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Africa. Cannabis, An Affair Of State.

Tuesday, 1 December 2020 8:00

Large-scale cultivations are now a reality in a growing number of countries in the continent, driven by an increase in demand for therapeutic purposes. The interest of African governments is constantly increasing.

Hemp plantations are taking up more and more agricultural land in Africa. The phenomenon gained a foothold when, in 2016, the United States and Canada began to legalise the use of cannabis for therapeutic purposes.The growing demand for cannabis by the two main world economies swiftly reached the African continent where, however, this sort of cultivation is still forbidden in the majority of its states.
Nevertheless, this did not prevent a flourishing partnership between the two shores of the Atlantic Ocean, causing the germination of a new business which is now regarded by African governments with interest.

This is shown by the recent decision of the Rwanda government which, on 12 October last, approved a package of guidelines for the cultivation, processing and export of cannabis, but solely for medical and not recreational use. Other countries had preceded Rwanda: Ghana, Lesotho, Malawi, Morocco, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia had already decided to create a system for the cultivation and sale of cannabis. Uganda, which has already passed a law similar to that of Rwanda, though without yet starting cultivation, may soon be added to this list.

Lesotho in the ascendant
One of the markets especially in the ascendant is that of Lesotho. In the landlocked kingdom surrounded by South African territory, the most active businessman is at present Refiloe Matekane.The former head secretary of the police ministry, with consolidated interests in the mining sector, last August, Matekane declined to become president of the state-owned Lesotho Electricity Company to increase the rate of growth of investments for the production and marketing of cannabis.

Since 2017, he has been the president and shareholder of Maluti Green Med, a company authorised to cultivate hemp in the country and is also a member of the administrative councils of a further five companies: Wecann, Canna Value, Gart Cannis, CBG Maluti-Med Group and Canico. The fact that a person of his standing should decide to bank so decisively on cannabis, confirms the intention of the government of Lesotho to invest in this sort of cultivation to diversify the economy of the country and release it from its dependence upon reserves of diamonds and water. Consequently, due to the good offices of Matekane, Maluti Green Med has signed a contract for the supply of hemp to Verve, a South African group with factories for the processing of the plants at Bela-Bela, north of Pretoria and which, in turn, is a supplier of an international top player in the sector such as the Canadian company Aphria, whose value, on the New York stock exchange, is quoted as more than 1.6 billion dollars. Also in Lesotho, the main producer of hemp oil is the Medigrow Health company, in which the Canadian Supreme Cannabis Co. has 10% of the shares.

Among its administrators are Mohlomi Rantekoa, who was the Lesotho ambassador to the United States during the presidency of Barack Obama, and Retsepile Elias, a prominent figure who is a member of the boards of directors of some of the more influential parastatal companies in the country. Among the major foreign interests in Lesotho is the British group AfriAg Global, among whose minority shareholders is the South African tobacco magnate Paul de Robillard, a close collaborator of former South African president Jacob Zuma.In 2019, the company added to its technical committee two functionaries of the Lesotho Health Ministry, Germina Mphoso, director of the pharmaceutical department, and her legal consultant Masello Sello. These appointments confirm that cannabis is now an affair of state for Lesotho.

The slow legislative process in South Africa
Compared to the tiny country of Lesotho, in South Africa, the cannabis market is growing at a much slower rate, despite the extremely favourable climatic conditions for the cultivation of plantations and a growing internal market following the legalisation of the consumption of this substance in 2018.
This lack of progress is due mainly to the slow rate of legislation and the absence of a sufficiently structured framework.
Nevertheless, despite there being just a few companies that have received permission to start production, South Africa has the potential to become the third-largest producer of cannabis in the world (according to WHO estimates) and is still the country which, more than any other, due to its investment capacity, is in a position to meet the demands for processing the raw material on the part of other African states.
Bureaucratic delays and an unfavourable environment for business are driving away important foreign investors such as Spectrum Therapeutics, a local branch of the Canadian giant Canopy Growth which, in 2019, had planned to finance the construction of a facility for the production of cannabis-based pharmaceuticals in Atlantide, not far from Cape Town, to the tune of 38.5 million dollars. The option was definitively declined in the spring of 2020.

