The twilight of the resource curse?

The twilight of the resource curse?

Africa’s growth is being powered by things other than commodities

Jan 10th 2015 | From the print edition

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FOR decades commodity prices have shaped Africa’s economic growth. The continent is home to a third of the planet’s mineral reserves, a tenth of the oil and it produces two-thirds of the diamonds. Little wonder then that, as a rule, when prices for natural resources and export crops have been high, growth has been good; when they have dipped, so has the continent’s economy (see chart 1).

In this section

• The twilight of the resource curse?
• The shoestring coup
• Ail the king
• See you in court
• Soaring ambition
• Correction: Nigeria

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• Public finance
• World Bank
• Ghana
• Economies
• African economy

Over the past decade Africa was among the world’s fastest-growing continents—its average annual rate was more than 5%—buoyed in part by improved governance and economic reforms. Commodity prices were also high. In previous cycles African economies have crashed when the prices of minerals, oil and other commodities have fallen. In 1998-99, during an oil-price fall, Nigeria’s naira lost 80% of its value. African currencies again took a beating during a period of turmoil in commodity markets in 2009.

Tanzania says ready to take on Rwandan rebels in Congo

2:48pm EST

By Fumbuka Ng'Wanakilala and Aaron Ross

DAR ES SALAAM/KINSHASA (Reuters) - Tanzania is ready to take on Rwandan Hutu rebels in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), President Jakaya Kikwete said, suggesting a joint offensive with U.N.-backed, South African forces is imminent.

The U.N. mission in Congo said government troops and peacekeepers were intensifying deployments towards rebel positions but insurgents were also mobilizing and mixing with civilians, raising the risk of them being used as human shields.

Congo's army and a 3,000-strong South African, Tanzanian and Malawian U.N. intervention force is due to launch an offensive against Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) rebels, which have been at the heart of years of conflict in central Africa's Great Lakes region.

In a statement issued late on Tuesday after talks with South African Defense Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, Kikwete dismissed talk he was reluctant to tackle the FDLR.

"There are people who pretend to read Tanzania's mind," Kikwete said. "They claim that Tanzania has no intention of taking on rebel groups in the DRC. These are bizarre people because Tanzania, like South Africa and Malawi, has troops in the DRC with a firm United Nations mandate."

UN Military Action in DRC 'Inevitable'

UN Military Action in DRC 'Inevitable'

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South Africa says military intervention by its contingent of United Nations peacekeepers is now “inevitable” after Rwanda-backed rebels in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) did not comply with a January 2 deadline to disarm.

In a terse statement released this week, South Africa’s foreign ministry said it had no remaining options against the Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Rwanda (FDLR), a Rwanda-backed militia that has sown havoc in the mineral-rich eastern region of the DRC.

“South Africa reiterates that the FDLR has failed to comply with the 2 January 2015 deadline set by the Heads of State and Government of Southern African Development Community and the International Conference on the Great Lakes Region for the FDLR to disarm voluntarily or face military action, and has therefore rendered military option inevitable,” the statement read.

Boko Haram seizes military base on Nigerian border

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© Pius Utomi Ekpei, AFP file picture | Soldiers patrol the streets in the remote northeast town of Baga, Nigeria, on April 30, 2013

Text by NEWS WIRES

Latest update : 2015-01-05

Boko Haram killed dozens of civilians and at least 11 soldiers when the militants took control of a Nigerian town and army base on the shores of Lake Chad at the weekend, a military source and witnesses said on Monday.

The Islamists attacked the northeastern town of Baga and the barracks on its outskirts on Saturday, potentially providing a launchpad for more attacks in Nigeria and neighbouring countries.

Lying at the end of a semi-desert road, Baga is the headquarters of a multinational force comprising troops from Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Cameroon, all of touch which Lake Chad, though only Nigerian troops are usually stationed in the town.

Troops fled the area after Boko Haram took over the base.

The group’s five year insurgency to establish an Islamic state has killed many thousands in Africa’s top economy and most populous nation. More than 10,000 died in the violence last year, the Council on Foreign Relations says.

Witnesses who escaped to the bush ran past the bodies of soldiers and civilians along the way.

“I was hiding on a tree top since that Saturday night until this morning at 3 a.m.,” Abubakar Usman, a Baga resident, told Reuters by telephone.

“Women in a nearby house brought us water and food ... We snuck out and on our way, we saw lots of dead soldiers and 10 bodies of women.”

Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnap 172 women, children in Nigeria

BY LANRE OLA

MAIDUGURI, Nigeria Thu Dec 18, 2014 5:33pm EST

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(Reuters) - Suspected Boko Haram gunmen kidnapped 172 women and children and killed 35 other people on Sunday during a raid on the northeast Nigerian village of Gumsuri, residents said on Thursday.

