africa
Nigeria’s currency has fallen to a record low as inflation surges
Nigerians are facing one of the West African nation’s worst economic crises in years triggered by surging inflation, the result of monetary policies that have pushed the currency to an all-time low against the dollar. The situation has provoked anger and protests across the country.
The latest government statistics released Thursday showed the inflation rate in January rose to 29.9%, its highest since 1996, mainly driven by food and non-alcoholic beverages. Nigeria's currency, the naira, further plummeted to 1,524 to $1 on Friday, reflecting a 230% loss of value in the last year.
“My family is now living one day at a time (and) trusting God,” said trader Idris Ahmed, whose sales at a clothing store in Nigeria’s capital of Abuja have declined from an average of $46 daily to $16.
The plummeting currency worsens an already bad situation, further eroding incomes and savings. It squeezes millions of Nigerians already struggling with hardship due to government reforms including the removal of gas subsidies that resulted in gas prices tripling.
A SNAPSHOT OF NIGERIA’S ECONOMYWith a population of more than 210 million people, Nigeria is not just Africa’s most populous country but also the continent’s largest economy. Its gross domestic product is driven mainly by services such as information technology and banking, followed by manufacturing and processing businesses and then agriculture.
Read: 37 people killed in disputed oil-rich African region of Abyei in fighting linked to spiritual leader
The challenge is that the economy is far from sufficient for Nigeria’s booming population, relying heavily on imports to meet the daily needs of its citizens from cars to cutlery. So it is easily affected by external shocks such as the parallel foreign exchange market that determines the price of goods and services.
Nigeria's economy is heavily dependent on crude oil, its largest foreign exchange earner. When crude prices plunged in 2014, authorities used its scarce foreign reserves to try to stabilize the naira amid multiple exchange rates. The government also shut down the land borders to encourage local production and limited access to the dollar for importers of certain items.
The measures, however, further destabilized the naira by facilitating a booming parallel market for the dollar. Crude oil sales that boost foreign exchange earnings have also dropped because of chronic theft and pipeline vandalism.
MONETARY REFORMS POORLY IMPLEMENTEDShortly after taking the reins of power in May last year, President Bola Tinubu took bold steps to fix the ailing economy and attract investors. He announced the end of costly decadeslong gas subsidies, which the government said were no longer sustainable. Meanwhile, the country's multiple exchange rates were unified to allow market forces to determine the rate of the local naira against the dollar, which in effect devalued the currency.
Analysts say there were no adequate measures to contain the shocks that were bound to come as a result of reforms including the provision of a subsidized transportation system and an immediate increase in wages.
So the more than 200% increase in gas prices caused by the end of the gas subsidy started to have a knock-on effect on everything else, especially because locals rely heavily on gas-powered generators to light their households and run their businesses.
WHY IS THE NAIRA PLUMMETING IN VALUE?Under the previous leadership of the Central Bank of Nigeria, policymakers tightly controlled the rate of the naira against the dollar, thereby forcing individuals and businesses in need of dollars to head to the black market, where the currency was trading at a much lower rate.
There was also a huge backlog of accumulated foreign exchange demand on the official market — estimated to be $7 billion — due in part to limited dollar flows as foreign investments into Nigeria and the country’s sale of crude oil have declined.
Authorities said a unified exchange rate would mean easier access to the dollar, thereby encouraging foreign investors and stabilizing the naira. But that has yet to happen because inflows have been poor. Instead, the naira has further weakened as it continues to depreciate against the dollar.
Read: 52 killed in clashes in the disputed oil-rich African region of Abyei
WHAT ARE AUTHORITIES DOING?CBN Gov. Olayemi Cardoso has said the bank has cleared $2.5 billion of the foreign exchange backlog out of the $7 billion that had been outstanding. The bank, however, found that $2.4 billion of that backlog were false claims that it would not clear, Cardoso said, leaving a balance of about $2.2 billion, which he said will be cleared “soon.”
Tinubu, meanwhile, has directed the release of food items such as cereals from government reserves among other palliatives to help cushion the effect of the hardship. The government has also said it plans to set up a commodity board to help regulate the soaring prices of goods and services.
On Thursday, the Nigerian leader met with state governors to deliberate on the economic crisis, part of which he blamed on the large-scale hoarding of food in some warehouses.
"We must ensure that speculators, hoarders and rent seekers are not allowed to sabotage our efforts in ensuring the wide availability of food to all Nigerians,” Tinubu said.
By Friday morning, local media were reporting that stores were being sealed for hoarding and charging unfair prices.