Zimbabwe and Malawi
Zimbabwe has opted to commence the production and processing of Cannabis on an industrial scale, using hemp fibres in the textile and building industries and its seeds and oil for the production of cosmetics and consumer goods.
To accelerate this process, in 2018, the minister for Agriculture Perence Shiri set up a system of authorisation which, in practice, has legalised the production of cannabis for industrial purposes. The problem with Zimbabwe is still its economic and political instability which has so far kept away potential North-American investors.Like Lesotho, Malawi is also banking on cannabis to free itself from the exploitation of its main resources, especially tobacco. The central figure working for the growth of the sector is Nerbert Nyirenda, a former high-level functionary in the ministries of Commerce and Industry and Finance.

The more active companies are Kawandama Hills Plantations and Invegrow. In 2015, the latter obtained permission to cultivate cannabis for scientific research. The qualitative leap was made last March when the parliament passed a motion in favour of the legal cultivation of cannabis both industrially and for medical purposes.
Tanzania and Kenya are two countries that produce large quantities of cannabis though, as in other African states, it is not yet possible to cultivate or sell this substance legally. The lack of legislative movement inevitably favours criminal organisations.
According to the UNODC, the UN Office for Drug Control and Crime Prevention, of the more than ten thousand tons of cannabis produced every year in Africa, at least 80% is illegally cultivated by networks of regional and international drug traffickers.

Rocco Bellantone

“Brothers and Sisters All”. We share dignity, rights and respect.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

The latest letter of Pope Francis, his Encyclical, Fratelli Tutti “Brothers and Sisters All,” is one that should touch every heart, stimulate our minds, awaken our conscience, warm our emotions and motivate us to do good and make this a happier, just and better world.

Can we humans ever unite as one humanity to change the world and together reach out to the downtrodden and the poor? Can we work together to lift from suffering the wounded, the excluded, the marginalized and unwanted, rejected, poor people in our neighbourhood, community, town and city? That is the challenge posed by the letter of Pope Francis.

His letter is one of enlightenment, encouragement, hope and love. It is a mighty challenge for us to be true believers and followers of Jesus of Nazareth. It brings us back to the human and Christian values that established the dignity of humankind. It is a call for us to embrace and live out daily the values and principles that Jesus taught and lived and died for. This is the heart of Christian faith, a personal relationship with Jesus of Nazareth and a shared fraternity with each other as brothers and sisters in one family of humanity.

As members of this universal family, we will embrace unselfish concern, love and service for each other. Jesus gave himself no titles, others did that. They called him Rabbi, Teacher, Master, and Son of God. What Jesus called himself was “a member of humanity,” a “Son of Mankind,” as everyone of us are, members of the human family.

In this, Jesus was revolutionary and Pope Francis is repeating what Jesus taught: that we must love all others irrespective of whether they are one of our special group. All persons are to be our neighbours. He called us to put aside group loyalty, leave elite fraternities, cast away membership in sects, clubs and dynasties, upper and lower classes, tribal bonds, nationality, social status and prestige.

We are to abandon all the bias and prejudices that goes with such select, exclusive closed groups that exclude and fear outsiders. The select group tends to exclude others and confront, despise and disrespect those on the outside.
We must leave our group and join all others in a single family based on equality, justice, truth and doing good for others.

If personal family ties would cause us to reject, exclude or oppress others and separate us from the values of Jesus, we must cut the family ties. A shocking challenge for anyone who would be his true disciple even to the point of where we must love even our enemy. “Do good to those who hate you,” he said. It seems impossible yet that is the ideal that Jesus taught, that we are all one humanity in one world, and he lived and died for all of us.

As members of God’s single family, we share a common humanity, dignity, rights and respect. This is what Pope Francis is reminding us, that as human beings we must be caring and responsible for each other irrespective of skin colour, citizenship, religion, gender, status or situation in life. We must also be caring for the planet, the environment and protect all living creatures.
The universality of the loving fraternity that Jesus taught is one that demands we love one another and we do to others as we would want them to do to us. This is the heart of what Jesus taught.

The world today, as Pope Francis said, with its many problems, injustice, racism, inequality, crime and corruption, is a world under the darkness of evil. Yet the hope and love that Jesus of Nazareth shared with us can save humanity from self-destruction, hatred, violence and nuclear war and even save us from extinction.

It is by sharing life in a universal community and working together helping the poor and the oppressed that change will come. By standing and speaking out against violence, killings, child abuse and evil, we will make Jesus and his spirit present again and change the world. We just need to persuade enough people to choose to do it.

In his Encyclical, Pope Francis takes the story that Jesus told to illustrate the welcome and acceptance and the help we should have for the outsider, for the stranger, the migrant, the excluded. These are the people who are treated with rejection, apathy and indifference by the elite institutionalized clergy and the uncaring politicians.

