p> </p>


Nomura's 2017 outlook for SA: The risk narrative

<p>Nearly three months into the <a style="font-family: Roboto, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; font-weight: 400;" href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-37600225">state of emergency</a> declared by Ethiopia, the atmosphere on the streets of its bustling and impressively modern metropolis and capital, Addis Ababa, feels tense.</p>
<p>At 2,355m above sea level, the climate is pleasantly mild most of the year. Its broad thoroughfares are studded with magnificent cultural attractions. These are infused with the glow of an ancient yet resilient civilisation that could withstand both Jesuit and Wahhabi encroachment.</p>
<p>Yet, at present, tourists are understandably few and far between. There have been reports of hundreds of deaths in districts surrounding the capital in recent weeks. But these have been played down as an exaggeration by Prime Minister Heilemariam Desalegn.</p>
<p>Violence broke out during an <a href="http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-37534387">Oromo religious festival</a>, and in some instances foreigners seem to have been <a href="http://www.latimes.com/world/africa/la-fg-ethiopia-killings-oromo-protesters-20161011-snap-story.html">targeted</a>. In response, the predominantly ethnic-Tigrean government clamped down on social media, took a few TV channels off the air, and restricted the movement of the opposition leader and foreign observers.</p>
<p>For the past few years, Ethiopia has been able to partly shed its association with abject poverty and famine. Arguably inspired by China, the country became a developmental success story and <a href="http://mgafrica.com/article/2016-02-05-worlds-fastest-growing-economy-ethiopia-is-new-flavour-of-the-month-for-africa-watchers">one of the fastest-growing countries</a> in the world. At much the same time, Addis Ababa was able to capitalise on being the gateway to the politics of the African continent and foreign aid.</p>
<p>It is evident just how rapidly China’s stakes here have grown over the past few years. Just as evident is China’s different approach to development as compared with the West. It is also easy to see why the recent instability in Ethiopia is a real test to China’s approach.</p>
<p>Behind the veneer of Ethiopia’s parliamentary federalism lies an authoritarian system of state-led development that is preferred by Beijing over the country’s ragtag opposition forces. The question is whether the fruits of fast economic growth can be distributed sufficiently effectively in Ethiopia so as to forestall ethnic rural unrest.</p>
<h2>Showcase infrastructural projects</h2>
<p>Rather than providing grants directly aimed at poverty alleviation or promoting civil society, Chinese state-owned enterprises have been busy erecting showcase infrastructural projects. The aim is to attract further private business investment and to boost tourism.</p>
<p>The new sparkling African Union conference centre in Addis was fully funded by China. A new six-lane 87km highway to Adama has cut travel time from three hours to just one hour. And the international arm of China State Construction will soon give the capital a state-of-the-art stadium and upgrade its airport.</p>
<p>But perhaps a more persuasive productivity-booster is Addis Ababa’s new light-rail network completed in 2015 by China Railway Engineering Corporation. Often, the Chinese developmental approach is portrayed as construction frenzy ahead of genuine consumer demand.</p>
<p>Yet, far from being at risk of becoming a white elephant, it is already heavily used by local commuters just over a year after inauguration. In a city where taxi fares are exorbitant and buses are often in bad repair, the network is making a real difference to ordinary people’s lives.</p>
<p>But Beijing also runs a real risk here. In 2007, for example, 65 Ethiopians and nine Chinese expatriates were murdered by Somali separatists in an <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2007/apr/25/ethiopia">attack on a Sinopec-run oilfield</a> in the east of the country. There is clearly a strong case for Heilemariam to broaden his government’s ethnic support base and heed various regional and rural concerns about disenfranchisement as a result of foreign investment.</p>
<h2>No zero-sum game between the US and China</h2>
<p>Unlike the Chinese Foreign Affairs ministry, the US State Department has expressed <a href="http://www.ethionewsflash.com/index.php/2016/10/13/u-s-expresses-concern-over-ethiopias-state-of-emergency/">concern</a> over the imposition of the state of emergency.</p>
<p>But the Ethiopian government is likely to remain in the US’s good books. This is primarily because of its role in countering the spread of fundamentalist terrorism in the Horn of Africa. In fact, it is that role that has helped endear Ethiopia to the world, and facilitated Western relief aid.</p>
