Lawsuit accuses social media giant Meta of inflaming Ethiopia’s civil war

NEWS WIRES
Tue, 13 December 2022

© France 24 screengrab

A new lawsuit has accused Meta Platforms META.O of enabling violent and hateful posts from Ethiopia to flourish on Facebook, inflaming the country's bloody civil war.

The lawsuit, filed in Kenya on Tuesday, was brought by two Ethiopian researchers and Kenyan rights group the Katiba Institute. It alleges Facebook's recommendations systems amplified violent posts in Ethiopia, including several that preceded the murder of the father of one of the researchers.

The lawsuit also said the company failed to exercise reasonable care in training its algorithms to identify dangerous posts and in hiring staff to police content for the languages covered by its regional moderation hub in Nairobi.

Meta spokesperson Erin McPike said that hate speech and incitement to violence were against the rules of Facebook and Instagram.

"We invest heavily in teams and technology to help us find and remove this content," McPike added. "We employ staff with local knowledge and expertise and continue to develop our capabilities to catch violating content in the most widely spoken languages in" Ethiopia.

Meta's independent Oversight Board last year recommended a review of how Facebook and Instagram have been used to spread content that heightens the risk of violence in Ethiopia.

The plaintiffs are asking the court to order Meta to take emergency steps to demote violent content, increase moderation staff in Nairobi and create restitution funds of about $2 billion for victims of violence incited on Facebook.

(REUTERS)

Iran drives number of imprisoned journalists worldwide to record high

NEWS WIRES
Tue, 13 December 2022 

© Tolga Akmen, AFP

Iran's protest crackdown has helped push the number of journalists imprisoned worldwide to a record high of 533 in 2022, according to a report by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) published Wednesday.

The figure is up from 488 in 2021, already a record, according to the France-based NGO.

More than half are detained in just five countries: China, which remains "the world's biggest jailer of journalists" with 110, followed by Myanmar (62), Iran (47), Vietnam (39) and Belarus (31).

"Dictatorial and authoritarian regimes are filling their prisons faster than ever by jailing journalists," said Christophe Deloire, RSF Secretary-General, in a statement.

"This new record in the number of detained journalists confirms the pressing and urgent need to resist these unscrupulous governments and to extend our active solidarity to all those who embody the ideal of journalistic freedom, independence and pluralism."

Iran is the only country that was not part of the list last year, said RSF, which has been publishing the annual tally since 1995.

It is "indicative of the Iranian authorities' desire to systematically reduce women to silence," RSF said.

(AFP)

DR Congo Tutsis face threats, prejudice amid rebel crisis

Story by AFP • Yesterday 

Sitting in a small courtyard in Goma, eastern DR Congo, a 55-year-old Tutsi woman joked darkly that she would be killed if she spoke under her real name.


Tens of thousands of people who fled clashes between the M23 and the Congolese army are now camped along the roadside in makeshift tents on the outskirts of Goma

© Guerchom Ndebo

She fled to the city last week after a militia leader known as General Janvier, an opponent of the Tutsi-led M23 rebel group, arrived in her town of Kitschanga.



The M23 has fought its way across North Kivu province, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee

© Guerchom Ndebo

"We saw children with machetes and guns saying they'd come to kill the Tutsis," said the woman, in a poor Goma neighbourhood of clapboard houses on the Rwandan border.


Map showing the location of Kishishe and Bambo in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, where at least 131 people were killed in a massacre by M23 rebels on November 29-30, according to preliminary findings by a UN mission© Valentin RAKOVSKY

The M23 has advanced across North Kivu province in recent weeks, winning victories over the army as well as other militias and forcing hundreds of thousands to flee in its wake.

The Democratic Republic of Congo accuses its smaller neighbour Rwanda of backing the M23, something UN experts and US officials agree with -- although Kigali denies it.

Knife-edge tensions have escalated pressure on Congolese Tutsis, whose history is contested in the central African nation.

Many assume that Tutsis support the M23, for example, or perceive them as Rwandan implants rather than native Congolese.

The government in Kinshasa has repeatedly argued against tribalism and stressed that the Rwandan government alone is to blame for the M23 crisis.

But the reality in the east of the country, about a thousand miles (1,600 kilometres) from the capital, is often different.

AFP interviewed six Congolese Tutsis who had recently arrived in Goma, mostly from Kitschanga in North Kivu's Masisi territory.

Five said they had fled death threats from militias.

"It hurts me," said the 55-year-old Tutsi woman, who explained that all her relatives were Congolese but her children were accused of being Rwandans at school.



DR Congo Tutsis face threats, prejudice amid rebel crisis

© Guerchom Ndebo

"Our children ask us: What's Rwanda?"

- Cut off your nose -

The sense of injustice is widely shared. A 36-year-old Tutsi mother of two, who'd also recently fled to Goma, told AFP she wanted the same rights as everyone else.

She fiddled nervously with her wedding ring as she described why she left Kitschanga. "Militiamen notice your nose and threaten to cut it off with a knife," she said.

Tutsis are often stereotyped as having straight noses.

The woman -- speaking in the Kinyarwanda language native to Rwandans as well as many Congolese Tutsis and Hutus -- said militiamen also looted her home after she fled.

"They say every Tutsi is an M23," she said. "It's terrible."

The M23 first leapt to international prominence in 2012 when it captured Goma, before being driven out and going to ground.

But the rebels took up arms again late last year, claiming the DRC had failed to honour a pledge to integrate them into the army.

They've since seized swaths of territory and come within about 20 miles (12 kilometres) of Goma, a key hub of over a million people.

The M23 advance has also driven a wave of virulent anti-Tutsi hate speech on social media, with calls for them to depart for Rwanda and worse.

Emmanuel Runigi Kamanzi, the president of a North Kivu livestock farmers' association, said his Tutsi ancestors arrived in the region in the middle ages.

"This is our home," he added, decrying extremist attitudes fanned by Mai-Mai militias and so-called Nyatura armed groups that claim to represent Congolese Hutus.

