JULIO PACHECO NTELA/AFP or licensors
By Africanews
The president of Angola, João Lourenço, has welcomed the Portuguese president, António Costa, in the capital, Luanda, on Monday.
Ministers from both countries signed a total of 13 agreements ranging from financial to legal.
“I have to say that we sensed a great willingness to collaborate on the part of the Portuguese justice system, with whom we were able to exchange not only information but also the alignment of Angola’s anti-corruption strategy, and to say that in principle everything that was asked of the Portuguese authorities so that we could find the right correspondent”, said Angolan president, João Lourenço.
The Portuguese prime minister announced a significant increase in the credit line granted to Angola.
“To support the Angolan government’s ambition and strategic approach to diversifying the country’s economy, we have significantly increased the credit line from one thousand five hundred to two billion euros”, announced António Costa, prime minister of Portugal.
The cooperation program signed between Portugal and Angola will last until 2027.
Somalia’s economic potential under the spotlight
Maxim Shipenkov/AP
Racism: Brazilians protest in support of international Vinícius Jr
Tuane Fernandes/Copyright 2023 The AP. All rights reserved.
By Rédaction Africanews and AP
About 100 Brazilian protestors gathered outside the Spanish consulate in Sao Paulo on Tuesday (May. 23) to condemn the racist abuse of Real Madrid forward Vinícius Júnior in Spain’s top-flight soccer league known as La Liga.
The protesters chanted “La Liga is racist” and “end with racism in Spain and in Brazil” for about an hour. They brought flares, banners and stickers that read “Vini Jr, I am with you.”
They projected the words “it is not soccer, it is racism” onto the walls of the consulate.
Vinícius, who is Black, has been subjected to repeated racist taunts since he arrived in Spain five years ago. Since the Spanish league season began in September, he has experienced racist abuse by fans of at least five rival teams.
Former soccer player Claudia Rodrigues, 51, one of the organizers of the protest, said the idea was not to bring thousands of people to the consulate, which sits in one of Sao Paulo’s wealthiest regions, but to act quickly and show the Spanish goverment it needs to act.
“Vini behaved as a warrior, a Brazilian man that honors our ancestors,” Rodrigues said. “Vini is facing racism in Europe. Regardless of financiers, sponsors, it is very important for our society and very important for young Black people, who look at them as heroes.”
Arrests and sanctions
Spanish police have arrested seven people accused of racially insulting the Real Madrid player. Three were detained in Valencia for alleged abuse against Vinícius in a Spanish league match on Sunday. Four were arrested in Madrid for allegedly hanging an effigy of the player off a highway bridge in January.
Representatives of several Brazilian Black movements read out loud a statement showing support for the 22-year-old soccer star. Drivers honked in support and chanted against the Spanish league from their cars.
The statement said Vinicius faced aggression “of the Spanish far-right that oppresses Blacks” and “Vini Jr. makes us proud.”
“We will be standing next to him, with clenched fists and our heads high up.”
Spanish soccer officials also acted Tuesday (May. 23), fining Valencia 45,000 euros ($48,500) and closing part of the team’s stadium for the next five games.
Nigeria: Navy holds last parade for outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari
AFP
Nigeria’s president Muhammadu Buhari has hailed the navy for efficient use of ships, saying, it has significantly helped in the fight against crude oil theft, among other marine crimes. Buhari said this Monday as he attended the Presidential fleet review held at the Naval Dockyard in Lagos. This is the country’s Navy’s last parade for the outgoing president, who will step down on May 29 after eight years in office.
“The Navy has put its vessels into effective use as evidenced in successes recorded in the fight against resource thefts, counter drug operations and piracy.” Buhari said.
Buhari added that he is hopeful that given the progress made already in local construction of Seaward Vessels, the Nigerian Navy will soon begin to build large warships for itself.
Nigeria achieved a major milestone in its anti-piracy drive in 2022 when the International Maritime Bureau (IMB) delisted the country from its piracy list.
New UK law threatens South African taxidermists
GUILLEM SARTORIO/AFP or licensors
By Africanews
South African taxidermists fear for the future of their trade as the UK bans the import of hunting trophies.
The new law, approved by UK lawmakers in March and sponsored by animal activists, aims to help protect endangered species. Taxidermists question this approach.
“The legal wildlife trade has been cast, there is a shadow being cast over them. That everything that we do is illegal and that we are trying, we are killing off all the animals, and that is so much far from the truth- that is not true. Why will I kill my own market…”, asks Pieter Swart, owner of a taxidermy workshop.
According to a 2018 study, trophy hunting contributes more than $340 million a year to South Africa’s economy supporting around 17,000 jobs.
“If they are going to ban this job, it’s going to cost a lot to me, because I am not going to manage to feed my family and everything. Because, for me and all of us working here us, the workers, we are getting to survive thanks to this”, said Elias Pedzisai, an employee at the taxidermy workshop.
