News — democracy

The Third Congo Civil War—also known as Africa’s World War—was a five-year conflict that occurred primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Nine African countries eventually became involved in the war other than the DRC: Angola, Chad, Namibia, Zimbabwe, Sudan, Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi. The Third Congo Civil War became the deadliest conflict since World War II.  An estimated 5.4 million war-related deaths occurred and more than twice that number were displaced from their homes and sought asylum in neighborhood countries.

The Third Congo Civil War evolved out of Laurent-Desire Kabila’s victory over Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997. Once Kabila became president of the DRC, his relations with previous allies like Rwanda and Uganda quickly deteriorated. In July 1998, Kabila ordered all officials and troops from Rwanda and Uganda to leave the country.  Instead on August 2, 1998, those troops began supporting rebels who were intent on overthrowing Kabila. Two days later, Rwandan troops flew directly from their nation to the DRC province of Bas-Congo (now Kongo Central) which the intention of joining other Rwandan and Ugandan soldiers and March on the capital of Kinshasa.  Their goal was to drive Kabila from power and replace him with leaders from the Congolese Rally for Democracy (RDC).

The Rwandan attempt to overthrow Kabila was prevented by the intervention of Angolan, Zimbabwean, and Namibian troops. The leaders of these nations, while not strong supporters of Kabila, nonetheless feared a precedent when foreign troops invaded another nation to overthrow its government.

Rwandan soldiers and the RCD withdrew to the eastern DRC and began a long campaign against the DRC Army and its new foreign allies.  In February 1999, a new rebel group called Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC) backed by Uganda formed in that nation.  They allied with the RDC and the Rwandan troops and invaded the eastern Congo in August 1999. At this point two rebel groups challenged the Kabila-led Congo government and five African nations had troops fighting in the county.  Three nations—Angola, Zimbabwe, and Namibia—supported the Congo government while Rwanda and Uganda opposed that government.

By the end of the summer of 1999, two rebel factions backed by the Rwandan and Ugandan Armies and their Hutu militias, controlled much of the eastern Congo. While the fighting was going on, cease-fire talks began in July 1999 in Lusaka, Zambia.  A cease-fire agreement was signed among the warring factions in August 1999 called the Lusaka Accord. None of the factions, however, keep their promises made at Lusaka and the fighting continued.

On January 16, 2001, DRC President Laurent-Desire Kabila was assassinated by his bodyguard Rashidi Muzele in Kinshasa. Kabila’s son Joseph Kabila succeeded him as president of the DRC and began new negotiations with the warring factions to end the fighting. On April 2, 2003, the Pretoria Accord was finally ratified in Sun City, South Africa.  Within months Rwandan, Angolan, Namibian, Ugandan and Zimbabwean troops withdrew from the Congo.  Two months later on July 18, 2003 the war was over.

One Capitol Police officer is being hailed as the man who saved America’s democracy on Wednesday, January 6 after diverting an angry mob from the Senate floor. Viral videos of his confrontation with a leader of the rioters showed how the officer, identified by CNN as Eugene Goodman, blocked the hallway and led the riots away from the room that would later confirm Joe Biden as President of the United States of America.

“His name is USCP Officer Eugene Goodman. Remember his name. He almost certainly saved lives on Wednesday,” tweeted CNN reporter Kristin Wilson. “My thanks, Officer Goodman. THANK YOU.”

In the video, Goodman glances to his left and realizes the throughway to the Senate as the angry group of MAGA supporters stormed the Capitol. Realizing he was only armed with a baton and alone, he pushed back the supposed leader of the group, Doug Jensen from Des Moines, wearing a black QAnon shirt.

Goodman is then seen shoving Jensen in his direction away from the Senate chambers, tricking the angry, all-white lads to pursue him in the opposite direction into a group of police waiting at the corridors outside the Senate. This gave the police ample time to properly secure the chamber.

U.S. Representative Bill Pascrell wrote in a Twitter message on Sunday, “As trump’s fascist mob ransacked the US Capitol, this brave USCP officer kept murderous rioters away from the Senate chamber and saved the lives of those inside. God bless him for his courage.” 

Jensen, 41, on his now-deleted Facebook page, openly supports President Donald Trump and QAnon. According to USA Today, QAnon is a conspiracy movement that “falsely alleges the existence of a satanic ‘deep state’ apparatus that supports a child sex trafficking ring shirt.” Jensen has since been fired from his job and was arrested later by the FBI on five federal charges in his home in Des Moines. The unprecedented incident left five people – including a Capitol officer – dead.

Prior to the rioting, the pro-Trump supporters gathered at the nation’s capital to protest against allegations of voter fraud during the November 3 presidential election – allegations which had been labeled as baseless – and to call on the Senate and the House of Representatives to reject the certification of the results.

The rioting was also spurred by a speech Trump gave while addressing them as he reiterated the election was fraudulent and called on the protesters to “walk down to the Capitol.”

The Chief of the Capitol Police, Steven Sund, has since resigned after the attack. Assistant Chief Yogananda Pittman has been designated by the U.S. Capitol Police as its new Acting Chief.