Nyatura means "those who strike mercilessly" in Kinyarwanda.

- 'Uproot us' -

In public statements, the M23 has frequently accused other armed groups as well as government forces of targeting Tutsis.

But Lieutenant-Colonel Guillaume Ndjike, the Congolese army spokesman in North Kivu, said soldiers have not attacked Tutsis and that the allegations are "excuses put forward by the Rwandan army".

M23 fighters have themselves committed alleged atrocities.

The rebels killed 131 civilians and raped 27 women and girls in two neighbouring villages in late November, according to a preliminary UN probe.

Congolese Tutsi leaders have also condemned the M23.

David Karambi, the president of a North Kivu Tutsi association, told reporters in December that recent massacres could not even be "committed by animals," for example.

Many Congolese Tutsis interviewed by AFP said they felt unfairly blamed, and in danger.

In a Goma district where many Tutsis recently fled, a 27-year-old woman said Mai-Mai and Nyatura members had threatened "to kill us as they did to Tutsis in Rwanda".

"This war, it's to uproot us," she said, eyes downcast.

eml/bp

INDIA
Fear persists 10 years after Delhi gang rape and murder

Women travel on a Delhi Transport Corporation bus in New Delhi on Dec 8, 2022. 

(Photo: AFP/Money Sharma)

14 Dec 2022 

NEW DELHI: Ten years ago, the brutal gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus horrified the world and shone a spotlight on high rates of sexual violence in India.

Jyoti Singh, 23, and a male friend boarded a bus on the evening of Dec 16, 2012.

Savagely attacked, tortured with an iron rod and dumped at the roadside, Singh survived long enough to identify her attackers, earning herself the nickname "Nirbhaya" - "fearless".

But the student died from her injuries in a Singapore hospital 13 days later.

It sparked huge protests that forced authorities to promise to do more to protect women. In 2020 four of the six attackers - one died in jail, another was a juvenile - were hanged.

But a decade after the assault, many women are still scared to travel at night in India's capital, a sprawling metropolis of 20 million people.

AFP spoke to the victim's mother, the chief police investigator at the time, an activist and a young woman commuter.

Asha Devi, the mother of 2012 Delhi gang rape victim Jyoti Singh, poses for a picture during an interview with AFP at her residence in New Delhi on Nov 30, 2022. (Photo: AFP/Money Sharma)

THE MOTHER

"Obviously the pain doesn't go," Singh's mother Asha Devi told AFP.

"She was in so much pain during the 12 to 13 days that she was alive," she said in her modest two-bedroom Delhi home.

"How can anybody do this to another human being? Because my daughter struggled to even breathe."

Since the attack, Devi has become a prominent campaigner on women's safety, counselling survivors' families, helping their legal battles and protesting for justice.

The 57-year-old, who with her husband has set up a fund for rape survivors, sat next to a glass cabinet full of mementos of their daughter and awards for their efforts.

"My daughter's suffering gave me the strength to fight this battle," she said.

The case led to tougher punishments for rapists, more closed-circuit television cameras and street lights, and safety marshals on some buses.

There are now also centres for rape survivors for legal and medical help.

But Devi said that sexual assaults remain all too common and that "nothing has changed" when it comes to seeking justice.

"If any incident happens, either the parents are blamed or the girl. No one questions the boy or talks about his mistake. 'Why was the girl out at night?' they ask.

"There are still so many cases, such horrific cases," Devi said. "I don't think anyone is afraid of the law."

India registered 31,677 rape cases last year, an average of 86 a day, according to the latest official criminal statistics - an increase of about 13 per cent from 2020.

In a patriarchal society, daughters are often considered a burden thanks to the persistence of the dowry tradition.

In rural areas, where 70 per cent of Indians live, the problem is deeper.

Girls who wear jeans, use mobile phones or go out with boyfriends are often seen as sexually permissive. Life for lower-caste girls and women is particularly dangerous.

"The change has to come first in society and families so that daughters are considered as daughters and not a burden," Devi said.

Chhaya Sharma, joint commissioner of police for Delhi's eastern district, speaks during an interview with AFP at her office in New Delhi on Dec 6, 2022.

 (Photo: AFP/Sajjad Hussain)

THE COP

The chief police investigator in the case - herself a woman - interviewed Singh in her hospital bed.

"She understood that she had been hurt and that she would have a limited time to survive," said Chhaya Sharma, now 50.

"Don't spare them," Singh, whose attackers had left 13 bite marks on her body, told her.

"The way she was interacting with me was very confident, despite the pain and trauma she was going through," Sharma said.

"She was very determined about the fact that she wanted these persons caught."

The policewoman, who has gone on to become joint commissioner of police for Delhi's eastern district, hugged her mother and promised her she would get justice for her daughter.

Often, rapists and victims are known to each other. In this case, "you're looking for a needle in the haystack".

"Out of 370 buses, we had to find the correct bus," Sharma told AFP. "We were walking a very tight rope and a very thin line."

Sharma said that when the attackers were arrested, they showed no remorse.

"I felt that they did it without even feeling anything. That was the sickest part."

The case was a watershed moment, she said, insisting Delhi should not be seen as a "rape capital".

But sexual violence has remained a major issue, she said, and women still need to take precautions.

Sharma's own daughter is now studying in college, and she "knows what she has to do" to try to protect herself from danger.

Women passengers travel in the women-only compartment of a Delhi Metro train on Dec 9, 2022. (Photo: AFP/Money Sharma)

THE ACTIVIST

Hopes were high in 2012 that women's safety would improve, said Yogita Bhayana, an activist with the People Against Rapes in India (PARI) organisation.

"I really thought this might be the last case, that Nirbhaya might be the last case," Bhayana told AFP.

"But unfortunately this did not happen and we kept getting cases and things were very slow, (legal) procedures were very slow. Even till today, every single day our helpline gets five or six similar cases," she said.
THE PASSENGER

Lashita is a 19-year-old student who declined to give her full name. About to get the metro home after dark from central Delhi, she said that she does not feel safe on the train and uses the women-only carriage.

