Day: August 5, 2022

JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in South Africa on Sunday, in what analysts say is an attempt to counter Chinese and Russian influence in the region.

Relations between the U.S. and South Africa became strained during President Donald Trump’s time in office. President Joe Biden has taken pains to repair them, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has proved contentious.

The secretary of state’s second trip to Africa, and his first to South Africa — the continent’s most developed economy and a key democratic ally — comes after a flurry of visits to the region by top Chinese and Russian officials.

Analysts say that after disregarding Africa for some time, the U.S. is now playing catch-up and trying to counter the growing influence of Beijing and Moscow in the region, in what some say has elements of a new “Cold War.”

Washington also wants to build support for Ukraine, as many African governments have been loath to condemn Russia’s invasion, in part due to the Soviet Union’s support for African liberation movements during the years when the continent threw off European colonial rule.

Steven Gruzd, head of the African governance and diplomacy program at the South African Institute for International Affairs, said he doubted South Africa would be pushed into criticizing Russia, its partner, along with China, in the BRICS group of countries.

“I think Secretary Blinken is not going to find a receptive audience for his message that South Africa must come down on the side of the West, and the U.S. in particular, on the Ukraine-Russian conflict,” Gruzd said.

Meanwhile, Bob Wekesa, director of the African Center for the Study of the United States at Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, noted that China’s influence in Africa has grown considerably, and many African leaders look to Beijing for no-strings-attached infrastructure investments. Russia, too, to a far lesser extent, has made investments in the continent, and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov made a four-country visit to Africa last month.

“It’s actually true that there’s some form of Cold War, even if it’s not the kind of Cold War we saw from the end of the World War II, but it’s a form of geopolitical competition and the U.S. must, therefore, be prepared to be seen to be competing with other powers for influence in Africa,” Wekesa said.

Nontobeko Hlela, a researcher at the South African office of the Tricontinental Institute for Social Research, said negative comments about African and other developing countries by former U.S. president Donald Trump did nothing to improve relations.

“The U.S. will have to work hard to walk back some policy decisions and statements made by the former occupant of the White House,” Hlela said.

While in South Africa, Blinken will visit Johannesburg’s famous Soweto township, once home to liberation icon and first democratic president Nelson Mandela, as well as take part in South Africa’s Women’s Day celebrations.

On Monday, he will meet South African counterpart Naledi Pandor and launch the new U.S. Strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa. Climate change, trade, health and food insecurity will all be topics of discussion.

America’s top diplomat then heads to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, which are in the middle of a conflict.

Source: Voice of America

NAIROBI — Candidates in Kenya’s August 9 presidential election are wrapping up their campaigns after parties spent heavily in often lavish displays of wealth.

Despite economic woes and a massive rich-poor gap, spending in Kenya’s election was among the highest in the world, raising concerns about its impact on the nation’s democratic development.

“Kenyan elections are among the most expensive in the world in terms of the cost [incurred by] the electoral management body, but also in terms of on-the-ground financing,” said Tom Wolf, an American pollster and political researcher in Nairobi.

Derrick Makhandia, a program officer at Transparency International Kenya, agreed.

“It’ll cost you a bit more than 4 billion Kenyan shillings [$33.5 million] just to become a president,” he said.

A race for governor runs about $336,000, and a bid for parliament costs roughly $168,000, according to Transparency International Kenya.

Critics say the high cost of running for political office in Kenya has been a barrier for many women, the young and persons living with disabilities.

Beth Ngunyi is running for parliament in Kirinyaga County, her fourth attempt as an independent. She said it is too costly to run as a candidate for a political party because of the high nomination fee required.

“The higher the seat, the higher the money they demand,” she said. “And you’ve got to give them because if you don’t give them, they won’t even allow you to address the gatherings.”

Political campaigns around the world are inherently expensive. But observers say in Kenya, campaigns are largely unchecked and unregulated.

Because many people live below the poverty line, observers say voters are more susceptible to bribery by wealthy politicians, fueling a cycle of government corruption.

“Because of this unregulated spending, those in power always look towards corruption as a reliable source of money for their campaigns because they cannot afford to use their money, that would be too risky. What if they fail?” Makhandia said.

Kenya’s 2010 constitution requires the country’s electoral body, the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission, to develop campaign financing and spending regulations. All proposals by the commission have been rejected by parliament.

Unless checks and balances are put in place, observers say, politics in Kenya will remain almost exclusively for the rich.

Source: Voice of America

MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — Ethiopia’s military says security forces killed more than 800 fighters from the Somali militant group al-Shabab after Shabab fighters launched a rare cross-border attack.

General Tesfaye Ayalew, the head of deployment for Ethiopia’s national defense forces, said more than 800 al-Shabab fighters, including 24 top leaders, were killed in recent operations against the group.

He said al-Shabab tried to infiltrate Ethiopia through the country’s eastern border but they have been “successfully thwarted by the joint efforts of the security forces.”

The president of Ethiopia’s Somali state, Mustafe Omar, said in a Twitter statement Friday that another 100 al-Shabab fighters were captured in the recent clashes. He said the group’s misadventure into Ethiopia ended with “a rout of the terrorists.”

VOA could not independently verify the figures from either official.

Other security officials in Ethiopia’s Somali state told VOA that there were heavy casualties on Ethiopia’s side and several officials, including local administrators, were captured by al-Shabab.

Late last month, hundreds of al-Shabab fighters crossed Somalia’s border with Ethiopia and clashed with specially-trained counterterrorism forces known as the Liyu police. The group entered Ethiopia at several sites from Somalia’s border regions of Hiran and Bakool.

U.S. assessments suggest the Shabab fighters may have penetrated as far as 150 kilometers into Ethiopia before being stopped.

The president of Ethiopia’s Somali state announced last week that Ethiopian forces will establish a buffer zone inside Somalia to stop further al-Shabab attacks across the border.

Authorities in Somalia’s Bakool region welcomed the announcement and said it would help stabilize the region.

Al-Shabab has been fighting the Somali government and African Union troops in Somalia for more than 15 years, carrying out attacks in Somalia and neighboring Kenya.

Experts believe that the group’s attack in Ethiopia was meant to show the group still poses a danger to Horn of African countries.

Meanwhile, on Friday, a suicide truck bomb blast targeted a military base in the Hiran region, near the Somali-Ethiopian border, that houses Turkish-trained special forces.

Officials in the region told VOA by phone that the bombing killed at least one soldier and wounded three.

Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack and said more than 40 soldiers were killed or wounded.

Source: Voice of America