Niger’s ruling party candidate Mohamed Bazoum will face former president Mahamane Ousmane in a presidential election runoff in February, according to provisional results of the first round of the contest announced by the electoral commission on Saturday.

Bazoum led the first round with 39.33% of the vote, falling short of the 50% needed to win outright in the first round. Ousmane received 17% of the vote, the commission said.

The second round is expected to be held on Feb. 21 after the results of the first round have been validated by the constitutional court which will hear any appeals.

Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou is stepping down after two five-year terms, which is expected to lead to Niger’s first transfer of power between two democratically elected presidents.

The incoming president will inherit several challenges, including rising violence from Islamist militants linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State. Attacks near the western border with Mali and Burkina Faso and the southeastern border with Nigeria killed hundreds of people last year.

Provisional results of the legislative election showed the ruling Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism leading with 80 seats. The main opposition MODEN/FA-Lumana was second with 19 seats in the 171-seat house.

(REUTERS)

Ever since the government of President Emmanuel Macron succeeded in reuniting the three main Central African Republic (CAR) armed groups, the willingness to bring down the legitimate administration in Bangui the capital has become not only urgent but imperative.

For the past few days, French Cameroonians living in the eastern localities bordering the Central African Republic have seen the arrival of not only civilians, but also military personnel.

 We now understand that some 127 Central African Republic soldiers arrived in Cameroon on December 23 with their equipment before being disarmed. Correspondingly, more than 2,000 civilians have already left CAR and entered Cameroon since the outbreak of recent violence.

The CAR refugees entered Cameroon through Garoua-Boulai sub division in Lom-et-Djerem Division.

The refugee camp located in Gado-Badzere is already hosting tens of thousands of Central African refugees since 2014 that fled the exactions of the Seleka and Anti-Balaka.  

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees now fears another massive arrival of Central African civilians in Cameroon as the two countries share a reputed border of about 1000 km. 

 On Sunday, three Cameroonian gendarmes were taken hostage by Central African rebels of the faction belonging to Abbas Sidiki, leader of the “3R” (Return, Reclamation and Rehabilitation) Militia.

This Central African warlord is on the list of persons under US sanctions.

According to security sources, the three gendarmes are currently being detained in the Cameroonian town of Ngaoui in the Adamaoua region bordering the Central African Republic.

The rebels are demanding 15 million CFA francs each to free the Cameroonian soldiers. Negotiations are reportedly underway for their release.

By Rita Akana

Niger hopes to make history on Sunday when elections set it on course for its first-ever peaceful transition of power despite a raging Islamist insurgency and economic woes.

The world’s poorest country by a key UN benchmark, the Sahel nation has never had two elected leaders hand over power since independence from France 60 years ago — the last coup was only a decade ago.

The man who has been in charge since then, President Mahamadou Issoufou, has gained high marks for announcing that he will hand the baton to his elected successor.

Two other nations in West Africa, Guinea and Ivory Coast, have been rocked by violence this year after their heads of state pushed through changes to the constitution.

They declared their counter on presidential limits had been reset to zero, enabling them to bid for a third spell in office — a move that triggered bloody protests.

“My most burning desire is to hand over power in 2021 to a democratically-elected successor,” Issoufou has said.

“This will be my finest achievement — it will be a first in the history of our country.”

French President Emmanuel Macron has heaped praise on Issoufou, describing him as an “example for democracy” while his foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, declared “the quality of the (December 27) elections will be a benchmark for all of Africa.”

Others have sounded a more sceptical tone, pointing to the dominant role played by the army, which in 2010 forced out a highly popular president, Mamadou Tandja, who had his eyes on a third term.

Issoufou “isn’t bidding for a third term because he doesn’t want it, but because he doesn’t have the choice,” said Bounty Diallo, a former soldier and professor at the University of Niamey.

Security crisis

Another flaw in the rosy picture is the absence of a prominent opposition candidate.

Former prime minister Hama Amadou, 70, was last month barred from contesting the vote on the grounds that in 2017 he was handed a 12-month term for alleged baby trafficking — a charge he says was bogus. In March, he was given a presidential pardon as he was seeing out his sentence.

