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Safeguarding the Environment: Costs and Benefits.

“Do we want our children and their children to ask us: ‘Why did your generation destroy our home, when you knew that what you were doing was harmful?’ We would go to great lengths to safeguard them from anybody who would hurt them. So, we also have to protect them from living in a dysfunctional home, a planet where the systems
are no longer working”.

Our home, our Earth is given to us entirely as a gift from God. There is nothing we have done to deserve it or earn it. God has given us a perfectly placed home, with just the right conditions for us to thrive.
We are part of a delicate web of millions of species that support the life of plants, animals and tiny single-celled organisms that are neither plant nor animal. If we remove one of the strands in this web, then the whole system feels the damage. Removing too many species from this web will make irreversible changes that will cause this web of life eventually to break down and stop functioning.
Although scientists have been investigating the heavens for decades and examining other starts (suns) and their solar systems (planets), our Earth is the only place that we can live for sure.

“There is no way we can damage this planet and find another place for the human race to continue to live”. 123rf

Our planet is just the right distance away from our sun so that water can exist in solid, liquid and gas form. We are neither too close to the sun, which would be too hot (steamy), nor too far from the sun, which would be too cold (icy.) This is the miracle of God’s providence for us. Even if there was another planet in just the “sweet spot” in relation to its sun, it would take humans thousands of years to get there with the existing rockets. So, people are right when they say “There is no planet B”.  There is no way we can damage this planet and find another place for the human race to continue to live.
Humans (and some people suggest, that intelligent animals) have been able to develop languages and cultures, to communicate and to appreciate and rejoice in the gift of our common home.
St Francis of Assisi loved the Earth and all of its inhabitants with his entire heart, and he is the model of us of finding joy in everything that surrounds us. The poorest of the poor people, the most distant planet, the lowliest animal, he loved as his brother or sister or mother. When we play, we are appreciating the luxury that we are alive, and that we have time to relax, and are not struggling to survive 24 hours per day. It is a delight to see kids and lambs, and kittens and puppies playing as though they do not have a care in the world, just immersing themselves in the gift of being alive.

Climate change rally. Wikimedia Commons.

Surely all of this is worth preserving – to enjoy now, and to be able to hand it on to our children. There is nothing that we would want to change in God’s plan. Even God looked at Creation on the sixth day, and saw that ‘indeed it was very good’. (Gen 1:31)
We need to protect this delicate balance from people who would just take, take, take everything for their own profit, accumulating more than they can possibly ever use in a life-time. They cut down the forests, sell the animals, make charcoal, drive heavy polluting vehicles, pollute the water, land and air, put concrete wherever there should be natural environment. Thirty years ago, at the “First African Synod”, African bishops discussed how our scarce resources are being tragically mismanaged. In his exhortation ‘Ecclesia in Africa’, after this synod, Pope John Paul II wrote about waste and embezzlement of our common patrimony by citizens lacking in public spirit and about government officials who profit from our countries, and send the money
to foreign bank accounts.

Climate demonstration organized by Fridays For Future in Stockholm. CC BY 4.0/Frankie Fouganthin

Often, we think that they are the heroes of development, the ‘big men’ (and women) making Africa ‘advanced’. But in fact, they are mostly imitating the unsustainable models of the industrialised countries, which are now in trouble because of global warming, and drowning in their own waste. Do we want to go down the same destructive path to have our “moment in the sun” and then leave others to undo the damage for centuries afterwards? Do we want our children and their children to ask us: “Why did your generation destroy our home, when you knew that what you were doing was harmful?” We would go to great lengths to safeguard them from anybody who would hurt them.
So, we also have to protect them from living in a dysfunctional home, a planet where the systems are no longer working. What price are we prepared to pay to keep our home in order? Even if we don’t have children, the world is God’s gift of love to all of us – to all creatures. Are we going to leave it unharmed for all of creation to enjoy? Are we going to leave as small a footprint as possible on the planet when we are finally called to account for how we have enjoyed God’s loving gift? (Open Photo: iStock/amriphoto)

Peter Knox

The Sahara. In the Shade of the Tent.

The tents of the desert inhabitants are a concentration of technologies, the use of materials and design particularly suited to the environment – which is why they have varied typologies – and to the way of life of those who are always ready to get back on the road

“The first tea is as bitter as life; the second, as sweet as love; the third, as strong as death.” Yislim recites the ancient saying of the nomads of the Sahara while his wife watches over the teapot which bubbles away on a tiny brazier fired with the coals from the previous evening’s fire. All around lies endless emptiness, nothing but sand scorched by the sun and changing dunes shaped by the wind, but inside the small tent, the atmosphere is enveloping and fresh, as if it were a mirage.
The tents of desert nomads are the absolute pinnacle of architecture. They manage perfectly to combine simplicity, technique, economy of resources, resistance and lightness; it is impossible not to be fascinated by their sinuous and elementary shapes or by the skill with which they are quickly set up, or dismantled and loaded onto dromedaries.

The bedouins tent in the sahara. Shutterstock/Seleznev Oleg

There is no single type of tent: as happens with houses, the different latitudes and climatic conditions, specific local traditions or the availability of some materials rather than others have led to the development of very different models. However, almost all of them seem to recall the surrounding dunes with their shapes, generating that unique dialogue between landscape and architecture that only traditional buildings and technologies can achieve.
The Berber tent is also called the black tent because it was historically made with black goat wool. It is supported by a pair of central wooden poles approximately 2.5 meters high and connected by a crossbar; other larger versions require the insertion of several pairs of timbers of different heights. The anchoring of the cover sheet to the ground is done with a series of sturdy tie rods parallel to the seams in order to
minimize the risk of tears.
The result is a roof with an organic shape capable of offering minimal resistance to the wind, the main risk factor for the stability of structures in these contexts; the spaces between the limits of the covering sheet and the ground are closed with additional lighter sheets or left open during the summer season to allow the air to flow.

Dromedary camel in the desert, nomad tents in the background. Shutterstock/ Chantal de Bruijne

The traditional Mauri khaima manages to further optimize resources: the large square wool or cotton sheet of the covering is perforated at the top so that it can be supported by a single tall central wooden pole, which families have handed down for generations. Other variants widespread among the Tuareg or in the areas between Somalia, Kenya and Ethiopia have tents made with mats or skins instead of sheets and with structures made using curved branches that can reach a semi-dome shape.
The desert teaches that everything superfluous is a burden that can even become lethal. Objects therefore often perform more than one function or can be easily reconverted as needed; this is the case of hammocks for children, which serve to stow furniture during the day and as bags for transporting furnishings when travelling.

In front of their house. (File swm)

Among the Moorish nomads, however, the amchaghab, or amsaqqab, is very widespread, a simple table made with finely carved and decorated wooden feet, connected by crosspieces and tie rods on which cushions, blankets and furnishings are placed. While travelling, the same object, turned over, becomes a comfortable sedan chair that allows children and women to travel on the back of a dromedary.
They seem like tales from ancient times, yet even today tens of thousands of people build and inhabit these marvels of ingenuity; new technologies and materials have partially modified some elements without however altering the overall characteristics of the structures.

“The first tea is as bitter as life; the second, as sweet as love; the third, as strong as death.” (File swm)

The sturdy cotton sail sheets, reinforced with double stitching and treated with waterproofing have for years replaced the goat’s wool or the skins of traditional tents, just as steel rods for reinforced concrete have become good and resistant alternatives to perimeter poles or pegs for the guy lines, which in ancient times were made with bushes or tangles of shrubs that were buried in the sand.
Inside, the apparently indistinct space is instead well divided into male and female areas, where the space for the hearth and the loom is usually found. The floors are covered with decorated mats, often even the inside of the sheets is covered with lighter fabrics decorated with geometric patterns and bright colours.
The afternoon sun filters through the coloured fabric and creates a dreamlike atmosphere full of reflections and shades, like the windows of a Gothic cathedral. An essential, austere and ephemeral cathedral, in the heart of the Sahara. (Open Photo: The nomad (Berber) tent in the Sahara, Morocco. Shutterstock/ Vladimir Melnik)

Federico Monica/Africa

The Mediterranean. Secure ports for the Russians.

Moscow responds to Europe’s embargo by finding new landing places along the coasts of North Africa and the Middle East. And having its oil tankers sail under the Gabonese flag.