<p>On the other hand, it would be a mistake to conclude China’s growing stakes in Ethiopia immediately offset Western interests. For one thing, Ethiopia’s recent troubled history suggests the enemies of government often denounce oppression. But they do not necessarily champion human rights when they seize power themselves.</p>
<p>In addition, Western aid is still far greater and more vital to the running of the country than anything China provides. For all the speculation about the Chinese currency replacing the US dollar as global reserve currency soon, most hotels here do not seem to readily exchange China’s currency for Birr yet.</p>
<p>There is, in short, no zero-sum game between the US and China over Ethiopia, at times quite to the contrary. Neither power is interested in Ethiopia purely for exploitative colonial-style mineral extraction, or is purely motivated by altruism. The budding, somewhat desultory Chinatown in Addis Ababa’s Rwanda Vegetable Market hardly comes across as an insular colonial outpost. And the Chinese embassy compound is vastly outsized by the American one.</p>
<p>What plays out instead are perhaps different approaches to the low-income world where the US has prized the diffusion of individual freedoms and human-rights norms and China has prized collective economic betterment. And both the US and China are set to lose out if chaos spreads in the Horn of Africa.</p>
<h2>China’s approach may be benefiting Ethiopia</h2>
<p>Amid capital scarcity, China’s different approach seems to benefit Ethiopia. Put simply, it opens up another avenue for development where the World Bank and IMF doctrines have until recently been the only show in town.</p>
<p>In concrete terms, it means Chinese companies nowadays bid for projects often with concessional terms – where, in the past, only Western companies had the technological capacity to deliver.</p>
<p>Hydro-electricity is perhaps the best example for that: a healthy competition seems to be building up between Italy’s Salini Impregilo and Sinohydro when it comes to damming Ethiopia’s rivers. Local and foreign NGO oversight would still be vital in order to minimise the dislocation and environmental degradation that both companies can cause.</p>
<p>But, at the same time, with better planning, the untapped potential of hydro-power might mean cleaner and lower-cost energy in a part of the world where power cuts are all too common.</p>
<p><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" src="https://counter.theconversation.edu.au/content/70659/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-basic" width="1" height="1" alt="The Conversation"/></p>
<p><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/niv-horesh-109517">Niv Horesh</a>, Visiting Research Fellow, School of Government and International Affairs, <em><a href="http://theconversation.com/institutions/durham-university-867">Durham University</a></em></p>
<p>This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/ethiopias-political-ripple-a-big-test-for-infrastructure-led-chinese-approach-70659">original article</a>.</p>


Ethiopia's political ripple a big test for infrastructure-led Chinese approach

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<p>(Reuters) &#8211; Germany was sued for damages in the United States on Thursday by descendants of the Herero and Nama people of Namibia, for what they called a genocide campaign by German colonial troops in the early 1900s that led to more than 100,000 deaths.</p>
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<p>According to a complaint filed with the U.S. District Court in Manhattan, Germany has excluded the plaintiffs from talks with Namibia regarding what occurred, and has publicly said any settlement will not include reparations to victims, even if compensation is awarded to Namibia itself.</p>
<p>&#8220;There is no assurance that any of the proposed foreign aid by Germany will actually reach or assist the minority indigenous communities that were directly harmed,&#8221; the plaintiffs&#8217; lawyer Ken McCallion said in an email. &#8220;There can be no negotiations or settlement about them that is made without them.&#8221;</p>
<p>The proposed class-action lawsuit seeks unspecified sums for thousands of descendants of the victims, for the &#8220;incalculable damages&#8221; that were caused.</p>
<p>U.S. representatives of the German government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.</p>
<p>The slaughter took place from roughly 1904 to 1908, when Namibia was a German colony known as South-West Africa, after the Herero and Nama groups rebelled against German rule.</p>
<p>According to many published reports, victims were also subjected to harsh conditions in concentration camps, and some had their skulls sent to Germany for scientific experiments.</p>
<p>Some historians view what occurred as the 20th century&#8217;s first genocide, and a 1985 United Nations report said the &#8220;massacre&#8221; of Hereros qualified as a genocide.</p>
<p>Germany has paid victims of the Holocaust, which occurred during World War Two.</p>
