Africa Up Close

The May 7, 2020 United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) report on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is alarming: “An estimated 12.8 people are in need of humanitarian assistance (…) This figure represents 10 percent of the total worldwide humanitarian caseload. Those affected by this complex and widespread crisis remain exposed to (…) chronic malnutrition and epidemics, notably cholera, measles, and the Ebola virus.” The majority of people affected are in the eastern DRC’s volatile Kivu region. This situation in Kivu, according to the UN OCHA, is the consequence of a long period of insecurity and the result of continuing fighting between the Congolese Army and non-state armed groups. The region’s long-standing fragility and instability are now facilitating the spread of yet another humanitarian emergency in the DRC: the outbreak of the COVID-19 virus. In short, one health emergency (COVID-19) is exacerbating another (Ebola, cholera, and measles).

Notable African cultural values and systems revolve around communal living, large families, festivals, funerals, and other social gatherings that bring people together and enhance relationships and community. With the onset of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the ways of life of Africans have dramatically changed, possibly for a long time. COVID-19 has disrupted the “normal” way of life and imposed a “new normal” that feels alien to Africans. The pandemic and responses to it are essentially dictating to Africans a new culture that emphasizes individualism over communalism, distancing over congregation, and virtual work over physical work. It has altered Africans’ daily routine of warm close physical contact with families and friends.

President Nana Akufo-Addo surprised many Ghanaians when he announced on April 19 an end to the three-week partial lockdown imposed on the cities of Accra and Kumasi. At the time of his televised evening address—his seventh since the first two cases of COVID-19 were registered in Ghana on March 12—1,042 cases had been confirmed, with nine deaths from the disease. Hence the panic and concern that cases would skyrocket with a return to full business activity the next day, April 20. Schools were to remain shuttered, while the ban on public gatherings remained in effect.

Africa has been taken aback by the discrimination against black people currently happening in China’s Guangzhou city. China, after having reportedly made headway in containing the coronavirus, is concerned that black Africans might bring a second wave of infections.  A McDonald’s outlet in Guangzhou put it bluntly with a recent notice that read: “We’ve been informed that from now on black people are not allowed to enter the restaurant. For the sake of your health, consciously notify the local police for medical isolation; please understand the inconvenience caused.” Gabriella Dilan, a Ugandan medical student studying in Wuhan, recently told Al Jazeera’s The Stream that Africans in that part of China were subjected to more days of isolation and had their medical clearances withheld for longer periods of time than did non-Africans. This, in turn, prevented Africans, for longer periods than non-Africans, from accessing banks and other facilities that would require leaving one’s dwelling place.

Libya Citizens along the Libyan-Tunisian border. Photo courtesy of the EU Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations Department via Flickr Commons.

World leaders met in Berlin on January 20 to enforce an arms embargo and ceasefire to end the long-running civil war in Libya. A little over two months later, the fighting restarted and intensified as the world’s attention turned to the global fight against coronavirus. In Libya, the Government of National Accord (GNA) announced emergency measures and restrictions in recent weeks, urging citizens to self-isolate to stop the spread of the virus. Meanwhile, residents in Tripoli described the resumption of Khalifa Hafter’s self-styled Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF) offensive on Tripoli and resulting fear as the “worst since 2011,” with the attackers shelling homes, killing six civilians, and injuring six more.

Nigerian snipers conduct an operation “Silent Kill” demonstration during African Land Forces Summit in Abuja, Nigeria on April 17, 2018. Photo courtesy of Spc. Angelica Gardner via United States Army Africa. 

The key issue that continues to threaten peace and security in Nigeria, and to a large extent the rest of the West African sub-region, is terrorism. The region’s most nefarious perpetrators are Boko Haram and the Islamic State in the West African Province (ISWAP). Related issues that further undermine peace in the region are both structural and geographical. Structurally, complex inter-group relations, poor economic conditions, and intense political grievances have created fertile ground for terrorists and generated societal demands for better representation at sub-national levels. These issues have been further compounded by the challenges of state-building in West Africa and the greater Lake Chad Basin. Geographically, the interconnectedness of states in the region and their porous borders allow violent extremism to spill across national borders. Other issues that have fuelled terrorism in the region include abuses by state security forces and unchecked government corruption.

Members of al-Shabaab disengage and lay down arms in Somalia. Photo courtesy of  AMISOM via Flickr Commons. 

Globalization and information technology have increased the free movement of people, goods, and information from one territory to another, highlighting the interdependence and interconnectedness of the world’s people and economies. However, the world’s increasing interconnectedness, while generally a boon for society, also benefits criminals. They exploit the blue sky of globalization by increasingly becoming transnational and borderless. One of the manifestations of this is the existence of illicit networks in the Horn of Africa and their linkages to the global criminal world.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed during the 11th Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of the African Union. Credit: Office of the Prime Minister – Ethiopia. Source: https://www.flickr.com/photos/145325932@N03/45946932812. License: https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/.

The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) has ruled the country since 1991. Since then, the party has brought commendable economic growth and development including improvements in health, education, electricity, road, telecommunication, and other infrastructures. The same cannot be said on the governance front where the party has demonstrated shortfalls. Over the years, there have been problems associated with human rights abuses, corruption, narrowing of the political space, and unfair distribution of resources and power. In combination, these led to political protests across the country in 2016, 2017, and 2018.

The Lake Chad Basin humanitarian crisis has caused huge population displacement and left hundreds of thousands of children trapped behind conflict lines. Photo courtesy of the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via Flickr Commons.

Climate change and its impact on conflict has gained prominent attention in recent global security discourse. Although there is no mono-causal correlation between climate change and conflict, the impact of environmental change on population displacement and regional conflict cannot be underestimated. In the case of the Lake Chad Basin, decades of depletion of the lake due to climate variabilities have largely contributed to fueling insecurity in riparian communities whose livelihoods depend on the lake. In the 1960s, Lake Chad had an area of more than 26,000km. However, it had shrunk to less than 1,500 km by 1997, and dwindled further to 1,350 km by 2014. Agriculture is the mainstay of the local economy of communities across the Lake Chad Basin, but the drastic depletion of the region’s water has affected crop, livestock, and fish production. The impact of this is evident in the rise of environmental migration, population displacement, poverty, and food insecurity within the region’s communities. This has heightened competition over resources such as water, land, and food, resulting in tension, conflict and intercommunal violence. Beyond this, terrorist groups, especially Boko Haram and the Islamic State West African Province, are exploiting these fault lines to recruit vulnerable youth and strengthen their insurgencies in communities across the countries of the Lake Chad Basin.

Downtown Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Photo courtesy of the UK Department for International Development via Flickr Creative Commons.

Ethiopia, with 110 million people, is scheduled to hold a national election in 2020. This follows a pivotal year for Ethiopia, which in 2018 began a political transition marked by new dynamics in the relationship between the government and the people, including the opposition, private sector, and civil society. With the opening of the political space and the return of several opposition political parties and armed groups, the Ethiopian political landscape has witnessed dramatic changes over the last one-and-a-half years.