🔅 Adjaye Accused of Sexual Assault & $555 Million Investment in African Railways
Plus, Tinubu Asked to Account For Abacha's Loot, & Sudan on the Brink of Civil War.
Photo of the day: Mangos from Bissau, Guinea-Bissau
Markets:
🟢 Nigerian SE: 64,603.69 (+2.48%)
🔴 Johannesburg SE: 74,345.98 (-0.64%)
— Ghana SE: 2,966.32 (0.00%)
🟢 Nairobi SE: 112.98 (+1.45%)
🟢 US S&P 500: 4,409.53 (+0.24%)
🟢 Shanghai Composite: 3,203.70 (+0.22%)
It's US Fed Rate Hike Time, Folks | Markets ended on a bit of a sour note last week, thanks to some job market data that made it pretty clear: It's rate hike time! Though the US added fewer jobs than expected last month, wages grew faster than anticipated, so it looks like Jerome Powell and his Fed pals are ready to pull the trigger and push interest rates higher. The question is: will it cause a recession? Time will tell.
*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
Brief & Bright: Africa's Top Five Highlights
🏛️ David Adjaye Accused of Inappropriate Behavior | British-Ghanaian architect David Adjaye is in hot water after a Financial Times investigation accused him of sexually assaulting and harassing three female former employees. Adjaye, who designed the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington D.C., and is designing the National Cathedral in Ghana, denied the allegations, saying the relationships were consensual, even if they “blurred the boundaries” between his professional and personal lives. Unsurprisingly, he stepped down from a number of high-profile roles and projects since the investigation went public last week. However, only a few days later, it was revealed that he went ahead and disclosed private legal letters and the names of the women he allegedly sexually abused to the government of Ghana as part of efforts to save his reputation. Their identities had been kept private until then.
🇳🇬 Accounting for Abacha's Loot: Nigeria's Court Tells Tinubu to Spill the Beans | Nigeria’s High Court has a message for President Bola Tinubu: tell us what happened to Sani Abacha’s loot. The late military ruler was accused of stealing up to $5 billion during his rule in the 1990s, and the court is now demanding Tinubu’s government account for the money since the country returned to civilian rule in 1999. Over the years, the US, Switzerland, and Jersey have returned hundreds of millions of dollars linked to Abacha, but Nigeria hasn’t said exactly how it used the funds. A rights group is now calling on Tinubu to obey the court’s ruling and reveal what happened to Abacha’s loot.
🇸🇩 Sudan on the Brink of Civil War | Sudan’s on the brink of a full-blown civil war according to the UN, which warned that an airstrike in the capital city of Khartoum that killed 22 civilians has pushed the African nation to the edge. The conflict has killed at least 3,000 people to date, and wounded 6,000, with survivors reporting a wave of violence and ethnically targeted killings. The UN warned of possible crimes against humanity in the Darfur region. The war, which has been going on for nearly three months, is between Sudan’s rival generals, and the UN is calling for all sides to take part in a peace meeting starting this week. The UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, has expressed deep concern that the war has “pushed Sudan to the brink of a full-scale civil war, potentially destabilising the entire region”.
🇨🇩 WHO's Wrongdoing: Calls for Reparations for Victims of Abuse | The World Health Organization (WHO) has been urged to pay reparations to victims of sexual assault and exploitation by its workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The WHO’s “UN-standard support” for victims, which has included psychosocial care, legal assistance, and job training, has been deemed “not sufficient” by a retired judge tasked with leading an independent commission’s review of the health body’s response. It’s been a struggle for the WHO to handle the fallout from its biggest sexual misconduct scandal, which took place between 2018 and 2020. The agency has supported more than 100 victims of abuse in the DRC, many of whom were raped or sexually exploited. But the reparations being offered have been deemed inadequate, and calls for a broader and better-targeted support system have been made.
🛤️ Trading Tracks: A $555 Million Investment in African Railways | A group of investors, led by commodity trader Trafigura, is looking to invest $555 million in a railway project connecting the Angolan port of Lobito to the Democratic Republic of Congo. Dubbed the Lobito Corridor, the 1,344-kilometer-long trade route is getting a $455 million investment, plus another $100 million for a 400-kilometer railway line in Congo.
Food for Thought
“It is better to walk than curse the road.”
— Senegalese Proverb.
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