The United Nations Security Council pushed for a peaceful transition of power in Congo during a weekend visit aimed at averting massive violence when President Joseph Kabila&#8217;s mandate runs out on Dec. 19.
The visit by diplomats from countries on the council on Saturday and Sunday aimed to break the deadlock over whether Kabila should step down before an election which, thanks to slow voter registration, has been delayed until at least April 2018.
He has vowed to stay on until the poll goes ahead, but the opposition accuse Kabila of manipulating the process to cling to power in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a charge his supporters deny.
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Several protests have erupted against Kabila, who has been in power since his father was assassinated in 2001. More than 50 people were killed in street protests in September.
Security Council members stressed that Kabila&#8217;s seeking to change the constitution to allow him to run for a third elected mandate, as the opposition accuse him of doing and some of his supporters suggest he might, would be no solution.
&#8220;The DRC is at a pivotal moment in its history,&#8221; Francois Delattre, France&#8217;s ambassador to the United Nations, told journalists after the meetings on Saturday.
&#8220;For the first time, a peaceful transition of power at the end of the president&#8217;s mandate is possible.&#8221;
Angola&#8217;s ambassador to the United Nations Ismael Abraao focused more on the peaceful resolution of the crisis.
&#8220;We have assurances. There is a desire from everyone to avoid the worst &#8230; The Security Council is ready to work with you so that there is peace,&#8221; he said.
But he added: &#8220;A third term has not been considered as a solution to the crisis. The solution lies in permanent dialogue.&#8221;
Leonard She Okitundu, a senator representing Kabila&#8217;s ruling coalition, sought to allay fears Kabila would seek another term.
&#8220;There is no question of a third term because the constitution forbids it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;There can be no third term.&#8221;
World powers fear that the political impasse over Kabila staying on beyond Dec. 19 could reignite chaos in the vast Central African nation, where millions died in regional conflicts between 1998 and 2003.
Congo stepped up patrols in its volatile east after the former military chief of a rebel group was reported missing from a camp for demobilised fighters in neighbouring Uganda, although the Ugandan military said on Sunday that Sultani Makenga was in the country&#8217;s capital Kampala.
As often, there appeared to be mixed messages about Kabila&#8217;s intentions during the Security Council visit.
&#8220;UNSC asked #DRC Pres. Kabila to confirm he would not run in election. He said Constitution clear on no 3rd mandate but could be amended,&#8221; Stephen Hickey, political counsellor at the UK Mission to the United Nations, tweeted on Saturday.
&#8220;Very concerning that Pres. Kabila mentions possibility of amending constitution when asked straight question on standing for 3rd term,&#8221; he said in another Tweet.﻿