More than two years after the blockade triggered together with the first sanctions launched by Brussels in response to the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has identified alternative landing places to those in Europe for its vessels transiting the Mediterranean, finding allied shores along the coasts of the Middle East and North Africa.
“The Russians can dock in Libya, they are welcomed by Turkish ports and are among the few who continue to calmly cross the Suez Canal with dark fleets (ghost fleets, ed.) transporting their oil”, explains Gian Enzo Duci, professor of economics at the University of Genoa in Italy. “Russian exports are continuing in quantities no less than when they could do business with Europe, concentrating mainly on Asia.”
In the western Atlantic, Russian shipowners, unable to stop their ships for refuelling and repairs at the port of Las Palmas, in the Canary Islands, have begun to look with more interest at Moroccan ports.
According to a reconstruction by Africa Intelligence, in recent months, Moscow has found a place in the sun, particularly in the ports of Casablanca and Agadir.

Cargo sea port, Casablanca, Marocco. Russian shipowners have begun to look more closely at Moroccan ports, particularly Casablanca and Agadir. iStock/Travel Faery

In October 2023 four entrepreneurs, the Russians Mikhail Burykin, Aleksei Markov and Sergey Lysenko and the Moroccan Mohammed Amine Cherkaoui, secretly purchased Chantiers et Ateliers du Maroc (Cam), a leading ship repair company in Morocco in which the French Naval Group builders were also interested. The company, on the verge of bankruptcy – which then arrived at the beginning of 2024 – was bought at the rock-bottom price of 7.5 million dirhams (around 668 thousand euros). Shortly after, the Russian-Moroccan consortium became the majority shareholder of Cam’s parent company, Ateliers et Chantiers d’Agadir et du Souss (Acas), based in Agadir.
In the corporate reorganization of Acas, the majority shareholders now also include the Moroccan billionaire Bennani-Smirès family, the Al Mada holding company owned by the Moroccan royals and the Société Chérifienne de Matériel Industriel et Ferroviaire.
The man who acted as a bridge between Russian and Moroccan interests in this operation was Mohammed Amine Cherkaoui, a member of the board of directors of Citibank Maghreb, but not only that. Cherkaoui has long worked in tandem with Mikhail Burykin. Together they manage a vast network of activities between Casablanca, Agadir and Dakhla, in Western Sahara: from fishing to real estate, from the supply of medical products and devices to energy.
In July 2023, on the occasion of the second Russia-Africa summit, Cherkaoui was part of the delegation flown to St. Petersburg together with Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch.
In October, therefore in the period in which Chantiers et Ateliers du Maroc was purchased, Cherkaoui and Burykin led a group of Moroccan entrepreneurs to Belarus, where they organised meetings with local operators in the automotive and urban transport sector, including MAZ, BKM Holding and BelAZ. Two months later, at a forum dedicated to oil & gas in Tyumen, Russia, for Water and Energy Solutions – a company specialising in the production of hydroelectric energy of which Cherkaoui is CEO – they negotiated a contract for the supply of equipment with the local Oil Tech company.

Entrance door of Dakhla, a city of Western Sahara. It is of particular interest to Moscow. 123rf

“In terms of maritime traffic, Russia’s interest in Africa remains, however, oriented more than anything else towards the search for a country that guarantees a flag of convenience for its ships,” continues professor Duci. “In light of the European ban, Moscow needs to use ships with third-party flags to transport its crude oil, which it now sends to destinations further away than in the past. The latest data on Russian oil sales, in fact, see India and China as its two main buyers.”
Ships from most countries in the world have no intention of defying the sanctions launched by Europe because this would mean being ousted from traditional markets. There are nations, however, willing to take this risk. “A few months ago, the flag of Gabon “exploded” and became the second most used in Africa after that of Liberia,” continues Duci. “It emerged that ships flying the Gabonese flag had previously been registered under other flags, especially those of Malta and Cyprus.” According to a Bloomberg investigation, in January this year, over one hundred oil tankers were flying the Gabonese flag, while in 2023 there were 20. It is easy to imagine who was the first to use these ships to circumvent the European embargo. (Tanker ship sailing through blue and calm Mediterranean Sea. Shutterstock/Mariusz Bugno)

Luca Bussotti

Mission.The Joy of Giving and Receiving.

Three African Comboni Missionaries share their missionary life

My name is Brother Ghislain Dagbeto from Togo. I remember that in my formative years I initially resisted invitations to go to church, shedding tears at the mere mention of it. But a crucial encounter at the age of twelve, just outside our home, changed the course of my life.

A brother of the Charismatic Renewal became a source of inspiration. Unable to refuse his call to return to my Christian life, I became actively involved in my parish, until my worried mother intervened and prevented me from attending church for five years.

I obediently obeyed, cherishing the hope that God would prepare the way for me, after secondary school, secure me a scholarship for further studies and give me the independence to follow the desires of my heart.

When I finished my studies, I wanted to work with the most vulnerable. However, during my third year of university, I began to feel the signs of God’s call to the consecrated life. A religious sister in my class and the announcement of the aspirant group during Mass awakened a persistent question in me: why not me? This led me to join the vocation group in my parish, Our Lady of Charity of Godomey.

In 2014, the Comboni Novices introduced me to the Comboni Missionaries.  I was fascinated by the life of St Daniel Comboni and saw him as an exemplary social worker. Initially, I was considering the priesthood, but a transformative dream during my discernment changed my course. In the dream, I was travelling with my mother and we got lost at night. A kind stranger welcomed us into his home and offered us food, drink and shelter, as if he had anticipated our arrival. This dream revealed a powerful image of fraternity that shaped my decision to become a Comboni Brother.

January 2015 was the start of a two-year journey.  During this time, I worked at the National Psychiatric Hospital in Cotonou, where I gained experience as an assistant to the head of social services and the donation manager. This role reinforced my commitment to fraternity, as my relationship with abandoned patients prompted questions from colleagues about family connections. “Are these patients your relatives?” some of my colleagues asked.

On 5 September 2016, I entered the postulancy in Lome, Togo, where I studied alongside candidates for the priesthood. I was pursuing a Master’s degree in International Management at ESGIS, a school of science and management. I also had a trusting and formative experience under the guidance of Fathers Bernard and Anicet, my formators.The two of them were brothers to me.  This period was crucial in moments
of vocational crisis.

On 30 August 2019, I entered the novitiate in Cotonou, embarking on a spiritual journey in which encounters with God and St Daniel Comboni were profoundly transformative. On 8 May 2021, I took my first vows in the parish of Fidrosse in Cotonou. I was then sent to the Comboni Brothers Centre in Nairobi for the final stage of basic formation as a Comboni Missionary Brother.

When I arrived, I was initially disappointed because of the confusion that surrounded this stage of the formation of the Comboni Brothers. However, I was redirected to do a second Master’s degree in social transformation. If all goes well, I will go on my first mission after defending my thesis on sustainable development.

Grateful for this enriching journey, I have become a versatile social worker, international manager, development project manager and social transformer – a testament to my dream of being a polyvalent man of God, ready to serve society in various capacities.

In conclusion, my dreams continue to drive my vocation as a Comboni Brother, pushing me forward with purpose and determination, ready to follow wherever the Lord leads.

Sister Elisabeth. “To be amazed by the mystery of my vocation”

I am Sister Elisabeth Tikabi, a Cameroonian Comboni Missionary.  After completing my studies in Social Communication at the Salesian Pontifical University of Rome, I was sent to Kinshasa (DRC) more than three years ago to work at the Missionary Animation Centre of Afriquespoir (CAE).  My integration was quick, also because I am a French-speaking Cameroonian and the language was not a problem.

The CAE is a multimedia centre in which three Comboni missionaries and I are directly involved. We publish the quarterly magazine Afriquespoir for the whole of francophone Africa and have a publishing house
of the same name.

In general, people are very happy with the content of our publications and also with the books we publish. These are mainly aimed at educating people in the faith and inviting them to missionary commitment.

At CAE we have a small recording studio and we produce audios and a missionary programme that is broadcast by Elikya, the television of the Archdiocese of Kinshasa. There is a lot of work behind these activities, but we are a good team and we do it very well.

