Category: General

Chinese companies like Huawei and the Transsion group are responsible for much of the digital infrastructure and smartphones used in Africa. Chinese phones built in Africa come with already installed apps for mobile money transfer services that increase the reach of Chinese tech companies. But while many Africans may find the availability of such technology useful, the trend worries some experts on data management.

China has taken the lead in the development of Africa’s artificial intelligence and communication infrastructure.

In July 2020, Cameroon contracted with Huawei, a Chinese telecommunication infrastructure company, to equip government data centers. In 2019, Kenya was reported to have signed the same company to deliver smart city and surveillance technology worth $174 million.

A study by the Atlantic Council, a U.S.-based think tank, found that Huawei has developed 30% of the 3G network and 70% of the 4G network in Africa.

Eric Olander is the managing editor of the Chinese Africa Project, a media organization examining China’s engagement in Africa. He says Chinese investment is helping Africa grow.

“The networking equipment is really what is so vital and what the Chinese have been able to do with Huawei, in particular, is they bring the networking infrastructure together with state-backed loans and that’s the combination that has proven to be very effective. So, a lot of governments that would not be able to afford 4G and 5G network upgrades are able to get these concessional loans from the China Exim Bank that are used and to purchase Huawei equipment,” Olander said.

Data compiled by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, a Canberra-based defense and policy research organization, show China has built 266 technology projects in Africa ranging from 4G and 5G telecommunications networks to data centers, smart city projects that modernize urban centers and education programs.

But while the new technology has helped modernize the African continent, some say it comes at a cost that is not measured in dollars.

China loaned the Ethiopian government more than $3 billion to be used to upgrade its digital infrastructure. Critics say the money helped Ethiopia expand its authoritarian rule and monitor telecom network users.

According to an investigation by The Wall Street Journal, Huawei technology helped the Ugandan and Zambian governments spy on government critics. In 2019, Uganda procured millions of dollars in closed circuit television surveillance technology from Huawei, ostensibly to help control urban crime.

Police in the East African nation admitted to using the system’s facial recognition ability supplied by Huawei to arrest more than 800 opposition supporters last year.

Bulelani Jili, a cybersecurity fellow at the Belfer Center at Harvard University, says African citizens must be made aware of the risks in relations with Chinese tech companies.

“There is need [for] greater public awareness and attention to this issue in part because it’s a key metric surrounding both development but also the kind of Africa-China relations going forward…. We should also be thinking about data sovereignty is going to be a key factor going forward.”

Jili said data sharing will create more challenges for relations between Africa and China.

“There are security questions about data, specifically how it's managed, who owns it, and how governments depend on private actors to provide them the technical capacity to initiate certain state services.”

London-based organization Privacy International says at least 24 African countries have laws that protect the personal data of their citizens. But experts say most of those laws are not enforced.

Source: Voice of America

Here is a fast take on what the international community has been up to this past week, as seen from the United Nations perch:

Airstrikes target Mekelle

The Ethiopian government launched a series of airstrikes this week on Tigray’s capital, Mekelle, one of which forced a U.N. aid flight to turn around midair.

New provocations from DPRK

North Korea has continued to test-fire missiles, spurring the United States, Britain and France to call a U.N. Security Council meeting on Wednesday.

Africa hardest hit by climate change

A new U.N. climate report says the African continent is warming faster and to a higher temperature than other parts of the world, despite being responsible for less than 4% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions.

Human rights discussions

The U.N. General Assembly’s third committee had its annual briefings Friday from the special rapporteurs on the human rights situations in North Korea and Myanmar.

News in brief

— UNICEF said Tuesday that 10,000 children have been killed or maimed in Yemen since fighting started in March 2015. That is the equivalent of four children every day. And that is the number of cases the U.N. children’s agency has been able to verify; the real number is likely higher.

— UNICEF said the numbers of women (71) and children (30) kidnapped for ransom in Haiti in the first eight months of 2021 have surpassed the totals for all of 2020. The overwhelming majority of abductees are Haitians and are taken in the capital, Port-au-Prince.

— The U.N. Security Council has set off on its first field mission since before the pandemic. The 15 members are heading to Mali and Niger through Tuesday. They are checking on Mali’s transition and discussing terrorism, the effects of climate change in the Sahel and other issues with leaders, civil society and U.N. country teams.

— U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the U.N. Security Council separately welcomed the declaration of a unilateral cease-fire on October 15 by President Faustin Archange Touadéra in the Central African Republic. That country has been trying to restore state authority after years of intercommunal violence and territory grabs by armed groups.

Some good news

The United Nations said a national house-to-house polio vaccination campaign in Afghanistan will resume November 8, after a three-year halt, with the support of the Taliban authorities.

Quote of note

“Today, women’s leadership is a cause. Tomorrow, it must be the norm,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Friday on the 21st anniversary of Resolution 1325, which demands the full and equal participation of women in conflict resolution, peacebuilding and post-conflict reconstruction.