<p>The plaintiffs on Thursday sued under the Alien Tort Statute, a 1789 U.S. law often invoked in human rights cases.</p>
<p>The U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the law&#8217;s reach in a 2013 decision, Kiobel v. Royal Dutch Petroleum Co, saying it was presumed not to cover foreign conduct unless the claims sufficiently &#8220;touch and concern&#8221; the United States.</p>
<p>McCallion said Kiobel and later rulings &#8220;leave the door open&#8221; for U.S. courts to assert jurisdiction in genocide cases.</p>
<p>The plaintiffs, including some from New York, also brought federal common law and New York state law claims.</p>
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<p class="copyright">© Thomson Reuters 2017 All rights reserved﻿</p>
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Nambians seek restitution from Germany over early-1900s slaughter

<p>A Catholic Relief Services (CRS) survey of more than 1,500 Liberians reveals deep-seated fears of renewed violence as the country prepares for historic presidential elections in October. </p>
<p>The <a href="http://www.crs.org/our-work-overseas/research-publications/state-peace-reconciliation-and-conflict-liberia" target="_blank">nationally representative study</a>, conducted from March to May 2016 in each of Liberia’s 15 counties, applied both quantitative and qualitative methods. It’s one of the first studies to reveal how Liberians perceive the state of peace, reconciliation, and conflict since the country&#8217;s devastating 14-year civil war that ended in 2003.</p>
<p>“Liberians are telling the world that the causes of the long civil wars are still there and they have genuine fears of their country returning to violence,” said Jennifer Overton, Regional Director for CRS in West Africa. “We now have some very specific key indicators for potential risks of conflict. But we have to address them now.”</p>
<p>Among the key findings, the study found that the wounds inflicted by the wars have not fully healed. Respondents cited three key factors that could lead to renewed violence: systemic corruption in the public sector, disputes over land ownership and high rates of youth unemployment.</p>
<p>“This <a href="http://www.crs.org/our-work-overseas/research-publications/state-peace-reconciliation-and-conflict-liberia" target="_blank">report</a> is an inventory of issues that require urgent and serious attention,” said Pilate Johnson, Acting Director for the ‎Catholic Justice and Peace Commission in Liberia.</p>
<p>“We all have a responsibility to act,” he said. “Both the Liberian government and the international community cannot afford to be complacent about peace in Liberia. This study makes that very clear.”</p>
<p>Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia’s incumbent president and Africa’s first elected female head of state, is stepping down from the presidency of the country founded by freed slaves from the United States in 1847.  Her departure would mark the first peaceful democratic transfer of power since the 1970s. But it comes as the UN’s peacekeeping force, UNMIL, will have significantly pulled out from Liberia, increasing the possibility of a return to fighting.</p>
<h2>KEY FINDINGS:</h2>
<p> </p>
<ul>
<li>Fragile peace: Respondents were evenly split on whether Liberia is at risk of once again descending into large-scale violent conflict (50.6% for “high to very high risk” and 43.7% for “no to low risk”).</li>
<li>Reconciliation: More than 80% of respondents felt that people who suffered grave injury during the war did not receive justice through the national Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Half of respondents (49.7%) believed that post-war reconciliation failed to achieve its objectives.</li>
<li>Key actors: Political leaders (71.8%) and unemployed youth (58.2%) topped the list of those who could instigate violence.</li>
<li>Flashpoints: Nimba, Grand Gedeh, and Montserrado were cited as the counties most likely to spark conflict, due to both historical and current factors. Inhabitants of Rivercess (79.3%), Nimba (74.9%); Grand Kru (74.4%); and Grand Cape Mount (74.2%) assessed the risk as highest, while respondents in River Gee were the most optimistic.</li>
</ul>
<p>CRS and the Catholic Church, which have been active in Liberia’s post-war healing and reconciliation processes, will use these findings to guide its continued work toward inclusive development and sustainable peace.</p>
<p>In the time leading up to November 2017 elections, new programs will be promoting voter education and registration, and supporting vulnerable groups such as women and youth to participate in electoral and political processes.</p>
<p>Simultaneously, CRS and the Church will be sharing the findings of this study at county and district levels in Liberia through faith-based networks and will engage with other interested civil society partners and government to share the results more broadly.</p>
<p>“For peace to thrive, we also need to build a better future for young people in Liberia,” said Overton. “They need to heal and advance their livelihoods through job training, education, and leadership development.”</p>