Whatever the difficulties, as religious and convinced witnesses of the Gospel, we are always ready to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ through the means of communication. I appreciate the relationships I have built in this period with simplicity, dialogue and openness. This was possible thanks to our collaborators who are essential for the distribution of the magazine in Kinshasa.

Another activity of the CAE is the accompaniment of various missionary groups, such as the Comboni Lay Missionaries, the Missionary Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus or the Lybota ya Comboni, which can be translated as “Family of Comboni”, which is a group made up of relatives of the Congolese Comboni missionaries.

These groups, organized in small communities, follow the spirituality of the Cenacles of Missionary Prayer founded by a Portuguese Comboni missionary, Fr. Claudino Ferreira Gomes. With frequent meetings to experience moments of prayer together, they organize missionary animation activities which, for me, are very enriching.

Sunday is a very important day for the missionary animation of the local Church. Thanks to the support of the parish priests, members of the CAE and some collaborators, we alternate around the more than 200 parishes of the archdiocese to offer our books and magazines, which have proven to be good tools for helping Christians to commit themselves
to the Gospel.

I feel happy and never cease to be amazed by the mystery of my vocation. Why did the Lord call me, who didn’t know much about Him? I am experiencing the joy of giving and receiving. Day after day, through my commitment and all that I am, I try to participate in the construction of the Church that I love so much as a religious woman and as a journalist.

Father Bienvenu.  A Great Adventure

My name is Bienvenu Clemy Mikozama from Congo Brazzaville. I am the fourth child in a family of five. They called me Bienvenu, “Welcome”, to express my parents’ joy at having their first son. Instead, Clemy is a combination of two prefixes: Cle, from Clémentine, my mother’s name, and My, from Mikozama, my father’s name

I was born in Brazzaville, the capital of my country, Congo. My family is a Protestant. I grew up in a context where the Word of God was at the centre of family life.

One of my friends, who was a Catholic and wanted to become a priest, brought me the book “Saving Africa with Africa”. When I read the life of Saint Daniele Comboni, my heart began to burn with enthusiasm. However, I thought that being a Protestant prevented me, but my friend told me that it was not an obstacle and introduced me to some
Catholic nuns. With one of them, I began the first of my
vocational discernment meetings.

One day I decided to talk to my father about my desire to become a Catholic priest. My father didn’t refuse, even though he didn’t like the idea. My mother did not object either, but she suggested the option of becoming a Protestant pastor. I don’t know why I was so determined, because I had no idea of priestly life in the Catholic Church, but the testimony of Comboni’s life triggered in me a strong desire to pursue this missionary intuition.

Seeing a European sacrifice his life to make Christ known in Africa made me ask why I shouldn’t do the same for my brothers and sisters. As a Protestant, I was proud, and I still am when I talk about my roots in the faith, which is why I say that Saint Daniel Comboni is the only reason why I changed my religious confession.

My regularity in the activities of the Catholic Church and the dialogue that my father had with the nun who accompanied me also helped me to be consistent in my desire to be a priest.

In April 2011, I met the Comboni Missionaries in Kinshasa, the capital of the DRC. When I returned home after five months of learning about the Comboni charism, I was convinced that I wanted to begin my training.

However, my passport was issued late and I had to wait a year at home before I could start my first philosophy course. That period of waiting at home wasn’t easy because; my parents wanted to change my mind. But I didn’t give up, the decision had been made on my part. I would become a Comboni priest and missionary.

In 2015, I entered the postulancy of the Comboni Missionaries in Kisangani. Three years later I went to Chad for the novitiate. During the novitiate, I appreciated going by bicycle to visit the Christian communities and experiencing the generosity of the people who supported us, especially during the months in which we were a small community of novices.

I took my first vows in May 2018. That same year I left for Ghana to study theology. There I found a very welcoming and proud people. Leaving the French-speaking context for the first time, I had some initial problems with the language, but it was a rich and wonderful experience.

In 2022 I returned to the Democratic Republic of Congo to carry out my missionary service before my priestly ordination. The DRC is the Comboni province to which I belong and here I have had very beautiful and enriching experiences.

I was ordained a priest on February 11th this year. I am the first Comboni missionary from the Republic of Congo. Missionary life is a wonderful adventure lived in Christ. Life is so precious and we must live it fully and with dignity.

 

 

 

 

Turkish Islamic Private military company launches offensive in Africa.

The decline of the Western military presence in the Sahel and the expansion of the Russian Wagner Group there has eclipsed the offensive in Africa of the first Islamic private military company, the Turkish SADAT Group.

The expulsion of French and American troops from the Sahel and the corresponding expansion of the Russian Wagner mercenaries, now rebranded as the Africa Corps, has eclipsed the emergence of a new player: the Turkish private military company SADAT International Defence Consultancy, founded in 2012 by former Turkish army brigadier the late general Adnan Tanriverdi and 22 officers expelled from the Turkish army in 1997 for their Salafist tendencies.

The founder of the Turkish defence consulting company SADAT, 79-year-old Adnan Tanriverdi, died on Sunday, August 4, 2024.

Unlike Executive Outcomes, founded by former South African military officers in the last years of apartheid, which did not serve the interests of Pretoria, SADAT has more in common with Wagner, an instrument of Kremlin policy. There was indeed a close relationship between SADAT’s founder, 79-year-old Adnan Tanriverdi and Turkey president Recep Tayyib Erdogan. The relationship between the two men began in 1994, when the former served as a brigade commander in Istanbul, of which Erdogan was then mayor.During the controversial coup attempt of 15 July 2016, which many believe was a masquerade orchestrated by Erdogan to purge the army of opponents, SADAT  played a key role in fighting the insurgency After the alleged coup, Tanriverdi was appointed chief military adviser to the president’s cabinet and began promoting Muslim Brotherhood ideology within Turkey’s National Intelligence  (MIT).

President of the Republic of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan. CC BY 4.0/Pres.Office

The name “SADAT” is a suffix given to families believed to be descendants of the Prophet Muhammad. This means that SADAT is not an ordinary private military company, but a kind of ‘holy’ or ‘halal’ mercenary outfit. In fact, SADAT and Erdogan’s Justice and Development Party (AKP) form a common ideological front. Ariane Gatelier, a researcher at the École de Guerre Économique in Paris, recalls that Tanriverdi was forced to resign from the Turkish army in 1996 because of his Islamist positions. In 2019, after declaring that SADAT was preparing the return of the long-awaited “Mahdi” (Erdogan himself), Tanriverdi was dismissed because he had become an embarrassment to the president. But he remained Erdogan’s confidant.
SADAT’s strategic aim has been to establish military cooperation with Muslim countries in order to enable them to become ‘Islamic superpowers’. It is active in 22 Islamic countries, where it offers security audits, operational and logistical support missions and the provision of fighters to its clients, which are either governments or militant organisations. In November 2019, SADAT signed a contract with the Libyan private security company Security Side, headed by Muslim Brotherhood leader Sameh Bukatef, to train militias affiliated with Fayaz al-Sarraj’s Government of National Accord (GNA). SADAT also trains Islamist elements in Somalia and Qatar, where Turkey has established military training centres.

A large range of products and services.
SADAT, which employs more than a hundred former Turkish army officers, offers a wide range of products and services, including military training for special forces, land, sea and air forces, and military logistical support. However, unlike other PMCs, SADAT does not openly promote a direct action or combat capability. It does, however, use a wide range of weapons to support its clients’ requirements and uses standard Turkish military equipment for its personnel, including Turkish-made MPT-76 assault rifles and JMK BORA-12 sniper rifles, as well as Otokar armoured personnel carriers.

Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drone.CC BY-SA 4.0/ Bayhaluk

SADAT provides complementary services to states which have signed security and defence cooperation agreements with Turkey. According to the Nigerian SBM Intelligence consultancy, 19 African countries signed such deals (Algeria, Libya, Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Ghana, Sudan, Ethiopia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, Uganda, Kenya, Mauritania, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Madagascar, South Africa and Gabon). Guinea and Ivory Coast are also part of the list says Ariane Gatelier. Deployments of SADAT personnel have taken place in Burkina-Faso, Nigeria, Niger and Togo for guarding Turkish businesses including factories and mines. SADAT also reportedly provides assistance to the clients of Turkish Bayraktar TB2 drones such as Ethiopia, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Burkina-Faso, Niger, Togo, Nigeria, Chad, Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Angola and Rwanda, claims SBM. According to the North Africa Post, Sadat is also deploying in Chad and a Qatari Leaks video identifies the Sudanese port city of Suakin as another potential site of SADAT involvement. Agency France Presse also claims that SADAT has sent groups in Nigeria to fight Boko Haram.

