🔅 Mali warns the French
It would defend itself against having its sovereignty continually undermined.
Good morning ☕
In today’s issue, Madagascar’s foreign minister gets fired, WHO will temporarily replace two-dose cholera vaccines with a single dose, and Uganda's president’s son refuses to accept his father’s directive to stop using Twitter…
Markets
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*Data accurate as of close of markets across the continent
Malawi:Â The International Monetary Fund is expected to approve up to $54 million in emergency funding for Malawi in the coming days as the southern African country struggles with severe foreign currency shortages. Malawi is experiencing chaotic lines at gas stations due to a lack of foreign currency. It would be the first African country to receive special IMF emergency financing to deal with the global inflation crisis. In May, the donor-dependent country devalued its kwacha currency against the US dollar by 25%.Â
Global Markets:Â Soaring food prices pushed UK inflation back into double digits in September, putting additional pressure on the government and the central bank to act at a time when the country is already in a deep fiscal crisis. Greater austerity to reduce spending power is one possible solution to tackle inflation, but that, of course, is always an unpopular decision and would lead to greater political problems for a government that is barely hanging onto power.
SECURITY
Mali raises French army violations
Mali's foreign minister said on Tuesday that if France continues to undermine the West African country's sovereignty, the military will begin to exercise its right to defend itself.
Minister Abdoulaye Diop, speaking at a United Nations Security Council briefing on Mali in New York, repeated allegations that France had violated its airspace and delivered arms to Islamist militants fighting in northern Mali for the past decade.
France denies this.
Its relations with Mali have deteriorated since an August 2020 coup, and it is withdrawing troops that it sent to fight an insurgency in 2013.
Recently, Islamist militants have advanced into eastern Mali, seizing territory and killing hundreds of civilians while thousands fled. On Monday, four United Nations peacekeepers were killed in a separate attack in the country's north.
Mali has been in turmoil since 2012, when Islamist militants hijacked a Tuareg rebellion in the north. France stepped in to assist in pushing them out. However, the militants, some of whom have ties to al Qaeda and the Islamic State, have regrouped and spread across the Sahel and further south towards coastal states.
At the same time, Diop denied human rights violations committed by the Malian army, as reported by the UN and other organisations.
ACROSS THE CONTINENT
Other Headlines
🇲🇬 Madagascar's President Andry Rajoelina has fired his foreign minister, Richard Randriamandranto, without apparent explanation. The decision follows the foreign minister's vote at the United Nations a week ago that condemned Russia's annexation of Ukrainian territories. Before this, Madagascar pursued a non-aligned Russia-Ukrain policy, despite invitations to condemn Russia from the European Union and the United States. According to a public broadcasting channel, the foreign minister cast the vote without consulting either the head of state or the prime minister.
💉 The World Health Organization announced Wednesday that it would temporarily suspend the standard two-dose cholera vaccination regimen, replacing it with a single dose. It says this is due to vaccine shortages and rising cholera outbreaks worldwide, such as in Haiti, Syria, and Malawi. According to the agency, the one-dose strategy has proven effective in responding to cholera outbreaks. However, the duration of protection is limited and appears to be much lower in children. Cholera frequently causes no or mild symptoms, but severe cases cause severe diarrhoea and can kill within hours if left untreated.
🇺🇬 Uganda's four-star general Muhoozi Kainerugaba has refused to be banned from Twitter, a day after his father, President Yoweri Museveni, directed that he refrain from commenting on government matters on the social media platform. The president's intervention came after Gen Kainerugaba's controversial tweets threatening to invade neighbouring Kenya a fortnight ago, prompting a public apology and diplomatic meetings to reaffirm ties. In a sharp rebuttal to his father's directive, Kainerugaba tweeted, "Is that some kind of joke?? [...] NO ONE will ban me from anything!"
AROUND THE WORLD
Lafarge pleads guilty to supporting Islamic State
Lafarge, a French cement company, pleaded guilty in a US court on Tuesday to charges that it made payments to terrorist organisations, including the Islamic State, in order to continue operating in Syria.
The admission marks the first time in US history that a company pleaded guilty to charges of providing material support to a terrorist organisation.
As part of the plea agreement, Lafarge agreed to pay $778 million in fines.
According to US prosecutors, Lafarge and its Syrian subsidiary Lafarge Cement Syria paid the Islamic State and al Nusra Front the equivalent of almost $6 million in 2013 and 2014 through intermediaries. It did so to allow employees, customers, and suppliers to pass through checkpoints after the civil war broke out in Syria.
According to prosecutors, the move allowed the company to earn $70 million in sales revenue from a plant it operated in northern Syria.
Lafarge eventually evacuated the cement plant in September 2014, at which point Islamic State took possession of the remaining cement and sold it for the equivalent of $3.21 million.
No executives from Lafarge were charged.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
Proverb of the Day
"The chicken that can dig for food will not sleep hungry."
— Congolese Proverb.