Protests against police abuses in Nigeria and curfews to curb demonstrations have affected the supply of petroleum products across the country, leading to the emergence of long queues, state oil firm, NNPC said on Tuesday.
Petrol shortages are common in Nigeria and they often bring the economy to a standstill with widespread power cuts at businesses that rely on petrol-driven generators to withstand frequent power outages and grounded planes.
“The disruptions … of free flow of vehicular movement occasioned by the #ENDSARSNOW Protests and the attendant curfews, restrictions, and vandalism, particularly in Lagos obviously affected petroleum products … distribution,” NNPC managing director, Mele Kyari said.
Thousands of Nigerians demonstrated for more than two weeks against police abuses. But the peaceful protests turned violent on Oct. 20, when witnesses and groups such as Amnesty International said soldiers opened fire at protesters, killing some. The army denied its troops were there.
Tensions remain high across Nigeria, with looting nationwide, particularly of warehouses holding food meant to assuage the impact of COVID-19 on the poor.
The NNPC in a statement cautioned against panic buying of petrol adding that it has supply for at least 60-days.
“With the easing of the curfews and restrictions of movement by various state governors, normalcy is expected to return to the petroleum products supply chain in the next couple of days,” Kyari said.
A judicial panel investigating claims of police brutality and the shooting of protesters began hearing complaints in Lagos on Tuesday.
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has called on stakeholders in Tanzania to ensure that Wednesday’s elections are conducted in an inclusive and peaceful manner.
The general elections will decide on the President and National Assembly membership.
In a statement, the Secretary-General recalled that an inclusive electoral process and broad effective participation of political parties and their candidates, particularly women, remain essential for safeguarding the progress made by the country in consolidating stability, democracy and sustainable development.
Guterres urged all political leaders and their supporters to participate in this exercise peacefully and refrain from violence.
He further called on the authorities to provide a safe and secure environment, which will allow Tanzanians to exercise their civil and political rights.
The UN Chief reiterated the commitment of the United Nations to support the country’s efforts to promote sustainable development and build a prosperous future.
Highly contested elections
Poll monitors from 5 East African nations have begun their work in the commercial city of Dar es Salaam.
Members of the East African Community observer mission will be deployed in various regions, including Zanzibar.
Pitted against each other are the incumbent President John Magafuli and Tundu Lissu of opposition party CHADEMA.
During a campaign trail across the country, Magufuli touted the billions of dollars his government has spent on a new hydropower dam, a railway, and a revived national airline.
Standing for a second term, Magufuli promises voters his projects will turbocharge growth in East Africa’s third-largest economy, even as the private sector complains it is being made to pay too high a bill.
Principal Consultant at Shaleston Consultants Dr Victor Shale unpacks his expectations in what he says is a highly contested election:
The military leader of Sudan’s ruling council sought to defend on Monday a US-backed agreement to establish relations with Israel, saying the deal was yet to be concluded and could benefit Sudan as it struggles with a profound economic crisis.
In his first public comments on the deal, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan said he had consulted the Prime Minister and most political forces before the agreement was announced on Friday in a call with US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
The move is controversial in Sudan, once a staunch enemy of Israel, and has stirred opposition from some prominent political factions.
“I always prefer to call it reconciliation instead of normalisation,” Burhan said in a televised interview. “So far, we have not concluded an agreement. We will sign with the other two parties, America and Israel, on the aspects of cooperation.”
Burhan leads a military-civilian sovereign council that took charge after the ouster of former president Omar al-Bashir last year following popular protests.
A government of technocrats has been grappling with an economic crisis that includes rapid inflation, a weakening currency, and shortages of essential goods.
Sudan won the prospect of some relief last week when the United States confirmed it would lift Khartoum from its list of state sponsors of terrorism, a designation that had blocked international funding and debt relief.
Many Sudanese saw the move as unduly delayed and deployed to pressure Sudan into accepting the deal on Israel.
“We were not subjected to blackmail,” said Burhan. “We lay down our interests and we found benefits, and it could be that we gain more than the other parties.”
Burhan said tense relations with the civilian component of the sovereign council had improved recently, and that he had agreed with civilian political leaders that the deal on Israel should be approved by a yet-to-be formed legislative council.
Iran says US-brokered Sudan-Israel deal secured by ‘ransom’
Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday described a US-brokered Sudan-Israel deal to normalise ties as “phoney” and accused Khartoum of paying a ransom in return for Washington removing it from a list of state sponsors of terrorism.