Pittman’s January 8 appointment makes her the first woman and the first African American to serve as chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, according to a statement.

The Nigerian Nobel laureate, playwright, novelist, and democracy advocate, Wole Soyinka, has reiterated his support for the 38-year-old Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, or Bobi Wine, who is looking to end Uganda President Yoweri Museveni‘s 34-year reign come January 14.

In an interview with Quartz, the Nigerian writer said the musician-turned-politician “for me right now, represents the face of democracy for Uganda”. Soyinka added that in Wine, Uganda’s possess the best possible visionary to take over the reins of government.

“Even before [we met], I’d taken an interest in his movement, his candidature, and his passion. And I share it; I share every bit of it,” said Woyinka who spent a while with the Ugandan presidential candidate in 2019 in Lagos during #FelaDebate, a symposium in memory of legendary Afrobeats founder Fela Kuti.

In 2018, along with a group of celebrities, media personalities and authors including Angelique Kidjo, and Femi Kuti, Soyinka signed a statement condemning the arrest, imprisonment and attack on Bobi Wine.

Much like Wine, Soyinka has made his own history with fighting brutal and dictatorial governments in Nigeria. He was arrested for illegally visiting the secessionist territory Biafra in 1967.  He had met with the secessionist leader, military governor Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in Enugu in 1966, and was forced to go into hiding as he was labelled a spy during the civil strife between the Nigerian government and Biafra.

Soyinka was also an outspoken critic of Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s military ruler between 1993 and 1998. It was in opposition to Abacha that Soyinka first met Museveni.

He said in the interview: “I met Museveni during the fight against Sani Abacha. At the time we met it was still possible to consider him a democratic leader. Today he’s joined the gang—the enemies of society”.

The African to win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986 believes the times of Museveni, as well as many others like him, have come to an end. It is his fervent hope that Ugandans share his faith in Wine.

The size of the American economy, the dominance of US companies and the power of the dollar mean the results of the US election race are set to reverberate throughout the world. But what does a Biden win mean for Africa?

The result of the vote could have a profound impact on US foreign policy in Africa, the EU’s Institute for Security Studies (EUISS) says.

During his tenure Trump has proposed a large-scale pull-back of US forces abroad, including in West Africa, marking a strategic shift from the ‘war on terror’ to countering China’s growing influence in Africa through other means, says Giovanni Faleg, a senior analyst at the Paris-based EU agency.   

“As competition mainly revolves around the predatory economic practices (of China) the first pillar of Trump’s strategy is advancing US trade and commercial ties with the region,” Faleg says.

This included the Trump administration’s ‘Prosper Africa’ initiative whose objective is to streamline bureaucracy, expand the role of the private sector and remove logistical trade barriers.  

“Trump has never personally considered Africa a priority region or travelled to sub-Saharan countries,” Faleg says, while “his rhetoric towards Africa in public speeches could not be more controversial.” 

During his tenure Trump has only received the presidents of Kenya and Nigeria, while he imposed visa bans on Eritrea, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania in January.

While Trump has pushed for significant cuts to foreign aid into the continent, these have been largely vetoed by Congress, meaning the US remained a leading donor in Africa, Faleg says.

In recent months, since the onset of Covid-19, Trump has communicated more with African leaders as China ramped up its pandemic support on the continent.   

“In late April Trump proactively phoned the leaders of Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa and his administration stepped up assistance and donations to tackle the coronavirus pandemic in the continent, after passively watching China take the lead in international support,” Faleg notes. 

Virág Fórizs, Africa Economist at Capital Economics, says the outcome of the US elections is unlikely to be a game-changer for Africa. 

“A return to multilateralism under a Biden presidency could translate into stronger US-backing for the African Continental Free Trade Area, rather than the Trump administration’s approach of pursuing bilateral deals (with Kenya for example).”

President Biden would also be more likely to support the extension of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) beyond 2025, Forizs says.

Data from the 2019 International Trade Administration showed that US companies have invested over $50bn in Africa since Trump took office in 2017. 

While Trump’s record suggests he may be a boon for US business on the continent, a Trump win could mean further volatility for the South African rand, says Greg Cline, head of corporate accounts at Investec.

“If you look back at rand volatility there’s always been a suggestion that it’s been a consequence of the US-China trade wars. We’ve seen up to $250bn in tariffs that have been imposed on China by the Trump administration,” he told South Africa’s CapeTalk radio on Monday.

Biden’s election may lead to a partial cooling of trade tensions with China, which could have a positive impact on African markets which trade extensively with Beijing. 

A model for democracy?

Africans took to Twitter to denounce Trump’s response to the election results, saying he is undermining America’s role as a paragon of western democracy.

As Biden edges closer to victory, President Donald Trump has filed lawsuits for a recount in Wisconsin, and separate suits to stop vote counting in Michigan and Pennsylvania.

 “The US election will surely open up a floodgate of election manipulation across emerging democracies (most especially) in West Africa. The excuse will be simple; “even in the US, it isn’t a perfect process”, said Nigerian Egbe Omorodion.