When it comes to US foreign policy under President Donald Trump, Africa, hasn’t featured prominently.
Despite his wife Melania and daughter Ivanka visiting African countries, the President hasn’t travelled to the continent.
His actions on the world stage have been controversial – often angering long-standing American allies – including banning travel from some majority-Muslim countries and conducting a trade war with Africa.
Nigerian protesters demanding an end to police brutality returned to the streets on Wednesday, saying they were unconvinced by the creation of a new police unit and a pledge not to use violence against demonstrators.
Protesters have staged daily marches nationwide for a week, calling for an overhaul of police forces. Police have responded to the demonstrations with beatings, tear gas and gunfire, which human rights group Amnesty International said had killed at least 10 people.
The protests have prompted a raft of announcements. The Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), a police unit that demonstrators have long accused of beatings, killings and extortion, was officially disbanded on Sunday.
On Tuesday, police agreed to stop using force against protesters.
They also announced the formation of a new unit, the Special Weapons and Tactics team (SWAT), to “fill the gaps” left by the disbanded SARS.
But protesters said on Wednesday they feared the new unit will simply be a rebranded version of SARS.
Hundreds gathered on Wednesday in the capital Abuja, as well as megacity Lagos and Warri – both in the south – to press their calls for police reforms.
“What they do is… give them new uniforms, call them a different name, but they are still the same people in these police forces,” said blogger Folu Oyefeso, in Lagos.
Demonstrators in Lagos, who gathered despite heavy rain, sang, danced and chanted. Many held placards, including one that read “Stop killing our dreamers. #EndSARS now”.
Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, in a statement on Wednesday, urged protesters to wind down demonstrations, saying that the gridlock caused in recent days had disrupted businesses still reeling from the coronavirus pandemic.
“People are just coming back to businesses. It would be unfair for those businesses not to be able to get back on their feet again,” he said
Somalia’s insurgents are moving millions of dollars through the formal bank system and appear to be investing in businesses and real estate, according to a United Nations report offering a rare glimpse into their finances.
Al Shabaab has for years been battling Somalia’s internationally-backed government to impose strict Islamic law in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.
“Al Shabaab remains in a strong financial position and is generating a significant budgetary surplus, some of which is invested in property purchases and businesses in Mogadishu,” said the report by the U.N. sanctions panel on Somalia.
The report by the group, which monitors compliance with an arms embargo on Somalia, is due to be published this week.
The al Qaeda-linked Somali militants carry out frequent bombings and attacks at home and have also killed hundreds of civilians in Kenya and Uganda. Earlier this year, al Shabaab killed three Americans at a U.S. military base in Kenya.
The U.N. report included details on two bank accounts held at Salaam Somali Bank, founded in 2009 as part of the Hormuud group of companies, raising questions about Somalia’s capacity to enforce a 2016 law aimed at curbing terrorist financing.
The bank did not respond to requests for comment.
Somalia’s Financial Reporting Center, which oversees compliance laws against money laundering and terror financing, said it is investigating the allegations against Salaam.
Nearly $1.7 million moved through one of the accounts during a 10-week period until mid-July this year, the report said, noting the account appeared set up to receive Islamic tax called zakat.
‘SUPER EFFICIENT SHABAAB’
With around 5 000 fighters, al Shabaab controls towns and countryside in southern Somalia, but its spies and assassins operate nationwide. Its estimated expenditure last year was around $21 million, with about a quarter of that going to the Amniyat intelligence arm.
Al Shabaab also runs its own courts. One businessman told investigators that the courts had summoned him this year and ordered him to pay more than $100 000 in zakat based on a review of his business, which they had assessed before he arrived.
The businessman, who was not named, provided a banking deposit slip and a receipt from al Shabaab to investigators as proof of payment. “Al Shabaab maintains a registry of citizens, which includes financial assessments on individuals and businesses,” the report said.
Another account, which appeared to handle fees levied on businessmen usng Mogadishu port, had $1.1 million moved through it from mid-February until the end of June this year, the report said. It included a cash deposit of $25 000 by someone calling himself “A B C” on documentation.
In total, the two accounts made more than 128 transactions exceeding the $10 000 threshold that should trigger automatic reporting to the Financial Reporting Centre.
When asked if the accounts had been shut down, Amina Ali, head of the centre, told Reuters: “All the necessary steps have been taken.”
The report also examined a single al Shabaab road checkpoint – one of dozens – that former al Shabaab tax officials told investigators made between $1.8 million-$2.4 million per year.
In the government-controlled southern port of Kismayo, businesses are forced to pay the insurgency between $300-$600 monthly depending on their size, which could earn them nearly $6 million a year from Kismayo alone, the report said.
Businessmen are afraid to refuse al Shabaab for fear of being killed, said Hussein Sheikh Ali, a former Somali national security advisor and founder of the Mogadishu-based Hiraal Institute thinktank. Their own report on al Shabaab finances is due out this month.
U.S.-supported Somali special forces sometimes attack al Shabaab checkpoints to cut their revenues, he said.
“Shabaab is super efficient in terms of collecting money throughout industries and the country,” he said.
“We know they have surplus money… and we believe they may send some money to al Qaeda.”
Speranza said Italy needed to add restrictions after having eased them for several weeks, as it aims to avoid a new national lockdown.
“Now we need a change of pace, and to intervene with measures, not comparable to those adopted in the past, which could allow us to put the contagion under control and avoid tougher measures later on,” he said in an interview with RAI state TV.
Italy on Friday topped 5,000 new COVID-19 cases in a single day for the first time since March. Daily infections remained over 5,000 both on Saturday and Sunday. Deaths linked to COVID-19 are far fewer, however, than at the height of the pandemic in the country in March and April.
Speranza said he proposed a ban on private parties, involving both children and adults, while Rome would also target hours for bars and restaurants to reduce people’s contagion risks.
Other measures could involve sports with physical contact that offer no chance to wear a mask, he said without elaborating further.
Rome last Wednesday made it mandatory to wear face masks outdoors nationwide.
The new restrictions package will be discussed with regions on Monday and will be included in a decree that Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte could sign as early as Monday evening, Speranza said.
Earlier on Sunday, Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio ruled out another national lockdown, saying the Italian economy could not afford it.
Speranza did not rule out that targeted local lockdowns could be imposed in the future if critical situations arise.
“But at this time, I don’t see such conditions in Italy,” he said.
At least 11 migrants from Africa died when their boat sank off Tunisia on Sunday, as they tried to cross the Mediterranean to the Italian island of Lampedusa, a Tunisian security official said.
Tunisia’s coast guard recovered the bodies of eight women and three children off the coast near Sfax late on Sunday, he said.
About 30 people had set out on the boat, aiming to reach Italy, officials said.
The coast guard is searching for the other missing people.
Last year, about 90 African migrants drowned after their boat capsized enroute to Europe from Libya, one of the worst such accidents in Tunisian waters.