Mohamed Bazoum, 60, a former interior and foreign minister who is Issoufou’s designated successor, is the front-runner on Sunday, after a campaign dominated by the issue of security.

Niger is being hammered by jihadists from neighbouring Mali and from Nigeria, the cradle of the decade-old insurgency launched by Boko Haram, and by armed gangs.

Last year more than 250 people died and there were more than 250 kidnappings, according to UN figures.

Jihadist attacks have displaced hundreds of thousands of people and have come closer and closer to the capital Niamey.

In August, six French tourists and their two Nigerien guides were slaughtered in the Koure National Park, just 60 kilometres (37 miles) from the city.

On December 12, 34 people were massacred in a Boko Haram attack in the southeastern region of Diffa on the eve of repeatedly delayed municipal and regional elections.

Poverty

“Our country is huge and surrounded by areas of insecurity,” Bazoum told the French radio station RFI last month.

 “This calls for more means, especially more troops… but without causing us to sacrifice what is necessary, which is the education and wellbeing of our people.”

Niger ranked 189th, the lowest position of nations assessed in the 2020 UN Human Development Index.

Around 42 percent of the population lived last year on under $1.90 (1.56 euros) per day, according to the World Bank, while nearly a fifth of its surging population of 23 million relied on food aid.

The army wants to double troop numbers, but military spending already accounts for a fifth of the state budget. The country also hosts US and French air bases that are key facilities in the fight against jihadism in the Sahel.

Source: AFP

Leaders of the three main armed rebel groups occupying large areas of the Central African Republic announced a coalition Saturday, ahead of next week’s elections and as UN peacekeepers deployed in response to fresh attacks.

The move could further fuel tensions already on the rise in the troubled country ahead of a presidential and legislative vote on December 27, which the opposition fears will be marked by massive electoral fraud.

The armed groups decided “to combine all of our movements into a single entity, called the Coalition of Patriots for Change or CPC, under a unified command,” they wrote in a statement. The CPC invited “all other armed groups to join”.

They also urged their members to “scrupulously respect the integrity of the civilian population” and to allow vehicles belonging to the United Nations and to humanitarian groups to circulate freely.

The UN mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), MINUSCA, said on Friday that its blue helmet forces were on “maximum alert” to prevent armed groups from disrupting the elections.

According to UN and humanitarian sources on Friday, armed groups have seized main roads leading to the capital, Bangui.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called Friday for all sides to “urgently cease hostile actions” in the CAR.

“He condemns the escalating violence and calls on all actors to urgently cease hostile actions and work towards ensuring conditions conducive to the holding of credible, inclusive and peaceful elections on 27 December,” Guterres’ spokesman Stéphane Dujarric said in a statement.

Guterres called on all parties to “resolve their differences peacefully … in the interest of the Central African people who have for too long suffered from violence and instability”.

The CAR spiralled into conflict in 2013, when then-president François Bozizé was ousted by the Seleka, a rebel coalition drawn largely from the Muslim minority.

The coup triggered a bloodbath between the Seleka and so-called “anti-Balaka” self-defence forces, mainly Christian and animist.

France intervened militarily in its former colony and after a transitional period, elections were staged in 2016 and won by President Faustin-Archange Touadéra.

Inter-communal fighting has receded in intensity in the last two years, but militia groups hold sway over two-thirds of the country, often fighting over resources.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)

Campaigning has started in the Central African Republic’s tense presidential vote on December 27.

Although it has been quiet in the capital Bangui, it is a different story in the provinces.

On Sunday, some candidates braved the threats in the central city of Bria, which is marred by armed violence.

Africanews witnessed the scenes of cheers and dancing as a large crowd made up of several hundred fighters and internally displaced people showed their support for two young candidates.

“Everything is happening amicably, in peace and in social cohesion. People came from PK3 from Bornou and from Bogolo and from the center they are united for the campaign,” said Wilfred.

Armed groups still control much of the landlocked country despite a peace agreement signed almost two years ago and one in four people are either internally displaced or living as refugees in neighbouring countries.

The presidential and legislative election is already tense.