The new UK law is also seen as the beginning of a change in attitude amongst European countries.
“In terms of ethics and morals, to hunt an animal only to be mounted on your wall, I think it’s a little bit questionable and a little bit unethical”, claims Keshvi Nair, spokeswoman for South Africa’s National Council of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
Critics however say shooting wild animals for fun is cruel, wasteful and pushes endangered species closer to extinction.
“The ban in the UK is going to be one of the world’s largest and most comprehensive ban. I mean it’s covering thousands and thousands of animals, and I think that can very much act as an example to the rest of the Western world and elsewhere where trophy hunting imports are still permitted, and I think you know that the UK can lead as an example here”, concludes Dr. Matthew Schurch, wildlife expert with Humane Society International.
Similar legislation is being considered in countries such as Italy, Belgium and Spain.
Telecom Egypt completes landing of 2Africa, world’s longest subsea internet cable
Muhammad Khalid, Thursday 11 May 2023
Telecom Egypt announced the completion of the second and final landing in Egypt of the 2Africa subsea internet cable, the world’s longest undersea communications cable.
The cable is designed to boost internet connectivity between Africa, the Middle East, and Europe.
2Africa has been connected to the Port Said station on the Mediterranean coast, Telecom Egypt said in a statement.
The landing marked the end of 2Africa installations in Egypt after the first landing in Ras Ghareb on the Red Sea coast five months ago. Telecom Egypt had already completed the terrestrial crossing of Egypt ahead of schedule in 2020, the company said.
The project was launched in 2020 by a group of telecom operators including Telecom Egypt, Meta Platforms Inc., China Mobile International, and Orange SA.
The 45,000-kilometre system is built by Alcatel Submarine Networks. It will interconnect 33 countries through 46 landings and provide more than the combined capacity of all existing subsea cables serving Africa.
“Egypt complements its privileged location with vast experience in landing subsea systems and a dedicated team capable of overcoming operational challenges,” said Paul Gabla, vice president of sales and marketing at Alcatel Submarine Networks.
Various media platforms, including Reuters and Bloomberg, reported that Egypt is planning to sell a 10 percent stake in Telecom Egypt to be traded on the Egyptian Stock Exchange (EGX).
The Egyptian government owns 80 percent of Telecom Egypt’s shares, the remaining shares are already being traded on the EGX.
Telecom Egypt said in March the Egyptian government is exploring floating an additional stake in the company on the EGX in 2023.
Sudan: Price of basic commodities go up by 60% as fighting escalates
2023
The cost of commodities and services has shot up in Sudan as fighting escalates in the country.
According to the United Nations humanitarian agency, the price of basic commodities such as fuel, food staples, and water has gone up by 60 percent or more due to supply challenges resulting from the clashes in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan.
This is a new setback to Sudan’s stagnant economy. Shortages of main goods such as flour and vegetables have been reported in the capital along with unprecedented price hikes.
Khartoum is the business hub for most industries and services. Factories are located in parts of the city where intense fighting is happening. Some of them have been looted.
Sudan is an important exporter of gum Arabic, gold, sesame, peanuts, and livestock. But the economy has been held back by decades of sanctions and international isolation, as well as mismanagement and corruption.
People have been struggling with years of spiking inflation and sharp currency devaluations. The situation worsened after the 2021 military coup when international financial institutions halted Sudan’s aid programs.
The ongoing conflict has closed out trade flows to and from Sudan and the main ports have halted operations until further notice.
The country’s overwhelmed economy is expected to deteriorate further if the fighting continues.
Despite several ceasefires declared by Sudan’s conflicting parties, tensions and some deadly fighting continue to rage in the capital Khartoum and other areas.
Sudan’s health ministry stopped updating the number of casualties on May 2, when the death toll stood at 550 with 4,926 people injured.
In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese are fleeing to neighboring countries. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a total of 123,110 refugees have fled to South Sudan, Egypt, Chad, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic since the conflict erupted in mid-April.
The UN agency projected the number could rise to 860,000 in the next six months.
The cost of commodities and services has shot up in Sudan as fighting escalates in the country.
According to the United Nations humanitarian agency, the price of basic commodities such as fuel, food staples, and water has gone up by 60 percent or more due to supply challenges resulting from the clashes in Khartoum and other parts of Sudan.
This is a new setback to Sudan’s stagnant economy. Shortages of main goods such as flour and vegetables have been reported in the capital along with unprecedented price hikes.
Khartoum is the business hub for most industries and services. Factories are located in parts of the city where intense fighting is happening. Some of them have been looted.
Sudan is an important exporter of gum Arabic, gold, sesame, peanuts, and livestock. But the economy has been held back by decades of sanctions and international isolation, as well as mismanagement and corruption.
