AFRICA
NEWS BULLETIN @ 20h00
31 March, 2016
Radio XYZ93.1FM
Lead Producer:
E.K.Bensah Jr
Assistant
Producer/Presenter: Joshua Quodjo-Mensah
STORIES
- FOCUS: EU-ACP is a Force for South-South & Triangular Cooperation
- WEST AFRICA:
- Gambia's Amina Kodio Contests Miss West Africa...Belgium!
- Academics & Military Meet on Conflict Prevention in West Africa
- Nigeria Moves Quickly Not to Lose Regional Maritime Bank to DR Congo
- CENTRAL AFRICA:
- Cameroon Seeks to Drive Out Boko Haram “Once & For all”
FOCUS:
If you have neither heard of “South-South Cooperation” nor
“Triangular cooperation”, then the article by Dr. Patrick Gomes
will be timely.
Gomes, the Secretary-General of the Brussels-based “African,
Caribbean & Pacific Group of States”, has just written an
article for the “Euractiv.com” website, in which he believes the
so-called aid paradigm needs to be buried.
In the article, he argues that development cooperation in the 21st
century is “compelled to move beyond the simplistic paradigm of
transferring funds from the developed North to the developing South.”
He sets his article against the backdrop of Agenda 2030, “including
new modes of development finance, the proliferation of actors, and
the rise of emerging economies.” In his view, the long-standing and
comprehensive North-South approaches to development cooperation, he
argues, “could well have invaluable horizons for innovation and
enhanced development effectiveness.”
Gomes continues that, “new realities in the global arena –including
EU enlargement, geo-political alignments and emerging powers –
demand a reexamination of historical ties, to come to grips with
turbulent change and confront persistent structures of poverty and
inequality.”
ACP leaders will meet at their 8th Summit in May, in Papua
New Guinea, to hear recommendations for reforms aimed at making the
ACP Group “a more effective global player, working more closely
with with regional organisations.”
Gomes says South-South Cooperation “is not a new phenomenon” as
it involves “collaboration amongst two or more countries of the
South, sharing resources, expertise, knowledge and proven solutions
to fulfill development goals.” As for Triangular Cooperation, “it
happens when one or more other donors or multilateral organisations
supports SSC by providing funding, training, technology and other
support.”
Gomes believes that while SSC is “widely-practiced amongst ACP
countries on bilateral and regional levels”, a more structured
intra-ACP actions through SSC and TrC – “supporting integration
at the regional and continental level” – will lead to a stronger
and more effective ACP-EU partnership, which would benefit both sides
“enormously.”
WEST
AFRICA:
Amina Kodio, a young Gambian lady in Belgium, will be representing
her country at the grand finale of the Miss West Africa Belgium 2016.
Scheduled to take place on Saturday 2 April in Brussels.
The third of its kind, the annual cultural event that is organised by
Carnival of Cultures Association, it seeks to promote African
integration and raise awareness on the culture and cultural values of
West Africans.
The event will bring together candidates from 12 ECOWAS countries
from across both francophone and anglophone countries. These include
Senegal (from where the founder of the pageant hails); Liberia;
Burkina Faso; Cape Verde; Ghana; Niger; and Togo.
According to Senegalese El Hadj Sene, the event remains a symbol of
communication in spreading West African cultures, which he believes
“is an essential complement to the reconciliation between the
peoples who share a great history and common values reinforced by
intense cooperation.”
Candidate Kodio, who has been living in Aalst, Belgium, since 2007,
is representing The Gambia, and is competing against eleven other
ladies from other African countries selected for the grande finale on
Saturday. Kodio is confident she will be crowned Miss West Africa
Belgium 2016.
Still
in West Africa...
Academics and army experts met Wednesday in the Senegalese capital,
Dakar, to advocate a preventive approach and dialogue to avoid
conflicts afflicting the continent. According to Senegalese General
Lamine Cisse, given Africa's numerous conflicts, the two major
approaches required are dialogue and prevention.
Cisse was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a three-day
workshop – held under the theme “which national dialogue for
effective conflict prevention, resolution and democratic political
transitions in Africa.” – that brought together several African
delegations with government officials, sub-regional organizations,
academics and other experts in defense and security.
Finally
under West Africa...
The
Federal Government of Nigeria seems to have been caught napping on
the hosting of a regional bank for the twenty-five countries of the
Maritime Organisation of West and Central Africa (MOWCA). It runs the
risk of losing the hosting of the Bank to the DRC.
The
idea to establish the Bank was mooted at the Bureau of Transport
Minister's meeting in Angola in 2005, when Nigeria agreed to host the
headquarters.
Since
February 2012, calls have been made to the Federal Ministry of
Transportation and the Federal Government to provide “financial
commitment”, which is essential for the bank's take off.
The delay is attributed to a lack of the pre-incorporation funds that would form part of Nigeria's equity contributions to the bank's project.
The
Maritime Organisation for West & Central Africa (est 1975) has
been at the forefront of deepening synergy with ECOWAS & ECCAS to
combat maritime piracy
as
it has been working together already for 40 years.
It
will be recalled ECOWAS was born in the same month and year—May
1975—as the Maritime Organisation for the West and Central Africa
(MOWCA).
Originally-established
as the Ministerial Conference of West and Central African States on
Maritime Transport (MINCONMAR), the name was changed to MOWCA as part
of reforms adopted by the General Assembly of Ministers of Transport,
at an extraordinary session of the Organisation held in Abidjan in
the Republic of Cote d'Ivoire from 4-6 August 1999.
One
of the major objectives of MOWCA is “to serve the regional and
international community for handling all maritime matters that are
regional in character”. MOWCA unifies 25 countries on the West and
Central African shipping range (inclusive of five landlocked
countries). These countries comprise 20 coastal states bordering the
North and South Atlantic Ocean, and “to explain the maritime link
for landlocked countries the ports of the Ocean interfacing countries
provide the seaborne trade of those that are landlocked”.
CENTRAL AFRICA:
It will be recalled that in an
earlier Bulletin in February, we referred to how Cameroon President
Paul Biya had asked citizens to use witchcraft to fight Boko Haram.
If today's report is anything to
go by, that clearly has not worked, as the military has launched a
new operation to rid the country of Boko Haram militants “once and
for all”, and soldiers are prepared to storm one of the group's
remaining strongholds in Nigeria, a military commander said today.
Code-named Tentacle, the
operation began this week, and involves thousands of soldiers working
with Nigerian soldiers on the other side of Cameroon's northern
border, General Jacob Kodji said.
Northern Cameroon has suffered
regular raids and suicide bombings attributed to Boko Haram for more
than a year. According to government figures, a particularly-deadly
spate of attacks in January killed at least 57 people in 17 days.
ENDs
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