UN-sanctioned former leader François Bozizé is trying to run again. He was exiled for six years after he was ousted by rebels but returned in late 2019.

But supporters of the incumbent president, Faustin-Archange Touadéra, say he can’t run as he was not in the country for 12 months after he submitted his application, which is required by law.

Protests have already broken out over the situation.

The election will be the second since fighting broke out in 2013 following the coup when the mostly Muslim Séléka rebel alliance that overthrew Bozizé fought the mostly Christian and the anti-Balaka militia, which the ex-president is accused of creating.

Source: Africa News

Ivorian President Alassane Ouattara was sworn in for a controversial third term on Monday, urging the opposition to help defuse tensions after election-related violence claimed 85 lives in the West African powerhouse.

The ceremony was attended by 13 African counterparts as well as French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy — but boycotted by the opposition, as was the October 31 election that returned Ouattara to power.

“I ask all political parties to seize this new opportunity… to defuse tensions through dialogue,” the 78-year-old president said, noting publicly for the first time that legislative elections will be held in the first quarter of 2021.

Ouattara promised the creation of a national reconciliation ministry in the next government, while stressing that “violence and intolerable acts… should not go unpunished”.

It was a tacit warning to several opposition leaders who were arrested in the wake of the election, with legal proceedings over “sedition” launched against them.

But leading opposition figure Henri Konan Bedie last week proposed a “national dialogue”.

He also announced the dissolution of a rival government, the “National Transition Council”, that the opposition set up after the election, a move that landed spokesnan Pascal Affi N’Guessan in jail.

Bedie, 86, a former president himself, stopped short of recognising Ouattara’s re-election with more than 94 percent of the vote.

Ouattara and his supporters had argued that a 2016 revision of the constitution reset his term counter to zero, allowing him to seek a third term.

Pre- and post-election violence has claimed at least 85 lives since August, with around 500 injured, according to an official toll.

– Memories of civil war –

For many Ivorians, the bloodletting revived painful memories of the aftermath of disputed elections in 2010.

A political standoff was followed by a brief civil war in which around 3,000 people died and an estimated 1.3 million people fled their homes.

Ouattara has asked his prime minister, Hamed Bakayoko, to resume discussions with the opposition on the composition of the Independent Electoral Commission (CEI).

The opposition is demanding a reform of the body, which it accuses of bias.

In his speech on Monday, Ouattara said he would devote his third term to education and the social safety net as well as reconciliation, vowing to lift three million people out of poverty.

While the country of 25 million has enjoyed strong economic growth and the completion of several infrastructure projects under Ouattara, critics say the poorest have been left behind.

Source: AFP

Ghana’s opposition candidate John Mahama on Thursday rejected as “fraudulent” the results of the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections in which President Nana Akufo-Addo won a second term.

Challenging election results could test the stability of the west African nation, where previous electoral grievances have been pursued through the courts.

A day earlier, the electoral commission said that Akufo-Addo had won 51.59 percent of the vote on Monday, ahead of Mahama with 47.36 percent.

But Mahama rejected those numbers.

“I stand before you tonight unwilling to accept the fictionalised results of a flawed election,” he told a news conference.

“We will take all legitimate steps to reverse this tragedy of justice.”

The 62-year-old claimed that “numerous steps have been taken to manipulate the results of the election in favour of the incumbent.”

The tightly contested race has led to tensions between the two main parties, with the opposition candidate accusing the president of abuse of power.

“Armed forces featured heavily as an intimidating measure to reverse election results,” Mahama said and called on the international community “to remain engaged in what is happening in Ghana and to take careful note of the current threat that is being waged to our democracy.”

According to the provisional results published by the electoral commission, Akufo-Addo’s New Patriotic Party (NPP) won 137 seats in parliament, while Mahama’s National Democratic Congress (NDC) won 136.

The full results of the parliamentary elections have not yet been announced but the opposition leader said his party had in fact won 140 seats.

‘Work together’

It is not uncommon for presidential candidates to contest results.

Mahama and Akufo-Addo are long-standing rivals and this was their third election battle.

In 2012, it was Akufo-Addo who contested Mahama’s win.