Turkish flag on Turkey army uniform. SADAT employs more than a hundred former Turkish army officers. 123rf

So far, its main operation has been in Libya. According to the SADAT’s website, the company began offering military training to Libyan security forces in 2013, after a visit to the country of its founder, Adnan Tanrverdi, to “determine the needs of the New Libyan Armed Forces”. At the time, SADAT created a concept for the Libyan military called “Sports Facilities Design for a Military Regiment” which served as kind of cover for its activities. According to the Vienna-based MENA Research Centre on the Middle East, SADAT sold 10,000 tons of weapons and ammunitions to militias loyal to the Tripoli-based GNA between July and September 2019, including armoured vehicles, missile launchers and drones. According to Pentagon sources, SADAT oversaw and paid for 5,000 Syrian mercenaries hired on behalf of the GNA. This intervention enabled the GNA to repel an attack by Marshal Khalifa Haftar, backed by Wagner mercenaries. The UN confirmed SADAT’s involvement in recruiting, financing and deploying Syrian fighters, including children, in Libya and in March 2021 accused SADAT of violating UN resolutions.

 In West Africa
SADAT’s second most important operation in Africa, after Libya, takes place in Niger, following a military cooperation agreement signed in July 2020, which considers the possibility of establishing a Turkish military base there.  In May 2024, the London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (OSDH) revealed that Turkey had deployed 1,100 Syrian mercenaries in Niger since the start of the repatriation of French troops from the Barkhane anti-jihadist operation in September 2023. According to OSDH director Rami Abdulrahman, these fighters belong to the Sultan Murad faction, a Turkish proxy in northern Syria.

Boko Haram fighters. SADAT has sent groups in Nigeria to fight Boko Haram. Archive

The mercenaries have been deployed in the Liptako-Gourma region, between the borders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the epicentre of jihadist activity by groups linked to al-Qaeda or the Islamic State. Abdulrahman told the French newspaper Le Monde that the Syrian mercenaries were sent to guard mines, oil installations or military bases. But eventually they will be involved in the fight against jihadists. By June 2024, the OSDH estimated that 50 Syrian fighters had already been killed in Niger, mostly in jihadist attacks.
SADAT’s offensive in the Sahel is spreading to Burkina Faso. According to Le Monde, negotiations are underway between the company and the government in Ouagadougou to expand its activities there. Melih Tanriverdi denies that SADAT has any presence in Niger or Mali, despite many contradictory testimonies, but admits that the company has ambitions in the region. On SADAT’s website, he says that the company’s 2025 marketing plan includes offering integrated electronic border security solutions and reorganising the armed forces of Burkina Faso and other francophone countries. Tanriverdi also says that SADAT is looking to expand its business in the region. (Open Photo: 123rf and SADAT Logo)

François Misser

 

Political and economic change.

Significant reforms. Opening up to new markets. The presidency of Pepe Mujica.

The victory of the socialist Tabaré Vázquez within the Frente Amplio confederation, achieved in the first round with 50.05% of the votes, followed the wave of political change that had affected the Indio-Latin continent since the end of the 1990s and which was attributable to the activism and initiative of numerous social movements which had the ability both to face the drama of the economic and social crisis and to transform this network into political capital.

Tabaré Vázquez was the President of Uruguay from 2005 to 2010 and from 2015 to 2020.
CC BY 2.0/Pres. Office

With close reference to the Uruguayan context, the creation of hundreds of family and collective gardens in the early 2000s was emblematic when the economic and social crisis was raging with an unemployment threshold of 20% and with 80% of the popular sectors having no stable employment. The gardens, without a doubt, were an excellent tool for reducing the food crisis of the poorest to the point that they continued to operate even after the economic recovery under the presidency of Tabaré Vázquez.
The new Uruguayan President, finding himself having to face a disastrous situation both from an economic and social perspective, has launched numerous reform programs, including a new tax system aimed at reducing the tax burden on the lowest incomes and increasing it on those medium-high, and a new healthcare system which provided for the establishment of a public healthcare fund fed by contributions from workers and businesses. Vázquez also prepared a social emergency plan based on direct monetary transfers, community socio-educational programs, socially useful works, public health programs targeting specific pathologies, the construction of shelters for the homeless, cards for the purchase of basic food products, assistance programs for the renovation and improvement of precarious homes and incentives for the start-up of new businesses managed by people in conditions of social exclusion. With reference to public education, he has increased the budget considerably, foreseeing extensive computerization programs starting from primary school.
These reforms have certainly significantly reduced the most serious situations of poverty. Proof of this is the decline in absolute poverty which went from 4% in 2005 to 1.6% in 2009.

Village in the rural area. File swm.

President Vázquez was also able to contain the country’s public debt, whose fiscal deficit reached 0.5% of GDP during his first three years in government, and then stabilized at 0.8% due to the international crisis of 2008 -2009. Uruguay has also benefited from a new development of the internal market thanks to redistributive policies and a very favourable exogenous macroeconomic cycle determined by the new geopolitical structure which, in addition to favouring the spectacular economic growth of its neighbours Brazil and Argentina – towards which the country directed approximately 70% of its exports – it favoured the presence of new important players in the region, including China in search of new markets to satisfy its growing food needs.
These factors have allowed the country to experience a phase of GDP growth at very high rates (on average 7% per year) and a clear decline in the unemployment rate.
In essence, the economic growth developed by the two great South American giants, Brazil and Argentina, has enabled their considerable economic recovery. It was during the 2009 presidential elections that Uruguay sought the decisive push for a more radical change in the Frente Amplio, which materialized in the candidacy of the leader of the Popular Participation Movement (MPP) Josè Pepe Mujica.

José Alberto “Pepe” Mujica was the president of Uruguay from 2010 to 2015.
CC BY 3.0/Pablo Valadares

A former Tupamaros guerrilla with a stormy past behind him and a long jail term of 14 years, he regained his freedom thanks to the amnesty decreed in 1985 by the restored Uruguayan Parliament, Pepe Mujica, together with other comrades, joined the left-wing alliance Frente Amplio (FA) to continue the political battle in the resurrected democratic party system. In 1989, together with other left-wing forces, he promoted the internal current “Popular Participation Movement” (MPP); in 1995 he became the first deputy of the Tupamaros; in 2005 his party received the most votes in the FA and he became Minister of Agriculture in the first FA government of Tabaré Vàzquez. His position in such a prestigious ministry for the country’s economy offered him the opportunity to create a network of consensus among farmers and trade associations, useful for consolidating the basis for his subsequent candidacy for the presidency. His period as president made him particularly popular, also at an international level for his vision of life, for the frankness with which he expresses it, as well as for his attitude of simplicity which acted as a counterbalance to the arrogance of established power, becoming at the same time the stand-in for all the evils that are borne by professional politicians, such as to nominate him as a model of a “President for export”, despite his radical past, his membership of the MPP and the image around which he had the ability to build his image.

A traditional food market at Ciudad Vieja district in Montevideo city. Shutterstock/ DFLC Prints

From a governmental point of view, his action is characterized by reforms that have caused a particular stir, including those relating to the decriminalization of abortion, the introduction of gay marriage and the liberalization of marijuana consumption.
Tabaré Vazquez returned to office in the 2014 presidential election and lasted until 2020, thus concluding a 15-year cycle of the Frente Amplio government. Despite their common political affiliation, Vazquez represented a break with the course undertaken by the Mujica presidency both domestically and internationally. However, in these fifteen years, Uruguay has had the opportunity to establish itself politically and economically in the region, boasting the highest GDP per capita and economic growth of 4.3%. Furthermore, on an international level, it was the only left-wing government capable of maintaining stable diplomatic relations with the United States and good relations also with Macri’s Argentina, despite profound political differences. But unlike Muijca, Vazquez broke that privileged channel that united his predecessor to the leaders of Bolovarism Maduro, Morales and Ortega. (Open Photo: A political act in the streets of Montevideo.123rf)
(F.R.)