HOW ARE NIGERIANS COPING WITH TOUGH TIMES?The situation is at its worst in conflict zones in northern Nigeria, where farming communities are no longer able to cultivate what they eat as they are forced to flee violence. Pockets of protests have broken out in past weeks but security forces have been quick to impede them, even making arrests in some cases.
In the economic hub of Lagos and other major cities, there are fewer cars and more legs on the roads as commuters are forced to trek to work. The prices of everything from food to household items increase daily.
“Even to eat now is a problem,” said Ahmed in Abuja. “But what can we do?”
37 people killed in disputed oil-rich African region of Abyei in fighting linked to spiritual leader
Thirty-seven people were killed over the weekend in fighting apparently tied to a land feud in the disputed oil-rich region of Abyei, an official said Sunday. The bloodshed came a week after 52 people died in a land dispute in the same region.
Information Minister Bolis Koch in Abyei, which is claimed by South Sudan and Sudan, said the fighting erupted in Rum-Ameer, Alal and Mijak counties with an attack by armed youth from South Sudan's Warrap state who were backed by fighters loyal to spiritual leader Gai Machiek from the country's Unity state.
Koch said the fighting left 19 people dead and 18 injured Saturday and claimed the lives of 18 more people Sunday, including four women and three children. He said 1,000 head of cattle also were stolen.
“The Abyei Special Administrative Area strongly condemns the terrorist attacks, the heinous killings of innocent civilians, the burning of local markets and residential areas,” Koch said in a statement.
Ethnic violence has been common in the region, where Twic Dinka tribal members from Warrap are contesting for land with Ngok Dinka people in Abyei's Aneet area, located at the border.
Although land is seen as the major driver of the conflict, officials allege the armed Twic young people are being incited by Machiek, an ethnic Neur spiritual leader who has been accused of formenting conflict. He also was blamed for the attack a week ago that killed 53 people, including two U.N. peacekeepers.
Machiek has denied any wrongdoing in interviews with local media.
Sudan and South Sudan have disagreed over control of the Abyei region since a 2005 peace deal ended decades of civil war between Sudan’s north and south. Abyei's status was unresolved after South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011, though it is under control of South Sudan.
The region’s majority Ngok Dinka people favor South Sudan, while the Misseriya nomads who come to Abyei to find pasture for their cattle favor Sudan. An African Union panel proposed a referendum for Abyei but there was disagreement over who could vote.
Pakistan's former premier Imran Khan and wife convicted of marriage law violation in a fourth case
A Pakistani court on Saturday convicted and sentenced former Prime Minister Imran Khan and his wife to seven years in prison on a charge that their 2018 marriage violated the law, officials and a lawyer said.
The latest verdict follows another case in which Khan and his wife, Bushra Bibi, were sentenced to 14 years in prison on Wednesday for corruption. It comes ahead of Feb. 8 parliamentary elections in which Khan has already been disqualified because of graft convictions while his party is struggling to run an election campaign.
It was Khan’s fourth conviction since 2022, when he was ousted from power. His sentences total 34 years and will be served concurrently.
Analysts say Khan’s multiple and apparently hasty convictions are seen by his party and supporters as punishment for his rhetoric against Pakistan’s powerful military leadership, which has ruled the country for half of its 76-year history. During his final months in power, Khan had broadened his fight with opponents to include the military.
The lawyer for the couple, Intisar Panjutha, said the verdict was announced by Judge Qudrat Ullah a day after the trial ended. Khan and his family insist the trial is politically motivated.
The prosecution said Khan and his wife violated the law that a woman must wait three months before marrying again.
Bibi, Khan’s third wife, was a spiritual healer who was previously married to a man who claimed that they divorced in November 2017, less than three months before she married Khan. Bibi has said they divorced in August 2017.
She and Khan, who had been married twice before, denied they violated the three-month waiting period — a requirement of Islamic law and upheld by Pakistan.
The ruling was condemned by Khan's Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Its head, Gohar Khan, told reporters that Khan will appeal. “This is a bogus case against Imran Khan and Bushra Bibi, but still they were given maximum prison sentence by the court," he said.
The couple were also fined 500,000 rupees ($1,800) each.
Khan is currently serving multiple prison terms at Adiala prison in Rawalpindi, where his trials were held because of security concerns.
He is embroiled in more than 150 legal cases, including inciting people to violence after his arrest in May 2023. During nationwide riots in May, Khan’s supporters attacked the military headquarters in Rawalpindi, stormed an air base in Mianwali in the eastern Punjab province and torched a building housing state-run Radio Pakistan in the northwest.