U.N. Security Council pushes for peaceful Congo transition

A New York investor’s view of Africa and other emerging economies. David Levin is a Partner at Nexus Capital Markets, a leading Pan-African/U.S. investment bank located in NY and Johannesburg.
School&#8217;s Out
South Africa’s university system is on fire. Literally. Student protests and riots are raging everywhere. Campus buildings are being set ablaze. And bystanders and the police are in the crosshairs as they clash with demonstrators. Higher education in South Africa is on the verge of collapse as the calls for free tuition have gripped the country and schools have closed for the year in response to the violence. And now, public opinion is starting to turn against the protestors as many of South Africa’s esteemed academic institutions come under attack.
Despite the inequities, real and perceived, South Africa is fortunate to have the education system it does &#8211; certainly when you compare it to much of the rest of the continent. And despite the deluge of contentious issues from Wits to the University of Cape Town, it’s still the best system anywhere in Africa.
But like everything else in life, there is a cost for quality. As the saying goes, “you get what you pay for.” And with South Africa’s government already reeling from a prolonged commodity driven economic slump, there are few options available to the ANC to remedy this. What the protesters have to realize is that ultimately, the money has to come from somewhere. Nothing is ever free. It’s just a question of who pays.
The “Fees Must Fall” protesters however need only look upstream into the rest of Africa to see just how lucky they are. From primary school through university, it’s not a pretty picture. So, if the protesters dare to look, here’s what they’d see.
First, let’s consider the bigger picture. By the year 2050, two-thirds of Africa’s population is expected to live in its cities. Lagos, Cairo, Kinshasa and Johannesburg, as well as others, are all going to experience significant growth as people move from the countryside &#8211; as well as neighboring countries &#8211; to these urban areas looking for work. How these countries manage this migration will be critical to the future of the continent.
Africa is urbanizing at a rapid pace. Already, across the continent, the population living in the cities has doubled from 1995 to 472 million in 2015. Here’s the rub though. Africans from all parts of the continent are moving into cities that are not fully ready to receive them. So as Africa’s urban populations explode, there will be a severe lack of services and infrastructure to support their growing numbers. Housing, jobs, power, food, clean water, and basic sanitation will all be areas of heightened concern for local governments as more and more people flow into these major metropolitan areas.
But as daunting as these problems will be, the real crisis facing Africa’s cities are the woefully ill-prepared schools awaiting the massive influx of students that are coming in. In other words, Africa’s future workforce. In no uncertain terms it all starts in the classroom.
As many of the migrants moving to these cities will be children and teens, it is they who will suffer the most. There is simply not enough money in government coffers to provide a quality education for these students and not enough per capita employment income to enable their families to pay for it themselves. So the trend will continue and add to an ever-increasing, under-educated African populace with skills that are built around mining and agriculture &#8211; in a world that is increasingly becoming centered on technology and services.
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Just look at the numbers as they always tell the real story. Liberia, for instance, has a population of 4.6 million people and a 47% literacy rate. That means 2.4 million Liberians can’t read. Nigeria has a 59.6% literacy rate which means approximately 68 million people there cannot read. And with the country’s population expected to increase to close to 400M+ by 2050, with many of them being children and teens, how will Nigeria’s schools manage this? More glaringly, in Ghana, where the literacy rate is 57%, less than 5% have acquired a higher education. Simply put, that means that formal education ends at high school for most people there. And countries like Gambia, Eritrea and Mali aren’t even in the conversation. Mali, for instance has a literacy rate of just 33.4%.
These countries, as well as many others in Africa, all suffer from a profound lack of basic resources and scholastic materials like books, computers, pencils, paper, desks and chairs. There are excessively large class sizes, insulting levels of gender inequality, poor training for teachers, and little to no access to internet broadband in many areas. To sum it up, Africa currently has more than 40 million children that are not even in school according to UNESCO. Primary school enrollment in Africa is among the lowest in the world. And if they’re not in primary school, they’re not going to be attending university either and will likely never have a job that is not located on a farm or in a mine. 
So, here’s the bottom line. Education is the true differentiator between the haves and have-nots and the correlation between it and a fully functioning, productive society is undeniable. In essence, it is what defines &#8211; and divides &#8211; great countries from ones that perpetually struggle. And for all the media rhetoric, how can “Africa Rise” if it can’t read or write? In short, if things stay as they are, “Africa Rising” will sadly remain yet another unfulfilled narrative.
I hope the protestors in South Africa soon come to recognize what they actually have there &#8211; and that they are only hurting themselves and, in the long run, their country. There are an estimated 1,000,000 students enrolled in South Africa’s universities. The likelihood of free education in a country that is in a protracted economic downturn and mired in painful political scandals is not simply not realistic.
This is where the law of unintended consequences comes into play &#8211; the so-called ripple effect. By violently demonstrating and shutting down the schools, the demonstrators are potentially depriving South Africa of educated, employable and productive citizens. Citizens that would contribute to the growth of their country. Those who might become accountants, teachers, doctors, factory workers, architects and pharmacists will be compromised and could leave the country altogether to seek a proper education elsewhere. And many of them might not ever return. It’s the quintessential brain drain.
And South Africa simply can’t afford that.             ﻿
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Op-Ed: Africa in Focus – School's out

South Africa&#8217;s President Jacob Zuma has instructed his justice and crime prevention ministries to deal with the violence during student protests over tuition fees at universities, a cabinet spokesman said on Thursday.
At least six universities&#8217; classes have been disrupted and some suspended as police and private security companies have tried to quell student dissatisfaction at a fee increase announced by government earlier this month.
&#8220;President Jacob Zuma has instructed the justice crime prevention and security cluster to deal with the mayhem that is destroying our institutions of higher learning,&#8221; Minister in the Presidency Jeff Radebe told a post-cabinet media briefing.
In a separate statement Zuma&#8217;s office rejected rumours on social media that the nation&#8217;s cabinet has been reshuffled.