India. Alok Shukla. Dedicating his life for the protection of water, forests and land.

He led a successful community campaign that saved 445,000 acres of biodiversity-rich forests from 21 planned coal mines in the central Indian state of Chhattisgarh.

In July 2022, the government cancelled the 21 proposed coal mines in Hasdeo Aranya, whose pristine forests – popularly known as the lungs of Chhattisgarh – are one of the largest intact forest areas in India.

Spread across 657 square miles, the dense, biodiverse Hasdeo Aranya forests form one of India’s most extensive contiguous forest tracts.
The ancient forests provide a critical tiger corridor linking
neighboring sanctuaries and habitat for approximately 50 endangered
Asian elephants.

They are also home to 25 endangered species, including leopards, sloth bears, grey wolves, striped hyenas; 92 bird species, such as white-eyed buzzard; and 167 rare and medicinal plant species. The forests are also a catchment area for the Hasdeo River, which flows into the Mahanadi River and serves as the watershed for the Hasdeo Bango reservoir, irrigating 741,000 acres of farmland.

The state of Chhattisgarh, 44% of which is forested, has India’s third largest concentration of forests. Additionally, nearly 15,000 Adivasi – Indigenous peoples – depend on the Hasdeo Aranya forests for their livelihood, cultural identity, and sustenance.

Meanwhile, the region contains one of India’s largest coal reserves – some 5.6 billion tons, located just beneath the Hasdeo forests.
Today, India is the world’s second largest coal consumer and producer, with 761 million tons generated in 2022-2023, providing nearly
70% of the country’s electricity. More than 21% of India’s coal
comes from Chhattisgarh.

In 2010, India’s environment ministry declared the Hasdeo Aranya forests a “no-go” zone in recognition of their vast biodiversity, but the declaration was never formalized into law and successive governments have attempted to jumpstart mining operations.
Between 2011 and 2015, India’s Adani Enterprises—a powerful multinational mining corporation – received permissions to develop five coal mines in the forests.

Alok Shukla, 43, is a convenor with Chhattisgarh Bachao Andolan (the Save Chhattisgarh Movement), an informal alliance of grassroots movements across Chhattisgarh. The alliance is member-driven, without any paid employees. Alok is also a founding member of the Hasdeo Aranya Bachao Sangharsh Samiti (Save Hasdeo Aranya Resistance Committee), a grassroots movement uniting forest-dwelling
villagers across the region.

Growing up in the mineral-rich state of Chhattisgarh, Alok witnessed the profound environmental and social devastation wrought by extractive industries. Acutely aware of unsustainable resource extraction, he decided to dedicate his life to protecting the water, forests, and land of central India, as well as supporting Adivasi tribes, which are the traditional stewards of the land.

On a visit to the rivers of Hasdeo in late 2011, Alok learned of the government’s plan to auction off coal blocks in the Hasdeo Aranya forests. He realized that the affected communities had little information about the mining process or awareness of their existing legal rights and began advising them on potential legal strategies and tactics.

Previous Adivasi opposition to mining projects was somewhat disorganized and, as a result, two mines were brought online around 2010. Alok’s leadership had brought villages and local communities together in a unified movement that emerged in 2012 with the creation of the Save Hasdeo Aranya Resistance Committee.

In June 2020, several more coal auctions were announced, but fierce opposition from local communities stalled the process. In a major coal auction in December 2020, the central government invoked emergency provisions to move 21 coal blocks forward. Madhuresh Kumar, a national convener at the National Alliance of People’s Movements, noted: “The land acquisition law says that if a project is deemed to be of national importance, certain provisions can be bypassed, including community consent or requirements to hold a public hearing, and forest and land clearances can be fast tracked.”

Despite COVID-19 restrictions, in June 2020 Alok began organizing the villages in protest against the 21 proposed coal mines. In October 2020, he led local villagers to lobby the village legislative councils to designate 945,000 acres as the Lemru elephant reserve, protecting the elephant corridor and its boundaries from planned coal mines. Sustained community protest led the government to withdraw three mines from public auction in September 2020, and, after a 10-day, 166-mile protest march to the state capital of Raipur in October 2021 alongside 500 villagers, an additional 14 mines were cancelled.

Alok garnered widespread support on social media and digital platforms by using the hashtag #SaveHasdeo. The campaign inspired creative acts around the country, including bike rallies and couples using the hashtag in their wedding invitations. In the spring of 2022, villagers began an indefinite sit-in and launched tree-hugging protests against the felling of 300 trees that had been cleared for the proposed mines.

Alok met with local government officials and senior state leaders, held press conferences in New Delhi, gave interviews to radio and television outlets, wrote letters and petitions, organized protests, and held village assemblies with affected Adivasi communities.

In July 2022, the state legislature adopted a resolution against mining in the entire Hasdeo Aranya region and demanded cancellation of any existing allocations. Alok’s adept organizing of local communities and sustained strategy led the state government to cancel 21 coal blocks by July 2022, preserving the unfragmented, biodiverse Hasdeo Aranya forests from destruction by some of India’s most powerful corporations.

Determined to save the lungs of Chhattisgarh from destruction, the Hasdeo movement’s ability to successfully influence policy has made it a model for environmental justice in India and generated an unprecedented amount of national and regional solidarity.
Last April, Alok Shukla received the Goldman Environmental Prize, known as the “Green Nobel Prize”. (The Goldman Environment Report – Photo Goldman Environmental Prize)

 

The Guarani. The great family of creation.

For indigenous peoples, the earth is like a mother who offers her children the best that she herself can produce. Women are the producers and guardians of the common home.

At Guarani ceremonies in Paraguay, shamans perform prayers in the form of a sacred dance to the rhythm of the beating (with the tacuara) of the women on the ground. One of its meanings is that women, as the creators and guardians of life, perceive a whole microcosm of life sleeping beneath the earth: seeds, germs and embryos of different species, specific to each country.
With their beating, the women want to awaken this hidden life and invite it to become part of the rhythm of praise and gratitude towards the creator of the land. This vision takes us back to the sources of life and fills us with sacredness, as expressed by Pope Francis in the encyclical ‘Querida Amazonia’: “We should esteem the indigenous mysticism that sees the interconnection and interdependence of the whole of creation, the mysticism of gratuitousness that loves life as a gift, the mysticism of a sacred wonder before nature and all its forms of life. ” (Q.A. 73).

Indigenous women say that each territory has its own life plan, which they must investigate and learn about to collaborate with it. File swm

This way of celebrating by the indigenous people was born from a profound coexistence with their territory which opened up to them the mystery of life as sacred ground. In fact, they explain it: “With our vision we affirm our otherness to this modern system from our millenary way of occupying the land. It is the commitment of our life that follows thousands of other lives in past, present and future times and is inscribed in fulfilling our spiritual duty to safeguard our sacred lands.”
Indigenous people have different images of their territory. For example, the Guaraní see their territory as a woman in whose veins their blood flows, represented by the water of the rivers and streams that exudes life with exuberance, fertilizing the land and producing fruit. The earth, in the vision of almost all indigenous peoples, is like a Mother who offers her children the best that she herself can produce.

The ancestors have already discovered that their territory is the “integrating centre of community life”. File swm

For them, the earth has a life of its own and can therefore also die. From gratitude for this maternal care, comes the desire to take care of it in reciprocity, out of filial affection. This principle of reciprocity is inherent in every territory and in every people, it is the basis of every form of coexistence. Some indigenous women say that each territory has its own life plan, which they must investigate and learn about to collaborate with it. This mother-child reciprocity must be constantly renewed in every family home, but always within the horizon of the universal common home, the great family of creation.
Women, experts in being generators and custodians of life, know the specific properties of their territory: diversity, fragility, etc. and try to organize meetings to exchange their experiences and develop a holistic vision. Their goal is to maintain, restore, rebuild and renew the harmony and balance in their coexistence with the territory. As a community, they plan planting, growing, harvesting and distribution and invent ways to cook and preserve all the edible food their territory offers. They invent typical foods with the flavours of the territory.