"Groping is the new 'good afternoon' in the metro," she told AFP. Women have to be careful "because men are not going to stop", she added.

Travelling late "really bothers my parents because they obviously have safety concerns in mind", she said.

"Maybe I am delusional enough to believe that nothing bad could happen to me, but it's a sad reality that everyone has to be careful."
Source: AFP/kg

Istanbul's opposition mayor barred from politics over 'insult'


Dmitry ZAKS
Wed, December 14, 2022 


A Turkish court on Wednesday sentenced Istanbul's popular opposition mayor to nearly three years jail in a politically charged defamation trial that effectively bars him from standing in next June's presidential election.

Ekrem Imamoglu's team immediately vowed to appeal his conviction in a case stemming from a remark he made after defeating President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ally in a hugely controversial 2019 mayoral vote.

People sentenced to less than four years are rarely put behind bars in Turkey.

But his conviction for "insulting a public official" disqualifies the 52-year-old mayor -- one of the brightest stars of Turkey's main secular party -- from politics for the duration of the sentence.

Imamoglu will continue heading Turkey's largest and most fabled city while his appeal winds its way through the courts.

"Government resign!" hundreds of Imamoglu supporters chanted outside the mayor's office moments after the verdict was read out.

"A handful of guys can't take away the power given to us by the people," Imamoglu defiantly told the crowd.
- 'Idiots' -

The trial focused on an offhand remark Imamoglu made to reporters a few months after defeating Erdogan's ally in a re-run election held after his first victory was annulled.

Officials reported discovering hundreds of thousands of "suspicious votes" after Erdogan refused to acknowledge Imamoglu's initial win in a city that he himself ran before entering national politics two decades ago.

The decision backfired badly on Erdogan's Islamic-rooted party.

Waves of protests and a groundswell of support from all political corners delivered Imamoglu an overwhelming victory in a re-run vote held that June.

Imamoglu let his frustration at the entire episode spill over a few months later by calling the people who annulled the first vote "idiots".

An Istanbul court sentenced Imamoglu to two years and seven-and-a-half months in prison for defamation.

It also applied a separate clause of the penal code that bars the mayor from politics.

Imamoglu's pending disqualification comes with Turkey's opposition parties still arguing about who should stand against Erdogan in next June's presidential vote.

The Istanbul mayor is among a handful of opposition leaders polls show could beat Erdogan in a head-to-head race.

- 'Revenge' -

Erdogan's domination of Turkish politics has been shaken by an economic crisis that has been compounded by his unconventional approach to interest rates.

But more recent polls show Erdogan's ratings beginning to recover thanks to his widely praised handling of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

This places even more pressure on the opposition to put aside their personal rivalries in the election campaign.

Imamoglu's CHP party is headed by Kemal Kilicdaroglu -- a leftist former civil servant who generally performs poorly in opinion polls.

The CHP has been holding round-table talks with five smaller allies about a single candidate who would not split the anti-Erdogan vote.

Those talks have been mired in arguments over policy and general unease about fielding Kilicdaroglu instead of someone more likely to beat Erdogan.

Imamoglu appeared to sense a guilty verdict coming when he told reporters this week that Kilicdaroglu was the only candidate who could represent the CHP.

Kilicdaroglu blamed the verdict squarely on Erdogan.

"We see how the law is being massacred, how the state has surrendered to the will of one person, how justice has been corrupted, how revenge is being carried out," Kilicdaroglu said in a video message recorded during a business trip to Berlin.

"But don't worry. We will defend justice until the end," he said before boarding an urgent flight back to Istanbul.

The ambitious, troubled Istanbul mayor taking on Erdogan

Istanbul's opposition mayor Ekrem Imamoglu has developed a personal rivalry with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan 

Issued on: 14/12/2022 

Istanbul (AFP) – Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu vowed to fight for a democratic revolution after initially being stripped of his victory over Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's ally in a 2019 election that again threatens to prematurely end his political career.

The smooth-talking opposition figure's whopping win in a re-run vote three months later turned him into one of the rising stars threatening to break Erdogan's two-decade domination of Turkish politics.

But an Istanbul criminal court ruled Wednesday that Imamoglu's offhand remark to reporters that the city's election officials were "idiots" was defamatory and sentenced him to nearly three years in jail.

It also barred him from politics for the duration of the sentence.

Imamoglu's has appealed, meaning that he will continue serving as mayor while putting his fate in the hands of judges whose impartially he questions all the time.

The case highlights Imamoglu's struggles since the heady days when he grabbed global attention by showing that Erdogan -- who prides himself on never losing an election -- was not invincible.

The 68-year-old Turkish leader launched his own political career as a fiery mayor of Istanbul in the 1990s.

Imamoglu may have been thinking of doing the same when he got Turkey's fractured opposition parties to rally around his mayoral candidacy three years ago.

"What we are doing now is a fight for democracy," Imamoglu told AFP in an interview conducted between the two rounds of voting.

"It will of course be a revolution once we carry it to its conclusion."

Protest wave

Imamoglu's rise from local Istanbul district leader to mayor came on an anti-Erdogan wave that allowed opposition parties to grab power in Turkey's most important cities -- including the capital Ankara.

Some voters were rebelling against the sweeping purges that followed a failed military putsch in 2016.

Others were disenchanted by an economic crisis that erupted with a breakdown in Turkish-US relations in 2018.

A new breed of leaders from the staunchly secular CHP party such as Imamoglu and Mansur Yavas in Ankara provided a clear alternative to Erdogan's Islamic-rooted AKP.

But Imamoglu and Yavas have taken sharply different courses since their joint victories in 2019.
Ekrem Imamoglu won the re-run of Istanbul's disputed 2019 mayoral election by a whopping margin © Onur GUNAL / Republican People's Party (CHP) Press Service/AFP

Yavas now ranks as the most likely potential candidate to beat Erdogan in presidential polls due by June 2023.

Analysts believe the secret to Yavas's success lies in his decision to steer well clear of national politics and to focus on fixing Ankara's problems.

Not so Imamoglu.

