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African Union summit – 2014 Year of Agriculture
African Union summit, Addis Ababa, January 2014
Radio France Internationale’s English service
A series of interviews and reports from the 22nd African Union summit in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Includes coverage from the Executive Council and Assembly as well as stories on South Sudan, Somalia, Kenya, Libya, Algeria, the AU Immediate Response to Crises force and agriculture, the summit’s theme.
Africa’s first coup d’état? A history of Niger’s Sawaba movement
In a new book on Niger, Dutch author Klaas van Walraven charts the history of what he calls Africa’s first coup d’état. The Sawaba movement, formed in 1954, was opposed to French colonial rule and pushed for independence. It developed into a militant social movement, aligned with Eastern bloc states, as well as Algeria and Ghana. But it was stopped in its tracks, repressed by France’s fifth republic. Can we really call this Africa’s first coup?
Commonwealth Sec Gen Sharma on G20, Africa and human rights
Kamalesh Sharma, 2009. Photo: UNDP
Promoting the interests of Commonwealth countries was the primary focus of Commonwealth chief Kamalesh Sharma‘s meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Wednesday night, ahead of next week’s G20 finance ministers meeting.
Interview: Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary General, Commonwealth
Sharma represents 54 countries across the world, including a number from Africa. The Commonwealth recently observed elections in Zambia and has a team in place for this weekend’s elections in Cameroon. However, there are some criticisms over the Commonwealth’s approach to holding countries accountable for their human rights record.
Swazi king wants slice of South African bailout cash, say activists
King Mswati III of Swaziland, 2006. Photo: Amada44
Swaziland’s King Mswati III has allegedly demanded a quarter of South Africa’s bailout money to his country as a commission. Swazi pro-democracy activists told RFI on Saturday that the king was “arrogantly” trying to behave like a “consultant to his own country” in brokering the 2.4 billion rand (231 million euro) loan.
Interview: Lucky Lukhele, Swaziland Solidarity Network
“The king is now demanding 25 per cent of the entire thing [the bailout], saying that he has helped the country to secure it,” says Lucky Lukhele, a spokesman for the Swaziland Solidarity Network.
Lukhele claims that he learned of the king’s 400 million rand (57.8 million euro) commission from high-level contacts who attended a Tuesday cabinet meeting.
S.Africa sets out its stall ahead of Durban climate change conference
Construction of the Medupi power plant in Lephalale, South Africa, April 2009. Photo: Eskom
Delegations from South Africa, India, China and Brazil rounded up a meeting in Durban on Sunday focused on climate change. It was the second such meeting this year and comes ahead of November’s UN climate change talks. The four nations were expected to adopt a common strategy and decide how they will negotiate their position with world’s richest economies.
Interview: Edna Molewa, South Africa’s Minister for Water and Environmental Affairs
Successful Nigerian polls will echo across Africa, says Kufuor
John Kufuor. Photo: Gregory Jones
A well-organised vote as Nigerian voters go to the polls this Saturday would “resound to the good of all of Africa”, according to John Kufuor, the head of the African Union election observation mission in Nigeria, and former Ghanaian president. Kufuor spoke to RFI about what the mission has observed in the days leading up to the presidential vote.
Interview: John Kufuor, head of the AU election observation mission
African mediators want Libya truce, says Zuma aide
Jacob Zuma and Moamer Kadhafi. Photo: Elmond Jiyane, GCIS.
Top-level African Union mediators will call on both sides in Libya’s conflict to lay down their arms on a mission to the divided country starting Sunday, an adviser to South Africa’s Jacob Zuma tells RFI.
Interview: Jacob Zuma’s international relations special advisor Lindiwe Zulu
France-UK defence deal could bring cooperation on Africa, report
Tony Chafer, François Gaulme and Gordon Cumming (L to R), 3 November 2010, Ifri
After a ground-breaking military deal between France and Britain earlier this week – a report presented in Paris at the French Institute for International Relations (Ifri) says there should be more cooperation between the two countries in Africa.
Radio Report: Africa Report
Africa-France business conference kicks off
The Column of Quinconces, in Bordeaux
The second Africa-France business conference starts in Bordeaux on Wednesday, described by some as the African Davos. It aims to bring together 100 African and 100 French firms to foster new business ties.
Coming just after the Nice summit, which saw French President Nicolas Sarkozy acknowledge the importance of African economic powerhouses such as South Africa and Nigeria, this conference sees companies from across the continent gather in what is traditionally the wine capital of France.
Radio Report
Conference opening
Interview: Confessions of a People Smuggler
23 Jan 2014
We often hear about the plight of illegal migrants and in particular Africans making the journey across the Mediterranean Sea to the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa. But we do not often consider the other side of the story, the criminals who make big profits from what is described as “the most ruthless travel agency on the planet”. A new book coming out in Italy on Friday does just that – we meet the men who illegally smuggle migrants into Europe, making big money, taking big risks to transport tens of thousands of desperate people. RFI’s Daniel Finnan speaks to one of the authors of Confessions of a People Smuggler, Giampaolo Musumeci.
