In Case you Missed It 2/22/16 — 2/27/16

The most impor­tant in this week’s head­lines out of and con­cern­ing Africa, for those who need help catch­ing up.

In this week’s news, after a runoff elec­tion the Cen­tral African Repub­lic picks Faustin Archange Touadéra to lead the coun­try, the U.S. con­sid­ers action to stem the tide in Boko Haram-relat­ed killings in Nige­ria, and Zim­bab­we’s leader cel­e­brates his 92nd birth­day amid a clam­or for him to step down from office.

The U.S Con­sid­ers Train­ing To Boost Niger­ian Military

Boko Haram, the ter­ror­ist orga­ni­za­tion said to be affil­i­at­ed with the Islam­ic State(ISIS) has been a huge fac­tor in the killings of civil­ians and the destruc­tion of vil­lages in Nige­ria and neigh­bor­ing countries.

In what may be seen as a “surge” to help the Niger­ian nation, the Pen­ta­gon is con­sid­er­ing send­ing mil­i­tary advis­ers to Nige­ria to train local troops to fight the insur­gents and boost security.

This report from News24 cites a few rec­om­men­da­tions that have been made, one of which is to send a group of U.S. advis­ers to train local Niger­ian forces. We are told the advis­ers would not be in com­bat role.

This rec­om­men­da­tion is not a new one. In late 2014, such a mis­sion was sug­gest­ed but it was stopped amid US con­cerns of sus­pect­ed abus­es by the Niger­ian army and its fail­ures to pro­tect civilians.

Offi­cials stat­ed that since the new Niger­ian pres­i­dent, Muham­madu Buhari took office, ties with the U.S. have great­ly improved. Buhari has been will­ing to do more than his pre­de­ces­sor, Good­luck Jonathan, to fight Boko Haram.

The rec­om­men­da­tions are still being assessed.

With A New Leader, Cen­tral African Repub­lic Looks To Chal­lenges Ahead

The results are in! After vot­ing on Feb­ru­ary 14, the Cen­tral African Repub­lic has a new pres­i­dent.

For­mer Prime Min­is­ter, Faustin Archange Touadera, received 63 per­cent of the votes in the runoff elec­tions, accord­ing to pre­lim­i­nary results.

The coun­try was plunged into tur­moil in 2013 when Mus­lim rebels from the Sele­ka umbrel­la group seized pow­er in the major­i­ty Chris­t­ian coun­try. To counter the Sele­ka, a band of most­ly Chris­t­ian mili­tias, called the anti-Bal­a­ka took up arms in a pow­er strug­gle which result­ed in the death of thou­sands of civilians.

Once he assumes his new role in April, the new pres­i­dent will be faced with many chal­lenges, includ­ing the need for rec­on­cil­i­a­tion between the Sele­ka and the anti-Bal­a­ka groups. The groups still con­trol mul­ti­ple parts of the coun­try.  The ques­tion that remains is, how will the new pres­i­dent go about dis­arm­ing the rebel these groups?

Touadera has stat­ed that his focus would be on rebuild­ing the coun­try’s econ­o­my. The Cen­tral African Repub­lic remains one of the poor­est coun­tries in Africa.

Mugabe Cel­e­brates 92nd Birth­day, Oppo­nents Cry Foul

At a time when Zim­bab­we is fac­ing hard­ships, the coun­try’s pres­i­dent, Robert Mugabe orga­nized his 92^nd birth­day with a tab amount­ing to almost $1 million.

Recent­ly the pres­i­dent said “no one would starve as a result of a drought.” Mean­while the sit­u­a­tion has already left three mil­lion peo­ple in need and prompt­ed the dec­la­ra­tion of a state of dis­as­ter in most rur­al areas.

“Nine­ty-two bal­loons were released and he lis­tened to poet­ry read­ings, songs and chants hail­ing him as an African icon and a visionary.”

The birth­day con­tro­ver­sy cen­ters on the fact that the par­ty took place in Masvin­go, a province in which 75 per­cent of the sta­ple maize crop was destroyed by the drought con­di­tions, “mak­ing it the hard­est-hit in Zim­bab­we in the worst drought since the ear­ly 1990s.”