South Africa's Zuma asks for university 'mayhem' to be dealt with

Gabon will return to normal after a bitterly disputed election, its newly re-elected President Ali Bongo said, as soldiers patrolled and military aircraft flew over a capital that has been bracing for another explosion of violence.
The Constitutional Court late on Friday threw out a challenge against the election results by rival Jean Ping, enabling Bongo to extend his family&#8217;s dynastic 50-year rule over the small, oil-producing central African country.
Ping swiftly rejected the ruling as biased, and many Gabonese feared a return to the violence that killed at least six people &#8211; Ping&#8217;s supporters say it was more than 50 &#8211; when the result was first announced at the start of the month.
But in a nation that usually manages to avoid the massive bloodshed that afflicts other countries in the region, like Congo and Central African Republic, when power is contested, Bongo said he was confident of a peaceful resolution.
&#8220;It is business as usual. We are not worried about this state of crisis,&#8221; Bongo told Reuters in an interview late on Saturday. &#8220;I think that we will go back to normal &#8230; Gabonese are peace-loving people.&#8221;
On Sunday, soldiers deployed along main roads and a helicopter hovered over Ping&#8217;s headquarters. A fighter jet roared above the city. The red and white taxis that normally ply its palm-lined seaside avenues were mostly absent.
&#8220;Things are not normal. The people&#8217;s voice was stolen,&#8221; Richard Obame, 46, an unemployed Ping supporter, said, after the jet noise had died down.
&#8220;If it was calm, would we need the military presence on the streets and the helicopters above the house of Mr Ping?&#8221;
And yet Ping, whom authorities have threatened to arrest for inciting violence, has so far refrained from calling people on to the streets. That raises the possibility of a peaceful resolution, although Ping insists that the will of the Gabonese people be respected.
 
&#8220;OPEN GOVERNMENT&#8221;
Ali Bongo came to power in a contentious 2009 election following the death of his father Omar Bongo, who was president of Gabon for 42 years and to whom Ping himself was very close.
&#8220;Bongo Junior&#8221;, as he is nicknamed, is showing signs of wanting to handle opponents in much the same way his father did: by bringing them into the tent. On Saturday he called for members of opposition parties to come and join his cabinet.
Communications minister Alain-Claude Bilie By Nze was quoted on France&#8217;s Journal du Dimanche website on Sunday as saying that from next week there would be &#8220;an open government, with members of the opposition, civil society and independent personalities.&#8221;
Whether this will be &#8220;business as usual&#8221; for Gabon and the Bongo dynasty may partly depend on the international reaction.
Gabon has never had a poll that international observers judged free and fair, and Western powers, especially ex-colonial master France, always looked the other way.
But on Saturday France and the European union both expressed &#8220;doubt&#8221; about the poll, which swung it for Bongo on a province, Haut-Ogooue, that gave him 95 percent of a 99.9 percent turnout.
Bongo pledged to address some of the issues that have fuelled anger in the country of 1.8 million, like youth unemployment and over-reliance on dwindling oil revenues.
&#8220;We want to move from just enjoying the profits of oil to an economy where we can also start producing,&#8221; Bongo told Reuters. &#8220;Manufacturing is very important &#8230; We are also inviting the national and international business community to invest. They want to find a country that is in peace and stable.&#8221;