The Istanbul mayor crafts his media image and runs viral social media campaigns that both raise his profile and -- based on Twitter responses -- grate on many voters' nerves.

State media have turned him into a hate figure and polls show him having a far tougher time against Erdogan in a likely second round runoff than most other opposition leaders.

His troubles are compounded by Erdogan taking credit for many of the grand projects that have made Istanbul into a more livable city over recent years.
Missteps

Imamoglu has never hidden his presidential ambitions.

He studied business administration at Istanbul University and completed a masters degree in management before entering his family's construction business.

His love of football pushed him to become an administrator with his hometown team in the Black Sea port of Trabzon.

He soon joined the main opposition party and was elected mayor of the up-and-coming Beylikduzu district on the European side of Istanbul in 2014.

Imamoglu told reporters this year that he was not thinking of running for president "at this time".

He will have to tread carefully should the courts make him eligible to run for higher office any time soon.

Pro-government media were filled with images grabbed off surveillance cameras in January showing him having dinner at a fish restaurant with the UK ambassador.

Istanbul was then digging out from under a snowstorm and the pictures played into government portrayals of the mayor as out of touch and Western-backed.

His attempts to court state media backfired with a furore over a photo of his meeting with pro-government reporters aboard his tour bus in May.

Imamoglu shut down his spokesman's entire department after the photo emerged.

© 2022 AFP

Several confirmed dead after small boat sinks in English Channel

Issued on: 14/12/2022

Migrants, picked up at sea attempting to cross the English Channel from France, are brought ashore on a Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) lifeboat on December 9, 2022. © Ben Stansall, AFP

At least four people died when a small boat apparently packed with migrants capsized in freezing temperatures in the Channel overnight, the UK government said on Wednesday.

Dozens of others were plucked from the waters of one of the world's busiest shipping lanes in a large-scale rescue operation involving UK and French emergency services.

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called it a "tragic loss of human life", just as he tries to tighten rules to prevent record numbers of migrants from attempting the crossing.

British media said earlier that 43 people were rescued, including more than 30 who had fallen overboard, with fears the death toll will rise.

Migrants have been intercepted regularly in the Channel in recent years, using small boats ill-suited for trips on the open sea.

At least 27 people drowned while attempting to cross the Channel in a dinghy on November 24 last year.

>>Tributes for migrants as France admits it should have prevented Channel tragedy

The International Organization for Migration estimates that 205 migrants have been recorded as missing in the Channel since 2014.

Nikolai Posner, from the Utopia 56 group helping migrants in northern France, said they received a voice message and location notification from a boat in distress at 2:53am local time (01:53 GMT).

"We forwarded it to the French and British coastguard by phone. At 3:40am (02:40 GMT), the French coastguard told us the British were handling it," he told AFP.

"The location that was sent to us was in French waters. At 2:59am the person who contacted us was no longer receiving messages on WhatsApp."

Posner, however, said he could not be sure if the message originated from the same small boat.

Lifeboats

The UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) coordinated the rescue operation, which also involved Border Force, police and other emergency responders.

Lifeboats were launched from the Channel port of Dover at 3:07am British time (03:07 GMT), followed by vessels from Ramsgate and Hastings along the coast, it added.

A government spokesman said: "At 03:05 today, authorities were alerted to an incident in the Channel concerning a migrant small boat in distress.

"After a coordinated search and rescue operation led by HM Coastguard, it is with regret that there have been four confirmed deaths as a result of this incident, investigations are ongoing and we will provide further information in due course."

The MCA said at least four lifeboats and three coastguard rescue teams were dispatched, as well as two coastguard helicopters. A fishing vessel in the area also helped.

French officials provided a helicopters and a navy patrol boat.

Tens of thousands of migrants now regularly attempt to cross the Channel from northern France to southern England in small boats, in a trend that has grown hugely in recent years.

More than 43,000 migrants have made the journey across the Channel so far this year -- a record -- creating tensions between London and Paris about preventative measures.

Wednesday's incident came the day after UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a new deal with Albania to stem the flow of migrants crossing the Channel from mainland Europe.

A third of all those arriving in UK waters this year -- almost 13,000 -- have been Albanian.

He said that, under the agreement, Albanians arriving by boat across the Channel would be immediately returned to their home country.

Freezing weather conditions in northern Europe and windy conditions on the Channel have deterred crossings in recent days.

But a drop in the wind appears to have prompted the latest attempt.

Migrant welfare charities operating in France said winter conditions posed added to the dangers of trying to cross the Channel illicitly.

"Crossings are even more difficult in winter," said Utopia 56's Posner.

"The cold makes a difference if people fall overboard, the survival time in the water is much lower."

He added the risk of deadly hypothermia was "extremely high" once people entered the water.

(AFP)

Ghana reaches $3B IMF deal to battle economic crisis

BY AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE - AFP ACCRA, GHANA DEC 13, 2022 


View of shops closed by their traders in protest of Ghana's worsening economic conditions, Accra, Ghana, Oct. 19, 2022. (Reuters Photo)



Ghana on Tuesday agreed on a $3 billion credit deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as part of the country's battle to end its worst economic crisis in decades.

The West African state is facing over 40% inflation, a risky debt burden and a sharp decline in its cedi currency since the start of the year.

The IMF said Ghana's government had committed to "a wide-ranging economic reform program" that will restore stability and debt sustainability.

"These are really grave times and in a really difficult economic environment," Finance Minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta told reporters in Accra.

"But this now today paves the way for the IMF management and executive board to approve Ghana's program request early, hopefully, next year."

The three-year IMF loan agreement has yet to be approved by the fund's board.

The program also aims to reduce inflation, strengthen the economy's resilience to external shocks and improve market confidence in the country, the IMF said.

A top cocoa and gold producer, Ghana also has oil and gas reserves, but its debt has soared, and like the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, it has been hit hard by fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war.

The crisis forced President Nana Akufo-Addo's government to reverse its position earlier this year and seek IMF help as economists warned of a default on debt payments.