Although no one has claimed responsibility, the attack bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which abducted more than 200 women in April from a secondary school in Chibok, only 24 km (15 miles) from this latest attack.

The campaign for an Islamic state by Boko Haram, whose name means "Western education is sinful," has become the gravest threat to Africa's biggest economy and top oil producer.

 

Village resident Abba Musa, a maize grinder who survived the attack, estimated the number abducted as 172 after the village did a head count following the assault.

The attackers shouted "God is Great" and unleashed salvos of gunfire, he said.

"My sister and her seven children were among those taken away," he told Reuters by telephone. "We ran into the bush and were lucky. There were not many others who were lucky."

He said at least 33 were killed.

Regime Change in Burkina Faso: Implications for Sub-Saharan Africa

BBJ

Wednesday, December 17, 2014, 9:20 AM CET

More than a hundred thousand protesters took to the streets of the capital, Ouagadougou, in response to Compaoré’s attempt to amend the constitution to eliminate the two-term limit on the presidential mandate. Compaoré wanted to run for a third term, and the population was fed up with his long misrule.A political upheaval in the West African country of Burkina Faso from October 29–31, 2014 resulted in the premature departure of President Blaise Compaoré, who had been head of state since 1987.

The mob burned down the Parliament building to prevent the enactment of the constitutional change, and Compaoré fled for his life in a French military helicopter. The Burkina Faso military, including the elite presidential guard, did not defend the president against the protesters.

Since 1990, most African countries have rewritten their constitutions to eliminate the so-called “one-party state” in favor of multiparty democracy. The new constitutions have included a two-term limit on heads of state to prevent African strongmen from remaining in power indefinitely through the falsification of election results.

The implementation of the two-term limit has worked as intended in many African countries, such as Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Kenya, Botswana, Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique. In all of these countries, the elected heads of state departed after two terms, and in some cases, opposition leaders were elected in their place. In other cases, the ruling parties maintained power, but with fresh faces at the top.

Cameroon army kills 116 Boko Haram fighters

2014-12-18 12:53

Boko Haram (File: AFP)

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• Islamists kill 32, kidnap scores in Nigeria
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Yaounde - Cameroon's army said on Thursday its troops had killed 116 Nigerian fighters from the Islamist Boko Haram group in the far north.

Insurgents attacked an army base in Amchide on the border with Nigeria on Wednesday, but soldiers repelled them, inflicting heavy losses, the defence ministry said.

"A column made up of a military truck and four pick-ups from the BIR [Rapid Intervention Battalion] were caught in an ambush that began with an explosion of a roadside bomb," the army said.

"At the same time... the Amchide military base was attacked by hundreds of fighters from the sect, but the response from our defence forces was instant and appropriate," the statement said.

"There are 116 of the assailants dead on Cameroonian territory and undetermined casualties on the Nigerian territory from our artillery fire," the statement said.

"There is one dead on the Cameroonian side and one officer missing."

According to the army, the Boko Haram fighters destroyed a pick-up and a troop truck, as well as managing to capture another military truck.

Boko Haram has grown in power in the area, where Cameroon and Nigeria are linked by a bridge.

Militants have carried out repeated massacres of civilians and attacks on villages there, but are now increasingly active against military targets.

- AFP

http://www.news24.com/Africa/News/Cameroon-army-kills-116-Boko-Haram-fighters-20141218

Somalia appoints new prime minister after damaging spat

By AFP

PUBLISHED: 10:58 EST, 17 December 2014 | UPDATED: 10:58 EST, 17 December 2014

 
 
 
 
 

Somalia's president on Wednesday appointed a new prime minister, 11 days after the war-torn nation's previous premier was ousted amid bitter infighting.

President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said he had appointed political heavyweight Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, 54, who becomes the first person to hold the post twice.

"I'm very happy that I have picked Omar Abdirashid Ali as the new prime minister of the country. I expect him to fulfill his commandments," the president said at Villa Somalia, the fortified compound and seat of the country's fragile internationally backed government.

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Somalia's President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said he had appointed political heavyweight Omar Abdirashid Ali Sharmarke, seen here in June 2009, who becomes the first person to hold the post twice ©Tiziana Fabi (AFP/File)

Sharmarke, a dual Canadian and Somali national, replaces sacked prime minster Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed, ousted by parliament after just over a year in the post.

The United Nations, United States and European Union have all warned that power struggles in the Villa Somalia were a damaging distraction for the country as it tries to battle Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab rebels.

United Nations special envoy Nicholas Kay also said the tensions put at risk political goals including a referendum on a new constitution due to take place next year, ahead of elections in 2016.

The new prime minister told reporters he would "continue working on the efforts to bring about stability" and "taking the country the way forward to free elections".