In a victory speech to supporters Wednesday, the 76-year-old president-elect said it was time “irrespective of political affiliations, to unite, join hands and stand shoulder to shoulder.”

“The Ghanaian people through the results have made it loud and clear that the two parties, the NPP and NDC, must work together especially in parliament, for the good of the country.”

Observers, both Ghanaian and foreign, viewed polling as generally free and fair, but police said five people were killed and 19 injured in election-related violence.

Akufo-Addo and Mahama had signed a symbolic peace pact ahead of the vote, which the 15-nation regional bloc ECOWAS urged “all political parties and their leadership to respect.”

Ghana has recorded high levels of growth during Akufo-Addo’s first term as he worked to diversify an economy largely dependent on cocoa exports and more recently oil and gold.

On education in particular, he is considered to have done well, which matters in a country where 18- to 35-year-olds account for more than half of all eligible voters.

But while Ghana has made large strides in recent years, many still live in extreme poverty, with scarce access to clean water or electricity.

Severely hit by the pandemic, growth in the nation of 30 million people is expected to fall this year to its lowest in three decades.

The International Monetary Fund is pencilling in growth of 0.9 percent for the country, down sharply from 6.5 percent growth in 2019.

An urgent task for the next government will be to limit mounting debt and control rising inflation.

Source: AFP

Ghana’s president Nana Akufo-Addo, a former human rights lawyer with the reputation of a smooth operator, has won a second term with 51.59 percent of votes in Monday’s tightly contested election.

The 76-year-old ran against 11 candidates including his long-time opponent John Mahama, 62, a former president himself known as “a man of the people”. He came in second with 47.36 percent of votes.

Akufo-Addo, who sports ‘Harry Potter-esque’ glasses, is a London-educated economic liberal with a cheerful smile. But while he often comes across as jovial, he is a dynamic and forceful leader.

In a speech that went viral in 2018, the president pleaded with fellow Africans to get rid of a dependence mentality towards former European colonisers, aligning himself with historic pan-African leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah and Jerry Rawlings.

“Long before he came into politics, he was somebody who had built a strong reputation fighting the military dictatorship, which enabled him to build friendships across political lines,” said Kwesi Jonah, a senior research fellow at Ghana’s Institute for Democratic Governance.

Current chairman of the regional bloc ECOWAS, he more recently played an important role mediating political crises in Togo and Guinea.

– High growth during first term –

In 2016, after two failed attempts at the presidency, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) leader rode to power on promises that included free high school education and a factory in each of Ghana’s districts.

On education in particular, “he has done very well,” said Jonah — a point that counts in a country where 18- to 35-year-olds account for more than half of all eligible voters.

While in office, he launched the Year of Return to encourage descendants of slaves to “come home” and encourage investments.

Ghana has recorded high levels of growth during his first term in office as he worked to diversify an economy largely dependent on cocoa exports and more recently oil and gold.

But many still live in extreme poverty with scarce access to clean water or electricity.

Severely hit by the coronavirus pandemic, growth in the nation of 30 million people is expected to fall this year to its lowest in three decades, to 0.9 percent according to the International Monetary Fund.

That is a steep decline from 6.5 percent growth in 2019.

– Anti-corruption drive –

Born in the capital Accra in 1944, Akufo-Addo was never far from power. His family, richly royal and deeply political, includes three members of Ghana’s legendary “Big Six”, considered the country’s founding fathers.

After picking up an accent in Britain, along with a lifelong passion for Tottenham Hotspur, Akufo-Addo worked as a lawyer in France before returning to Ghana.

Throughout his career, as a lawyer, then member of parliament and minister, he built a strong anti-corruption reputation.

“Everybody saw him as the guy who, when voted into power, would be able to bring corruption under control,” said Kwesi Jonah, a senior research fellow at Ghana’s Institute for Democratic Governance.

Once in office, he appointed a special prosecutor to investigate and prosecute corrupt officials.

But the prosecutor, Martin Amidu, resigned in November, shortly after releasing a report into a government-backed royalties deal, accusing the president of obstruction and interference.