The government has already announced a domestic debt swap as part of the program to ease a crunch in payments and is soon expected to release details about restructuring foreign debt.
'Good news'

IMF mission chief Stephane Roudet said IMF board approval for the deal would come after Ghana's creditors give assurances and the debt exchange program is shown to be sufficient.

"What is very important for the IMF is that the government strategy as a whole be sufficient to put debt on a sustainable path and to bring debt sustainability over the medium term," he said.

The government has already increased value-added tax (VAT) by 2.5% and frozen state-sector hiring to help trim spending and boost domestic revenues.

Officials say vulnerable groups will be protected, but critics are concerned the government program will lead to more austerity.

"Ghana having reached a staff-level deal with the IMF is quite good news, although we have yet to get the full details. But on the whole, it will facilitate the final approval," Ghanaian economist Daniel Anim Amarteye said.

"The government really needs the bailout to bring about macroeconomic stability and credibility."

Debt payments currently gobble up more than half of government revenues. A 50% slide in the cedi against the dollar has also increased Ghana's debt values by $6 billion this year.

Major credit rating agencies have downgraded their outlook on Ghana, reflecting market worries that the country risked missing debt payments.

The IMF negotiations came after a new tax on electronic transactions, known, as the E-levy, faced resistance and failed to generate expected revenue levels for the government.

Once a star, Ghana battles economic crisis

Issued on: 14/12/2022

Ghana's cedi has lost half its value since the start of the year 

© Nipah Dennis / AFP


Accra (AFP) – The packing machine at Nakobs' Pac factory in the outskirts of Ghana's capital Accra is running at full pace, churning out sachets of treated drinking water.

But all is not well at Nakobs'. Like other small businesses in Ghana these days, owner Daniel Tekyi is struggling.

With inflation at over 50 percent, the currency worth half what it was last year, fuel prices doubling and debt payments gobbling up more than half the government's revenues, Ghana is battling its worst economic crisis in decades.

Ghana signed a $3 billion bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund on Tuesday in a bid to shore up public finances, but economic stability is still a way off.

"It would be better for us to close the factory," said Tekyi. "We really don't know when this crisis is going to end."

Once applauded as a rock of economic stability and security in a region plagued by coups and jihadist wars, Ghana has steadily lost investor confidence.

Like much of the continent, Ghana slowly emerged from the pandemic only to face the fallout of the war in Ukraine and the surge in fuel and food costs.

Facing a crunch in payments, President Nana Akufo-Addo this year reversed course from his "Ghana Beyond Aid" concept and entered talks with the IMF for a bailout.

Already, the government has announced a 2.5 percent increase in VAT and a freeze on public worker hires to help cut costs and hike revenues. A debt restructuring is underway.

With an IMF team in Accra, Finance Minister Kenneth Ofori-Atta promised the credit deal, debt swap and a reform package would restore investor confidence and steer the economy out of "grave times".

But many Ghanaians are bracing for potential austerity before any stability returns, with the impact of new taxes and spending cuts.

How Ghana's government emerges may also have political fallout. Elections are two years away with Akufo-Addo stepping aside and ruling New Patriotic Party or NPP allies already jostling for position for primaries in early 2023.

Feeling the pressure: Ghana is battling its worst economic crisis in decades 

© Nipah Dennis / AFP

The government has to find ways to mitigate any impact from reforms, especially on public sector employment and high taxes, economist Daniel Anim Amarteye said.

"If that is not done, it could be politically fatal," he said.

Dimmed star

Ghana's economic story was brighter a few years ago. Before the pandemic, the West African state was a star with fast growth rates, growing oil production and strong investor interest.

But its high level of debt was a looming problem.

Since the start of the year, its cedi currency has lost half its value, which has helped increase its debt burden by $6 billion, with warnings Ghana risked a default.

A major part of the IMF agreement is bringing the country back to debt sustainability through a restructuring, calling on investors to exchange bonds for new ones maturing later.

IMF approval of the $3 billion loan will depend on its success. Officials say they have the means to help offset any impact on local banks or pension funds -- major holders of domestic bonds.

But Ghana's major labour movement, the Trades Union Congress, is already rumbling over the deal's potential impact on workers' pensions.

Opposition National Democratic Congress has been quick to blame Akufo-Addo's government for ballooning debt, even trying and failing to censure the finance minister.

Under pressure: Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo

 © SAUL LOEB / AFP

"No matter how the IMF programme turns out and how they can turn the corner, the records will show that they took us to 40 percent inflation, the records will show the market was closed to us, the markets will show the cedi depreciated 54 percent," said NDC lawmaker Isaac Adongo.

Akufo-Addo's government spent heavily on social programmes such as free high schools. But his ruling New Patriotic Party says the crisis is all about external shocks -- Covid and Russia's war in Ukraine.

"Assuming Covid didn't happen, what would our story be?" NPP communications director Richard Ahiagbah told AFP.

Daily struggle

Testifying before parliament last month, Ofori-Atta apologised to Ghanaians for their pain, but officials dismissed NDC charges of mismanagement.

But political calculations are not a luxury Patience Tesonkeh can afford.

Stung by the soaring price of cooking gas, the single mother switched to cheaper charcoal to cook. Her usual weekly shopping budget no longer stretches to all her family's needs.

"I withdrew 300 cedis ($20) thinking I would get everything I needed but I couldn't," she said on a recent trip to buy rice, fish and yams at a market in her Accra neighbourhood.

Unionised traders and shopkeepers in the capital also closed their businesses last month in a three-day protest over rising living costs.

For factory owner Tekyi the numbers just don't add up. Production and transport now total 5.8 cedis per water bag. But he can only sell them for five.

Mineral water company Nakobs' Pac is selling at a loss 

© Nipah Dennis / AFP

"We planned closing our factory because we are not making any profit," he said.

"But we had a second thought that if we close and we lay off our workers, how can they also survive? So for now, we are producing and making a loss."

