Rwanda and Cameroon have unveiled significant shifts in their security forces, impacting senior military personnel.

In Rwanda, President Paul Kagame retired hundreds of soldiers, coinciding with the advancement of young soldiers within the nation’s security framework. New generals have also been appointed to lead army divisions situated across the country.

The Rwanda Defense Force (RDF) released a statement disclosing Kagame’s approval of the retirement of twelve generals, eighty-three senior officers, and six junior officers.

Additionally, eighty-six senior non-commissioned officers will be retired. About 678 soldiers retired as their contracts concluded, with 160 others medically discharged.

Prominent figures from Rwanda’s 1994 liberation war, including Gen. James Kabarebe, Gen. Fred Ibingira, and Lt. Gen. Charles Kayonga, are among the retirees. Both Kabarebe and Kayonga previously held the position of chief of defense staff of the Rwandan army.

On the same day, Kagame elevated several young officers to the rank of colonel and designated new generals to lead military divisions. Other retirees encompass Lt. Gen. Frank Mushyo Kamanzi, currently Rwanda’s ambassador to Russia, and Maj. Gen. Albert Murasira, a former defense minister.

In June, Kagame appointed Juvenal Marizamunda as the new defense minister, succeeding Albert Murasira, who had held the role since 2018.

In similar development, Cameroon’s President Paul Biya, one of Africa’s longest-serving leaders, enacted fresh appointments within the Defense Ministry’s central administrative unit, as outlined in a decree shared on social media.

The sweeping changes in Cameroon and Rwanda came barely hours after the coup in Gabon, where President Ali Bongo Ondimba was toppled and placed under house arrest by soldiers. Both leaders did not reference the coups in Niger and Gabon in their respective decisions.

Soldiers who seized power in Niger in late July have also faced sanctions by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), although the measures have so far failed to persuade the junta to return power to the democratically elected leadership.

Mr Biya, in a statement posted on Twitter Wednesday afternoon, said he had issued a decree to terminate some soldiers and move others from the country’s defence department.

Newly appointed senior military chiefs for the army include Ajeagah Njei Felix, Kamdom Lucas, and Nguema Ondo Bertin Bourger, amongst others.

Edou Essono Serge Durel and Moudio Hervé were among the newly designated officers in the Cameroon’s marine.

US firm Global Fire Power, in its 2023 ranking of the most powerful armies in the world put Cameroon at the 17th in Africa out of 34 countries, and 100th in the world.

Within the CEMAC zone, Cameroon is outperformed by Chad, 15th on the continent and 97th in the world.

Africa’s top 5 military powers are Egypt (14th in the world) Algeria (26th in the world), South Africa (33rd in world), Nigeria (36th in world), Ethiopia (49th in the world) and Angola (55th in the world).

A group of senior military officers in the Central African country of Gabon said they have cancelled the elections and seized power because polls held over the weekend were not credible.

The officers, in a television announcement on Gabon24 during the early hours of Wednesday morning, revealed this shortly after incumbent President Ali Bongo was announced to have won a third term as president.

The military has dissolved all state institutions and closed the country’s borders. They said they represented all security and defence forces of Gabon.

The announcement came shortly after the state election body said President Ali Bongo Ondimba had won a third term in office in Saturday’s disputed elections.

“In the name of the Gabonese people … we have decided to defend the peace by putting an end to the current regime,” the officers said.

The Gabonese Election Centre said Bongo had secured 64.27 percent of the vote compared with 30.77 percent for his main challenger Albert Ondo Ossa, after a process beset by delays.

French media outlets France 24, RFI and TV5 Monde were also banned, accused of “a lack of objectivity and balance in connection with the current general elections”, the government said.

Bongo was the candidate for the Gabonese Democratic Party (PDG), the party founded by his father, Omar Bongo, who led Gabon from 1967 to 2009. After his death, his son, then the defence minister, took his place as president and has been in power ever since.

So, far nothing has been revealed by the military concerning where the president is.

Tensions had been running high amid Saturday’s vote with the opposition pushing for change and an end to the Bongo family’s dominance of Gabon.

Following the military announcement, the Reuters and AFP news agencies reported the sound of gunfire in the Gabonese capital, Libreville.

Around the world, industrialized economies are looking to undergo green transitions. Countries across Europe and North America particularly are seeking to reduce their dependence on carbon and fossil fuels by investing in new technologies and sources of renewable energy, such as green hydrogen. Namibia is also looking to develop its green hydrogen space, but under rather different circumstances, as James Mnyupe, Economic Advisor to the President of Namibia, explains.

“People think about green hydrogen from an energy transition perspective,” Mnyupe says, “but it’s the exact opposite for us. Lots of highly industrialized countries are consuming huge amounts of carbon and are trying to go towards a low-carbon environment. Whereas with Namibia, we’re going from very little industrialisation to a lot of industrialisation, potentially on the back of a zero-carbon source of fuel.”

“At least in theory, we have the opportunity to leapfrog the carbon-heavy part of industrialisation and go straight to low-carbon industry,” Mnyupe adds.