Women have always passed on their customs, customary rights and traditions to the new generations. File swm

They also know how to organize themselves with a clear and courageous choice to defend the rights and dignity of life in coexistence with their own territory and for socio-environmental justice among all the cultures present. They know how to collaborate with the rhythm of nature, enter its renewal cycles and adapt to historical and climatic changes. At the same time, they know how to take care of their own memory, reconnecting to the origins and utopias of the past. This looking to the past leads them to look to the future, which gives them the audacity to transform anachronistic structures that are no longer viable.
These organized women know how to take their gaze from the “edge of the food plate” of every day, and broaden it to a universal gaze, a utopia, which leads to the door of the Common Home, always ajar to relieve the overload of conflicts, fatigue, problems and daily difficulties, erasing that “languid gaze”. Thanks to their sense of community, their spirit of collective resistance and their tender affection for their land, these women remain steadfast and united and thus overcome difficult situations with collective hope. Since the life of the territory is sacred, women tend to protect the most fragile and weak forms of life at a socio-environmental level. They know how to prevent heat and cold, drought and floods, the danger of parasites and agrotoxins, etc., always defending, caring for and rebuilding harmony and balance in the coexistence of the territory. Their ancestors have already discovered that their territory is the “integrating centre of community life”.
To maintain the intimate relationship between the human community and territory, it is necessary to have a common dream, a utopia. There are various names for this dream, such as Land without Evil,
Good Living, Common Home …

To maintain the intimate relationship between the human community and territory, it is necessary to have a common dream, a utopia. File swm

For indigenous women, caring for the Common Home always begins with caring for one’s home in the territory. In some ancient myths of the Gran Chaco and the Guaraní aquifer, women appear as collaborators in creation. Climatic, ecological, topographical conditions, etc. inspired their creative intuitions in developing, together, over the generations, their own cosmovision, their own language, their own organizational structures, etc. They have always passed on their customs, customary rights and traditions to the new generations as faithful guardians of the culture of their territory because these women know how to combine affection for their territory with that for their community/people, which makes them discover the intertwined dream of the common home. They know how to listen to the cries of the wounded and beaten from the open veins of their territory and they know how to distinguish among them the groans of the birth of a new creation (Rom 8:22). (Open Photo: Pixabay)

Margot Bremer

Internal and external challenges for the EU’s approach to the Horn of Africa.

With conflicts raging across the Horn of Africa and tensions rising, the EU seems to have failed to achieve its goal to promote peace, stability, and inclusive, sustainable economic development in the region.

Over the past years, the European Union (EU) has struggled to play a major role as a geopolitical actor in the Horn of Africa. As conflicts rage across the region and tensions brew, the EU has failed to achieve its purported goals of promoting peace, stability, and inclusive, sustainable economic development in the region.

Why is that the case? To find an answer, one has to look both at the EU’s internal coordination challenges and at changing international dynamics at large, most notably the growing engagement of other foreign
actors in the Horn.

As far as the EU’s own coordination issues are concerned, the lack of a clear strategy on the Horn stands out as a major limitation of the bloc’s approach to the region. The most recent publicly available document guiding the EU’s approach is the May 2021 Council Conclusions titled “The Horn of Africa: a geo-strategic priority for the EU”.

This lists a number of different domains in which the EU is interested and engaged, including “peace and security, democracy, human rights, rule of law, gender equality, sustainable development, economic growth, climate action and regional cooperation”.

However, this resembles more a list of desirable outcomes, rather than a strategy, and it lacks a clear articulation of what is actually at stake for the EU in the region (i.e. its interests), what its priorities are, and how the bloc can use the tools at its disposal (e.g. diplomatic engagement, humanitarian and development aid, security cooperation, trade and investment, etc.) to pursue these priorities.

In addition, a number of other internal coordination issues further hamper the bloc’s approach. Firstly, the EU often faces difficulties in reconciling the interests and approaches of individual member states and EU institutions.

During the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, for instance, the harder line taken by the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, markedly differed from the more conciliatory approach taken by some major member states. Similarly, in Sudan, in the months preceding the outbreak of the current war, some member states privately reported concern over the position of France, which they saw as excessively cosying up to the leadership of the Rapid Support Forces.

Secondly, tensions between different foreign policy priorities can also hamper the EU’s approach to crises in the region. For instance, Brussels’ desire to strengthen its continental partnership with the African Union (AU) has led it to support the AU’s initiatives in the Horn, even in cases where such initiatives have been controversial or ineffective.

Examples of this tendency include Ethiopia, where the AU was seen as too close to the federal government to be an effective mediator in the Tigray conflict, as well as more recently in Sudan, where the AU (along with several other actors) has so far failed to deliver a positive contribution to the country’s civil war.

Third, failure to coordinate the EU’s various policy tools also hinders the implementation of the bloc’s strategy.

In Ethiopia, for instance, the EU repeatedly declared support for accountability for the atrocities committed during the 2020-2022 war. However, at a time when the Ethiopian government was trying to shut down a UN probe into these atrocities, the EU not only failed to use its diplomatic leverage within the UN to block this move, but it also implicitly rewarded the government by pledging a large aid package to Ethiopia, its first one since the end of the war.

The growing engagement of other foreign actors in the Horn is also playing a role in weakening the bloc’s approach. Over the past decades, several Middle Eastern countries – including oil-rich Arab Gulf monarchies, most notably the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, and to a lesser extent Qatar, as well as Turkey – have gradually (re)strengthened their influence in the Horn.

In particular, the UAE has recently emerged as a major foreign supporter for several actors within the region, most notably Abiy Ahmed’s federal government in Ethiopia and the Rapid Support Forces in Sudan, while also playing a significant role in Somalia.

On the other hand, Turkey’s engagement has been particularly strong not only in Somalia (especially in Mogadishu), but also in Ethiopia and to a lesser extent in Sudan.

After some years of relative absence, Iran has also re-joined the fray, providing drones to the Sudanese Armed Forces. In addition, faraway global powers are also engaged in the region – particularly Russia, which has maintained ties with both warring parties in Sudan.

What are the implications of this trend for Brussels? Most notably, the growing role of other foreign actors tends to dilute the influence of Western countries, including the EU. Faced with an ever-wider array of potential foreign supporters, local actors are able to insulate themselves from pressure by any single partner, as they can always resort to an alternative backer.

This was evident during Ethiopia’s war in the Tigray region, when drone deliveries from the UAE, Turkey, and Iran, coupled with diplomatic backing at the United Nations by Russia and China, insulated the Ethiopian government from pressure by the EU and the United States regarding human rights violations.

Similarly, Sudan’s warring parties have relied on support from the UAE and Egypt to sustain the fighting, thus frustrating efforts by multiple other actors (including the EU, which enjoys only limited direct influence over the warring parties) to halt the fighting. Increased leverage for actors in the Horn is not a negative development per se – on the contrary, it can be beneficial, if existing power brokers use this leverage in the interest of the country at large. Yet, if this leverage is used to fuel local conflicts, it is bound to have a negative impact on the Horn, and also on the EU’s engagement in the region.

If the EU wants to play a stronger geopolitical role in the Horn, defending its own interests while also contributing to peace, stability, and sustainable, inclusive development, three main shifts are needed.

Firstly, the bloc should define a clearer strategy for the region, spelling out more plainly its interests (i.e. why the Horn is important to the EU), its priority goals (i.e. what does the EU want to achieve in the region), and how it plans to achieve these goals by mobilising the tools available to it (e.g. diplomacy, aid, trade and investment, security support, etc.) in a coordinated way. This would likely be a fraught process, not least due to internal divergences in the interests of members states and EU institutions, but it would go a long way to sharpen the bloc’s engagement in the region.

Secondly, to maximise the benefits of its engagement in an increasingly competitive landscape, the EU should focus on areas where it enjoys a comparative advantage over other actors, such as development cooperation and private sector engagement. To this end, the EU may need to adjust its Global Gateway initiative to make it more suitable for the Horn’s multiple crisis contexts, where private engagement is unlikely to materialise without a strong public backing.

The EU should reflect on how this and other initiatives can be better mobilised in support of the goals defined in its strategy and adjust their design and implementation accordingly.

Finally, the EU should explore whether and how it can influence the engagement of other foreign powers in the Horn. In Sudan’s case, for instance, the EU holds a degree of leverage over both the UAE and Egypt, the two main foreign backers of the Sudanese warring parties.