The violence subsided only when Khan was released at the time by the Supreme Court.
Khan and Bibi also face another graft case, allegedly involving giving undue benefits to a property tycoon in return for establishing an Islamic university.
52 killed in clashes in the disputed oil-rich African region of Abyei
Gunmen attacked villagers in the oil-rich region of Abyei claimed by both Sudan and South Sudan, leaving at least 52 people dead, including a U.N. peacekeeper, and 64 wounded, a regional official said Sunday.
The motive for the attack Saturday evening was not immediately clear but it was suspected to revolve around a land dispute, Bulis Koch, Abyei information minister, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Abyei.
Deadly ethnic violence has been common in the region, where Twic Dinka tribal members from neighboring Warrap State are locked in a land dispute with Ngok Dinka from Abyei over the Aneet area, located at the border.
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The attackers in Saturday’s violence were armed youth from the Nuer tribe who migrated to Warrap state last year because of flooding in their areas, Koch said.
In a statement, the United Nations Interim Security Force for Abyei (UNISFA) condemned the violence that killed the peacekeeper.
UNIFSA confirmed intercommunal clashes took place in the Nyinkuac, Majbong and Khadian areas leading to casualties and the evacuation of civilians to UNISFA bases.
“The UNISFA base in Agok came under attack by an armed group. The mission repelled the attack, but tragically a Ghanaian peacekeeper was killed,” the statement said.
Sudan and South Sudan have disagreed over control of the Abyei region since a 2005 peace deal ended decades of civil war between Sudan’s north and south. Both Sudan and South Sudan claim ownership of Abyei, whose status was unresolved after South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011.
The region’s majority Ngok Dinka people favor South Sudan, while the Misseriya nomads who come to Abyei to find pasture for their cattle favor Sudan. Currently, the region is under the control of South Sudan.
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An African Union panel proposed a referendum for Abyei but there was disagreement over who could vote. Currently, the region is under the control of South Sudan.
Inter-communal and cross-border clashes have escalated since South Sudan deployed its troops to Abyei in March.
Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros votes for president in Africa's first election of 2024
The Indian Ocean island nation of Comoros voted Sunday for president in Africa's first national election of 2024.
Incumbent President Azali Assoumani, a former military officer, is expected to win a fourth term despite criticism he has become increasingly authoritarian and cracked down on his opponents.
Five opposition candidates stood against Assoumani while other opposition parties have called for a boycott, accusing the national electoral commission of bias. The commission denied the accusations. Provisional results are expected on Friday.
The country of around 800,000 people off East Africa has experienced a series of coups since it gained independence from France in 1975. The first coup came just a month after independence.
Assoumani, 65, took charge himself in a coup in 1999, and was first elected president in 2002. He stepped down after one term but returned to reclaim the presidency in an election in 2016, and was reelected in 2019. Presidential terms are for five years.
Assoumani succeeded in side-stepping term limits by changing the constitution in 2018. Previously, the presidency was rotated after a single term between Comoros' three main islands of Grand Comore, Anjouan, and Moheli.
The move to change the constitution caused mass protests against Assoumani and an armed uprising by rebels on the island of Anjouan, which the army quelled after days of fighting. Protests have been regularly banned since then.
Former President Ahmed Abdallah Sambi, a political rival of Assoumani, was sentenced to life in prison in 2022 on charges of high treason over the forgery and illegal selling of Comoros passports.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a research institution within the U.S. Department of Defense that's funded by Congress, said Assoumani’s latest presidential term has been “marked by crackdowns on dissent.”
It noted curtailments on press freedom and opposition leaders being threatened and detained by police and the army.
Assoumani is coming to the end of a one-year term as chairperson of the African Union, a largely ceremonial role that moves around the continent.
Sunday's election in Comoros will be notable for France because of its island territory of Mayotte, which lies about 100 kilometers (62 miles) to the southeast. Mayotte has seen an influx of immigrants from Comoros.
Comoros is one of over 50 countries that go to the polls in 2024 to test democracy across the globe.
Riots in Papua New Guinea's 2 biggest cities reportedly leave 15 dead
The Papua New Guinea government worked to restore order Thursday after at least 15 people were reportedly killed during rioting and looting that left the country’s two biggest cities in flames.
The unrest began in the capital, Port Moresby, on Wednesday after hundreds of police officers, soldiers, prison staff and public servants walked off their jobs in protest over a pay dispute.
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The Papua New Guinea government attributed the pay cut to an administrative glitch.