The deal agreed on Friday marked the third Arab government after the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to set aside hostilities with Israel in the last two months.
“Pay enough ransom, close your eyes to the crimes against Palestinians, then you’ll be taken off the so-called ‘terrorism’ blacklist,” the ministry tweeted in English. “Obviously, the list is as phoney as the US fight against terrorism. Shameful.”
US President Donald Trump announced on Monday he would take Sudan off the list once it had deposited $335 million it had pledged to pay in compensation.
Khartoum has since placed the funds in a special escrow account for victims of al Qaeda attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Trump also said the Palestinians “are wanting to do something” but offered no proof. Palestinian leaders have condemned recent Arab overtures to Israel as a betrayal of their nationalist cause for statehood in Israeli-occupied territories. They have refused to engage with the Trump administration, seeing it as biased in favour of Israel.
In recent weeks the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain became the first Arab states in a quarter of a century to agree to formal relations with Israel, forged largely through shared fears of Iran.
The military and civilian leaders of Sudan’s transitional government have been divided over how fast and how far to go in establishing ties with Israel.
A sticking point in the negotiations was Sudan’s insistence that any announcement of Khartoum’s delisting from terrorism designation not be explicitly linked to relations with Israel.
Sudan’s 1993 designation as a state sponsor of terrorism dates to its toppled ruler Omar al-Bashir and has made it difficult for the transitional government in Khartoum to access urgently needed debt relief and foreign financing.
Egypt claims it will reduce water flow into its territory. Last Friday, the US President Donald Trump said Egypt could “blow up” a dam that Ethiopia is constructing on the river Nile.
Ethiopia’s Parliament has called President Trump’s remarks irresponsible and says no force can stop it from completing the dam:
Ethiopia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the US ambassador to seek clarification on Trump’s remarks and the AU says it has managed to avoid more tension by convincing Ethiopia, Egypt, and Sudan to return to the dialogue table.
AU Chairperson, President Cyril Ramaphosa, says he has consulted with the heads of state of the three countries and they have agreed to continue dialogue meetings from 27 October. Last year, Ethiopia refused to continue attending US-led talks that were supported by Egypt.
The African Union has led the negotiation since the beginning of the year. Cairo and Khartoum want a new legally binding pact over Ethiopia’s operation of the dam.
Egypt insists that a colonial agreement that gives it 85% control of the dam stands, but Ethiopia says it respects a pact signed by the Nile basin countries – which Egypt did not assent agree to.
Ethiopia says the dam is vital because it will help power up its development in a country of over 100 million people. But Egypt has raised skepticism that any activity on the river poses a danger to the major source of its water.
Meanwhile, Sudan stands to benefit from the dam because it will not only be able to reduce the cost of electricity, it will buy from Ethiopia, but also the dam will reduce flooding in its territory.
Floods, droughts, hotter weather and a desert locust invasion – the impacts of climate change are hitting Africa hard, and worse is ahead for the region’s food supplies, economy and health, the U.N. climate agency said on Monday.
Warming temperatures are slashing crop yields. Agriculture is the backbone of Africa’s economy.
“By the middle of this century, major cereal crops grown across Africa will be adversely impacted,” the WMO said in a report.
It projected a reduction in yields of 13% in West and Central Africa, 11% in North Africa and 8% in East and Southern Africa.
African countries are generally low-income and ill-equipped to respond to this and other consequences of climate change, the WMO said.
Natural disasters such as Cyclones Idai and Kenneth, which struck three countries in southern Africa in 2019, underscored the region’s exposure, it said.
The cyclones forced more than two million people from their homes, killed many hundreds, and destroyed a half million hectares of crops in Mozambique.
Meanwhile, in drought-prone areas including West Africa’s Sahel, the number of undernourished people has jumped by 45% since 2012, the organisation said. Climate change is compounding problems such as conflict to drive growing hunger.
In the Horn of Africa, below-average rainfall in 2018 and 2019 led to the worst cereal harvest in Somalia since records began in 1995 and to crop failures in neighbouring Kenya.
Floods followed. Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Tanzania recorded at least double their average seasonal rainfall in late 2019.
The rain helped crops grow but also fuelled the locusts that have devoured hundreds of thousands of hectares of land in those countries since January.
For now, the poorest are most affected.
Africa’s overall gross domestic product will fall by between 2.25% and 12.12% as temperatures rise, according to a “long-term impact” study cited in the report. It did not specify a time period for the forecast.
Warmer and wetter weather is also more suitable for insects that transmit dengue fever, malaria and yellow fever.
