Photo : AFP
NIAS Area Studies
AFRICA MONITOR
Photo : AFP
IN BRIEF
by Apoorva Sudhakar
Burundi: President replaces PM after suspected coup attempts
On 7 September, President Evariste Ndayishimiye replaced Prime Minister Alain-Guillaume Bunyoni with Security Minister Gervais Ndirakobuca. Bunyoni and the Chief of Staff General Gabriel Nizigama were sacked in a reshuffle and Ndirakobuca secured the support of all 113 lawmakers. Ndirakobuca is under EU sanctions for his suspected role in the violence against government opponents during the unrest in 2015. Al Jazeera explains that the violence was launched by Ndayishimiye’s predecessor, leaving 1200 dead, and drawing sanctions from the US and the EU. (“Burundi president names new PM after coup plot claims,” Al Jazeera, 8 September 2022)
More than half a million lives lost to drought incidents, says WMO report
On 8 September, the World Meteorological Organization released the “State of the Climate in Africa 2021” report outlining the water stress in the continent. The report raised concerns over droughts, disrupted rainfall, devastating floods, disappearing of glaciers and shrinking of lakes. The report estimated that by 2030, around 700 million in Africa would be displaced due to the water stress. The report observed that over the last 50 years, more than half a million lives were lost to drought-related tragedies. Increased temperature also led to a 34 per cent fall in agricultural productivity growth in Africa since 1961, the highest across all regions in the world. (“WMO: Climate change in Africa can destabilize ‘countries and entire regions’,” 8 September 2022)
Number of children missing school increasing in Sub-Saharan Africa
On 8 September, BBC quoted UNESCO and reported that Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where the number of children and young people dropping out of school is on the rise. The current number of children and young people out of school in Africa stands at 98 million. Nigeria accounts for 20 million of the above figure, followed by Ethiopia at 10.5 million, Democratic Republic of the Congo at 5.9 million and Kenya with 1.8 million. (Brian Osweta, “Children missing school in sub-Saharan Africa rising,” BBC, 8 September 2022)