"Business as usual," Gabon leader Ali Bongo says

Nigerian militant group the Niger Delta Avengers said on Saturday it had carried out its first oil pipeline attack in the country&#8217;s southern energy hub since declaring a break in hostilities in August to pursue talks with the government.
The Avengers have previously launched attacks that have reduced the OPEC member&#8217;s crude oil production by around a third from the 2.1 million barrels per day average at the start of the year.
The group said in a statement on its website that it had &#8220;brought down oil production activities at the Bonny 48 inches crude oil export line&#8221; in an attack on Friday night.
An Avengers spokesman said in an emailed statement later that the attack took place in the sea near Bonny island in Rivers State, the location of a number of oil facilities. Reuters was not immediately able to independently verify the details.
The group, which wants a greater share of the OPEC member&#8217;s wealth to go to the Niger Delta where most of the country&#8217;s crude is produced, said the attack was a &#8220;wake up call&#8221; for the government and accused it of intimidating young people in the region since the ceasefire began.
&#8220;While we were promised that the concerns of the Niger Delta will be addressed once a truce is declared, the activities of the government and her agents are not assuring enough, there has been no progress,&#8221; the group said.
But it added that it was still in favour of dialogue and negotiations. Earlier this month the Avengers told Reuters they had had no contact with the government since agreeing to halt hostilities.
An army offensive launched in late August against militant camps has raised tensions in the region amid claims, denied by the military, that troops have harassed locals.
Separately, the army said a soldier had been killed and two others were missing following an attack early on Saturday elsewhere in the region on troops by suspected militants from a different group.
Army spokesman Sani Usman said suspected militants linked to the Bakassi Strike Force attacked troops in Bakassi in Cross River State, about 100 miles (160 kilometres) away from the area in Rivers where the Avengers said they had carried out an attack.
&#8220;A soldier was killed in action, while two soldiers were missing in action,&#8221; said Usman.﻿

Niger Delta Avengers claim first attack since August ceasefire

At least 44 people &#8211; including 37 demonstrators and six police officers &#8211; have been killed in protests over Congolese President Joseph Kabila&#8217;s perceived bid to extend his rule, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday.
The unrest in the Democratic Republic of Congo started on Monday after its election commission decided to try to postpone the next presidential vote, due in November. 
Kabila&#8217;s opponents say the proposed delay is a manoeuvre to keep him in power although ruling party politicians deny this. Kabila is barred constitutionally from running for a third term and his allies say he will respect the constitution.
With the disturbances forcing schools to close and halting public transport in the sprawling riverside capital Kinshasa, the United Nations expressed fears the situation could worsen.
The United States said Kabila&#8217;s government should have taken steps to defuse the violence and that it was prepared to impose sanctions targeting individuals involved in abuses.
French President Francoise Hollande blamed Congo authorities and urged them to respect the constitution and hold elections this year.
Adding to the mix of disapproval, Congo&#8217;s influential Roman Catholic Church suspended its participation in talks over the timetable for the next elections and stressed that Kabila should not be a candidate when they are held.
Several people were killed overnight when security forces burned down the headquarters of the main opposition party, the Union for Democracy and Social Progress (UDPS), and attacked buildings of other opposition parties, according to Ida Sawyer, an Africa researcher for New York-based HRW.
Twenty people were killed in clashes on Monday and another 17 on Tuesday &#8211; &#8220;most (of them) when security forces fired on crowds of protesters&#8221;, Sawyer said.
&#8220;We&#8217;ve also received credible reports that protesters have killed at least six police officers and a (ruling party) PPRD supporter and they have also burned and looted several shops and police stations.&#8221;
 