© 2022 AFP

Palestinians say World Cup proves their cause not 'buried'

Issued on: 14/12/2022 -

A member of Morocco's team holds a Palestinian flag after the team won the penalty shoot-out to win the Qatar 2022 World Cup round of 16 football match against Spain on December 6, 2022 © KARIM JAAFAR / AFP/File

Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Morocco's support for the Palestinians during the Atlas Lions' historic World Cup run shows the cause has not been "buried", says Palestinian Football Association chief Jibril Rajoub.

Like several other Arab nations, Morocco has agreed full diplomatic ties with Israel -- but this has not stopped its players from making clear their loyalties regarding the decades-old conflict.

They unfurled a Palestinian flag on the pitch after their stunning December 6 upset victory against Spain, and also after beating Canada during the group stage.

Moroccan players have also made pro-Palestinian social media posts during the tournament.

Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Gaza and annexed east Jerusalem have -- like much of the Middle East -- embraced Morocco, the first Arab nation to reach a World Cup semi-finals.

Ramallah sporting goods store owner Saeed al-Ramahi said enthusiasm for the Moroccan team seemed unquenchable, with all of their jerseys sold out.

"If I had 300,000 shirts, I would have sold them all in the last two days," he told AFP.

Jibril Rajoub, who is president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, with Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee, meeting young football players in the West Bank city of Al-Ram on September 19, 2022 © ABBAS MOMANI / AFP/File

That is despite Morocco joining the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain in establishing full diplomatic ties with Israel in 2020 under deals brokered by then US president Donald Trump.

Rajoub, the Palestinian top football official, said this proves the enduring support for the Palestinian cause, regardless of any decisions made by Arab leaders.

"The World Cup reveals the lie that the Palestinian cause has been buried by the recent normalisation agreements" said Rajoub, who is also the secretary general of Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's Fatah movement.

Palestinians condemned those normalisation deals as "a stab in the back," and a betrayal of the decades-old Arab League position against recognising Israel until it agrees to the establishment of a Palestinian state with its capital in east Jerusalem.
'Slap in the face'

Arab states did however secure diplomatic gains through the agreements.

A Palestinian boy plays football on the street next to Israeli security forces on patrol in the city center of Hebron in the occupied West Bank, on November 18, 2022

 © HAZEM BADER / AFP/File

In Morocco's case, that included the Trump administration recognising Rabat's sovereignty over the disputed territory of Western Sahara, in defiance of the international community's long-standing call for a referendum to decide its status.

Rajoub described the World Cup, including the Moroccan gestures and the widespread expressions of Palestinian solidarity across Qatar, as "a slap in the face to the idea of normalisation".

The leading Palestinian public polling group, in a study released Tuesday, argued that "the World Cup in Qatar helps restore Palestinian public trust in the Arab world after years of disappointment".

"The vast majority of the Palestinians say they have now regained much, or some, of the lost confidence in the Arab peoples in light of the solidarity with Palestine expressed by the fans during the football games," said the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research.

A fan wears a Palestinian flag during the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group D football match between France and Denmark at Stadium 974 in Doha, on November 26, 2022

 © MAHMUD HAMS / AFP/File

Rajoub called Palestinians the "33rd team" to qualify for the tournament in Qatar.
'Bitter truth'

Hazem Qassem, a spokesman for Gaza's rulers, the Islamist armed group Hamas who are backed strongly by Qatar, said the World Cup has affirmed the importance of the Palestinian cause "on the international scene".

Israel is home to hundreds of thousands of Jews of Moroccan descent and some in the country have celebrated the side's stunning performance ahead of its semi-final match against France on Wednesday.

A pitch invader with a Palestinian flag seen during the Qatar 2022 World Cup Group D football match between Tunisia and France on November 30, 2022 

© Adrian DENNIS / AFP/File

But leading Israeli media outlets have conceded that, despite forecasts about a changed Middle East following the normalisation deals, the World Cup has made clear where Arab sympathies lie.

"The Moroccan festivities at the World Cup have proven that the Arab world is far from normalisation with Israel", the Maariv newspaper said in a commentary on Sunday.

"As Israeli viewers, we will continue to watch until the final whistle, while witnessing the bitter truth that the Arab fans have put before our eyes," it said.

The left-wing Haaretz newspaper agreed, concluding that "the real winner of the World Cup on social media is Palestine".

© 2022 AFP

FIRST THEY HAVE TO BEAT FRANCE

Football fans are going wild for bizarre theory that suggests Morocco will win the World Cup

Story by Sam Torrance • Yesterday - Give Me Sport

A bizarre theory doing the rounds on social media has identified Morocco as the soon-to-be winners of the 2022 World Cup of Qatar.

The Northwest African nation have been the shock of the tournament so far after defying all odds to reach the semi-final stage.

Drawn in what looked a seriously tough group that contained Belgium, Croatia and Canada, the lesser fancied nation claimed some major scalps and triumphed as group winners.

Most notably, they beat Belgium, who were ranked as the second-best international team in the world by FIFA at the time, in style.

However, they also conceded just one goal, which came in their 4-1 demolition of Canada.

Although the success Morocco experienced in the group stage was expected to end right there, for in the round of 16, they were drawn against Spain.

Poor Spain. The European footballing superpower had no idea of the task that lay before them, and Morocco eventually dumped them out of the competition via penalty shootout after a hard-fought encounter.


AL RAYYAN, QATAR – DECEMBER 06: Yassine Bounou of Morocco is thrown into the air following the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Round of 16 match between Morocco and Spain at Education City Stadium on December 06, 2022 in Al Rayyan, Qatar. 

(Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Portugal were up next and they too fell at the hands of Morocco. And like every other nation bar Canada, failed to score in the process.

So, after all their victories, the team find themselves the first African nation ever to make it to the semi-final stage of a World Cup.

Now, though, one bizarre theory has predicted things to go even further for Walid Regragui and his men.

What is the theory?

The theory finds its basis in former Chelsea players and the shirt numbers they wore at the time

Strange? Absolutely, but stick with us.

Back in 2010, Juan Mata was donning the number 10 shirt for the Blues whilst representing the Spanish national team.