<p>A summary of the study can be downloaded here.</p>
<p>Please contact <a href="http://www.crs.org/media-contacts/tom-price" target="_blank">Tom Price</a> for experts who can provide commentary on <a href="http://www.crs.org/our-work-overseas/research-publications/state-peace-reconciliation-and-conflict-liberia" target="_blank">the study</a>.</p>
<p>Click <a href="http://www.crs.org/media-center/current-issues/liberia-fragile-peace" target="_blank">here to read</a> more information on the current situation in Liberia.</p>
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<p><em>Catholic Relief Services is the official international humanitarian agency of the Catholic community in the United States. The agency alleviates suffering and provides assistance to people in need in more than 100 countries, without regard to race, religion or nationality. CRS’ relief and development work is accomplished through programs of emergency response, HIV, health, agriculture, education, microfinance and peacebuilding. For more information, please visit <a href="http://crs.org/">crs.org</a> or <a href="http://www.crsespanol.org/">crsespanol.org</a> and follow CRS on social media: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/CatholicReliefServices">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/CatholicRelief">@CatholicRelief</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/CRSnews">@CRSnews</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/catholicrelief">YouTube</a>, <a href="https://instagram.com/catholicreliefservices/">Instagram</a> and <a href="https://www.pinterest.com/catholicrelief/">Pinterest</a>.﻿</em></p>
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Study reveals deep concerns for peace in Liberia ahead of elections

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<p>LONDON (Reuters) &#8211; Nigeria&#8217;s sovereign wealth fund is setting up a company in partnership with London-based local currency guarantee firm GuarantCo to enable pension funds to invest in Nigerian infrastructure bonds, its chief executive said on Thursday.</p>
<p>The new business will be launched in a few weeks&#8217; time and aims to overcome some of the challenges facing the financing of infrastructure projects in Africa&#8217;s most populous nation.</p>
<p>&#8220;The company will provide enhancements for infrastructure bonds, and we believe this will make an effective platform for Nigerian pension funds to invest in them,&#8221; said Uche Orji, chief executive of the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA), which has some $1.25 billion under management.</p>
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<p>GuarantCo facilitates infrastructure development in low income countries by providing credit guarantees denominated in local currency to financial institutions and bond investors. It is funded by Britain, Switzerland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Australia, and specialises in frontier market infrastructure.</p>
<p>Poor infrastructure and access to capital is a major bottleneck to growth in Nigeria, and the government has identified infrastructure investment as a major priority.</p>
<p>Unlocking fresh sources of capital will help, with Nigeria&#8217;s pension fund assets at $26.4 billion at December 2015, according to data from Nigeria&#8217;s National Pension Commission.</p>
<p>Orji said that currently, when municipalities want to issue bonds to fund infrastructure projects, most pension funds won&#8217;t buy them because the credit rating of the issuer isn&#8217;t strong enough.</p>
<p>The new venture will provide a form of monoline insurance, giving a guarantee and allowing pension funds and insurance companies to invest. &#8220;The NSIA cannot give guarantees by itself, so we have created a company that can do this,&#8221; he explained.</p>
<p>The tie-up is the latest in a series of partnerships for the NSIA. In August it announced agreements with Old Mutual Investment Group and UFF Agri-Fund to establish two funds to invest in real estate and agriculture respectively.</p>
<p>Orji said these could make their first investments in the first quarter of 2017.</p>
<p>The Agri-Fund aims to improve Nigeria&#8217;s food security and is seeking investments in farms, storage and irrigation infrastructure for everything from arable crops to dairy farming and fish farming.</p>
<p>&#8220;That is more advanced in terms of being able to make an investment, and the first quarter is likely to be very busy,&#8221; Orji said.</p>
<p>The real estate fund is targeting commercial property such as offices, hospitality, logistics and industrial parks.</p>
<p>The NSIA also signed a strategic partnership agreement with its Moroccan peer, Ithmar Capital, to co-operate on bilateral investments.</p>
<p>These include a Trans-African gas pipeline which it is envisaged will support the creation of industrial hubs. Orji said this was an ambitious project but it would be cheaper and more effective than trying to build LNG facilities across Africa to export Nigeria&#8217;s gas.</p>