DEATH TOLL DISPUTED
Interior ministry spokesman Claude Pero Luwara said the death toll stood at 17 and that Human Rights Watch&#8217;s statement was a &#8220;typical&#8221; exaggeration by the group. The ministry had earlier said three of those killed were policemen.
The early hours fire was a criminal act, said opposition leader Felix Tshisekedi, a UDPS official and son of veteran opposition figure Etienne Tshisekedi, who lost to Kabila in a 2011 presidential run-off.
&#8220;We have on our hands seven dead and two people who were amputated: one at the arm and another at the leg, in the fire at our headquarters in Limete. There are also multiple people wounded at the hospital,&#8221; Felix Tshisekedi told Reuters.
&#8220;We won&#8217;t live with this barbarity. The people are angry.&#8221;
Government spokesman Lambert Mende condemned the attack on the UDPS premises but denied that security forces were involved.
Witnesses said calm returned to central Kinshasa by Tuesday afternoon, though there were reports of clashes in the suburbs.
Nearly 200 people were believed to have been arrested by Congo authorities on Monday and the United Nations received reports of excessive use of force by security forces, U.N. human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva.
Kabila took power in 2001 when his father was assassinated, but must by law step down in December.
His opponents fear he may follow the example of leaders in other African countries such as Burundi, Congo Republic and Rwanda and change the constitution to extend his rule.
Congo has not experienced a peaceful transition of political power since its independence from Belgium in 1960.
Tom Perriello, U.S. Special Envoy for Africa&#8217;s Great Lakes region, said Washington would hold all sides accountable for their actions during the latest violence, which prompted Washington to suspend all travel by its officials to Congo.
&#8220;Unfortunately, the pattern over the last year has been to dramatically reduce that open political space &#8230; We have seen a crackdown on the rights and freedoms of Congolese people,&#8221; he told a news conference in New York.
 
(Additional reporting by Amedee Mwarabu in Kinshasa, Tom Miles in Geneva and Emma Farge, Tim Cocks and Nellie Peyton in Dakar and John Irish at the United Nations; Writing by Matthew Mpoke Bigg; Editing by)
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© Thomson Reuters 2016 All rights reserved﻿

Death toll rises to 44 in Congo unrest

JUBA &#8211; Displaced civilians and religious leaders in war-torn South Sudan appealed to the U.N. Security Council on Saturday to urgently deploy extra foreign troops as government ministers questioned whether more peacekeepers were needed in the capital, Juba.
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The 15-member council met with President Salva Kiir&#8217;s cabinet, religious and civil society leaders and visited two U.N. compounds in Juba where tens of thousands of civilians have been sheltering amid nearly three years of violence.
While the country&#8217;s conflict was sparked in December 2013 by political rivalry between Kiir and opposition leader Riek Machar, Anglican Archbishop Daniel Deng warned that &#8220;people have been made to believe it&#8217;s a tribal war.&#8221;
&#8220;What happened in Rwanda &#8211; we&#8217;re afraid it can happen in this country,&#8221; he told the Security Council, referring to the Hutu genocide of Tutsis and moderate Hutus in 1994.
Catholic Archbishop Paulino Lukudu Loro described the planned deployment of a 4,000-strong regional protection force to ensure peace in Juba, authorized by the Security Council last month, as a &#8220;reconciliation force.&#8221;
&#8220;We need this help,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We cannot put our nation on the right track alone.&#8221;
South Sudan gained independence from Sudan in 2011 but slid into civil war after Kiir sacked Machar as his vice president. The conflict between forces loyal to Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and Machar, a Nuer, has often followed ethnic lines.
The pair signed a peace deal a year ago but fighting has continued and Machar has now fled to neighboring Sudan.
After a meeting between the council and Kiir&#8217;s cabinet, U.S.
Ambassador to the United Nations Samantha Power said the cabinet ministers had asked &#8220;whether the regional protection force was still needed given that Riek Machar has fled the country, given the transitional government is working more smoothly.&#8221;
&#8220;We as a council sent an unequivocal message that &#8216;yes, this force is still needed&#8217;,&#8221; she told reporters. The Security Council has threatened to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan if the government does not cooperate.
South Sudan&#8217;s Minister for Cabinet Affairs, Martin Elias Lomoro, said of the planned deployment: &#8220;We&#8217;re discussing the modalities.&#8221;
The new force will boost a 12,000-strong U.N. peacekeeping force (UNMISS) that has been on the ground since 2011. When the conflict erupted in 2013, the United Nations took the rare step of sheltering civilians at several of its compounds.
&#8220;That&#8217;s one of the reasons why a regional protection force is so necessary because so much of UNMISS&#8217;s resources is devoted to protecting civilians in the camps,&#8221; Deputy British U.N. Ambassador Peter Wilson told reporters.
U.N. peacekeepers currently protect nearly 200,000 civilians at six sites around the country. The Security Council, which visited two camps in Juba on Saturday, were greeted at the U.N. House site by mainly displaced Nuer shouting &#8220;down, down, Salva Kiir.&#8221;
&#8220;We need your help, we are tired,&#8221; said Peter Gatkuoth, 23, who has sheltered at the U.N. House site for several years.
The South Sudan conflict has been marked by the use of rape as a weapon and some displaced women told council members on Saturday that they had to risk being the target of sexual violence every time they left the camp to get food and firewood.
&#8220;As a mother I can&#8217;t imagine that choice,&#8221; Power said. &#8220;I know I would go and take that risk for my children, I think any mother would. We heard desperate appeals for the regional protection force to be deployed quickly.&#8221;
Oil producer South Sudan&#8217;s fledgling economy has been battered by the conflict, driving prices higher and leaving half the country&#8217;s 12 million people without enough food.
Paleki Ayang, director of the South Sudan Women Empowerment Network, told the council her monthly salary had dropped from $2,000 more than two years ago to $80.
&#8220;If somebody is hungry you can&#8217;t preach to them about peace agreements,&#8221; she said.
 
