CHINA’S LENDING TO AFRICA RISES FOR FIRST TIME IN SEVEN YEARS.
Chinese lenders approved loans worth $4.61 billion to Africa last year, marking the first annual increase since 2016, an independent study showed on Thursday.
Africa secured more than $10 billion in loans a year from China between 2012-2018, thanks to President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), but the lending fell precipitously from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.
Last year’s figure, a more than three-fold increase from 2022, shows China is keen to curb risks associated with highly indebted economies, the study by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Centre found.
Beijing appears to be looking for a more sustainable equilibrium level of lending and experimenting with a (new) strategy,” said the university centre, which runs the Chinese Loans to Africa Database project.
The new data comes as Beijing prepares to host African leaders next week for the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation, which takes place every three years.
There were 13 loan deals last year involving eight African countries and two African multilateral lenders, the study found.
Last year’s biggest items include a nearly $1 billion loan from China Development Bank to Nigeria for the Kaduna-to-Kano Railway and similar size liquidity facility by the lender to Egypt’s central bank.
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AFRICA’S MPOX RESPONSE IS LESS THAN TEN PER CENT FUNDED.
Africa has secured less than 10% of the estimated $245 million it needs to fight a surging mpox outbreak on the continent.
This is according to a senior official from the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Africa CDC.
The continent is under pressure to curb an outbreak of the potentially deadly infection that the World Health Organisation declared to be a global health emergency in mid-August, after a new strain began proliferating from Democratic Republic of Congo to neighbouring countries.
Africa CDC has pulled together a budget to determine the amount of money available for the mpox response and the resources it needs to mobilise.
“We’ve come to the first estimate of $245 million,” Africa CDC Chief of Staff Ngashi Ngongo said at a WHO meeting in the Republic of Congo’s capital Brazzaville.
Democratic Republic of Congo’s government has committed $10 million to support the fight against the outbreak while the African Union has approved $10.4 million, Ngongo said.
Furaha Elisabeth applies medication on the skin of her child Sagesse Hakizimana who is under treatment against Mpox, an infectious disease caused by the Mpox virus that causes a painful rash, enlarged lymph nodes and fever, at a health centre in Munigi, Nyiragongo territory, near Goma in North Kivu province of the Democratic… Purchase Licensing Rights, opens new tab.
Therefore, about $20 million is currently available for the response, he said, adding that these figures would be updated.
“The current gap where we stand today is about $224 million that we are looking for,” he said.
Jean Kaseya, director general of Africa CDC, said during the meeting that the organisation was moving towards securing almost 1 million doses of mpox vaccine.
Those include 215,000 doses from vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic (BAVA.CO), opens new tab, 100,000 doses from France, almost 100,000 doses from Germany and about 500,000 doses from Spain.
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WFP LAUNCHES PROBE INTO ITS SUDAN OPERATIONS AS FAMINE SPREADS.
The United Nations World Food Program is investigating two of its top officials in Sudan over allegations including fraud and concealing information from donors about its ability to deliver food aid to civilians amid the nation’s dire hunger crisis, according to 11 people with knowledge of the probe.
The investigation by the WFP’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) comes as the U.N.’s food-aid arm is struggling to feed millions of people in war-plagued Sudan, now suffering one of the world’s most severe food shortages in years.
As part of the probe, investigators are looking at whether WFP staff sought to hide the alleged role of Sudan’s army in obstructing aid amid a brutal 16-month war with a rival paramilitary for control of the country.
One of those being examined in the inquiry is the WFP’s deputy country director in Sudan, Khalid Osman, who has been given a “temporary duty assignment” outside Sudan.
A second senior official, WFP area manager Mohammed Ali, is being investigated in connection with the alleged disappearance of more than 200,000 liters of the U.N. organization’s fuel in the Sudanese city of Kosti.
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EGYPT SENDS ARMS TO SOMALIA FOLLOWING SECURITY DEAL.
Egypt delivered its first military aid to Somalia in more than four decades, three diplomatic and Somali government sources said, a move likely to deepen strains between the two countries and Ethiopia.
Egypt and Somalia have drawn closer together this year after Ethiopia signed a preliminary deal with the breakaway region of Somaliland to lease coastal land in exchange for possible recognition of its independence from Somalia.
The Mogadishu government has called the deal an assault on its sovereignty and said it will block it by all means necessary.
Egypt, at odds with Ethiopia for years over Addis Ababa’s construction of a vast hydro dam on the headwaters of the Nile River, has condemned the Somaliland deal.
It signed a security pact with Mogadishu earlier this month and has offered to send troops to a new peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
Somalia has previously threatened to kick out Ethiopia’s up to 10,000 troops, who are there as part of the peacekeeping mission and under bilateral agreements to fight al Shabaab militants, if the deal is not cancelled.