Similar riots also caused damage in Lae, the second-biggest city in the southwestern Pacific country. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that at least 15 people died in Port Moresby and Lae.
An additional 180 defense personnel flew into Port Moresby on Thursday.
Tensions in the country have risen amid high unemployment and increased living costs.
Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape said Port Moresby was “under stress and duress” but that violence had eased.
“Police were not at work yesterday in the city and people resorted to lawlessness — not all people, but in certain segments of our city,” Marape said in a news conference on Thursday. ”(The) situation report as of this morning shows tension in the city has subsided.”
Many shops and banking services were closed Thursday as business owners repaired damage.
Papua New Guinea is a diverse, developing nation of mostly subsistence farmers where some 800 languages are spoken. It is in a strategically important part of the South Pacific. With 10 million people, it the most populous South Pacific nation after Australia, which is home to 26 million.
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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese appealed for calm. He said his government had not received any requests for help from its closest neighbor.
Papua New Guinea and Australia last month signed a bilateral security pact.
“Our high commission in Port Moresby are keeping a very close eye on what is occurring there, making sure Australians are looked after,” Albanese told reporters Thursday.
Papua New Guinea struggles to contain escalating tribal violence and civil unrest in remote regions and has a long-term aim to increase its police numbers from 6,000 officers to 26,000.
160 killed in central Nigeria attacks
At least 160 people have been killed in central Nigeria in a series of attacks on villages, local authorities said Monday.
It marks a sharp rise from the initial figure of 16 deaths in a clash between herders and farmers in Mushu, a village in the Bokkos local government area.
Read: At least 85 civilians killed by a Nigerian army drone attack, in the latest such deadly mistake
At least 113 people have been confirmed killed and more than 300 wounded people were transferred to hospitals in Bokkos, Jos, and Barkin Ladi, Monday Kassah, head of the local government in Bokkos, Plateau State, was quoted by AFP as saying.
A provisional toll by the local Red Cross reported 104 deaths in 18 villages in the Bokkos region.
At least 50 people were also reported dead in several villages in the Barkin Ladi area, according to Dickson Chollom, a member of the state parliament.
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It is the worst outbreak of violence in Plateau since May when more than 100 were killed in farmer-herder clashes.
Armed attacks have been a major security threat in Nigeria's northern and central regions, leading to deaths and kidnappings.
At least 85 civilians killed by a Nigerian army drone attack, in the latest such deadly mistake
At least 85 civilians were killed when an army drone attack erroneously targeted a religious gathering in northwest Nigeria, officials confirmed Tuesday, as the president ordered an investigation into the latest in a series of such deadly mistakes in Nigeria’s conflict zones.
The strike took place Sunday night in Kaduna state's Tudun Biri village while residents observed the Muslim holiday marking the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad, government officials said. The military believed it was “targeting terrorists and bandits," officials said.
At least 66 people also were injured in the attack, the National Emergency Management Agency said in a statement. Eighty-five bodies, including of children, women and the elderly, have been buried so far, as a search continues for any additional victims, the agency said.
Nigeria’s army chief, Lt. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja, apologized for the drone strike during a visit to the village Tuesday and said it had been carried out "based on the observation of some tactics usually employed by bandits.”
“Unfortunately, the reports we got revealed it was innocent civilians that the drone conducted a strike on,” Lagbaja said.
Since 2017, some 400 civilians have been killed by airstrikes that the military said were targeting armed groups in the deadly security crisis in the country’s north, according to the Lagos-based SBM Intelligence security firm.
“The incidence of miscalculated airstrikes is assuming a worrisome dimension in the country,” said Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria’s former vice-president and the main opposition presidential candidate in this year’s election.
Nigerian President Bola Tinubu ordered “a thorough and full-fledged investigation into the incident.” However, such investigations and their outcomes are often shrouded in secrecy.
Nigeria’s military often conducts air raids as it fights the extremist violence and rebel attacks that have destabilized Nigeria’s north for more than a decade, often leaving civilian casualties in its wake, including in January when dozens were killed in Nasarawa state and in December 2022 when dozens also died in Zamfara state.
Maj. Gen. Edward Buba, a spokesman for Nigeria’s Defense Headquarters, said in a statement Tuesday that terror suspects often “deliberately embed themselves within civilian population centers," though he wasn't speaking specifically about Sunday's holiday gathering.
Analysts have in the past raised concerns about the lack of collaboration among Nigerian security agencies as well as the absence of due diligence in some of their special operations in conflict zones.