Remember who won the World Cup in 2010? That’s right, Spain.

Fast forward four years. Andre Schurrle is a Chelsea player wearing the number 14 at the club. He heads to Rio de Janeiro for the Brazilian World Cup and, yep, Germany wins it.

What a coincidence. But then in 2018, Olivier Giroud, now playing for Chelsea rather than Arsenal, wins the World Cup with France whilst using the number 18 at Stamford Bridge prior to the tournament.

It really is madness – and the most incredible thing: the current occupier of Chelsea’s number 22 shirt is none other than Morocco’s very own, Hakim Ziyech.

Now, we’re not saying it will happen but if it somehow does, then this theory could be even more crazy heading into the 2026 tournament.

Over to you, Morocco.

Morocco faces France in politically charged WCup semifinal

Yesterday 

RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Hind Sabouni bristles with pride as she recalls her country's history-making World Cup run as it eliminated one European soccer powerhouse and former Africa colonial power after another — Belgium, Spain and Cristiano Ronaldo's Portugal — to become the first African and Arab nation to reach the semifinals.


Morocco faces France in politically charged WCup semifinal© Provided by The Canadian Press

For the 26-year-old English teacher in Morocco's capital, and many of her countrymen both inside the North African nation and throughout the diaspora, it's about to get more complicated. Next up is France: Morocco’s former colonial ruler for much of the first half of the 20th century.

Wednesday’s match has political and emotional resonance for both nations. It dredges up everything that’s complex about the relationship in which France still wields considerable economic, political and cultural influence.

“This game is one of a kind,” Sabouni said. “Especially since France is next to beat.”

“We can show the rest of the world that Morocco is no longer France’s backyard."

For the former protectorate, the match against the defending champion is an opportunity to show that Morocco is a formidable foe — on the soccer pitch at least — even though immigration between the two countries has blurred the lines for many in France and Morocco about who to support Wednesday in Qatar.

Over the past decade, Morocco’s relationship with France has changed. Sabouni said her generation of Moroccans is tired of France’s dominance. Young Moroccans, she said, “speak English instead of French, they buy more American products than French ones and even those who want to seek a better life abroad try to avoid France.”

“Even though this is just a football game, some people view it as an opportunity for revenge,” Sabouni said.

But not everyone.

Kenza Bartali, a communications professional in Rabat, sees no political overtones to the match. She obtained her masters degree in France, and lived for two years in Paris and the southern cities of Nice and Toulon between 2016 and 2018. She made “wonderful friends" who are still her friends today. “Most Moroccan students were treated with respect," the 26-year-old said.

Related video: Defending champions France get ready for historic clash with Morocco (SNTV)
Duration 1:26   View on Watch


Still, there is no doubt which team she's supporting.

“I sincerely hope that Morocco advances to the final,” Bartali said. “I am aware that it will be difficult because France is a very good team, but we are hoping for the best.”

Sabouni's sentiments resonate with Moroccans and other North Africans in France. Although the younger generation of immigrants from Africa and Asia and their descendants appear to be more at ease with multiple identities and languages in France, they still face institutional discrimination, racial and ethnic prejudice in public life, economic hardship and lack of job opportunities.

Like in previous World Cups, France once again has turned to their national soccer team made up of players from diverse backgrounds as evidence that the country has indeed become a melting pot despite lurking prejudice, stoked against immigrants by elected right-wing politicians.

“Cultural changes and changes in life on the ground do have an effect and the team represents that,” said Laurent Dubois, a professor at University of Virginia in Charlottesville who has authored two books on French and international soccer.

“The way the players inhabit being French and don’t seem to have an issue with also being African or anything else at the same time is an antidote to the immigrant resentment on the right.”

In Morocco, people have embraced the team's foreign-born players as their native sons. They welcome the experience and professionalism they bring from Europe's top clubs and are proud they chose Morocco as their national team when they could have played for the countries of their births, from Spain to Canada to Belgium and beyond.

The Morocco national team depends heavily on the diaspora, with 14 of the squad’s 26 players born abroad, including their French-born coach, Walid Regragui, the highest proportion for any team at the World Cup.

Like Morocco’s supporters at home and an estimated 5 million scattered around Europe and beyond, many players grapple with family tales of colonial history, the challenges of immigration and questions of national loyalty. They want desperately to detach from the burdens of the past and win a place in the World Cup final — whether home for them is in France or Morocco, or Belgium, Canada, Tunisia, Algeria or elsewhere.

“Most of the Moroccan players, who were born abroad, chose Morocco as their national team because they feel they play for more than just to win a football match,” said Maher Mezahi, a Marseille-based Algerian journalist covering African football. “They play to elevate national pride and to make their family proud."

For Regragui, his and his player's dual identities are meaningless in the biggest match the squad has faced.

“I’m a dual national, and that’s an honor and a pleasure,” the Moroccan coach said. “And it’s an honor and a pleasure to face France. But I’m the Morocco coach and we’re going to be playing the best team in the world. The most important thing is to get through to the final.”

“When we play for the Moroccan national team, we are Moroccans,” Regragui said.

—-

Surk reported from Nice, France.

Tarik El Barakah And Barbara Surk, The Associated Press

History-makers Morocco eye France upset at World Cup

John WEAVER
Wed, December 14, 2022 


History-making Morocco look to pull off another upset against holders France in the World Cup semi-finals on Wednesday with Argentina and Lionel Messi lying in wait for the winner.

France know victory against surprise package Morocco would leave them just one win away from becoming the first team in 60 years to successfully defend the trophy.

Didier Deschamps' men are heavy favourites to win at the Al Bayt Stadium but face a Morocco team that have conceded just one goal in a remarkable giant-killing run that has seen them become the first team from Africa ever to reach the last four of a World Cup.


Morocco have already upset 2010 champions Spain and highly rated Portugal on the way to the semi-finals, a record that left France captain Hugo Lloris warning his team-mates against complacency.


"When a team is capable of beating Belgium, Spain and Portugal, and finish top of their group, it is because they have lots of quality on the field and undoubtedly off it too, in terms of cohesion and team spirit," Lloris said.

