Malheureusement, ce numéro de la revue de presse n’est actuellement disponible qu’en allemand et en anglais.“

SADC Summit in Harare

The 44th Summit of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) took place on Saturday in Zimbabwe’s capital Harare under the motto ‘Promoting innovation to unlock opportunities for sustained economic growth and development towards an Industrialised SADC’. Twelve Heads of State and Government from the 16-nation regional community took part in the meeting, including the outgoing SADC Chair and President of the Republic of Angola, João Lourenço. Zimbabwe’s President Emmerson Mnangagwa took over the rotating chairmanship of the summit, while Dr Samia Suluhu Hassan, President of Tanzania, will chair the Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation. In addition to the deepening of economic integration, the end of the SADC mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) and the ongoing SAMIDRC mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) were also on the agenda. Both Member States were assured of the continued full support of the regional community. Also discussed were the positive progress made in Lesotho, where important national reforms have been initiated with the support of the Panel of Elders, part of the SADC mediation mechanism, and in Eswatini, where the political and security situation has continued to improve. Accordingly, the kingdom’s request to remove the country from the SADC Troika’s agenda was accepted.

In addition, the SADC-Declaration on the Protection of Persons with Albinism was signed and adopted. Other key topics included the rapid spread of the Mpox virus and the droughts and floods in the region as a result of the El Niño phenomenon. SADC Member DRC is particularly affected by the Mpox outbreak, which the World Health Organisation (WHO) has now declared a public health emergency of international concern and the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) has accordingly declared a continental health emergency. Elias Magosi, Executive Secretary of SADC, called on the WHO, Africa CDC and other partners at the summit to provide resources for the fight against Mpox. The SADC-Secretariat was also instructed to organise a meeting of health ministers as soon as possible for a coordinated regional response. To address the consequences of droughts, which have hit the region particularly hard this year, the summit called on member states to implement the SADC’s regional humanitarian appeal to combat drought and flooding caused by El Niño. Several countries have already had to declare a state of disaster due to food shortages and malnutrition and around 68 million people are in need of assistance. The appeal was launched this May by Angola’s president and SADC Chairperson. However, according to Lourenço, the sums provided so far are far below the target of 5.5 billion US-dollars. On the sidelines of the summit, the decision was also made to support the Zambian economist Samuel Munzele Maimbo as the only regional candidate to succeed Dr Akinwumi Adesina as President of the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The SADC summit was overshadowed by the arrests of over 100 opposition members and activists in the host country in the run-up to the meeting. In a statement last Thursday, the United Nations Human Rights Office expressed its concern about the human rights situation in Zimbabwe and called for the immediate release of the detainees. The ruling ZANU-PF party announced on Tuesday after the summit that it would release them. Despite the precarious human rights situation in Zimbabwe, there was hardly any resistance within the SADC. The regional community is repeatedly criticised for not taking enough action against human rights violations in its Member States.

Peace talks for Sudan

On Tuesday, the talks between the US Special Envoy for Sudan, Tom Perriello, and a delegation of the Sudanese government in Cairo, which were brokered by Egypt and planned to take place on Wednesday, were postponed indefinitely. The reason for the postponement was differences of opinion over the composition of the Sudanese delegation, as some media reported. Among other things, there were disagreements over the inclusion of members of the Sudanese military intelligence and armed groups in Darfur in the delegation as well as the appointment of Minister Mohamed Bashir Abu-Namo as its head. In an official statement on Wednesday, the Sudan’s Sovereign Council explained that the talks had been postponed due to circumstances surrounding the US delegation. The consultations in Cairo were intended to discuss the implementation of the Jeddah Agreement signed in May 2023 and thus enable the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) to participate in the ongoing peace talks in Geneva after all.

These began last Wednesday. At the initiative of the US and Saudi Arabia, discussions are being held on how the conflict and in particular the precarious humanitarian situation in Sudan can be defused. In addition to US Special Envoy Perriello, the participants include diplomats from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the African Union (AU) and the United Nations (UN). A delegation from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has been engaged in a bitter civil war since its leader Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, fell out with SAF leader and de facto head of state Abdel Fattah al-Burhan around 16 months ago (Press Review CW 16/2023), is also on site. However, the delegation did not take part in the opening talks and its active involvement in the subsequent talks is also unclear. Meanwhile, the Sudanese army refused to participate and made compliance with the Jeddah Agreement a condition for its participation in the peace conference and talks with the RSF. The main aim of this agreement is to protect the Sudanese civilian population and to withdraw from civilian areas, which the RSF has so far disregarded, according to the army’s accusation. The SAF also sharply criticised the presence of the United Arab Emirates, even though they only have observer status. It accuses the UAE of supplying the paramilitary RSF with weapons and financial resources.

Despite the difficult conditions under which the Swiss peace talks for Sudan are taking place, there has also been important progress, to which the special format of the conference has contributed, said Perriello. For example, technical experts are working with representatives of Sudan’s neighbouring countries as well as the AU and UN to resolve practical issues, with exchanges taking place by telephone with both parties to the civil war despite the absence of the SAF. It is true that a ceasefire has not yet been achieved in the course of the Geneva talks and fighting and bombardments, especially by the RSF, have continued on various fronts. Nevertheless, important progress has been made. These include, above all, the temporary opening of the Adré border crossing on the border between Chad and Darfur for urgently needed humanitarian aid supplies. After the border crossing was closed by the Sudanese government in March this year in order to cut off the supply of weapons and goods to the RSF, it agreed last Thursday to open the border crossing for three months. In particular, supplies of medicines and food are to be brought into the country, where more than half of the population is affected by acute famine and which has recorded the largest internal displacement worldwide since the beginning of the civil war with 7.9 million displaced people. However, the success is overshadowed by the fact that the three-month opening falls in the rainy season and important connecting routes are threatened by flooding. A humanitarian corridor is also not enough to supply the population with the relief supplies they need. According to Perrellio, the aim of the conference is therefore to establish two more corridors in the north and south of the country. The talks, which are being held in camera, are due to officially end today.

In other news

The 31st Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad ended on Tuesday. At the ten-day competition, which was held this year at the University of the Witwatersrand in the South African city of Johannesburg, the Moroccan national team was once again able to secure first place and even set a new record. With 201 points, the north african team surpassed the highest score in the history of the Olympics. Second place went to Algeria with 186 points, followed by Tunisia with 133 points. In the individual rankings, the Moroccan team members won three gold medals and three silver medals. The Pan-African Mathematics Olympiad has been organised in a different African country every year since 1987, inviting the best secondary school mathematics students. The Olympiad usually comprises two rounds, in which examinations on complex mathematical problems in areas such as algebra, geometry or number theory have to be solved. This year, a total of 27 countries took part in the competition, each with teams of six pupils.