Two Egyptian military planes arrived at Mogadishu airport on Tuesday morning with weapons and ammunition.
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SOUTH AFRICAN RAND FIRMS AHEAD OF PRODUCER INFLATION DATA
The South African rand strengthened early on Thursday, ahead of the release of domestic producer inflation data.
The rand traded at 17.7575 against the dollar , 0.4% stronger than its previous close.
The dollar index , measuring performance against a basket of currencies, was last down 0.08%.
Statistics South Africa will release the July producer price index (ZAPPIY=ECI), opens new tab at 0930 GMT.
Economists expect the year-on-year figure to be at 4.5%.
South Africa’s central bank will hold an annual lunch with journalists in Johannesburg on Thursday, with the bank’s governor, Lesetja Kganyago, expected to speak on the health of the domestic economy.
Local investors will then shift focus to July money supply, trade and budget balance data on Friday.
South Africa’s benchmark 2030 government bond was stronger in early deals, with the yield down 1.5 basis points at 9.125%.
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CAMEROON TO SHARE COCOA LOCATION DATA TO MEET EU ENVIRONMENT RULES
Cameroon’s cocoa and coffee association have signed agreements with six cocoa exporters to roll out a platform that will provide plantations’ location data to comply with an impending EU regulation on deforestation-free products.
The European Union is Cameroon’s biggest market where it shipped about 80% of total cocoa bean exports, amounting to 185,613 metric tons in the 2023/2024 farming season, according to data from the country’s National Cocoa and Coffee Board.
Under the new EU rule, which takes effect by the end of this year, the chocolate-making ingredient and other products won’t be accepted on the EU market if they were produced on deforested or degraded land after Dec. 31 2020, a date that corresponds with existing international commitments.
The traceability platform, managed by Cameroon’s Cocoa and Coffee Interprofessional Council, would allow EU buyers to request coordinates of plantations belonging to cocoa farmers, officials said.
The platform would then anonymously query the data holders as most cocoa farms have already been georeferenced by industry operators.
“This is an excellent initiative of the private sector, with the involvement of the government. It’s not only about respecting EU rules but to show that the product is the best in the world,” Jean-Marc Chataigner, EU ambassador to Cameroon, said.
Chataigner added that the EU was yet to be involved in the process.
Narcisse Olinga, deputy director in charge of external trade, told Reuters that 260,000 metric tons, or about 80% of Cameroon’s cocoa output, already meets the EU traceability requirement.
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XI JINPING MEETS UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISOR.
President Xi Jinping of China on Thursday met with the Assistant to the U.S. President for National Security Affairs, Jake Sullivan, in Beijing.
During their meeting, Xi stated that in a changing and turbulent world, countries needed solidarity and coordination, not division or confrontation.
According to him, people want openness and progress, not exclusion or regress.
Xi said, “As two major countries, China and the U.S., should be responsible for history, for the people and for the world, and should be source of stability for world peace and propeller for common development.
“While great changes have taken place in the two countries and in China-U.S. relations, China’s commitment to the goal of a stable, healthy and sustainable China-U.S. relationship remains unchanged.
“Its principle in handling the relationship based on mutual respect, peaceful coexistence and win-win cooperation remains unchanged, its position of firmly safeguarding the country’s sovereignty, security and development interests remains unchanged.
“Its efforts to carry forward the traditional friendship between the Chinese and American people remain unchanged.”
The Chinese president further expressed the hope that the U.S. side will work in the same direction with China.
Also that it will view China and its development in a positive and rational light.
“To see each other’s development as an opportunity rather than a challenge and to work with China to find a right way for two major countries to get alongwith each other’s,” Xi added.
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EUROPEAN UNION FOREIGN MINISTERS TO DISCUSS UKRAINE, GAZA IN BRUSSELS.
European Union foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Brussels on Thursday to discuss the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, and the disputed presidential election in Venezuela.
The meeting is an informal one, meaning the ministers are not expected to make any official decisions.
It will be chaired by EU foreign affairs Chief Josep Borrell.
The gathering was originally due to be held in Budapest, but ministers moved it to Brussels.
The decision was to protest Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in early July.
A discussion of the Russia-Ukraine war with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba is the first item on the agenda.
Two-and-a-half years on from Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Kiev this month surprised the world by invading Russia with an offensive in the Kursk region.
Ministers will then have lunch with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan to discuss EU-Turkey relations and global issues of shared interest.
This is according to a statement by the EU’s diplomatic service released on Thursday.
The third matter to be discussed is the efforts to reach a ceasefire and hostage deal between Israel and Hamas.
The ministers will be joined by Sigrid Kaag, who coordinates the United Nations’ humanitarian efforts in Gaza.
Finally, foreign ministers would discuss the political crisis that engulfed Venezuela after its July 28 presidential election.
