Chad’s Military Junta and Rebels Sign a Deal, but a Main Player Is Missing

African News Review, Central AfricaLeave a comment

The accord paves the way for nation­al rec­on­cil­i­a­tion talks and demo­c­ra­t­ic elec­tions. How­ev­er, it was snubbed by the main rebel group respon­si­ble for the death of Chad’s pre­vi­ous leader. DAKAR, Sene­gal — Chad’s mil­i­tary gov­ern­ment and more than 40 rebel groups signed a cease-fire agree­ment on Mon­day in Qatar, paving the way for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion talks…

West Africa bloc chair says Guinea accepts two-year transition | Military News | Al Jazeera

African News Review, Google News-AfricaLeave a comment

In July, bloc lead­ers met in Accra, Ghana to dis­cuss tran­si­tions to civil­ian rule in Guinea, Mali and Burk­i­na Faso.The chair of the West African region­al bloc has said Guinea will cut the time­line of its planned tran­si­tion to civil­ian rule from three to two years.
Speak­ing along­side French Pres­i­dent Emmanuel Macron at a media brief­ing in Bis­sau, Guinea-Bis­sau Pres­i­dent Umaro Sis­so­co Emba­lo, who is chair of the Eco­nom­ic Com­mu­ni­ty of West African States (ECOWAS), said he had recent­ly con­vinced Guinea’s mil­i­tary gov­ern­ment to short­en its timeline.
“I was in Conakry with the pres­i­dent of the com­mis­sion (of ECOWAS) to make the mil­i­tary jun­ta under­stand the deci­sion of the sum­mit of heads of state that the tran­si­tion can­not exceed 24 months”, Emba­lo said.
“They had pro­posed 36 months, but we suc­ceed­ed in con­vinc­ing them,” he added.
Ous­mane Gaoual Dial­lo, a Guinean min­is­ter and spokesman for the tran­si­tion­al gov­ern­ment, told AFP that “nei­ther the gov­ern­ment nor the pres­i­den­cy con­firm this infor­ma­tion about the dura­tion of the tran­si­tion in Guinea”.
An ECOWAS offi­cial told AFP on con­di­tion of anonymi­ty: “The prin­ci­ple is accept­ed but we were wait­ing to for­malise it … before announc­ing it.”
Last Sep­tem­ber, sol­diers led by Colonel Mamady Doum­bouya over­threw Pres­i­dent Alpha Conde and in May, the mil­i­tary pledged to hand over pow­er to elect­ed civil­ians with­in three years.
But region­al pow­ers reject­ed this time­line, with ECOWAS sus­pend­ing Guinea after the coup.
Last week, West African medi­a­tors met Guinea’s rul­ing mil­i­tary gov­ern­ment for talks on a return to civil­ian rule, accord­ing to ECOWAS and state media. Emba­lo, Gam­bian diplo­mat Omar Alieu Touray, who is the pres­i­dent of the ECOWAS com­mis­sion, and Benin’s for­mer pres­i­dent Thomas Boni Yayi, the ECOWAS medi­a­tor for Guinea, were all present.
Ear­li­er in July, ECOWAS lead­ers had met in Ghana’s cap­i­tal Accra to dis­cuss tran­si­tions to civil­ian rule in Guinea, as well as Mali and Burk­i­na Faso, which togeth­er have under­gone four coups since August 2020.
They lift­ed tough sanc­tions that had been imposed on Mali’s mil­i­tary regime, accept­ing a March 2024 return to civil­ian rule.
And they agreed to allow Burk­i­na Faso two years for its tran­si­tion back to democracy.
But dis­cus­sions until then had been trick­i­er with the rulers of Guinea, where the gov­ern­ment had announced a 36-month tran­si­tion – a peri­od that African Union chair­man and Sene­galese Pres­i­dent Macky Sall described as “unthink­able”.
On Thurs­day, protests against Guinea’s mil­i­tary lead­ers brought Conakry to a standstill.
The Nation­al Front for the Defence of the Con­sti­tu­tion (FNDC), a coali­tion of polit­i­cal par­ties, trade unions and civ­il soci­ety organ­i­sa­tions, called the demon­stra­tions to denounce the government’s “uni­lat­er­al man­age­ment” of any return to civil­ian rule.
Oth­er par­ties and coali­tions joined the protests.
In May, the gov­ern­ment banned pub­lic demon­stra­tions, and Thursday’s protests led to spo­radic clash­es between demon­stra­tors and police.

Hundreds Protest Tunisian Referendum

African News Review, VOA News AfricaLeave a comment

Tunis —  Hun­dreds of pro­test­ers gath­ered in cen­tral Tunis on Sat­ur­day to demon­strate against a ref­er­en­dum to be held on Mon­day on a new con­sti­tu­tion that they reject as ille­gal. Pres­i­dent Kais Saied pub­lished the draft con­sti­tu­tion, giv­ing him­self far more pow­ers, reduc­ing the role of the par­lia­ment and judi­cia­ry, and remov­ing most checks on…

Strengthening Sudan’s fragile peace: A Resident Coordinator Blog

African News Review, North AfricaLeave a comment

The killing of pro­tes­tors by secu­ri­ty ser­vices dur­ing large-scale demon­stra­tions in Sudan’s cap­i­tal Khar­toum in June under­scores the ongo­ing polit­i­cal ten­sions in the coun­try. Against this back­drop, the UN is com­mit­ted to sus­tain and build peace in Sudan, say UN Res­i­dent Coor­di­na­tor Khardia­ta Lo Ndi­aye, and Eliz­a­beth Spe­har, Assis­tant Sec­re­­tary-Gen­er­al for Peace­build­ing Support.

