24, August 2022
Angolans vote in tight race 0
Angolans were casting ballots on Wednesday in what was expected to be the most competitive vote in their country’s democratic history, with incumbent President Joao Lourenco squaring up against charismatic opposition leader Adalberto Costa Junior.
The election has been overshadowed by Angola’s many woes – a struggling economy, inflation, poverty and drought, compounded by the death of a former strongman president.
The People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA), which has ruled the oil-rich nation for nearly five decades, is facing its most serious challenge since the first multiparty vote in 1992.
“It’s been 20 years of peace and we are still poor,” said Lindo, a 27-year-old electrician queueing up to vote in Nova Vida, a middle-class suburb of the capital Luanda.
“The people want change — the government doesn’t provide for people’s basic needs,” said Lindo, who gave only his first name.
Eight political parties are running, but the real contest lies between the MPLA and its long-standing rival and ex-rebel movement the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA).
Opinion polls suggest that support for the MPLA – which won 61 percent of the vote in 2017 elections – will dwindle, while the UNITA, which has entered an electoral pact with two other parties, will make gains.
But UNITA’s inroads might not be enough to unseat Lourenco, 68, who succeeded veteran leader Jose Eduardo dos Santos five years ago.
“The margins will be closer than ever before… but the advantages of incumbency mean MPLA is still odds on to pip Costa (Junior),” said Eric Humphery-Smith, an analyst at London-based Verisk Maplecroft.
Appeal to vote
The MPLA traditionally wields a grip over the electoral process and state media in Angola, but the opposition is urging supporters not to be intimidated.
“This is a historic day,” Costa Junior declared, after casting his ballot.
“It is important that this day be a celebration,” he said, urging “full turnout and for all ballots to be counted.”
Lourenco urged citizens to come out and vote because “in the end it’s all of us who will emerge winners and it is democracy that wins” he said after casting his ballot at Lusiada de Angola University in Luanda.
Opposition and civic groups have raised fears of voter tampering, and social media is rife with claims of dead people registered to vote.
Costa Junior, 60, is popular among young people — a significant and growing voting bloc — and has pledged to “eradicate poverty” and create jobs.
Poverty and graft
Lourenco, a Soviet-educated former general who had promised a new era for Angola when he was first elected, has trumpeted a list of achievements.
He is credited with making far-reaching reforms in one of southern Africa’s economic powerhouses.
They include boosting transparency in the financial sector and efficiency in parastatal organisations, and promoting business-friendly policies to lure foreign investors. His government has managed to attract back global diamond miner De Beers, which had quit 10 years ago.
But little has changed for most of Angola’s 33 million people for whom life is a daily grind.
Angola is Africa’s second largest crude producer, but the oil bonanza also nurtured corruption and nepotism under dos Santos, who died in Spain last month.
The low-key, night-time repatriation of his remains in the final leg of campaigning has added a macabre touch to the election.
Dos Santos will be buried on Sunday, which would have been his 80th birthday.
Analysts warn that any MPLA attempts to capitalise on the funeral could backfire, given widespread anger over his legacy among young people.
Some 14.7 million people are registered to vote at 13,200 polling stations across the vast southern African nation.
Angolans living overseas are for the first time able to cast ballots from abroad.
Results are expected within a few days. In past elections, results have been contested, in a process that can take several weeks.
Source: AFP



















24, August 2022
Boko Haram Crisis: Biya regime partners Borno Govt in Nigeria for repatriation of refugees 0
Cameroonian Government in partnership with Borno State Government have embarked on a strategic approach to ensure repatriation of thousands of Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs taking refuge in some parts of Minawawo camp.
This was disclosed on Tuesday by the Governor of Far -North Region of Cameroon, Mr Midjiyawa Bakari, who is also the sitting Executive Secretary of the Forum of Governors of Member States of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, LCBC, while he led a 19-member delegation including representatives of International Non- Governmental Organisations, INGOs on a courtesy call on governor Babagana Zulum of Borno state.
Bakari said, they were in Borno as part of bilateral cooperation to ensure restoration of peace and civil authority in some parts of the communities ravaged by insurgents in the region, which has left thousands of innocent civilians homeless, without means of livelihood in the past seven (7) years.