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols in Juba; Editing by James Dalgleish)
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Displaced South Sudanese appeal to U.N. to send more troops

Zimbabwe has charged 68 people with public violence following violent clashes between protesters and the police last week and a magistrate court will on Tuesday rule whether they should be released from custody while they await trial.
Police fired tear gas and water cannon at opposition leaders and hundreds of demonstrators at Friday&#8217;s protest before unrest swept across large parts of the capital, Harare.
The 68, who include a freelance photographer, first appeared in court on Saturday. Accused of burning property, attacking police officers and looting shops, they were not asked to plead.
They face a fine and up to 10 years in jail if convicted.
Around 100 riot police stood outside the court house in downtown Harare, accompanied by water cannon and armoured cars. Officers blocked relatives of the accused and members of the public from getting in.
Police arrested three people waving banners criticising 92-year-old President Robert Mugabe, who is facing rising public anger at the dire state of the economy, in particular shortages of cash and unemployment estimated at over 80 percent.
Defence lawyers will argue that those arrested last week were innocent people caught up in the violence.
Magistrate Tendai Mahwe earlier refused bail for political activist Promise Mkwananzi and another man charged with public violence following a protest by opposition youths on Aug. 24.
Mkwananzi is linked to the social media movement #Tajamuka, which joined forces last month with the #ThisFlag campaign of pastor Evan Mawarire to organise a &#8216;stay-at-home&#8217; protest billed as the biggest strike in Zimbabwe since 2007.
Mahwe ruled that Mkwananzi faced serious charges and should not be freed on bail. His lawyer, Tonderai Bhatasara, said he would appeal the ruling at the High Court.
 
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Ed Cropley)﻿

violence

U.N. Security Council pushes for peaceful Congo transition

Op-Ed: Africa in Focus – School's out

South Africa's Zuma asks for university 'mayhem' to be dealt with

"Business as usual," Gabon leader Ali Bongo says

Niger Delta Avengers claim first attack since August ceasefire

Death toll rises to 44 in Congo unrest

Displaced South Sudanese appeal to U.N. to send more troops

Zimbabwe charges 68 with violence after protests, activist denied bail

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violence

U.N. Security Council pushes for peaceful Congo transition

Op-Ed: Africa in Focus – School's out

South Africa's Zuma asks for university 'mayhem' to be dealt with

"Business as usual," Gabon leader Ali Bongo says

Niger Delta Avengers claim first attack since August ceasefire

Death toll rises to 44 in Congo unrest

Displaced South Sudanese appeal to U.N. to send more troops

Zimbabwe charges 68 with violence after protests, activist denied bail

News Tips

Advertise With Us

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