"They will be formidable opponents, and on top of that there will be a hostile atmosphere in the stadium."

Deschamps' team are closing in on a third World Cup triumph in seven tournaments but will be aware that no team have retained the World Cup since Pele's Brazil performed the feat in 1962.
- Fan factor -

Wednesday's game will have added spice given France was Morocco's colonial power and more than a million Moroccans live in the country.

Their not-so-secret weapon on Wednesday will be the incredible support from fans in the stadium and across the Arab world.

"There is a popular fervour behind them," said Deschamps. "It will be very noisy and my players have been warned about that. They know what to expect."

Morocco coach Walid Regragui, who was born near Paris and spent most of his playing career in the French league, believes his team have become the neutral's favourite.


But he is adamant his side are not just there to make up the numbers.

"If we are happy just to reach the semi-finals, and some see that as enough, I don't agree," said Regragui.

"If you get to the semi-finals and you are not hungry then there is a problem."

"The best team in the tournament, Brazil, is already out. We are an ambitious team and we are hungry but I don't know if that will be enough," he added.
- Dream final? -

Morocco will be out to wreck the possibility of what many neutrals would see as a dream climax to the tournament, pitting Les Bleus' Kylian Mbappe against his Paris Saint-Germain team-mate Messi in a France-Argentina final on Sunday.

Messi, playing in his fifth World Cup, has been a man on a mission during the finals in Qatar, desperately hoping to crown his career by leading Argentina to their first World Cup crown since Diego Maradona inspired the South Americans to the title in Mexico in 1986.

On Tuesday, Messi produced flashes of genius at crucial moments to help Argentina to a convincing 3-0 victory over Croatia in the semi-finals in what was arguably the team's best performance of the finals so far.

Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot and Manchester City forward Julian Alvarez doubled Argentina's lead shortly before half-time after bursting through the middle, aided by two fortunate bounces.

Messi then produced a moment of magic in the 69th minute to set up Alvarez for his second, which killed the game and set up the 35-year-old for another shot at history after he suffered a bitter defeat to Germany in the 2014 final.

Messi later confirmed that he expects Sunday's final to be his last appearance at a World Cup.

"Being able to achieve this, being able to finish my journey in the World Cups by playing my last game in a final, is something very exciting," the Argentine captain said.

jw-rcw/jw

Paris fears France vs Morocco will cause 'civil war' on Champs-Elysees
Henry Samuel
Tue, December 13, 2022

Paris official fear France v Morocco will cause ‘civil war’ on Champs-Elysees - GETTY IMAGES

A Paris official on Tuesday asked for the Champs-Elysees to be closed for Wednesday’s World Cup semi-final clash between France and Morocco, fearing “the world’s beautiful avenue” could turn into a “battlefield” with scenes of “civil war” after the high-stakes encounter.

Paris says it will mobilise 2,000 police across the city during the game but Jeanne d'Hauteserre, the local mayor of the 8th arrondissement - where the Champs-Elysees is based - called the number “insufficient”.

On CNews, she said: "When you want to celebrate victory, you don't come with mortars. But these people are really only coming to smash with iron bars.

“For Wednesday, everyone is afraid of a war, a guerrilla war, a civil war, and we do not want the Champs-Elysees to be transformed into a battlefield.”

After Morocco’s shock victory over Portugal in the quarter-finals of the competition in Qatar, around 20,000 fans descended onto Paris’ Champs-Elysees.

While the ambiance was mainly festive, later that night, sporadic clashes broke out between troublemakers and police who fired tear gas and charged several times. Several shops were damaged, cars were set on fire and there were 100 arrests.

The incidents prompted concerns of more serious unrest in Paris and other major cities after the France-Morocco clash.

France’s Moroccan community numbers around 1.5 million, half of whom are dual nationals. While many say they are torn between supporting France and Morocco, a former French protectorate, thousands are rooting for the underdogs who are the first side from an African or Arab nation to reach this stage of the competition.

While the Champs-Elysees has traditionally become a focal point for festivities after major football matches and other sports victories, the mayor of the 8th arrondissement said it would be prudent to shut the avenue that joins the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Triomphe down - a measure she said that was already taken “at New Year’s Eve” to avoid violence and vandalism.

Paris official fear France v Morocco will cause ‘civil war’ on Champs-Elysees - SHUTTERSTOCK

“The only way is to create a perimeter and whatever happens from 8pm there should be no more access,” she told France Bleu.

It was essential to “avoid moments of panic because that is where most accidents occur”, she said, recalling a tragic incident on the night of France’s World Cup victory of 1998 in which a woman in a car panicked and drove into revellers, killing two and injuring 150 on the avenue. “It is to avoid this and to avoid vandals with firework rockets,” she said.

Also speaking on CNews, Herve Moreau, a reservist gendarmerie captain, warned: “On Wednesday, things will go badly for sure. Whatever people say, I can assure you there will be clashes and riots.”

But speaking on the same channel, Franco-Moroccan essayist Naima M’Fadel reminded viewers that in France, scuffles between troublemakers and the police are the bane of almost every demonstration, union or otherwise. “Such violent acts are carried out by a minority of thugs. Justice must be firm against these thugs who cast anathema on the majority who celebrated Morocco’s victory in good spirits and fraternity,” she said.

Socialist Paris region councillor Julien Dray, who was present on the Champs on Saturday night, said Morocco fans should not be singled out as most came to celebrate and were just as “sad” as everyone else about troublemakers. “These vandals don’t support France or Morocco. They’re just violent individuals who only come for a fight,” he said.

In Doha, temperatures are running high ahead of the France-Morocco game. France is a former colonial ruler of Morocco and has a large Moroccan diaspora, concentrated mainly around Paris and the Mediterranean coast area. While ethnicity figures do not exist in France, estimates put the number of Franco-Moroccans and Moroccans living in France at about 1 million. FRANCE 2's team, FRANCE 24's Carolyn Lamboley and Camille Nedelec met with supporters of both teams.