People have been struggling with years of spiking inflation and sharp currency devaluations. The situation worsened after the 2021 military coup when international financial institutions halted Sudan’s aid programs.
The ongoing conflict has closed out trade flows to and from Sudan and the main ports have halted operations until further notice.
The country’s overwhelmed economy is expected to deteriorate further if the fighting continues.
Despite several ceasefires declared by Sudan’s conflicting parties, tensions and some deadly fighting continue to rage in the capital Khartoum and other areas.
Sudan’s health ministry stopped updating the number of casualties on May 2, when the death toll stood at 550 with 4,926 people injured.
In the meantime, hundreds of thousands of Sudanese are fleeing to neighboring countries. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), a total of 123,110 refugees have fled to South Sudan, Egypt, Chad, Ethiopia, and the Central African Republic since the conflict erupted in mid-April.
The UN agency projected the number could rise to 860,000 in the next six months.
Australian firm finds gas, oil in Zimbabwe
Staff Writer, Agence France-Presse (AFP)
May 8, 2023
Australian oil and gas firm Invictus Energy announced Monday it has found light oil, gas and helium in remote northeastern Zimbabwe, a culmination of months of exploration.
Analysis of samples from its remote sites near the border with Mozambique confirmed the “presence of light oil, gas condensate and helium”, it said in a statement.
The result “definitively proves the presence of hydrocarbons in multiple reservoir pay zones” at one of the wells.
It said analysed samples “demonstrate a consistent, high-quality natural gas composition, exhibiting low inert content, containing less than” one percent carbon dioxide.
The discovery comes 30 years after US giant ExxonMobil gave up its quest to secure crude oil in the area.
The find could lead to Zimbabwe’s first gas production and help improve power supplies in a country plagued by dire electricity shortages.
Zimbabwe suffers severe power outages of up to 19 hours a day.
Invictus Energy signed the exploration, development and production deal with Zimbabwe in 2018.
It plans to build a gas-to-power facility to supply the national grid.
The find is also a boon for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government which is entitled to as much as 60 percent of the project’s output under an agreement with Invictus Energy.
The site contains the largest undrilled structure in inshore Africa according to the Australia Stock exchange-listed firm.
Exploration started in August some 200 kilometres (120 miles) north of the capital Harare at a field that is estimated to hold 20 trillion cubic feet of gas.
World’s tallest hemp hotel set to open in June in South Africa
RODGER BOSCH/AFP or licensors
With 12 storeys, a breathtaking view of Cape Town’s imposing Table Mountain and a minimal ecological footprint, the world’s tallest building made with industrial hemp is soon to open its doors in South Africa.
Workers in central Cape Town are putting the finishing touches on the 54-room Hemp Hotel, which is due to be completed in June.
“Hempcrete” blocks derived from the cannabis plant have been used to fill the building’s walls, supported by a concrete and cement structure.
Hemp bricks are becoming increasingly popular in the construction world thanks to their insulating, fire-resistant and climate-friendly properties.
Used notably in Europe for thermal renovation of existing buildings, the blocks are carbon negative — meaning their production sucks more planet-warming gases out of the atmosphere than it puts in.
“The plant absorbs the carbon, it gets put into a block and is then stored into a building for 50 years or longer,” explains Boshoff Muller, director of Afrimat Hemp, a subsidiary of South African construction group Afrimat, which produced the bricks for the hotel.
“What you see here is a whole bag full of carbon, quite literally,” Muller says as he pats a bag of mulch at a brick factory on the outskirts of Cape Town, where hemp hurds, water and lime are mixed together to make the blocks.
The industrial hemp used for the Hemp Hotel had to be imported from Britain as South Africa banned local production up to last year, when the government started issuing cultivation permits.
You can also read: South Africa’s brewers eyeing cannabis
President Cyril Ramaphosa has made developing the country’s hemp and cannabis sector an economic priority, saying it could create more than 130,000 jobs.
– Carbon credits –
Afrimat Hemp is now preparing to produce its first blocks made only with South African hemp.
Hemp Hotel architect Wolf Wolf, 52, sees this as a game changer to make hemp buildings more widespread in this corner of the world.
“It shouldn’t be just a high-end product,” says Wolf, whose firm is involved in several social housing projects in South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique.
Yet cost remains an issue.
“Hemp is 20 percent more expensive to build with” compared to conventional materials, says Afrimat Hemp’s carbon consultant Wihan Bekker.
But as the world races to lower carbon emissions, the firm sees “huge opportunities” for its green bricks, says Bekker.
Carbon credits — permits normally related to the planting of trees to safeguard tropical rainforests that companies buy to offset their emissions — could help make hempcrete blocks more financially palatable, he says.
“We can fund forests, or we can fund someone to live in a hemp house. It’s the same principle,” Bekker says.