For instance, the EU may signal to the UAE that its reputation as an international business hub hinge on more serious efforts to crack down on illicit business activities that fund conflict, such as gold smuggling in Sudan. In Egypt’s case, Cairo is heavily reliant on financial support by both the EU and international financial institutions where EU member states enjoy a degree of influence, such as the International Monetary Fund. This influence may be used to nudge Egypt towards a more constructive role in the Sudanese crisis.

Guido Lanfranchi/ISPI

Syria. A Light in the darkness.

Thirteen years of war. The earthquake and the consequences of the conflict in Gaza. A forgotten country. The Church is still a point of reference for many people, as Father Bahjat Karakach, Latin parish priest of the Syrian city of Aleppo, tells us.

The voices of the children sound in the courtyard of the parish of Saint Francis, in the Al-Aziziyeh neighbourhood. A small oasis of serenity in the heart of Aleppo, where the little ones, more than anyone else, experience first-hand the suffering of a tormented city: a war that after thirteen years still cannot be said to be over and the devastating earthquake of February 2023, which continues to keep many
of them awake at night.

Destruction of buildings in Aleppo, Syria following the earthquake that hit Syria and Turkey on 06 February 2023. UNDP/Adeeb Alsayed

“Almost one and half year after the earthquake, there are children who cannot sleep alone,” says Father Bahjat Karakach, Franciscan parish priest of the Latin church. Which today also sees the spectre of the conflict in Gaza lengthening its shadow over an already exasperated population: “In recent months violence has crossed the country’s border several times and we all feel even more insecure. People are disheartened, they can’t see any future.”
It is difficult to do so, in a panorama of material destruction – given that the city has not yet been rebuilt, neither the part most affected by the war, nor the part devastated by the earthquakes – but also social and economic. Recently Geir Pedersen, United Nations special envoy to Syria, speaking to representatives of the Security Council, expressed deep concern for the regional situation and its repercussions in a nation where “unresolved conflicts, simmering violence and flare-ups of hostility are raging, each of which could be the focus of a new conflagration.”
In fact, in the countryside around Aleppo it happens that the drones launched by the anti-Assad rebels, barricaded for years in nearby Idlib, are now overlapped by missiles coming from Israel, which targets the interests and allies of the Iranians in the region. Meanwhile, people, caught in the middle of cross-conflicts, are focused on how to get to the end of the day, putting at least one meal on the table.

Church of Saint Francis of Assisi, Aleppo. CC BY-SA 3.0/ Preacher lad

“Syria is increasingly forgotten by the international community: at the beginning of this year the UN World Food Program itself cut its assistance interventions, stating that there are no more funds -Father Bahjat points out – but the needs of the people just increase. After the earthquake, there was a lack of viable houses and the price of rent doubled. Renting an apartment costs more than an average monthly salary, and unfortunately many find themselves without a roof over their heads.” Many others, being desperate, have decided to return to their homes, in partially destroyed buildings, in total insecurity: poverty leaves no alternative.The economic situation in the country is worrying: since 2020 the Syrian pound has suffered a 15-fold drop in value compared to the dollar and in the last year inflation has led to a doubling of food prices. And the production system, even in Aleppo which before the war was the commercial and industrial capital of the nation, has been fatally hit, while international sanctions paralyze any possibility of restarting. The State, for its part, is now absent: “From the school system to the health system, the institutions are unable to guarantee the functioning of basic services”, the Franciscan explains.

Father Bahjat Karakach, parish priest of Saint Francis. “Syria has been forgotten by the international community”. Facebook

The schools either no longer exist, because they have been reduced to rubble, or they do not function because the teachers do not have the means to reach the classrooms. It is often impossible for young people to continue their studies but also to attend professional institutes, with serious consequences for the job market: unemployment is growing and poverty is rampant. “And if you get sick, you can’t count on a welfare system: medical care has to be paid for, surgery has dizzying costs.”
How do people survive then? “Thanks to remittances from relatives abroad: now practically every family has at least one member who has emigrated. And then through the support of NGOs and humanitarian institutions. Today 80% of Syrians need some form of external help.”
“We, as the Church, are on the front line in various areas of material assistance, from the provision of meals to the support of young people up to the reconstruction of damaged houses”, says Father Karakach, a point of reference for the six hundred families of the parish of Saint Francis, but also of many others, in this city which was traditionally the most multi-ethnic and cosmopolitan in the country. “Several of our initiatives go beyond the walls of the church and reach all Syrians, without confessional distinctions. We have some projects in Muslim-majority neighbourhoods that had been occupied by militiamen and where today poverty and degradation are rampant. In addition to material help, we carry out psychological support interventions for orphaned, abandoned children or children of ex-combatants, also through artistic and sporting activities. And then we work for literacy: there are women who did not know how to read and today attend schools. Small signs of change that bring a breath of hope in a context of fatigue and worry.”

“The kids are incredibly alive and full of energy. They are the heart of our parish”. Facebook

For Father Bahjat, the Church today represents ‘a light in the midst of darkness’. In what sense? “Nowadays we Christians are few, yet, alongside ordinary pastoral work and social service to help Syrians live with dignity, we carry out an educational and reconciliation commitment which represents an important investment for the future of society. Working together, from below, is a way to break down the wall of mistrust and rebuild relationships.” Starting with the young people: “The kids are incredibly alive and full of energy. They are the heart of our parish: they follow the catechism, the scout groups, the psychological support interventions for the little ones. When faced with new projects, they are always ready to get excited and commit themselves, even though their lives are very complicated. Everyone, even those who continue their studies, must find a job, perhaps informal, to help the family: they tutor school lessons or do occasional jobs.”

“We are a point of reference for the six hundred families of the parish of Saint Francis, but also of many others” Facebbok

Precisely for these young people, without prospects and tempted by emigration, the Franciscan friars promote micro-projects for those who aim to start an economic activity: “Many submit their proposals and then we select the most promising ones, providing the creators with training courses training on how to create and carry out a commercial project, whose launch we then support”.
Father Karakach, however, forcefully reiterates the need for the world to return to dealing with the future of Syria: “We do not want to be aid beggars forever and we have the tools to rebuild our country, but a solution is needed to the crisis which must involve the international community, which at times seems uninterested in stabilizing our territory.” The first concrete measure? “Remove economic sanctions, which not only increase people’s poverty, but create fertile ground for corruption and illegality. The Syrians are exhausted from the war, they would like to finally turn the page.” (Open Photo: the city of Aleppo, aerial view. Shutterstock/Fly and Dive)

Chiara Zappa/MM

 

More attractive for business.

The affirmation of the current President Luis Alberto Lacalle Pou, leader of the Partido Nacional de Uruguay, put an end to the government cycle of the Frente Amplio whose candidate was defeated with around 30 thousand votes of difference in the Presidential elections of December 2019.

President Lacalle, whose victory is in line with the conservative wave that has affected the entire American continent, has given particular importance to economic issues since his inauguration in March 2020 by implementing the privatization of major companies and public infrastructures. These include the telecommunications company ANTEL, the port of Montevideo and the national oil company ANCAP.
These actions have undoubtedly contributed to making Uruguay a highly attractive country for foreign investments as demonstrated today by the data provided by the Economic Commission for Latin America
and the Caribbean.

Luis Alberto Aparicio Alejandro Lacalle Pou is the 42nd president of Uruguay since 2020. CC BY-SA 4.0/Gastón Britos

The country has, in fact, recorded a surge in investments, with an increase of 155% (3.6 billion in 2021), reaching over nine billion US dollars. They were mostly placed in the renewable energy sector, including the outstanding pioneering 630-million-dollar project of the German company Enertag aimed at exploiting green hydrogen with which, thanks to the help of wind and solar plants, it will be possible produce methanol and then convert it into its derivatives. The Chilean company Highly Innovative Fuels Global has also invested the sum of 4 billion dollars in this sector to build a green hydrogen plant that will allow the decarbonisation of around 150 thousand vehicles per year. Still on an economic level, in order to contain the spreading effects caused by the Pandemic, huge resources have been allocated both in terms of welfare for less well-off families, in the form of family allowances, and for the construction of public infrastructures. Furthermore, a specific bond was created for the financing of major road works, a plan for a 200 million water treatment plant to withdraw water from the Río de la Plata and the concession of five airports in the country, Rivera, Salto, Carmelo, Durazno and Cerro Largo.
The creation of the brand-new infrastructure has made the country attractive to US technological giants including Google which has built a data centre in the department of Canelones and the mammoth 13,500 km Firmina submarine cable, which the US multinational is installing in the city of Punta dell’Este for a direct connection between the United States and Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil.
Furthermore, Uruguay is also very attractive for Fin Tech, recording the presence of as many as 40 companies specialized in the open banking, crypto and blockchain sector, including Paganza and the Argentine Ripio.
If in the opinion of some analysts, this has certainly led to an objective improvement in economic growth, the data reported by the Uruguayan Institute of Statistics updated to 2023 show us that the poverty rate is at 9.8 per cent and families at below the poverty line represent 6.7 per cent of the population, while the indigence rate has reached 0.3 per cent.