As Pope Francis interprets it in today’s world, the suffering humanity has been beaten and robbed by the uncaring powerful robbers and left to die on the roadside. The victim was a stranger, an unknown. A member of the clergy and then a member of the ruling elite walk by on the other side of the road. They ignore the wounded, dying person. Then there comes a man, likely a trader, with a donkey. He is different, he is like an untouchable, an unclean, rejected person coming from Samaria.

He doesn’t walk past; he is moved with compassion and concern. Immediately, he hurries to help the victim and cleans and treats the wounds, dresses them and takes the victim on his donkey to the nearest inn. There, a humble, kind innkeeper, likely a poor man, accepts to care for the victim and the trader pays him and promises to return
and pay more as needed.

“Who among the three was a true neighbour to the dying man and saved him”? Jesus asked. “The one who helped him,” the man in the audience answered. “You are correct, go and do likewise,” Jesus said. (Luke 10:25-37) The message is clear. When asked to state the way to eternal life, the man in the audience answered: “Love the Lord your God with your whole heart, soul, life, strength and your mind and love your neighbour as you love yourself.” That story, as repeated by Pope Francis in his letter, explains that we are challenged to share and help, without discrimination, everyone, strangers, migrants, refugees, the poor, hungry, wounded, people of any skin colour and all suffering humanity.

Fr. Shay Cullen

The Tijaniyya Brotherhood. The Way of the Koran.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

Today, there are 40,000 inhabitants in Tivaouane, 100 km north-east of Dakar, the holy city of the Senegalese Tijaniyya.
Each year, it receives millions of the faithful coming for the Gamou,
the great pilgrimage during which the birth of the Prophet of Islam
is celebrated.

As many as 49% of the Senegalese are members of the Tijaniyya Brotherhood.The Tijaniyya is a ‘Sufi Way’, founded by the Algerian Ahmed Tijâni (1737-1815). A learned descendant of the Prophet, at the age of forty-six, he was called by Mohammed who appeared to him in a vision and ordered him to follow him and to guide people in the right path as a ‘Hidden Pole’ (the name traditionally given in Islam to an intermediary between men and the prophets).

The Tijaniyya is a ‘Sufi Way’, founded by the Algerian Ahmed Tijâni.

The international centre of worship is Fez, in Morocco, which is also the residence of the Head Caliph, Sidi ‘Ali Tijani, better known by the name of Sidi Bel ‘Arbi Tijâni, who has been in office since October 2010. He is the twelfth General Caliph. Spread through North Africa and in Arabia, the Tijaniyya penetrated West Africa thanks to Sheikh Ornar Foutiyou Tall (1797-1865), a controversial figure who is an erudite hero of Islam and a native of the kingdom of Fouta Toro to the north of present-day Senegal. After a long journey to Mecca, during which he was initiated into the Tijane tariqa, Ornar Tall travelled the length and breadth of the territories of present-day Senegal, Mali and Guinea, fighting against the French colonialists and the animist kingdoms, preaching the authenticity of Islam and the uniqueness of the Tijane Way and obeying the order received in a vision from the Prophet to wage a Holy War. He is believed to have mysteriously disappeared in the caves of the Bandiagara Cliffs in Mali.

The spread of the tariqa throughout Senegal was due to Malick Sy (1855-1922). As well-versed as his predecessors, he formed his disciples at the centre of worship in the city of Tivaouane and still the reference point of the Tijaniyya in Sub-Saharan Africa. Malick Sy built zawiyas (mosques and popular universities) also at Dakar and Saint-Louis.What demonstrates the continuity in time of one of the distinguishing aspects of the Tijaniyya, the central place of instruction and teaching, is the nickname ‘Borom Daraji’ (‘the professor’, in Wolof) attributed to the General Caliph, Serigne Mansour Sy, who died on 8 December 2012, considered one of the most learned leaders in the country. In January 2013, he was succeeded by his brother Sheikh Tidiane Sy. On 15 March 2017, he died and was replaced by Serigne Babacar Sy Mansour who became General Caliph.

Two parallel caliphates
At the symbolic and spiritual level, the caliphate of the descendants of Omar Tall, with its centre in Louga, is also recognised. The actual Caliph is Thierno Mountaga Daha Tall. Another group of Tijane, also influential in other countries, is made up of the Niassene, of the Niass family, who founded it. The numerous Niassene scattered in Guinea, Mauritania, Gambia, Niger and most of all in Ghana and Nigeria, are disciples of Ibrahim Niass, known as Baye Niass (1900-1975).