The Namibian government sees green hydrogen as “a spark,” Mnyupe says. The fuel is perceived not only as a way to drive industrialisation in Namibia, but also promote wider economic prosperity. For one thing, green hydrogen could allow Namibia to develop as an international energy player and establish lucrative foreign markets. Mnyupe explains that “the project is so large and so significant, that it actually enables other industries to flourish… it’s a harbinger of prosperity for the rest of the country.”

In this sense, green hydrogen is also integral to Namibia’s “Vision 2030” project. This was launched by former President Sam Nujoma in 2004 and outlines the country’s ambitions “to improve the quality of life of our people to the level of their counterparts in the developed world by the year 2030”. The importance the government is attaching to the commodity could hardly be higher.

Attracting FDI

Because of this, Mnyupe says the government is taking “every step imaginable” to attract foreign direct investment (FDI) into Namibia to provide the capital to develop the required infrastructure. Inter-governmental diplomacy and private sector engagement have both played a role. “We have shared our vision with many different entities around the world, on various platforms, from the United Nations General Assembly to the World Economic Forum, and beyond.

“We have signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) with the Netherlands, the European Union, Germany, and Japan as well. On the back of all that, we’ve also exchanged at a private sector level. Namibian entities and Belgian, Dutch, German, and Japanese entities have exchanged ideas on how to partner and deploy capital.”

Namibia has already seen the formation of consortiums and joint ventures because of these efforts. At the start of June, the Namibian government agreed a $10bn deal with German company Hyphen that will facilitate the production of two million tonnes of green ammonia per year by 2030. Last year, Namibia’s O&L Group and Belgian company CMB.Tech agreed to collaborate on building a green hydrogen project in the country.

Namibia’s competitive edge

Mnyupe recognizes, of course, that “competition is fierce – and so it should be.” He points to Kenya, Morocco, Mauritania, Egypt, and South Africa as competitors similarly looking to build sophisticated renewable energy industries. However, he does believe that Namibia has several qualities that could help the country emerge as an attractive option for international investors.

“We have a united government, enabling policy legislation, and very attractive solar and wind resources,” Mnyupe says. “We’re not landlocked so we have access to a harbour. I also think that something very interesting in Namibia is that we have a relatively sophisticated capital market that allows for the construction of various financial instruments that allow for the deployment of blended financing.

“That can help lower the cost of capital required for the construction of these projects – and all of these things make Namibia an attractive place to consider building green hydrogen assets.”

Developing green finance

The quality of Namibia’s capital markets is certainly something that the government is trying to lean into as it attempts to promote the growth of its green hydrogen industry. In 2021, the government announced plans to float a green bond on the New York Stock Exchange, although Mnyupe says they encountered several issues with this project.

“We realized that the green bond would be trading at the Namibian sovereign credit rating, or at least with yields relative to the credit rating, maybe with a few basis points’ discount,” Mnyupe says, “and so we decided the government would have to get a bit more inventive.” This is because Namibia’s credit rating is currently BB-, according to Fitch, potentially making raising cash for the green hydrogen prohibitively expensive.

“So, we started engaging with the European Investment Bank (EIB) to put together a bespoke facility for Namibia that it could tap into to develop complementary infrastructure for the green project.

“This is very important – this is not a project funded by the Namibian government, this is a privately funded initiative. But the Namibian government might have to invest in ancillary infrastructure around it to unlock the full socio-economic potential of the project. For this, we’ve approached the EIB and they’re putting together a package that would be more concessionary than we can afford on our existing credit rating.”

By developing this green finance infrastructure in Namibia, the idea is to “de-risk the project and encourage other private investors to come in”.

“The heavy lifting has to be done early on by multilateral development banks and governments, which is what we’ve been looking to do,” Mnyupe notes. “Private sector banks come in later, and then pension funds can come in once the asset reaches operating level.”

Towards a new economy

Of course, the government is confronting several challenges as it attempts to develop Namibia’s green hydrogen industry. The sheer scale of the project is enormous. The latest estimate shows the cost to be around $10bn – comparable to Namibia’s entire GDP – which is partly a reflection of its complexity. “End-to-end,” Mnyupe outlines, “we need renewable energy transmission pipelines, port infrastructure, roads, housing, and more: quite a hefty undertaking for any government.”

However, if such challenges can be overcome, the rewards could be sizeable – not just economically, but across whole swathes of Namibian social and political life. Namibia is a net importer from one of the most energy-insecure countries on the continent – South Africa. “We import 60-70% of our electricity from South Africa, but with a project like this, we could become a net exporter of electricity.

“That has massive implications from an energy security perspective, from an inflation perspective, and importantly, could allow us to attract energy-heavy industries to Namibia,” Mnyupe says.

This independence would bring wider macroeconomic benefits, too. “The amount of foreign reserves we could attract into the country would be huge, and that would have very interesting consequences for our currency. At the moment, the Namibian dollar is tied to the South African rand so whatever exogenous shocks are experienced in South Africa, we absorb 100% of that,” Mnyupe explains. The positive changes that green hydrogen could bring to Namibia are numerous and profound.

