Russia-Africa: From weapon sales to economic ties
By Arezki Daoud:Has the war in Ukraine deter Russia from engagement in Africa? But many analysts have dismissed Russia as an economic partner for Africa. If you believe the data from the Russian Federal Customs Service, business between Russia and Africa is booming. Russian imports from Africa increased by $7.5 billion dollars year over year. But if the statistics are somewhat correct, the myth of Russia focusing only on military commerce may not be true after all.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 23:49 UTC
Morocco's growing role in EU migration control – DW – 01
Morocco intensifies its gatekeeper role in EU migration, stopping 87,000 migrants in 2023. The majority were arrested near Morocco's western coastline, the army stated. "The equation is that the EU supports Morocco's territorial claim, and Morocco supports Europe's refugee policy," Sonja Hegasy told DW. Moroccan claims on Western Sahara are not recognised by the United Nations and the occupation remains illegal under international law. Western Sahara is also home to the Algeria-backed Polisario Front, which represents the local Sahrawi people.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 21:22 UTC
Surviving the War in Gaza
Residential buildings destroyed by Israeli airstrikes in Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Azmi also survived the first Israel-Hamas war, which occurred in 2008-2009, about two years after the Islamist movement took over Gaza. Hamas militants in Gaza have continued to fire rockets into southern and central Israel, though less frequently as the war has proceeded. The day Azmi left his home, he filled his own and his wife Jojo’s cars with essential goods. Loading VideoGrowing ShortagesIn Deir al-Balah, airstrikes were not as frequent as in northern Gaza or in Khan Younis.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 20:33 UTC
Conflict Index
As of January 2024, 15 countries have seen improvements to their Index rankings during the five-year period between 2019 and 2023, and 16 have seen worsening levels of conflict. Overall, of the 50 countries ranked at the top of the Index, over half (42) are experiencing sustained or escalating levels of conflict compared to 2019. In the six months between the mid-year update of the Index (July 2023) and the end of the year, eight countries have seen worsening levels of conflict, with three of those countries – Palestine, Haiti, and Sudan – moving into the ‘extreme’ conflict level category. Second, conflict in other countries is rising in multiple ways: in event frequency, conflict groups, and location under active conflict. In the graphic below, the top 50 countries in the ACLED Conflict Index are placed across the UN Human Development Index.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 19:05 UTC
Russia donates Mali 25,000 tons of wheat – The North Africa Post
“On January 6, 25,000 tons of Russian wheat were delivered to the port of Conakry [Republic of Guinea] by sea. It is intended to be transferred as humanitarian aid to the Republic of Mali. “This is already the fourth delivery of free Russian goods, which are so necessary for the population of Mali today,” Zakharova added. Mali was named in July 2023 by Russia’s Vladimir Putin among six African countries to receive grain as humanitarian aid. Somalia, the Central African Republic, and Eritrea have already received their 25,000 ton batches of free grain.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 18:15 UTC
Amazon Prime to layoff staff and stop producing African content
Amazon Prime, the global streaming giant, is laying off staff and scaling back its local content production in Africa and the Middle East, according to a new report by Variety. Africa’s streaming market is projected to have at least 18 million paying streaming customers by 2029, up from 8 million customers last year. With a combined 75% of the streaming market, Netflix and Showmax are the market leaders. Amazon Prime was estimated to have 575,000 sub-Saharan customers in 2021, which was projected to reach 1.9 million in 2026. The three-year deal would allow all of Osiberu’s movies and shows to be exclusively available on Amazon Prime and the first movie out of this partnership, ‘Gangs of Lagos’, broke multiple records.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 18:11 UTC
From M-Pesa onwards, African fintech is solving for accessibility, but innovating on top of the rails
From the advent of M-Pesa until the present day, African fintech has been about building accessibility to basic financial services, but now the rails are increasingly in place, there is room for serious innovation in all numbers of areas. Not only are African fintech startups more likely to raise funding than their peers, they are also more likely to be acquired, or accepted into accelerator programmes. The high levels of activity – and investment – in the African fintech sector come as no surprise. Drill down into other, more developed forms of financial services, and the figures are even worse. And so there’s been a huge push over the last 10 years to fill that gap through interesting fintech solutions,” she said.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 17:59 UTC
Modifiable risk factors for cancer in the middle East and North Africa: a scoping review - BMC Public Health
Breast cancer was the most studied cancer (28.6%), followed by head and neck cancers (19.1%) (Refer to Fig. The study found an association between compliance with FQS and breast cancer risk among premenopausal women but not among postmenopausal women. In conclusion, diet affects the development of breast cancer and multiple types of cancer in the Middle East. There is a scarcity of studies linking obesity to the risk of developing breast cancer and all types of cancer. Alcohol can also increase cancer risk among cigarette smokers, as shown in a study with oropharyngeal squamous cell carcinoma participants [46].
