Don’t Underestimate the Power of Natural Gas to Transform Africa (By NJ Ayuk)
By NJ Ayuk, Executive Chairman, African Energy Chamber (EnergyChamber.org)Africa has already made an indelible mark in the oil industry. The upshot of these trends is that the list of Africa’s top gas producers will probably remain static until the middle of the decade. By the end of the decade, then, there will be more than five countries accounting for the bulk of Africa’s total gas production. At the same time, Asia will replace Europe as the most important market for African gas exports. I’d like to see more gas producers do this as they ramp up gas production in the second half of the decade.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 30, 2020 08:48 UTC
Watch: Drunk SAPS officer stumbles from car after crashing into fence
The North West based SAPS Constable is facing several criminal charges after he was caught on camera in a drunken stupor – all while behind the wheel of a state vehicle. The damage was apparently caused by the collision of the state vehicle with a fence. We doubt the officer in question has had many hangovers worse than this one…Watch: Drunk SAPS officer stumbles from vehicle in North WestDrunk members of @SAPoliceService are a major contributor to criminality, especially stolen firearms. @LirandzuThemba pic.twitter.com/AXVnbvuOha — Mzwanele Manyi (@MzwaneleManyi) November 30, 2020SAPS response to Wolmaransstad viral videoA departmental investigation will also be instituted against the member in terms of the police force’s Discipline Regulations. A statement released by the North West SAPS on Monday morning tackles the embarrassing footage head-on, revealing that authorities have instituted a swift course of action in Wolmaransstad:
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 30, 2020 08:30 UTC
Sanctions not normalisation are needed to stop Israel’s human rights abuses
The South African government of apartheid broke in the 1990s under the weight of international sanctions and condemnations. Normalisation instead of sanctionsIn September 2020, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain signed a normalisation agreement with Israel, followed by Sudan in October. For example, in November 1977, the UN Security Council unanimously adopted Resolution 418, which imposed an arms embargo on South Africa. Mass killingsFollowing the end of apartheid in South Africa, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was formed. Targeting of childrenLike apartheid South Africa, Israel has a track record of turning a blind eye to the special protection that international humanitarian law gives to children.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 30, 2020 07:30 UTC
How the Arab uprisings were weakened by online fakes
The Arab uprisings a decade ago were supercharged by online calls to join the protests - but the internet was soon flooded with misinformation, weakening the region's cyber-activists. Soon, a slew of fake stories originating online was undermining trust in internet sources. The two cases, with their carefully-crafted back stories and manipulated images, were early examples of what soon became a trend of misinformation online. Many online activists began to question the democratic power of the internet. In the early years of the Arab uprisings, chat rooms and sites such as Lina Ben Mhenni's blog "A Tunisian Girl" had fueled growing protest movements and side-stepped censorship.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 30, 2020 04:07 UTC
Alien From L.A.
So let’s go back in time and take a look at Albert Pyun’s cult film, Alien from L.A.Wanda Saknussemm (Kathy Ireland) is a socially awkward nerd living in Los Angeles. She discovers that he may have found the lost city of Atlantis, which might also be an alien spaceship that sank deep into the center of the earth. Before you know it, Wanda sets off a Rube-Goldberg chain of events, and she, too, plummets down a deep dark hole. When she wakes, Wanda finds a miner named Gus (William R. Moses), who agrees to help her find her father or the mystery he’s been tracking. It was a time when everyone I knew was drawn from one sci-fi and fantasy story to the next.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 30, 2020 01:42 UTC
Malaria set to kill more people this year than Covid-19 in sub-Saharan Africa, experts warn
The WHO's best estimates are currently that malaria interventions have been reduced by between 15 and 25 per cent during the pandemic. "This is not new," said Dr Pedro Alonso, director of the WHO Global Malaria Programme. "When we had the Ebola epidemics, we had a lot more deaths due to malaria than Ebola in the affected countries. A lack of funding is part of the problem: last year, funding totalled $3 billion, just less than half of the $5.6bn target of the global malaria strategy. The WHO's Dr Moeti said changing mindsets to give tackling malaria the urgency that fighting the pandemic has had could make the difference.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 30, 2020 00:00 UTC
The human cost of Ethiopia conflict
As the ongoing conflict in Ethiopia escalates, a humanitarian crisis continues to unfold with hundreds of Ethiopians reported to have been killed and tens of thousands more now fleeing to neighbouring countries in a conflict that is threatening to destabilize the Eastern Africa nation and escalate to the fragile Horn of Africa region. Military officials have hinted at airstrikes and artillery attacks which could produce more civilian casualties and the conflict could escalate for longer exacerbating a humanitarian crisis that is now threatening to spiral out of control. Already it is reported that hundreds of people have been killed and over 40,000 fled the country to neighbouring nations. Sudan is still recovering from a protracted conflict that brought the North Africa country to its knees. As is the situation with all conflicts, women and children remain the greatest casualties.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 29, 2020 23:47 UTC
Turkey’s military campaign beyond its borders is powered by homemade armed drones
He is moving into vacuums.”ADADThe rapid growth of Turkey’s drone industry has made it a competitor to long-established producers of unmanned aerial vehicles such as China and Israel. The Turkish Defense Ministry said the counterattack destroyed dozens of tanks, armored personnel carriers and ammunition depots. A suspected Turkish drone strike that killed civilians the following month drove home the perils of drone power. The Turkish Defense Ministry did not respond to queries about the strike or reports of civilian casualties. Assistance to AzerbaijanThe six-week conflict this fall between Azerbaijan and Armenia over the disputed territory of Nagorno-Karabakh brought new prominence to Turkey’s drone program.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 29, 2020 21:33 UTC