Dead but Not Buried, Angola’s Ex-President’s Body Sparks a Continental Fight

African News Review, Southern AfricaLeave a comment

José Eduar­do dos San­tos ruled Ango­la for 38 years. But he died in Spain. A dis­pute over where to lay him to rest has divid­ed his fam­i­ly and could decide the fate of his polit­i­cal par­ty. LUANDA, Ango­la — Even in death, Angola’s long­time ruler, José Eduar­do dos San­tos, is at the cen­ter of polit­i­cal infighting.…

Jabeur makes African history with Wimbledon final spot against Rybakina — Inquirer Sports

African News Review, North AfricaLeave a comment

Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur returns the ball against Germany’s Tat­jana Maria dur­ing their women’s sin­gles semi final ten­nis match on the eleventh day of the 2022 Wim­ble­don Cham­pi­onships at The All Eng­land Ten­nis Club in Wim­ble­don, south­west Lon­don, on July 7, 2022. (AFP)
LONDON – Ons Jabeur became the first African woman in the Open era to reach a Grand Slam sin­gles final on Thurs­day when she defeat­ed close friend Tat­jana Maria in the Wim­ble­don semi-finals.
The 27-year-old world num­ber two from Tunisia tri­umphed 6–2, 3–6, 6–1 and will face Ele­na Rybak­i­na in Saturday’s cham­pi­onship match.
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Russ­ian-born Rybak­i­na, rep­re­sent­ing Kaza­khstan, knocked out 2019 cham­pi­on Simona Halep 6–3, 6–3.
“I’m a proud Tunisian woman stand­ing here,” said Jabeur, who was the first Arab play­er to make a Slam semi-final.FEATURED STORIES
Before Thurs­day, South Africans Irene Bow­der Pea­cock, at the 1927 French Open, and Renee Schu­ur­man, in the 1959 Aus­tralian Open, were the only African women to have reached a Slam sin­gles final.
“It’s a dream come true from years of work and sac­ri­fice. I’m hap­py that’s paid off and I’ll con­tin­ue for one more match,” said Jabeur.
“Phys­i­cal­ly, Tat­jana is a beast, she doesn’t give up — I thought she would give up — her touch, her serve and every­thing on the court is impres­sive. I hope she con­tin­ues this way. Let’s not play again, I’m good for now.
“I know in Tunisia they are going crazy right now. I want to see more Arab and African play­ers on the tour. I love the game and I want to share the expe­ri­ence with them.”
Jabeur coast­ed through the first set against moth­er-of-two Maria with breaks in the third and sev­enth games.
The Tunisian fired 15 win­ners to her opponent’s six in the first set while not fac­ing a sin­gle break point.
How­ev­er, Maria, described by Jabeur as her “bar­be­cue bud­dy”, did man­age to final­ly break through for 3–1 in the sec­ond set off the back of a series of del­i­cate slices.
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Jabeur’s 17 unforced errors in the sec­ond set com­pared to the six of the more accu­rate Ger­man, who lev­elled the contest.
But there was to be no upset win as the 103rd-ranked Maria’s chal­lenge was quashed.
Jabeur secured a dou­ble break for a 5–0 advan­tage before secur­ing her place in his­to­ry on a sec­ond match point.
‘Amaz­ing match’
Rybak­i­na over­pow­ered for­mer cham­pi­on Halep, break­ing the Roman­ian four times in a dom­i­nant dis­play on Cen­tre Court.
“It was real­ly good — today I was men­tal­ly pre­pared and did every­thing I could and it was an amaz­ing match,” said the 23-year-old.
“I think it’s going to be a great match (against Jabeur). She’s a great play­er, very tricky play­er. It’s not going to be easy to play against her drop shots and volleys.”
For­mer world num­ber one Halep had not lost a set com­ing into Thursday’s match but was imme­di­ate­ly under pres­sure against the big-serv­ing 17th seed.
Rybak­i­na, who stands six feet (1.84 metres) tall, raced into a 3–0 lead with an ear­ly break of serve and had break points in all of Halep’s ser­vice games in the first set.
Halep, seed­ed one place above her oppo­nent, did well to stay in touch but failed to carve out any break points of her own in the first set.
Rybak­i­na, the first woman rep­re­sent­ing Kaza­khstan to reach a Grand Slam semi-final, showed no mer­cy at the start of the sec­ond set, break­ing again to estab­lish an iron grip. 

Halep broke to love in the fourth game to estab­lish a foothold but a dou­ble fault in the fol­low­ing game hand­ed the ini­tia­tive back to her opponent.
Rybak­i­na, the ace leader in the women’s tour­na­ment, sealed an impres­sive win on her first match point with a back­hand win­ner down the line to break Halep again, wrap­ping up the match in 76 minutes.
The 23-year-old switched her nation­al­i­ty to Kaza­khstan in 2018 to take advan­tage of greater finan­cial help.
Russ­ian and Belaru­sian play­ers were banned from this year’s Wim­ble­don fol­low­ing the inva­sion of Ukraine.

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