The carbon footprint of a 40 square metre (430 square foot) house built with hemp is three tons of CO2 lower than that of a conventional building, according to Afrimat Hemp.
“We see this as a bit of a lighthouse project,” Muller says of the Hemp Hotel.
“It shows hemp has its place in the construction sector.”
Hemp Hotel has been ranked the “tallest building to incorporate hemp-based materials in the world” by Steve Allin, director of the Ireland-based International Hemp Building Association.
Used notably in Europe for thermal renovation of existing buildings, the blocks are carbon negative — meaning their production sucks more planet-warming gases out of the atmosphere than it puts in.
“The plant absorbs the carbon, it gets put into a block and is then stored into a building for 50 years or longer,” explains Boshoff Muller, director of Afrimat Hemp, a subsidiary of South African construction group Afrimat, which produced the bricks for the hotel.
“What you see here is a whole bag full of carbon, quite literally,” Muller says as he pats a bag of mulch at a brick factory on the outskirts of Cape Town, where hemp hurds, water and lime are mixed together to make the blocks.
The industrial hemp used for the Hemp Hotel had to be imported from Britain as South Africa banned local production up to last year, when the government started issuing cultivation permits.
You can also read: South Africa’s brewers eyeing cannabis
President Cyril Ramaphosa has made developing the country’s hemp and cannabis sector an economic priority, saying it could create more than 130,000 jobs.
– Carbon credits –
Afrimat Hemp is now preparing to produce its first blocks made only with South African hemp.
Hemp Hotel architect Wolf Wolf, 52, sees this as a game changer to make hemp buildings more widespread in this corner of the world.
“It shouldn’t be just a high-end product,” says Wolf, whose firm is involved in several social housing projects in South Africa and neighbouring Mozambique.
Yet cost remains an issue.
“Hemp is 20 percent more expensive to build with” compared to conventional materials, says Afrimat Hemp’s carbon consultant Wihan Bekker.
But as the world races to lower carbon emissions, the firm sees “huge opportunities” for its green bricks, says Bekker.
Carbon credits — permits normally related to the planting of trees to safeguard tropical rainforests that companies buy to offset their emissions — could help make hempcrete blocks more financially palatable, he says.
“We can fund forests, or we can fund someone to live in a hemp house. It’s the same principle,” Bekker says.
The carbon footprint of a 40 square metre (430 square foot) house built with hemp is three tons of CO2 lower than that of a conventional building, according to Afrimat Hemp.
“We see this as a bit of a lighthouse project,” Muller says of the Hemp Hotel.
“It shows hemp has its place in the construction sector.”
Hemp Hotel has been ranked the “tallest building to incorporate hemp-based materials in the world” by Steve Allin, director of the Ireland-based International Hemp Building Association.
IMF calls for help in Sub-saharan Africa to manage a severe financial shortage
By Rédaction Africanews and Agencies
Growth in sub-Saharan Africa is expected to slow to 3.6 percent in 2023, as a “big funding squeeze”, tied to the drying up of aid and access to private finance, hits the region, announced the IMF April 13, 2023 in a press briefing.
If no measures are taken, this shortage of funding may force countries to reduce fiscal resources for critical development like health, education, and infrastructure, holding the region back from developing its true potential.
“I wish I was bearing better news, but unfortunately, we’re expecting growth to decelerate from 3.9 percent to 3.6 percent in 2023. And this to a large extent reflects the big funding squeeze tied to drying up of aid and access to private finance” said Abebe Aemro Selassie, Director of the IMF’s African Department.
Sub-Saharan African countries lag significantly in revenue collections, with a median tax ratio of only 13 percent of GDP in 2022, compared with 18 percent in other emerging economies and developing countries and 27 percent in advanced economies.
“So, there are a number of reforms that need to be pursued. I think first and foremost, of course, is policies to strengthen the resilience of economies. So, many countries, for example, there’s a big challenge on mobilizing more domestic revenues. That needs to be addressed wherever that’s the main challenge. Second, I think it’s also important to consider policies to insulate domestic economies from external environment. So, allowing exchange rates to adjust, interest rates to be recalibrated, to reflect better to reduce inflation are all going to be very important part of the policy response to this adverse external environment,” added Selassie.
The IMF has provided the region with around $50 billion dollar in financing since the start of the pandemic and will continue to work with the region to put in place the right type of policies that are tailor-made to each country’s needs.
“We are engaging like never before with the region. Of course, over the last couple of years, we’ve provided considerable financing to the tune of around $50 billion to support the region. Whether the very difficult economic environment that was facing and we continue to try and provide as much financing as possible to support countries in the coming months. As important, however, of course, are policies and reforms that needs to be pursued by countries, and we are deeply engaged with working with countries to navigate and to put in place the right types of policies in each individual country,” said Selassie.