“If we capture even half of the benefits,” Mnyupe says, “the Namibian economy will change fundamentally.”

(African Business)

From Melvin Tejan Mansaray, Freetown

 

The Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Dr. Sidie Mohamed Tunis is part of ongoing talks with the main opposition All Peoples Congress (APC) over the post June 24, 2023 elections dispute in Sierra Leone.

It could be recalled that APC rejected the outcome of the June polls citing lack of transparency by the Electoral Commission Sierra Leone (ECSL).

The party has consequently called for the reversal of the results and the sacking of the Chief Electoral Commissioner among other government officials.

Tunis who doubles as a ranking member in the National Assembly of Sierra Leone, has himself just been reelected in a District Block electoral system representing Pujahun District, Southern Region of Sierra Leone for the Fifth term.

Speaker Tunis is part of his Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) peace brokers who met with the former President Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma who is the erstwhile Chairman of the APC and a towering figure.

Speaking to the media, Hon Tunis said the meeting was “exploratory,” noting that more meetings are underway aiming at “bringing down the political heat in the country.”

“Everything should be done to maintain peace and national cohesion in Sierra Leone and for all political parties to play their part in the governance of the state,” Hon. Tunis said .

Hon. Tunis is a consensual personality that is respected among the political divide and has a track record of conducting successful political mediations over time.

Tunis is apparently a top contender for the Speaker of the Sixth National Assembly of Sierra Leone. He said that he is hopeful that by the grace of Allah he will get his party’s nomination for the House’

African Development Bank and USAID extend and expand their partnership through the Regional Development Objectives Agreement (RDOAG) to tackle energy poverty and climate change in sub-Saharan Africa.

The agreement aims to eliminate energy poverty by 2030, accelerate the just energy transition, and improve the enabling environment for renewable energy in Africa.

The partnership allows for potential future US contributions of up to $500 million and provides financial, technical, and operational support to stakeholders through grants, investments, and risk-reduction strategies.

On the sidelines of the Africa Energy Forum in Nairobi, the African Development Bank and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), through the Power Africa Presidential Initiative, signed an extension and expansion of their current Regional Development Objectives Agreement (RDOAG).

The action increases the foundation for collaboration in the development of creative and sustainable solutions to tackle energy poverty, and climate change, and enhance energy systems in sub-Saharan Africa. It also deepens the strategic relationship.

The pact specifically aims to eliminate energy poverty by 2030, speed up the just energy transition in Africa, and improve the favorable climate for renewable energy.

The five-year extension, which runs through September 2028, opens the door for potential future US contributions of up to $500 million to support RDOAG’s goals. The Sustainable Energy Fund for Africa (SEFA) and the African Development Bank’s Desert to Power program have received direct funding through the RDOAG to date, totaling around $388 million.

The partnership will also be able to help the public, commercial, civil society, and other stakeholders financially, technically, and operationally through grants, equity and debt investments, and risk-reduction strategies.

Acting Coordinator for Power Africa David Thompson emphasized the importance of partnerships in advancing and sustaining the fair energy transition during the signing ceremony at the Africa Energy Forum. “The importance of our partnership with the AfDB, as evidenced through this agreement, in achieving our shared ambition of universal access to energy cannot be overemphasized. We effectively leverage one another’s strengths to accomplish much more jointly than either institution could do on its own,” he said.

The Power Africa Strategic Framework, the Bank Group’s New Deal on Energy for Africa, and Sustainable Development Goal 7 are all concerned with ensuring that everyone has access to cheap, dependable, sustainable, and modern energy. Activities carried out under the enlarged agreement will support these goals.

Partnerships are crucial, as Dr. Daniel Schroth, Director of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency at the African Development Bank, who signed the extension on behalf of the Bank’s Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate, and Green Growth, emphasized.

According to Schroth, “Power Africa is a long-standing and key partner of the African Development Bank, and a central pillar of our collaboration focuses on mobilizing increased private sector investments, which are quintessential to achieving our joint objectives of universal access to energy and a just energy transition in Africa.”

The East African Community (EAC) on Monday launched a peace caravan aimed at promoting peaceful coexistence, good neighborliness and peaceful resolution of disputes among border communities through experiential learning from practices of other border communities in the region.

A statement by the EAC headquarters in Tanzania’s northern city of Arusha said the initiative, called peace caravan and benchmarking tour for border communities in Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan, was launched in Namanga on the Kenya-Tanzania border.

According to the statement, the initiative was launched by the EAC secretariat in collaboration with Kenya, Uganda and South Sudan, and in partnership with the African Union Border Program. It is also aimed at sensitizing border communities on other ongoing national, regional and continental initiatives to peacefully and sustainably resolve border issues as well as learn from experiences, lessons and practices of border communities where border disputes have been peacefully and successfully resolved.

The seven-day caravan that involved representatives of the Atekar community composed of Turkana in Kenya, the Toposa of South Sudan, and the Karamajong of Uganda, started in Lodwar in Turkana county, Kenya, and traveled by bus to Namanga border through Eldoret to interact and learn from the experiences of the Maasai community, said the statement.