In Case You Missed It: 1/30/17 — 2/6/17

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For­mer Exxon­Mo­bil CEO, now U.S. Sec­re­tary of State, Rex Tillerson

This week’s most impor­tant head­lines out of and about Africa.

In this week’s news, Africans scru­ti­nize Unit­ed States Sec­re­tary of State Rex Tiller­son­’s role in enabling dic­ta­tors in the con­ti­nent and despite the Africa Cup Of Nations (AFCON) foot­ball win, the sit­u­a­tion in Cameroon could take a turn for the worse.

Rex Tillerson’s Ties to African Dic­ta­tors Under Scrutiny

Dur­ing his con­fir­ma­tion hear­ing to be the U.S. Sec­re­tary of State, Rex Tiller­son received point­ed ques­tions about his rela­tion­ship with lead­ers around the world while he led the world’s largest oil com­pa­ny, ExxonMobil.

Before his con­fir­ma­tion, ana­lysts such as David Alder­man of USA Today ques­tioned Tillerson’s ties with African dictators.

“In Africa, Exxon­Mo­bil is active in Ango­la, Chad and Equa­to­r­i­al Guinea, which Free­dom House has labeled one of the “worst of the worst” for its human rights record. Reporters With­out Bor­ders called Pres­i­dent Teodoro Obiang Ngue­ma Mba­so­go a “preda­tor of press free­dom.” He arrived in pow­er in 1979 after over­throw­ing his uncle in a coup,” Alder­man writes.

After his con­fir­ma­tion, a native of Equa­to­r­i­al Guinea, Tutu Ali­cante, wrote in the Wash­ing­ton Post and brought to light what he thinks Tiller­son­’s role is in enabling the dic­ta­tor who runs his coun­try, Obiang Ngeu­ma Mbasogo.

“For thou­sands of peo­ple in my coun­try who have no access to clean run­ning water, reli­able elec­tric­i­ty, ade­quate health clin­ics, schools for their chil­dren, or free­dom of speech and assem­bly, ExxonMobil’s engage­ment under Tiller­son has embold­ened a dic­ta­tor, pro­vid­ing him with an eco­nom­ic life­line to become the longest-rul­ing “elect­ed” head of state in the world today,” Ali­cante writes.

Despite AFCON Vic­to­ry, Ten­sion Remains High in Cameroon

On Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 4, the Indomitable Lions, the Cameroon nation­al foot­ball team, beat the Egypt­ian Nation­al Foot­ball team, the Pharaohs, to claim the cham­pi­onship of AFCON for the fifth time.

The Cameroon squad came from behind to defeat Egypt, 2 to 1 in the finals.

For a brief moment, the entire nation ral­lied to sup­port the nation­al team. The coun­try did the same in Decem­ber 2016 when it host­ed the African Women’s Cup of Nations. Even while the Cameroon­ian women’s team fell to Nige­ria in the finals, the atmos­phere was much peace­ful than it is today in the country.

Since Novem­ber, Cameroon has expe­ri­enced many civil­ian deaths after protests and civ­il dis­obe­di­ence, orches­trat­ed by teach­ers and lawyers who say their fel­low Eng­lish-speak­ing cit­i­zens are mar­gin­al­ized by the cen­tral gov­ern­ment in the cap­i­tal city of Yaoundé.

The Cameroon Anglo­phone Civ­il Soci­ety Con­sor­tium, the group lead­ing the protests announced a boy­cott of the country’s annu­al Youth Day cel­e­bra­tion on Feb­ru­ary 11.

Mean­while, with inter­net ser­vice still cut-off in the Eng­lish-speak­ing parts of the coun­try, and with schools closed for over three months, there are fears the sit­u­a­tion could take a turn for the worse.