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 17:54 UTC
Blackouts in Gaza must not be used as ‘weapons of war’: Rights group
Gaza is under a weeklong sustained telecoms outage, the longest since the onset of the war with Israel. A weeklong telecommunications blackout in the Gaza Strip has become a “matter of life and death” and should end immediately, digital civil rights group Access Now says during the longest continuous outage since Israel’s war began. “Internet shutdowns must not be used as weapons of war. Since the beginning of the war on October 7, internet traffic in the Gaza Strip has undergone multiple blackouts and shutdowns. The blackouts have occurred as Israel has carried out a devastating bombardment of Gaza, killing at least 24,620 people and wounding 61,830, according to Palestinian authorities.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 17:15 UTC
10 Dishes Worth Booking a Trip Around
These are a few of the dishes that we’d travel just to get a taste of. AO User MRDEEMPCao Lầu, VietnamCao lầu, in its traditional form, can never be globalized. The starchy, thick rice noodles are made with local wood ash and alum-rich well water, which lends the noodles their signature chewy texture. In the Bolivian city of Potosí, a steamy soup bubbles from the heat of rocks sourced from the volcano Cerro Rico. Pasta dough is woven into impossibly thin strands, then served in mutton broth under a heap of tangy pecorino cheese.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 16:34 UTC
Prime Video Africa & MENA Staff Face Layoffs In “Rebalance” That Will Boost “Emerging” European Territories
Among the decisions, which are being defined as a “rebalance” of resources, Prime Video will create two European clusters, EU Established (EU5) and EU Emerging (EUX), with new roles for several execs. Among those understood to be impacted is Gideon Khobane, Director of Prime Video Africa. EU Emerging will comprise Benelux, Nordics and CEE, with Ritchie Ordonez, currently Prime Video Director of Benelux, CEE and Turkey, taking over the unit. Country Programming & Content Strategy leaders will report to Ricou-Bellan and Ordonez for their respective territories. Prime Video Head of EMEA Programme Strategy Chandru Lakshminarayanan and his team will now regionally to report into the new role.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 16:13 UTC
DRC, South Africa, Botswana… Who has the greatest potential in critical minerals?
“There is no chance of making the energy transition without Africa,” Robert Friedland, the founder of Ivanhoe Mines, who discovered the Kamoa-Kakula copper deposit in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), told the London Indaba conference on mineral resources, energy and mining in June last year. Indeed, decisive resources for a low-carbon economy are abundant in Africa. The continent’s production of metals used in the manufacture of batteries, solar panels, wind turbines and other electrical networks is impressive. DRC is the leading producer of cobalt, while South Africa is in pole position for platinum and manganese. As a whole, the continent accounts for more than half of the world’s production of these three minerals.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 16:12 UTC
Africa’s leap ahead into cloud: Opportunities and barriers
Executives were asked a variety of questions about their cloud footprint today, migration strategies, advantages and obstacles encountered in cloud adoption, and their future plans for cloud. In China, a Cloud by McKinsey survey of 278 decision makers found that the average percent of workloads hosted in public cloud was around 30 percent. Compute and storage make up the majority of cloud services used (29 percent and 32 percent, respectively). Strong indicators for increased cloud adoption in AfricaWhile preferences for future cloud adoption are not necessarily predictive, they are useful indicators of companies’ priorities. Only 10 percent of respondents said that the legal and policy requirements currently in place support cloud adoption.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 16:06 UTC
19 North American films to tempt festival directors in 2024
Neon holds US rights and FilmNation is the worldwide sales representative. Contact: Searchlight Pictures (worldwide distribution)MariaDir: Pablo LarrainChilean auteur Pablo Larrain directs Angelina Jolie as the iconic opera singer Maria Callas, which any festival director would put among their top asks. Production got underway in Europe late last year with a SAG-AFTRA interim agreement and FilmNation handles worldwide sales. Contact: FilmNation (international sales), nyoffice@filmnation.comMaXXXineDir: Ti WestCould Ti West’s third entry in his X horror trilogy starring Mia Goth arrive in Venice later this year? Contact: SBS International (sales) contact@sbs-distribution.frWithout BloodDir: Angelina JolieJolie returns to the director’s chair after First They Killed My Father and By The Sea in this Italy-set drama starring Salma Hayek and Demián Bichir.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 15:25 UTC
Prime Video Cuts Funding in Africa, Middle East in Favor of Focusing on European Originals
Amazon Prime Video is restructuring its international business to focus on European originals. The re-org includes cutting content and staff in Africa and the Middle East. Although Prime Video will continue to operate in those territories, there will be redundancies in the local teams. Meanwhile the European team will be split into two, both reporting into Prime Video Europe VP Barry Furlong. Africa had been a priority within this plan, while across the Arab world Prime Video had not commissioned any originals.
Source:The North Africa Journal
January 18, 2024 15:21 UTC