“It is a singular honour and a privilege for me to take the floor this day in Maiduguri, capital of the Borno State, in my capacity as the Sitting Executive Secretary of the Forum of Governors of Member States of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, on the occasion of my working visit to member States of the said Commission.
“Let me first of all use this opportunity to express my gratitude to the Governor of Borno State, His Excellency, Professor Babagana Zulum and to the Nigerian people of Borno State for their warm and hilarious welcome that was given to me and my delegation since our arrival on Monday.
“I would also want to express my very profound gratitude and my
recognition to His Excellencies Muhammadu Buhari and Paul Biya, Presidents of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the Republic of Cameroon, respectively, for their magnanimity and very high sense of clairvoyance in authorising this working visit.
“Their personal engagement in the fight against transborder insecurity in the Lake Chad Basin, attachment to the ideals of peace and durable development have remained major sacred challenges.
“Let me also use this opportunity to magnify the quality of relations which characterise the good neighbourliness between the Far North Region of Cameroon and the Federated State of Borno, sharing a common border, signifying the similitude of security challenges, economic growth and sustainable development, which led to the peaceful repatriation of about 5,000 refugees from Cameroun back to Banki community of Borno state last year.
“The main object of our working visit comes as a follow-up to the resolutions of the last Session of the Forum of Governors of Member States of the Lake Chad Basin Commission, which took place from the 4th to the 5th of October 2021, in Yaounde (Cameroon).
“During this forum, I solemnly took the engagement to follow up in each member State, Region and Province of the Basin of Lake Chad, the putting in place of priority actions of our Territorial Actions Plans (TAPS), that were presented to our development partners, validated and sanctioned in the Final Communiqué.
“It is therefore an opportunity for me, as announced earlier, to see the reality of the realisations and acquaint myself with the realities in the field, the challenges encountered, so that together we can know our strengths and weaknesses.
“Recall that the region has faceda global menace, and there should be a global action and common strategies to combat it.
“It is not a secret to anyone here that the Far North Region of Cameroon, and the Federated State of Borno in the Federal Republic of Nigeria share certain common preoccupations, whether in the humanitarian, security or socio-economic domains.
“The present working visit will give us the occasion to present the Transborder Security Context and the Perspectives of the Synergy of operations.” Bakari stated.
He added that, the meeting will present the perspectives of ameliorating transborder cooperation in the management of ex-associates and ex-fighters of Boko Haram and the problematic of transitional justice and the procedure of the repatriation of ex-fighters of Boko Haram after executing their prison terms.
Beside, Bakari said, “The Challenges of autonomisation of the women, in view of their effective participation in the process of stabilisation; – The progress made in relation to Joint Transborder Territorial Action Plans and the perspectives of consolidation of acheivements; – The situation of Nigerian refugees in the Far North Region, internally displaced persons and the perspectives of repatriation would take the centre stage of discussions.
“The mutualisation of our visions and approaches for sustainable solutions to our preoccupations, necessitates the present initiative whose final objective resides in the need for a synergy of actions, to mutually achieve beneficial results, notably the complete eradication of the nebulous Sect, Boko Haram.” He said.
Responding, Governor Zulum of Borno state, commended Bakari for the visit, and pledged that his administration will continue to give maximum support and cooperation to find a lasting and durable solution to the over decade crisis.
Zulum said, since the displacement of people living in the shores of the lake Chad, Borno people taking refuge in Cameroun, Niger and Chad Republic are treated in good manner, and is very encouraging.
“On behalf of the Government and people of Borno state, i commend His Excellency Mr. Bakari for the visit, and i assure you of my administration’s resolve to continue give maximum support and cooperation in order to find a lasting and durable solution to the over decade crisis.
” Since the displacement of thousands of innocent people living in the shores of the lake Chad, Borno people taking refuge in Cameroun, Niger and Chad Republic are treated in good manner, and is very encouraging.
“Last year, when we repatriated our refugees back to Banki community in Bama local Government area, Camerounion Government through your good office as Governor and Far-North Region has assisted us with over 100 vehicles, with food and non-food items which helped in the stabilization and restoration of their means of livelihood.
“The crisis in the region is enormous that requires enough resources to mitigate, and with the improved peace, we call on all and sundry to come to our aid in this trying moment.
“I am hopeful this Technical Review Meeting, TRM will usher a new course for strengthening our Internal reintegration, enhance border security and reopen markets for sustainable development”. Zulum stated.
Culled from Vanguard