One major concern has been the proliferation of drones within Nigerian security agencies such that “there is no guiding principle one when these can be used,” according to Kabir Adamu, the founder of Beacon Consulting, a security firm based in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja.
"The military sees itself as a little bit over and above civilian accountability as it were," Adamu said.
In the incident in Nasarawa in January, when 39 people were killed, the Nigerian air force “provided little information and no justice” over the incident, Human Rights Watch said.
Such incidents are enabled by a lack of punishment for erring officers or agencies, according to Isa Sanusi, Amnesty International's director in Nigeria.
"The Nigerian military is taking lightly the lack of consequences ... and the civilians they are supposed to protect are the ones paying the price of their incompetence and lack of due diligence," Sanusi told The Associated Press.
Daraz concludes 11.11 sale campaign
Daraz has concluded its highly anticipated “11.11 Biggest Sale of the Year” campaign serving 20 million consumers across Bangladesh.
The goal of Daraz is to make e-commerce accessible for everyone by offering the best prices and variety to the local communities.
“This year, staples such as salt and milk powder were among the top selling products and shoppers enjoyed substantial savings on their purchases reaffirming Daraz’s commitment to helping local communities improve their quality of life,” reads an official press release from Daraz.
“Daraz is committed to helping sellers scale their online businesses and facilitated sales for 30,000 brands and sellers during this year’s 11.11 sale,” reads the press release.
From offering onboarding workshops to rolling out new co-funded programs that aim at lowering sellers’ cost of doing business, Daraz saw 100% more sellers who made at least 1,500 Tk in sales within the first 24 hours on 11.11, according to the press release.
The country’s leading e-commerce platform also provided opportunities for content creators to develop their careers and generate income, with the content creators seeing more than 400% growth in earnings during the 11.11 sale this year compared to last year.
In this year’s campaign, Daraz achieved 600% growth in shoppers outside Dhaka fueled by the expansion of its delivery network to cover more than cities in Bangladesh.
“Together with the support of Daraz logistics partners that employed over 2,500 riders, Daraz expanded its delivery coverage to connect more buyers and sellers across the nation, delivering as far as 576 kilometers for its furthest package delivery from Chattogram to Tetulia, reads the press release.
Daraz CEO, Bjarke Mikkelsen, highlighted the platform's role in these challenging times, stating, "In a time of economic uncertainty and rising inflation, our mission to uplift communities through the power of commerce has never been more relevant. This year, we doubled down on helping sellers maximise their sales while making online shopping more accessible, affordable, and rewarding for shoppers..”
“We are thankful to everyone - shoppers, sellers, brands, creators, partners and the incredible Daraz team - for without them, the success of Daraz 11.11 would not have been possible,” said Bjarke Mikkelsen.
40 people dead in Kenya and Somalia as heavy rains and flash floods displace thousands
Heavy rains and flash flooding have killed at least 40 people and displaced tens of thousands in Kenya and Somalia, aid agencies reported Monday.
In Somalia, the government declared an emergency after the extreme weather killed at least 25 people and destroyed homes, roads and bridges. Emergency and rescue workers were trying to reach an estimated 2,400 residents trapped by floodwaters in the Luuq district of southern Somalia’s Jubaland state.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs warned of a high risk of flooding along the Juba and Shabelle rivers and called for the evacuation of people living along the entire stretch of the Juba.
“The Somalia Disaster Management Agency is swiftly responding to the crisis, with plans to dispatch a flight to Dollow and transport two boats from Kismayo to Luuq and one to Baardhere to assist with evacuations,” Hassan Isse, the agency's managing director, told The Associated Press.
“The magnitude of the current floods is likely to deteriorate in the next few days due to the emergence of more water from upstream in the Ethiopian Highlands," Isse said.
The heavy rains follow four consecutive years of drought that pushed Somalia to the brink of famine.
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In neighboring Kenya, the Kenya Red Cross said the death toll had risen to 15 since the heavy rains began Friday, with the port city of Mombasa and the northeastern counties of Mandera and Wajir the worst affected.
As of Sunday, flash floods had destroyed 241 acres of farmland and killed 1,067 livestock, the Kenya Red Cross reported.
Weather forecasters in Kenya started warning in September that rains would be heavier than usual during the short rainy season between October and December.
President William Ruto contradicted the forecast, telling Kenyans that the experts had revised their advice and that “there would be no devastating El Nino flooding.”
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Heavy rains and flooding have also been reported in the Somali region of Ethiopia where thousands have been forced to flee their homes after houses and farmlands were destroyed by flood waters.