<p>With a recovery in the oil price in late 2016, and a better macro environment, Orji expects further injections into the NSIA in 2017 following 2016&#8217;s $250 million additional funding.</p>
<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s been a strong commitment shown by the administration in continuing to support the fund, and even in 2016, as difficult as it was with the oil price, there was still an injection,&#8221; he said.</p>
<p> </p>
<p>(Editing by Hugh Lawson)</p>
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Nigeria's strategic plan to boost funding for its infrastructure

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<p>MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (Reuters) &#8211; Nigerian soldiers have found a schoolgirl who was one of more than 200 pupils kidnapped by Islamist militant group Boko Haram from their school in the northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, an army spokesman said on Thursday.</p>
<p>The troops had found Rakiya Abubkar wandering around near Algarno, a former Boko Haram stronghold, the spokesman said. She had a six-month-old baby with her.</p>
<p><a href="/news/western-africa/2016/10/14/boko-haram-frees-21-kidnapped-chibok-girls-nigerian-government/"><strong>READ:</strong>﻿ Boko Haram frees 21 kidnapped Chibok girls &#8211; CNBC Africa﻿</a></p>
<p>A total of 276 schoolgirls were abducted by Boko Haram from Chibok in 2014 in one of the most infamous actions of their insurgency. More than 20 were released in October in a deal brokered by the International Red Cross. Others have escaped or been rescued but about 200 are believed to be still in captivity.</p>
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<div class="teads-player"><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/western-africa/2016/12/29/boko-haram-may-have-used-chibok-girls/">Boko Haram may have used Chibok girls as shields during attack﻿</a></p>
<p>Boko Haram has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than two million during a seven-year-old insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeast Nigeria.</p>
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<p>The group controlled an area about the size of Belgium in early 2015 but has been pushed out of most of that territory over the last year by Nigeria&#8217;s army and troops from neighbouring countries.</p>
<p>Last month, the army said it had seized a key Boko Haram camp in its last enclave in Nigeria in the vast Sambisa forest. The jihadists still stage suicide bombings in northeastern areas and in neighbouring Niger and Cameroon.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Lanre Ola, Alexis Akwagyiram and Ulf Laessing; Editing by Angus MacSwan and Dominic Evans)</p>
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Nigerian soldiers find Chibok girl kidnapped in 2014

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<p>LAGOS (Reuters) &#8211; The Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers ordered on Thursday a strike at Total fuel truck depots across the OPEC member nation in protest against sackings.</p>
<p>&#8220;We have stopped the operation of Total. We are at the table with Total discussing the situation of the workers,&#8221; Tokunbo Korodo, union chairman in the southwest of the country, said.</p>
<p>(Reporting by Alexis Akwagyiram and Tife Owolabi; Editing by Ulf Laessing and Susan Thomas)</p>
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Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers plan to shut down Total Nigeria

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<p>Living close to a busy road may be linked to dementia, new research reveals.</p>
<p>Scientists on behalf of Public Health Ontario monitored 6.6 million residents of the Canadian city aged between 20 and 85. Incidences of dementia, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson&#8217;s disease were recorded for the eleven years between 2001 to 2012.</p>
<p>Cases of dementia were seven percent higher in those living within 50 meters of a major traffic road, and four percent higher for those 50 to 100 meters away.</p>
<p>The findings of the study were published in British medical journal The Lancet Thursday. The results showed that 243,611 cases of dementia were recorded, and approximately 9,000 and 32,000 cases of multiple sclerosis and Parkinson&#8217;s disease respectively. No link between participants living close to busy roads and the latter two diseases was recorded.</p>
<p>Dr. Hong Chen, one of the scientists behind the work, said in a widely reported statement that &#8220;increasing population growth and urbanization has placed many people close to heavy traffic, and with widespread exposure to traffic and growing rates of dementia, even a modest effect from near-road exposure could pose a large public health burden.&#8221;</p>