Next week

The G-20 meets in Rome ahead of a critical U.N. climate conference in Scotland in early November. On Tuesday, the U.N. General Assembly will hold its own pre-conference high-level session on delivering climate action.

Did you know?

U.N. peacekeepers are called “blue helmets” because of the color of their berets and helmets. There are more than 87,000 peacekeepers from 121 countries currently deployed in a dozen missions. Their missions are authorized by U.N. Security Council resolutions to protect civilians and strengthen security in post-conflict and fragile states.

Source: Voice of America

Ethiopian forces carried out an airstrike Friday on the city of Mekelle, their fifth on the Tigray regional capital since Monday.

There were no immediate reports of casualties following Friday’s airstrike, which witnesses say hit a farmer’s field near a fenced off area on the eastern side of Mekelle University.

A U.N. humanitarian flight bound for Mekelle had to turn back in mid-air to Addis Ababa Friday because of the airstrike, according to Gemma Connell, head of the regional office for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Connell said this week’s airstrikes and recent fighting in Tigray have had major consequences because not a single aid truck has entered the embattled northern Ethiopian region since Monday.

Ethiopia’s state-owned Fana Broadcasting Corporation reported Friday’s airstrike targeted military training spots used by Tigrayan forces.

“Another one of the terrorist group TPLF’s [Tigray People’s Liberation Front] training sites has been the target of air strikes today,” said the report, which cited the website Ethiopia Current Issue Fact Check, a pro-government initiative.

“This site was ENDF’s [Ethiopian National Defense Force’s] training center before being appropriated by TPLF for military training of illegal recruits. It is also serving as a battle network hub by the terrorist org.”

TPLF leader Debretsion Gebremichael said the airstrikes are a last ditch effort to turn the tide in the conflict between the TPLF and the Ethiopian government, which has raged on for nearly a year.

“They are desperate on the war front,” he said, speaking to Reuters by satellite phone from an undisclosed location. “My interpretation is they are bombing us because they are losing on the ground and it’s their reprisal. The fact that they are bombing shows they don’t care about Tigrayan civilians.”

On Wednesday, U.N. spokesman Farhan Haq confirmed that three children were among those killed in this week’s attacks.

The airstrike Thursday that targeted Mesfin Industrial Engineering, an equipment manufacturing company, injured 15 people, who are receiving medical help at Mekelle’s flagship Ayder Referral Hospital, according to Girmay Legas, the director of the emergency room at the hospital, who spoke to VOA’s Tigrigna Service.

“There are many who were seriously injured, especially two of the people who had to go straight into the operating room right after they were admitted,” Girmay said. “We have a five-year-old child among the 15 injured and one of the injured was pregnant and she is receiving care to find out the condition of the child.”

Girmay said most of those admitted to the hospital had “serious physical injuries,” and said the hospital did not have enough medical equipment and medicine to help the victims.

Biniam Kassa was one of those injured. “Mesfin industrial’s work focuses on normal projects like transportation but I don’t know why and in what case it was targeted,” he said. “Only thing I can say at this moment is that only civilians were attacked but nothing else.”

Filimone Yohannes was another person injured and underwent surgery on his right leg. He says the attack happened while they were in the middle of work.

“I was injured on my knee and couldn’t stand up but pulled myself to move a bit further until people came and lifted me up and brought me here [Ayder hospital] in an ambulance. I am not sure how people will go back to work and might lose their jobs and won’t be able to feed themselves if they don’t have work, people will be displaced. If you are bombarded in your place of work, how would you go back to work? How can you work?”

Ethiopian government spokesman Legesse Tulu said in a Facebook post on Wednesday that the military is making precise aerial attacks and making every effort to avoid civilian casualties.

“We confirm and assure these surgical operations have no any intended harm to civilians,” Legesse wrote.

He added that Tigrayan forces have used civilian facilities for military purposes. “They have been adept at hiding munitions and heavy artillery in places of worship and using ordinary Tigrayans as a human shield,” he wrote. “The purpose of the air strikes was just to deter the damages and atrocities the TPLF terrorist group plan[n]ed to make on the social well-being of the country and citizens.”

The Tigray conflict began almost a year ago between Ethiopian troops and the TPLF, which governed Ethiopia for three decades but now rules only the northern Tigray region.

Mekelle has not seen large-scale fighting since June, when Ethiopian forces withdrew from the area and Tigray forces retook control of most of the region. Following that, the conflict continued to spill into the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar.

Last week, Tigray forces said the Ethiopian military had launched a ground offensive to push them out of the Amhara region and to recapture territory lost to them several months ago.

VOA Tigrigna Service’s Mulugeta Atsbeha contributed to the report from Mekelle. VOA’s Margaret Besheer contributed to the report from the United Nations.

