Italy’s deputy prime minister Luigi Di Maio on Monday insisted that France’s policies in Africa have created poverty and caused migration.

Maio’s remarks came hours after France summoned the Italian ambassador to Paris to protest the original assertions made over the weekend.

Italy’s accusations

Speaking on Saturday in central Italy, Di Maio attacked France’s Africa policy, the latest chapter in a war of words between Rome and Paris since the anti-establishment 5-Star-Movement and far-right League won power last year.

“If we have people who are leaving Africa now it’s because some European countries, and France in particular, have never stopped colonizing Africa,” said Di Maio, who leads the 5-Star.

“If France didn’t have its African colonies, because that’s what they should be called, it would be the 15th largest world economy. Instead it’s among the first, exactly because of what it is doing in Africa.”

Di Maio added that France was manipulating the economies of 14 African countries that use the CFA franc — a colonial-era currency which is underpinned by the French Treasury.

“France is one of those countries that by printing money for 14 African states prevents their economic development and contributes to the fact that the refugees leave and then die in the sea or arrive on our coasts,” he said.

France reacts

Ambassador Teresa Castaldo was summoned on Monday afternoon by the chief of staff of European Affairs Minister Nathalie Loiseau, the French diplomatic source said.

“It’s not the first time the Italian authorities have made unacceptable and aggressive comments,” the French diplomatic source added.

France argues that the CFA franc has brought welcome monetary stability to the countries that use it, but French President Emmanuel Macron said in 2017 that it was up to African governments to decide what to do with the currency.

Italy wants France sanctioned

The new Italian government has frequently clashed with Paris, be it on immigration or policy in Libya, eager to mark the difference between itself and the previous center-left administration which had good ties with the French authorities.

“I’ve stopped being a hypocrite talking only about the effects of immigration and it’s time to talk about the causes,” Di Maio said at the weekend.

“The EU should sanction all those countries like France that are impoverishing African countries and are causing those people to leave.”

Reuters

In its annual report, Oxfam International warns against a widening economic gap between the rich and the poor due to faulty tax systems in different world countries, calculating that a mere 26 billionaires owned more than 3.8 billion people last year.

The rich grew richer and poor got poorer in 2018, the international charity organization said in the report titled “Public Good or Private Wealth.”

The world’s billionaires saw their fortunes grow by $2.5 billion per day, while the bottom half of the global population saw their wealth dwindle by $500 million daily, said the report, citing information provided by Swiss bank Credit Suisse and the Forbes List of billionaires.

It added that the number of billionaires possessing as much wealth as half of the world’s population fell from 43 in 2017 to 26 last year. Their combined fortunes reached $1.4 trillion, the same amount as the total wealth of the 3.8 billion poorest, according to the figures.

In 2016, the number stood at 61.

The report was released on Monday as political and business leaders are set to gather for the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.View image on Twitter

As the elites gather at #wef19, we reveal the true costs of under-taxation of the rich on the world’s poorest.

It revealed how governments were exacerbating inequality among the masses by increasingly underfunding public services like healthcare and education at the same time as they consistently under-tax the wealthy.

“Our economy is broken, with hundreds of millions of people living in extreme poverty while huge rewards go to those at the very top,” Oxfam said. “Governments face a stark choice today — a choice between a life of dignity for all their citizens or continued extreme wealth for a tiny few.”

The report also said women and girls were the social group the hardest hit by the frightening increase in the economic gap.

Oxfam recommended that nations tax the wealthy fairer, raise rates on personal income and corporate taxes and stop tax dodging by firms and wealthy individuals.

The charity organization also advocates providing universal free health care, education and other public services including water, electricity.

It also suggests providing free childcare to free up mothers’ schedules.

The charity said that the United States played a big role in the current dire situation with most of the world’s mega-wealthy living there.

Super-rich people like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Microsoft’s Bill Gates, Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett and Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, who are collectively worth $357 billion, are all Americans.

The combined fortunes of the world’s 26 richest individuals reached $1.4 trillion last year — the same amount as the total wealth of the 3.8 billion people who make up the poorest half of humanity.

Source: Presstv

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited Chad on Sunday for what he called a “historic” trip, during which he announced renewal of diplomatic ties decades after they were ruptured. Netanyahu and Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno have “announced the renewal of diplomatic relations between Chad and Israel”, a statement from the Israeli premier’s office said.

Ties between Israel and the Muslim majority nation were broken in 1972. “The two sides view the resumption of relations as the key to future cooperation for the benefit of both countries,” the statement said.

Netanyahu on Twitter called the announcement “a historic moment”. The Israeli leader has sought to improve ties with countries in the Arab and Muslim world and said he expected more such diplomatic breakthroughs soon.

His one-day visit follows Deby’s November trip to Israel. The two leaders at the time declined to comment on whether their talks have included arms deals. Chadian security sources say the country has acquired Israeli equipment to help battle rebels in the country’s north.

Chad is also one of several African states engaged in Western-backed operations against Boko Haram and Islamic State group jihadists. Pressure from Muslim African nations, accentuated by the Arab-Israeli wars of 1967 and 1973, led a number of African states to sever relations with the Jewish state.

But in recent years, Israel has held out the prospect of cooperation in fields ranging from security to technology to agriculture, to improve ties on the continent.

Deby is one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders. He took over the arid, impoverished nation in 1990 and won a disputed fifth term in April 2016 to lead the country of some 15 million people.

(AFP)