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<div class="pro-video-chapters fall dyperf dyMonitor" trkid="3000551473" data-adid="535383||1552|||">This is not the first time pollution has been linked to brain disease. Last September, <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2016/09/06/alzheimers-link-study-finds-air-pollution-particles-in-human-brain.html" target="_blank">researchers from Lancaster University in the U.K. found microscopic air pollution particles in human brains</a>, which have been associated with causing brain diseases such as Alzheimer&#8217;s.</div>
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<p>According to the World Health Organization in April 2016, nearly 50 million people worldwide suffer from dementia. CNBC reported last October that one in three seniors in the U.S. dies with either Alzheimer&#8217;s or dementia.</p>
<p>But, the latest research does not confirm a causal link between busy roads and dementia, Dr. David Reynolds, chief scientific officer at Alzheimer&#8217;s Research UK said in a statement.</p>
<p>&#8220;Conditions like dementia have multiple risk factors including age and genetics, and other social factors relating to where people live in cities could also be playing a part,&#8221; he explained.﻿</p>
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If you live near a busy road this is why you may need to reconsider

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<p><a href="http://data.cnbc.com/quotes/BTC%3D-USS" target="_blank" class="inline_quotes" data-gdsid="76662810" data-inline-quote-symbol="BTC=-USS" rel="noopener">Bitcoin</a> tanked as much as 23 percent Thursday afternoon after nearing an all-time high earlier in the trading day. ﻿</p>
<p>The world&#8217;s largest cryptocurrency by market cap traded as low as $887.47, down from the day&#8217;s high of $1,153.02, according to CoinDesk data. The high for the day was just shy of $1,165.89 set on November 30, 2013. The price has recovered somewhat from the day&#8217;s low to about $973.89 at the time of publication.</p>
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<div class="teads-player"><strong>READ:</strong> <a href="/news/financial/2017/01/02/bitcoin-three-year-high/">Bitcoin breaks $1,000 level, highest in more than 3 years &#8211; CNBC Africa﻿</a> </div>
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<div class="attribution">However, bitcoin beat its high on some other cryptocurrency exchanges. Whereas CoinDesk&#8217;s price index takes into account many different bitcoin exchanges – individual exchanges, where users can trade bitcoin, noted their own highest prices were exceeded. Among these were one of China&#8217;s biggest and most liquid exchanges, BTC China.</div>
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<div>Industry experts said the rapid rally in bitcoin created a little bubble which is now bursting but the long-term prospects are still positive.</div>
<p>&#8220;Once we broke through the nominal all-time high, liquidity dried up – no shorts, no sellers, which means a volatile little bubble formed quickly,&#8221; Peter Smith, chief executive of bitcoin wallet Blockchain, told CNBC by email.</p>
<p>&#8220;We are seeing the effects of that now. It&#8217;s still fairly thin trading volume though. I expect the market will find a floor and stabilize somewhere in the $850 to $1,000 range, but we&#8217;ll see.&#8221;</p>
<p>Wild swings in bitcoin&#8217;s price are not unusual and volatility is a characteristic of the virtual currency.</p>
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<h4 class="subtitle">Yuan rise behind bitcoin fall?</h4>
<p><a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/02/bitcoin-breaks-1000-level-highest-in-more-than-3-years.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CNBC recently outlined</a> the reason behind the latest rally in bitcoin. One key reason has been the recent devaluation of the yuan as well as the threat of capital controls across many countries. The majority of bitcoin trade comes out of China so it has a big influence.</p>
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<p>But on Thursday, the <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/04/chinas-offshore-yuan-surges-most-against-dollar-in-a-year.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">yuan rose against the dollar</a>. The reason behind this was a sell-off in the dollar due to uncertainty around the future of U.S. Federal Reserve rate hikes, as well as <a href="http://www.cnbc.com/2017/01/04/china-steps-in-to-support-yuan-again-as-trump-inauguration-nears.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">state intervention by China</a> in its currency. The rise in the yuan led to a fall in bitcoin.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is absolutely tied to China. If the yuan goes up, bitcoin goes down,&#8221; Dan Collins, CEO of technology consultancy firm CCO Global, told CNBC in an interview on Thursday.﻿</p>
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