Source: Voice of America

A prominent professor studying communication in Namibia says member countries in the 16-nation Southern African Development Community, or SADC, have enacted and drafted cybersecurity laws which infringe on citizens’ freedom of expression. Zimbabwe is one of the southern African nations that critics say has drafted strict cybersecurity laws in the region — awaiting President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s signature.

A professor in Namibia said most cybersecurity laws in the region infringe on the right to privacy and freedom of expression and are in need of revision.

Admire Mare is a professor of communication, journalism and media technology at Namibia University of Science. This week, he published a report examining how basic freedoms should be at the core of policies lawmakers should consider when drafting laws.

“Human rights should be at the center of policy making and drafting of legislation. If you miss that out you may actually end up infringing, curtailing the exercise of some of the basic rights that human beings must be able to [enjoy],” he said.

The report titled “Cybersecurity and Cybercrime Laws in the SADC Region: Implications on Human Rights,” looks at several countries in the region. However, Mare singles out South Africa as one of the few 16-nation member countries with laws taking citizens’ freedoms into account.

Tabani Moyo is the director of the Harare-based Media Institute of Southern Africa, or MISA, an organization with SADC member representatives, where the report was launched. He called on President Mnangagwa to rethink Zimbabwe’s Cyber Security and Data Protection Bill and reverse course from signing the bill into law. The bill was recently passed by parliament and critics say it punishes social media users for minor infractions.

Moyo said the bill, if signed as is, only empowers few people.

“It fails to provide protection for a whistleblower in a comprehensive manner. Secondly, it provides the security forces the power to snoop into our communication through the Cyber Security Center [Zimbabwe’s cybersecurity agency]. Thirdly, it is just impossible to define interference with personal data without [providing] legal oversight from the judiciary,” he said.

Moyo said the bill creates loopholes for authorities to abuse citizens similar to what is happening in Lesotho, Tanzania and Zambia.

Human rights advocates say authorities in these countries have routinely used laws to arrest opposition members and curtail their activities. But the bill has some supporters.

Lawyer and information and communications technology expert, Jacob Mutevedzi, praised Zimbabwe’s parliament for passing what he calls a “progressive and commendable cyber statute.”

“Prior to this law [bill awaiting signature to be implemented] the legal framework for cyber security and data protection in Zimbabwe was incoherent and half baked. The country lacked a comprehensive legal framework for the regulation of cybersecurity and data protection. The consolidation of cyber related offences and regulation of data protection under the current statute within a single framework is a welcome development which accords with regional practices,” said Mutevedzi.

Professor Mare, however, said it is also the responsibility of rights organizations like MISA to take action against the cyberlaws endangering journalists and citizens’ rights.

“Strategic litigation — we have seen in different countries — can be an opportunity that can be harnessed. Make use of public interest lawyers and to test the constitutionality of some of these proposed and enacted laws,” said Mare.

Zimbabwe’s government has for long insisted that it needs a tight cyberlaw to deal with what it calls “falsehoods” peddled especially on social media.

Source: Voice of America

Botswana wildlife authorities have refuted reports the country's rhinoceros population is on the verge of extinction due to poaching. The southern African country has battled a rise in poaching, with more than 60 animals killed in the last two years.

Department of Wildlife and National Parks Director Kabelo Senyatso said both rhinoceros and elephant poaching remain under control.

In a statement addressing poaching concerns, Senyatso said the government is committed to protecting the key species.

He added that, while isolated reports of poaching both the rhino and elephant continue to be reported, the government's anti-poaching efforts are making progress.

But conservationist Neil Fitt said poaching incidents could have dropped due to the decrease in the number of rhinoceroses in the Okavango Delta.

"Rhino poaching could have subsided only because there is lot less numbers there," Fitt said. "Elephant poaching is still happening, but we are getting very little reports because the government is not saying what is happening."

In a bid to stem the poaching tide, government security forces have killed more than 20 poachers in the last two years as part of a zero-tolerance campaign that Botswana has enforced since 2013.

Fitt said a multi-stakeholder approach to fighting poaching is key.

"The best that we can do is we all work together - the government, the private sector and NGOs. Sometimes you need to put your hand up and say we have got a problem, we need to solve it, and we need everyone to help, and we are open to all ideas, not just ideas that we like," he said.

Map Ives, former director at Rhino Conservation Botswana, said there is a need for an intelligence-based approach to counter poaching.

"That intelligence comes in several layers," Ives said. "You need local intelligence within the Okavango Delta. You need local plus intelligence, which is surrounding the Okavango Delta, and then you need regional intelligence that is from countries surrounding Botswana, including Namibia, Angola, Zambia and Zimbabwe. And then you need international intelligence. This sort of intelligence requires a high level of trust, not only government but between the private sector and NGOs."

According to a 2021 International Rhino Foundation status report released last month, the rhino population faces a significant poaching threat in Botswana.

But, the report notes, the government is taking steps to address the issue, including dehorning the rhinos to make them less attractive to poachers and relocating the animals to safer places.

Source: Voice of America