🔅 Somalia's Sporting Faux Pas & Ethiopia's Amhara Region in Turmoil
Plus, South Africa Recognizes Sign Language & Niger's Woes Won't Leave EU in the Dark
Photo of the day: Somalia
Markets:
🟢 Nigerian SE: 65,263.06 (+1.55%)
🟢 Johannesburg SE: 76,747.20 (+0.35%)
🟢 Ghana SE: 3,122.86 (+0.15%)
🟢 Nairobi SE: 105.94 (+0.13%)
🔴 US S&P 500: 4,511.94 (-0.03%)
🟢 Shanghai Composite: 3,280.46 (+0.58%)
*Data accurate as of the close of markets across the continent
Brief & Bright: Africa's Top Five Highlights
🇸🇴 Somalia's Sporting Faux Pas: Nepotism, False Entries, and Death Threats
Somalia is having a bit of a sports moment. No, not the kind you’d see in a triumphant Olympics montage—more like a montage of sporting blunders. It started with a nepotism scandal, where a novice sprinter was allowed to compete in the World University Games in China. She completed a 100m race a whole ten seconds (!) behind the winner, prompting an investigation into how she was selected in the first place. It was found out that she is in fact the niece of the chairwoman of the Somali Athletics Federation, and that the sports body she claimed to be part of doesn’t even exist.
🇪🇹 Ethiopia's Amhara Region in Turmoil
Ethiopia’s Amhara region is going through a bit of a rough patch right now. The region has been in turmoil since April, when the government tried to disarm the Amhara regional force, which had been a major player in the devastating two-year conflict in the neighboring Tigray region. Since then, a local ethnic militia, Fano, has been clashing with federal security forces, leading to flight cancellations and Deputy Prime Minister Demeke Mekonnen calling the situation “increasingly grave.” There’s been heavy fighting in Gondar and Kobo, internet shutdowns in several parts of the region, and protests and roadblocks in others. All of this has put a damper on the peace deal that was signed in November. To make matters worse, an aid agency assessment says there’s been fighting in rural areas, leading to an unknown number of casualties.
🇿🇦 South Africa Recognizes Sign Language as Official Language
It’s official: South Africa now recognizes sign language as its 12th official language, a huge win for the country’s deaf community. 19-year-old Bongumusa Manana, a deaf student from Johannesburg, sees this move as a breakthrough. “Before it was an official language... there was absolutely no access" to communicating with other people, he said. With this new recognition, he hopes to make his dreams of going to university come true. Sign language is now official in 41 countries worldwide, with just four of them being in Africa (Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, and Zimbabwe). South Africa’s journey to this recognition has been a long one, and Wilma Newhoudt-Druchen, the country’s only deaf member of parliament, is thrilled to see the barriers being removed.
🇳🇪 Niger’s Woes Won’t Leave Europe in the Dark
Europe’s nuclear power production isn’t in immediate danger if uranium deliveries from Niger slow down, according to the EU’s nuclear agency Euratom. After the West African nation’s junta seized power last week, it said it would cut the supply of uranium to France—its former colonial power. Niger was the second largest supplier of uranium to Euratom, but in the short term, the agency says there’s enough uranium stored up in EU utilities to keep nuclear reactors running for three years. But if the situation in Niger continues, the EU is prepared to diversify its imports in the next few years. From idled production sites in Canada, Australia, and Namibia to new deposits, Europe’s energy needs are covered for the medium and long term.
🇧🇫 Starvation in Burkina Faso: 42,000 at Risk
Over 42,000 people in northeast Burkina Faso are in danger of starving to death. Islamist militants have created a siege around towns and villages, trapping 800,000 people in these settlements, particularly in Djibo, which has been completely isolated from the rest of the world for over a year.
Food for Thought
“Not everyone who chased the zebra caught it, but he who caught it chased it.”
— South African Proverb.
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