UEGCL renovates 3 power lines to operate Karuma hydropower plant
The Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL) has launched the upgrading of the 400 kV Karuma-Kawanda, 400 kV Karuma-Olwiyo and 132 kV Karuma-Lira power lines which wiill be used to transmit electricity generated from the 600 MW Karuma hydropower plant. Located in the Kiryandongo district in north-western Uganda the Karuma hydropower plant is expected to have a capacity of 600 MW. The electricity generated by the hydroelectric dam will be evacuated from the Lira substation, which has been rehabilitated to support the 600 MW. According to Stephen Kyeganwa Mukasa, UEGCL’s Head of Monitoring and Evaluation, the electricity generated by the Kurama hydropower plant will guarantee stable, reliable and affordable electricity in Uganda. “With the commissioning of the Karuma power plant, the country will reach a capacity of 1500 MW.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 29, 2020 19:18 UTC
Oman holds record as country with lowest terror attacks in Middle East, North Africa
By: Times News ServiceMuscat: The Institute for Peace and Economics in Australia has classified the Sultanate as the country with the lowest number of terrorist attacks in the Middle East and North Africa. Oman News Agency said, “The Institute for Peace and Economics in Australia has classified the Sultanate as the country with the lowest number of terrorist attacks in the Middle East and North Africa, according to the Global Terrorism Index report for 2020.”“The report stated that the number of victims of terrorism in the world reached 13,826 deaths in the year 2019, indicating that 63 countries witnessed one terrorist attack at least last year and it is the lowest number since 2013,” the statement added.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 29, 2020 12:56 UTC
Morocco most insulated country from terrorism in North Africa-Global terrorism Index
Morocco has leapt 10 places in the Global Terrorism Index ranking just behind Taiwan and ahead of Hungary maintaining its place as the most insulated country from terrorism in North Africa. Morocco took the 102 rank globally among 163 states assessed by the Sydney-based Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP) which issues the Index. In the MENA region, Morocco was the fourth country facing the least terrorism risk in the region after the UAE, Oman and Mauritania which all took the 135th position. However, the decline of terrorism in the Middle-East and South Asia have been corresponding with a rise of the so-called Islamic State in Sub-Saharan Africa and a surge of far-right terrorism in North America and Western Europe. Meanwhile, Far-right terrorism had a 44.9% larger economic impact in North America, and one incident of such terrorism in 2010 has snowballed to 49 such incidents in 2019.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 29, 2020 12:56 UTC
Virtual “Day @ Nestlé” Impacts 600 Youths from 10 Countries in Middle East & North Africa
Held in November in ten countries across the Middle East and North Africa, the events were jointly organized by youth and leadership teams from within Nestlé. Nestlé recently announced that it has hired more than 2,600 young people under the age of 30 in the region since 2016, totaling 70% of its new hires during the period. The company has also organized 380 Readiness for Work events in the same period, impacting 35,000 people across the region. In addition, more than 100 interns were hired across Nestlé‘s offices in MENA in 2020 alone. Young people interested in exploring opportunities offered by Nestlé can find more information through visiting Nestlé’s MENA career page: https://www.nestle-mena.com/ en/careers
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 29, 2020 11:37 UTC
COVID-19: a short pandemic compared to most
But in the world of plagues and pandemics, what we’ve been through is pretty short stuff. Here are a few past epidemics and pandemics that actually make ours look a bit humble:The Spanish Flu. The Spanish Flu had a gruesome taste for healthy victims between 20 and 40 years old. This little plague – probably the bubonic plague – killed as much as a quarter of the world’s population. We still have bubonic plague today, in isolated areas – it showed up as recently as this past July in Mongolia—but today it is easily treatable.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 29, 2020 10:18 UTC
Mena’s Best Valorant Teams To Battle for Glory in Riot Games’ First Strike Tournament
Riot Games has announced the teams that will compete in the inaugural VALORANT First Strike MENA tournament following the conclusion of the Strike Arabia event that attracted more than 13,000 average unique viewers. Held simultaneously in three different Arab sub-regions as part of the qualification process for First Strike MENA, Strike Arabia consisted of three separate tournaments with 291 teams putting their skills to the test in a competitive environment. The entertaining and closely-fought matches were watched live by hundreds of spectators on Twitch, Facebook and YouTube as Riot Games aims to attract and engage with fans. Following their qualification, RvN team, one of the winners in the GCC region, praised Riot Games for staging Strike Arabia and is looking forward to testing themselves at First Strike MENA. Hosting competitions like Strike Arabia is just the first step of our journey, and it has given a glimpse of what to expect in the future.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 29, 2020 09:56 UTC
Conflict in Ethiopia Extends Greater Middle East’s Arc of Crisis
Conflict in Ethiopia Extends Greater Middle East’s Arc of CrisisBy Dr. James M. Dorsey November 29, 2020 November 29, 2020Abiy Ahmed, PM of Ethiopia, image via WikipediaBESA Center Perspectives Paper No. 1,833, November 29, 2020EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: Ethiopia, an African darling of the international community, is sliding toward civil war as the coronavirus pandemic hardens ethnic fault lines. The consequences of prolonged hostilities could echo across East Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. Tigrayans saw the moves as dashing their hopes for a greater role in the central government. View PDFThis is an edited version of an article published by Georgetown University’s Qatar Center for Regional and International Studies.
Source:The North Africa Journal
November 29, 2020 05:15 UTC