Sunny day scene at Port of Montevideo. The creation of new infrastructure has made the country more attractive for business. 123rf

It should, however, be added that government activity, in the economic field, has been greatly affected by the effects of the pandemic, international crises, the Argentine crisis, the increase in prices and the scarcity of drinking water that hit the country in 2023, despite the huge water resources at its disposal. The water crisis is in fact due to the waves of severe drought that this area of the American continent now has to deal with, the economic and geopolitical consequences of which are increasingly pressing. In fact, upon closer inspection, the agri-food sector recorded a loss of more than 2 billion dollars in 2023. Furthermore, the Argentine economic crisis and the enormous price differential that resulted caused the flight of Uruguayan consumers with a notable impact on the country’s economy which the government must deal with considering that in 2023 this phenomenon caused the exit of approximately one billion euros (approximately 1% of Uruguayan GDP) from the national territory.

Montevideo. Headquarters of Mercosur. Recently Uruguay has showed its willingness to sign bilateral trade agreements with non-Mercosur countries. CC BY-SA 3.0/ Andrés Franchi Ugart

From an international perspective, Lacalle has decided to take a completely different posture compared to that of his predecessors, aiming towards economic opening with third countries and solidifying extra-regional relations. This new positioning was immediately perceived as problematic within MERCOSUR. In particular, during the 61st summit of the organization held in Montevideo, Uruguay assertively showed its willingness to sign bilateral trade agreements with non-Mercosur countries and blocs without the approval of the other member countries. This position is not looked upon favourably by the organisation’s major shareholders, Brazil and Argentina, as it would violate the organisation’s rules. However, the real concern of the two major players lies in the desire on the Uruguayan side to reach a free trade agreement with China and Turkey and to join the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP).
In the meantime, the country is preparing for the next presidential elections which will be held on 27 October this year with the parties intent on supporting the electoral campaign and facing the primary round with the left of the Frente Amplio, currently in the lead in the polls, that he will try to return to power by taking advantage of the impossibility of the re-election of the current President of the National Party Luis Lacalle Pou. (Open Photo: Sunset at Plaza Independencia, Montevideo.123rf)
(F.R.)

Malawi. Mount Mulanje: ‘The island in the sky’.

In southern Malawi, on the border with Mozambique, an imposing granite massif with sheer walls, Mount Mulanje, captures the humidity of the winds coming from the Indian Ocean, creating mists and rains that nourish lush forests and green tea plantations.

With an altitude of 3,002 meters, Mount Mulanje is the highest mountain in southern Africa. It is usually cloaked in clouds, from which often only the top, Sapitwa, emerges, which takes on the appearance of a floating island. It is no coincidence that the mountain is known as ‘the island in the sky’ by the locals. However, those clouds offer more than
just an illusion of the sea.
They also provide rain and water for the surrounding areas. This climate favours a unique ecosystem, with rare and endemic life forms that make the massif a global Biosphere Reserve – where for example ferns stand out, a unique case in the world, comparable to the Galapagos – with over 100 classified species and new ones yet to be recorded.

Western side of Mulanje Mountain in Sunset. CC-BY-SA-3.0/Felefuchs

The spring waters of the four main rivers, Ruo, Thuchila, Lichenya, and Likhubula, gush out carving a way through rocks and cutting through gorges seeking a way to escape to descend the massif until, always turbulent, they feed the Shire River, which drains all the rivers and the waters of the Rift Valley in Malawi, including the large lake, to then join the Zambezi, farther south, which takes them back to the Indian Ocean. Here the impatient Chiperoni waits for the sun to transform them into vapor and then blow them back into the face of the massif in a perpetual fight between giants.
Mount Mulanje is not like the famous Kilimanjaro or Mount Kenya, but herein lies a deception: a mountain has many complexities and altitude is just one of them; to remind us, Sapitwa peak literally means ‘the place where you should not go’. Step by step you overcome all the typical bands of Afro-montane vegetation in a succession of gorges, valleys, ravines, ridges, rivers, forests, and cliffs of rock slabs dominated by around twenty massive peaks.
It is possible to come across the precious and vulnerable Mulanje cedar, Widdringtonia whytei, Malawi’s endemic national tree, or discover the chameleon Chamaeleo mlanjensis, two species of gecko, Lygodactylus rex and Lygodactylus bonsi, and various frogs.

A natural pool at the foot of a waterfall along the Minunu River on Mount Mulanje. Shutterstock/Mhenrion

Among the mammals, there are 66 species including baboons, vervet monkeys, galagos and small antelopes, hyenas and even leopards, though these are difficult to spot; it is the only place in Malawi where the rodent Aethomys namaquensis is present. Servals and their tracks are clearly visible on the plateau.
There are 233 species of butterflies among which we find three that are endemic to Mulanje: Charaxes margaretae, Cymothoe melanjae and Baliochila nyasae. The massif is also home to around three hundred species of birds, some rare and vulnerable such as the white-winged ale (Apalis chariessa) or the Tyholo ale (Alethe choloensis) and the spotted thrush Zoothera guttata.
On the plateau there are eleven refuges, connected to each other by paths and scenic routes: a fill of oxygen and energy not to be missed, immersed in a mixture of bare cliffs always under the crucible of the nefarious myths of Sapitwa, the ‘capital of spirits’, or of Napolo, the mythical serpent that lives under the mountain, associated in local mythology with landslides, earthquakes and floods.
In Malawian literature, Napolo is a plentiful source for writers, who draw insights for society from it, use it more metaphorically than in a literal sense to enrich their works, and sometimes mask the meaning from the inquiring eyes of politicians.

White-necked ravens on Mount Mulanje in Malawi.123rf

The Mulanje massif has a magic all of its own and, although in all likelihood the British writer and linguist J.R.R. Tolkien never travelled to these latitudes, the story, whether legend or fantasy, that Mount Mulanje was the inspiration for the Lord of the Rings, Mulanje in Middle-earth with the omnipresent molars of Sapitwa which become the Misty Mountains, where Bilbo defeats Gollum in a game of enigmas, corridors of ferns and cedars become the High Woods where his dwarf companions are captured by giant spiders and where in the distance Rivendell, refuge of the elves, reigns.

Tea plantations at the foot of Mount Mulanje. File swm

At the foot of the mountain, a single perennial colour reigns supreme: green in all its shades and variations. You can never escape it (why would one do so?). Even when the country is burning in the November heat and all around is dry, emerald green predominates in Mulanje.
Walking among the tea plantations, on the red earth paths where the Camellia sinensis has been cut, hand pruned and picked to produce the prized Malawi black tea, is a unique experience. Although one of the smallest countries in Africa – and overshadowed by neighbouring safari giants Tanzania, Zambia, and Mozambique – Malawi is a place of breathtaking landscapes and vast vistas. From the crystal-clear waters of Lake Malawi to the rolling highlands, this country, carved into the Great Rift Valley, well deserves its reputation as the ‘warm heart of Africa’, and this is how the Ministry of Tourism and tour companies promote it. The reason becomes evident by immersing yourself in the villages, along the lake shores, in the tea plantations and in meeting the people: gentle, serene, and friendly. (Open Photo:The start of the Ruo Path in the Lujeri Tea Estate leading up to the plateau of Mount Mulanje. Shutterstock/ Mhenrion)

Stefano Pesarelli/Africa

 

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