The country’s Supreme Court last week ruled that incumbent President Nicolas Maduro was re-elected.
But countries including the U.S., Peru, Argentina, Ecuador, Panama, Uruguay and Costa Rica say the results are fraudulent, and that opposition candidate Edmundo González is the true winner.
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ISRAELI TROOPS KILL FIVE PALESTINIAN FIGHTERS INSIDE WEST BANK MOSQUE.
The Israeli military says its troops killed five Palestinian fighters who were hiding inside a mosque in the West Bank city of Tulkarm, in one of the largest assaults on the occupied territory for months.
The operation which has yet to conclude, began in the early hours of Wednesday with hundreds of Israeli troops backed by helicopters, drones and armoured personnel carriers raiding the flashpoint cities of Tulkarm, Jenin and areas in the Jordan Valley.
There was also a complete network outage at Jawwal, one of the two main telecommunications companies in the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank.
Palestinian health authorities said at least 12 Palestinians were killed in Wednesday’s operations.
In Jenin on Thursday, bulldozers edged along empty streets as the sound of drones pierced the sky, while Israeli troops remained stationed in front of the city’s main hospital, searching ambulances.
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HONG KONG COURT FINDS TWO FORMER “STAND NEWS” EDITORS GUILTY OF SEDITION
A Hong Kong court on Thursday found two editors of the now-defunct Stand News media outlet guilty of conspiring to publish seditious articles in a case that has drawn international scrutiny amid a security crackdown in the China-ruled city.
The two editors, Chung Pui-kuen and Patrick Lam, could face a maximum jail term of two years. This is the first sedition conviction against any journalist or editor since Hong Kong’s handover from Britain to China in 1997.
It is a case that critics, including the U.S. government, say reflects deteriorating media freedoms under a years-long national security crackdown in the China-ruled city.
Stand News, once Hong Kong’s leading online media with a mix of critical reportage and commentary, was raided by police in December 2021 and had its assets frozen, leading to its closure a few days later.
Chung, 54, Lam, 36, and the outlet’s parent company Best Pencil (Hong Kong) Ltd were all charged with conspiracy to publish seditious publications in connection with 17 news articles and commentaries between July 2020 and December 2021.
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THAILAND JAILS FOR LIFE SON OF SPANISH ACTOR RODOLFO SANCHO OVER GRISLY MURDER.
A Thai court on Thursday jailed for life the son of Spanish actor Rodolfo Sancho for the high-profile murder and dismembering of a Columbian man last year on the popular tourist island of Koh Phangan.
A criminal court on the neighbouring island of Samui found Daniel Sancho Bronchalo, 30, guilty of the premeditated murder of Edwin Arrieta Arteaga, 44, whose body was cut up and concealed by the accused.
Daniel Sancho is the son of Rodolfo Sancho, who starred in “El Ministerio del Tiempo” (The Ministry of Time) and actress Silvia Bronchalo.
He pleaded guilty to concealing the victim’s body, but denied premeditated murder, the court said.
Throughout the trial, Sancho had maintained the August 2023 killing of Arteaga, a plastic surgeon, was an act of self-defense, according to Thai media reports.
His lawyer declined to comment when contacted on Thursday.
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TYPHOON SHANSHAN HITS JAPAN’S KYUSHU.
Millions of people were told to evacuate from their homes as Typhoon Shanshan lashed southwest Japan with strong winds and heavy rain on Thursday, knocking out power, snarling air traffic and forcing major factories to close.
At least three people have been killed so far and scores injured in what authorities have warned could be one of the strongest ever storms to hit the region.
Funeral parlour employee Tomoki Maeda was in a hearse when the typhoon struck in Miyazaki city in southern Kyushu, shattering windows and tearing down walls of some buildings.
The typhoon, with gusts of up to 50 metres per second (180 km per hour/112 mph), was near Unzen city in Nagasaki Prefecture at 1:45 p.m. (0445 GMT), moving north at about 15 km per hour, according to the weather agency.
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LOW WATER HAMPERS RHINE RIVER SHIPPING IN GERMANY.
Low water levels after recent dry weather are preventing cargo vessels from sailing fully loaded on the Rhine river in Germany, with surcharges added to the usual freight rates, commodity traders said on Thursday.
Low water is hampering shipping parts of the river from Cologne southwards, including the chokepoint of Kaub, traders said.
Shallow water means vessel operators impose surcharges on freight rates to compensate for vessels not being able to sail fully loaded, increasing costs for cargo owners.
The Rhine is an important shipping route for commodities such as grains, minerals, chemicals, ores, coal and oil products, including heating oil.
German companies faced supply bottlenecks and production problems in summer 2022 after a drought and heatwave led to unusually low water levels on the river.
But repeated rain this summer kept Rhine water levels high, enabling shipping to generally operate normally.
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