In Case You Missed It: 1/3/17 – 1/16/17

Reuters

Gam­bian pres­i­dent-elect Adama Barrow

This week’s most impor­tant head­lines out of and about Africa.

In this week’s news,world lead­ers wrap up the 2017 France-Africa sum­mit in Mali, and embat­tled Gam­bian leader Yayah Jam­meh con­tin­ues to lead the Africa news head­lines around the world.

With France-Africa sum­mit 2017, Fran­cois Hol­lande Builds Africa legacy

This week the 27^th France-Africa sum­mit was held in Bamako, Mali.

The event brought togeth­er heads of state and gov­ern­ments from over 20 African coun­tries, as well as rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the Unit­ed Nations, the African Union, the Euro­pean Union, the World Bank, the Inter­na­tion­al Mon­e­tary Fund and many oth­er institutions.

More than just an annu­al sum­mit for these lead­ers to come togeth­er, euronews reports that the agen­da was full with impor­tant mat­ters affect­ing inter­na­tion­al secu­ri­ty, democ­ra­cy, busi­ness and invest­ment for all involved.

The sum­mit took the deci­sion to step up their efforts to allow access to finance for com­pa­nies wish­ing to invest in Africa to pro­mote invest­ments in the coun­try, accord­ing to The New Times, a Rwan­dan newspaper.

Co-chaired by French Pres­i­dent Fran­cois Hol­lande, as well as Malian pres­i­dent, Ibrahim Boubacar Kei­ta, the event was char­ac­ter­ized as a swan­song for Hol­lande, whom the Zim­bab­we Her­ald thinks has put his lega­cy first by insist­ing that the sum­mit take place in Mali.

“Mali is cer­tain­ly a lot calmer and safer than it was four years ago when a jihadist/separatist insur­gency erupt­ed in the north – but it is by no means com­plete­ly secure,” a cor­re­spon­dent for the Her­ald said.

The Pres­i­dent-Elect of Gam­bia Waits in the Wings 

As Don­ald Trump pre­pares to assume the U.S. pres­i­den­cy, the world is watch­ing what could hap­pen in Gam­bia as incum­bent pres­i­dent, Yayah Jam­meh refus­es to hand over power.

The pres­i­dent-elect, Adama Bar­row, is wait­ing for Jam­meh to leave so that he could be installed as the coun­try’s next pres­i­dent. Jam­meh was defeat­ed in the country’s Decem­ber 1 pres­i­den­tial elec­tion. So far he has refused to con­cede, after ini­tial­ly accept­ing the results.

The Eco­nom­ic Com­mu­ni­ty of West African States (ECOWAS) group of nations has said it is prepar­ing to take action on the coun­try. Also, the Africa Union has stat­ed that it will not rec­og­nize Jam­meh as the country’s legit­i­mate president.

Many African lead­ers, includ­ing Muham­madu Buhari from Nige­ria, have trav­elled to the Gam­bian cap­i­tal Ban­jul, to bro­ker a solu­tion to the cri­sis and have not suc­ceed­ed. The tense sit­u­a­tion has not only left Gam­bians and neigh­bor­ing nations prepar­ing for the worst, region­al lead­ers are prepar­ing for an inva­sion to remove Jam­meh from power.

Read more:  Africa’s mixed polit­i­cal tran­si­tions in the 3 Gs: Gabon, the Gam­bia, and Ghana

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