African demands at UN General Debate

On Tuesday, the Cameroonian President of the UN General Assembly Philémon Yang opened the 79th UN General Debate in New York. More than 140 Heads of State and Government were invited to discuss the promotion of peace, sustainable development and human dignity for present and future generations under the motto ‘Leaving no one behind’. The ongoing violence in the Middle East and Ukraine as well as African demands for a reform of the UN Security Council have been at the centre of the debate so far.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, for example, sharply criticised Israel’s military action in Gaza in his speech on Tuesday and warned the international community against the selective application of international law. South Africa had clearly condemned the Hamas attacks of 7 October 2023, in which 1,200 people were killed, but would not stand by silently while apartheid was perpetrated in Gaza and Palestinians were collectively punished for the atrocities committed by Hamas, Ramaphosa emphasised. South Africa had filed a genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on 29 December last year. In front of the UN General Assembly, Ramaphosa once again called for an immediate ceasefire and the release of the hostages and spoke out in favour of the two-state solution. Although Angolan President João Lourenço reaffirmed Israel’s right to protect its territory and ensure the safety of its citizens, he agreed with South Africa’s assessment of the Israeli military strikes as genocide.

Julius Maada Bio, the President of Sierra Leone, also commented on the current conflicts and called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, Sudan, the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo and Ukraine. He appealed to the United Nations to provide greater support for peace initiatives under African leadership. Sierra Leone is a prime example of how peace can be achieved through dialogue and the support of organisations such as the UN and the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Bio emphasised, echoing the calls of numerous African leaders for a reform of the UN Security Council and greater involvement of the African continent. Specifically, this relates to the demand of for two permanent seats, including the right of veto, and three non-permanent seats on the Security Council, which was already set out in the Ezulwini Consensus of the African Union in 2005. Germany also supports these demands. Before the start of the UN General Assembly, the US, as the first veto power on the Security Council, had also announced its support for the creation of two permanent seats for Africa, but rejected the concession of a veto right.

The Security Council reforms also played an important role at the so-called Future Summit of the UN, which also took place in New York from Sunday to Monday. Opened by Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Namibian President Nangolo Mbumba, the summit adopted a comprehensive reform package for the UN in the form of the ‘Pact for the Future’. The focus is on the core areas of sustainable development, peace, science, youth and global institutions; a digital pact also calls for guidelines for dealing with technology revolutions, cybercrime and cybersecurity as well as artificial intelligence. Countries of the Global South have made important concessions in the ‘Pact for the Future’. For example, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund are to find measures to curb over-indebtedness, strengthen the lending capacities of development banks and give the coun-tries of the Global South a greater say in decision-making in international financial institutions in order to ensure the financing of climate adaptation and the energy transition. In addition, the UN is committed to reforming the Security Council with concrete plans for the first time to improve the Council’s efficiency and representativeness, including prioritising the elimination of Africa’s historical underrepresentation. However, the implementation of this reform requires a comprehensive amendment to the UN Charter, which must be ap-proved by two-thirds of UN members, including the five permanent members of the Security Council. The UN General Assembly ends next Monday.

New wave of arrests in Tanzania

Several opposition politicians were again briefly arrested in Tanzania on Monday, including the chairman of the Chama cha Demokrasia na Maendeleo (CHADEMA) party, Freeman Mbowe, and his deputy Tundu Lissu. Both were released on bail in the evening. The arrests were made in the coastal town of Dar es Salaam ahead of a planned demonstration against the recent alleged abductions and murders of party members. Among others, the head of the National Secretariat, Ali Mohamed Kibao, was found dead at the beginning of September, for which CHADEMA holds the security forces responsible. The police had banned the demonstration after President Dr. Samia Suluhu Hassan had advised against protests last week and emphasised that her government would not tolerate any threat to public order. Despite the ban, CHADEMA continued to organise the rally.

Over the weekend, police were out in force on the streets of Dar es Salaam, using water cannons to prevent protests. According to police, a total of 14 people were arrested for violating the ban on demonstrations, including Mbowe and Lissu.

The political climate in Tanzania, where local elections are due at the end of the year and parliamentary and presidential elections next year, continues to deteriorate, dampening hopes for political reform under Suluhu Hassan of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi Party (CCM), who became the first woman to take over the presidency in March 2021. As recently as August, around 520 CHADEMA members were arrested at a planned rally by the party’s youth organisation in Mbeya (Press Review CW 33/2024). Human rights groups and diplomatic missions, including the US embassy, called for an independent investigation, while President Suluhu Hassan warned against outside interference. Critics, such as Amnesty International, see the government’s actions as a strategy to suppress the opposition ahead of the upcoming elections. The opposition has already announced that it will continue its resistance. It remains to be seen whether the president will increase the political pressure further or focus on dialogue with the opposition.

In other news

The pilot phase of a new AI app has been launched in South Sudan to help treat snake bites more quickly and precisely. The software, co-developed by Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), uses a database of 380,000 snake images to identify venomous species and thus helps to choose the right antidote. So far, the software is being used in two hospitals and is already showing promising results. For example, the AI can now distinguish between bites from venomous snakes such as the Egyptian cobra or the black mamba and harmless species such as the African house snake. To further develop the software, the MSF teams in South Sudan collect high-quality photos of snake bites, which are then fed into the software database by the One Health Unit at the University of Geneva and MSF’s innovation department in Switzerland. The African Union and regional organisations have welcomed this innovative solution, as snakebites are a major problem in many regions of Africa. According to MSF, more than 20,000 people die from this in sub-Saharan Africa every year. South Sudan has a particularly high number, especially during the rainy season. In future, technological solutions such as the AI app could also enable improved access to healthcare in remote communities.