Despite denials of any wrongdoing from the government, it did not put Akufo-Addo in a flattering light and discontent with his administration — many of which include family members — is simmering.

During this year’s campaign, the president did not make ambitious promises as he had in 2016.

“He has been in power for four years,” said Jonah, “so he knows it is very difficult to get money to do things.”

A first and urgent task will be to limit mounting debt and control rising inflation.

Source: AFP

More than 17 million people are eligible to vote in presidential and parliamentary elections in Ghana on Monday with the race for the top job expected to be a close-run fight between incumbent Nana Akufo-Addo and longtime opponent John Mahama.

Nestled along the Gulf of Guinea, Ghana — long a beacon of democracy and stability in west Africa — has ensured peaceful transfers of power on seven occasions since it returned to democracy nearly 30 years ago.

The two major parties have always accepted electoral outcomes and pursued any grievances through the courts.

To ensure its continued tradition of peaceful polls, Akufo-Addo, 76, and Mahama, 62, on Friday signed a symbolic peace pact.

They are among 12 candidates, including three women, who are running.

“In view of the happenings on the continent, and, indeed in West Africa, the entire world is looking up to us to maintain our status as a beacon of democracy, peace and stability,” Akufo-Addo said in a televised address on Sunday evening.

Voters will cast their ballots for a new president and members of parliament for 275 constituencies between 7:00 am and 5:00 pm at 38,000 polling stations across the nation.

Key issues include unemployment, infrastructure, education and health.

Ghana has made giant strides over the past two decades, becoming the world’s second-largest cocoa-producing country, but many still live in extreme poverty with scarce access to clean water or electricity.

Hit hard by the pandemic, growth in the nation of 30 million people is expected to fall this year to its lowest in three decades, to 0.9 percent according to the International Monetary Fund, a steep decline from 6.5 percent growth in 2019.

Akufo-Addo of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and Mahama of the National Democratic Congress party (NDC) have faced each other at the ballot box three times already.

The incumbent has been given high marks for his handling of the pandemic and his record on free education and improving access to electricity.

But he has disappointed some in his performance on tackling graft — the key issue on which he was elected four years ago.

Despite this, corruption is a difficult issue for Mahama to latch onto, as he himself left office under a cloud of graft allegations.

Mahama has also been criticised for poor economic decisions and racking up unsustainable debts.

But the skilled communicator has brushed aside the criticism, making ambitious promises to build infrastructure, create jobs and modernise the country.

A bold move by Mahama was picking former education minister Jane Naana Opoku-Agyemang as running mate, the first woman on the ticket of a major party.

The winner will have to secure 50 percent of votes plus one. Results could be known as early as 24 hours after polls close, although the electoral commission said the time frame was not set in stone.

Source: AFP

Mali’s interim legislature on Saturday elected Colonel Malick Diaw, a member of the military junta that toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita in August, as its president.

The 121-seat body known as the National Transition Council was meeting for its inaugural session in the capital Bamako, and is a key part of the post-coup interim government apparatus in Mali.

Young army officers in the conflict-ridden Sahel state toppled president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita on August 18 after weeks of anti-government protests.

Under the threat of international sanctions, the officers between September and October handed power to an interim government, which is meant to rule for 18 months before staging elections.

Figures with army links dominate this interim government, however, and anger over their prominent role is growing.

Coup leader Colonel Assimi Goita was elected interim vice president, for example, and retired army colonel Bah Ndaw was also elected interim president.

Members of the defence and security forces have 22 seats in the transition council, according to a government decree, while political parties, civil society groups and trade unions also have seats.

On Saturday, the council elected Colonel Malick Diaw as its president unopposed, according to AFP journalists, with 111 votes in his favour and seven abstentions. Three council members did not vote.

Diaw was second in command of the military junta that took power after Keita’s ouster. The junta has never formally been dissolved.

Last month, Goita was also given veto power over the appointments to the new legislature, in a move seen by critics of the interim regime as strengthening army control. 

The opposition June 5 Movement, which led protests against Keita this year, said in a statement on Friday that it was boycotting the new legislature and that it would not serve as a “stooge for a disguised military regime”.

Source: AFP