The pilgrimage carried out in Tivaouane by all the Tijane of Western Africa is that to Gamou, in which the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet is celebrated.

After the death of the father Abdoulaye Niass in 1922, who had already created the base of the cult and built a mosque at Leona Niassene, which represented a quarter of the city of Kaolack, the post of the first Caliph fell to the elder brother of Baye Niass. However, in 1929, Baye Niass proclaimed himself the one to continue to work of Ahmed Tiyani on Earth and left Leona Niassene to found his own centre of worship a few kilometres away, thus creating the quarter of Medina Baye.
Ever since then, two parallel caliphates continue the dynasty of the family: Ahmed Tidiane Niass, son of Baye Niass, was the recent Caliph of Medina Baye, until his death on 20 August last. He was the fourth Caliph of Medina Baye and El Hadji Ibrahim Niass, son of the Caliph, is the Caliph of Leona Niassene.

Generally speaking, the Tijane Brotherhood defines itself as ‘The Way of the Koran’, the spiritual journey (turbiya) towards God, which contains directives that are more consistent and more closely connected to the sacred text. One of the main duties of the adherent is the practice of the wird (twice a day they recite formulas asking forgiveness of God and prayers of the Prophet) and the Zikr, an abbreviated form is that of the wasifa, recited collectively in the mosque. The pilgrimage carried out in Tivaouane by all the Tijane of Western Africa is that to Gamou, in which the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet is celebrated. (L.d.M.)

DR. Congo. Street children. A home for a better future.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

A project that tries to return street children to their families. Stories that seem to come from the Gospel.

It is early morning but the sun is already hot. The streets of Kinshasa are already full of people. The large number of youngsters wandering about is striking. “The street is their home, their family”, Kasongo, a lottery ticket seller on the street corner, tells us.
UNICEF estimates between 25 and 30 thousand children are living on the streets of Kinshasa, out of the population of eleven million inhabitants of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

However, most of them are not orphans. They have fled or were driven from their homes as their families were unable to feed them. In more dramatic cases, they were accused of witchcraft, under the influence of the numerous exorcist preachers in the shanty towns. The children suffer horrifying violence during police searches and, with increasing frequency, from the local communities which, exasperated by poverty, see the street children merely as a criminal phenomenon.
Tabby is ten years old, though he is not quite sure of that. His family lives in the Kasa-Vubu quarter to the north of Kinshasa. “Two years ago, I fled from my home because the man who lives with my mother beat me every day. We had nothing to eat and so I came to the Centre City where I can always find something good to eat among the rubbish”. With him is Chilemba, who is twelve years old. “I am from Goma in the north of the country. I came together with my family five years ago. We fled because of the war. First, we stayed with an uncle of my mother but things did not work out and one day we found our things on the street. I didn’t want to be a burden on my family. I got to know Tabby and I came to live with him”. The two boys spend their nights behind a shoe shop.

“My name is Ilenda. I am thirteen years old and I have been living on the streets for three years”, this bright-eyed little girl tells us. She continues: “I went to school for some time but my parents were too poor to send all five of us children to school, so I had to give it up. That is how I started living on the streets with other boys and girls like me”.
On the streets there are strict rules: every street child must have a companion. Ilenda says: “ In our group, the worst problem is stealing. Every day, we girls are in danger of violence. Unfortunately, I have not succeeded in avoiding this danger …”.

Our home
In Kinshasa, an ecumenical Catholic community has been in existence since 2004: the Chemin Neuf, that runs a project for street children called Ndako ya biso – which means ‘Our House’ in Lingala – and which has enabled 2,500 street children to return to their original families.
We met Jean-Pierre Godding, a Belgian lawyer and sociologist who is in charge of the project. He tells us: “That which distinguishes Ndako ya biso from other shelters for children is the aim of the project: not so much to provide the children with a place to live as to help them reintegrate with their original families”.
” We therefore meet them, accompany them, and trace their families. It is also necessary – Jean-Pierre Godding tells us – to go through a process of reconciliation with the families. It is clear that poverty and even abuse have played a part in their leaving home. We never tire of repeating: a child’s place is in a family and not on the street”.

Jean-Pierre is aware that the more time the children spend on the streets, the more difficult it is to recuperate them and the more likely they are to become drug addicts.
Regarding drugs, almost 75% of the children are drug users of one sort or another. The project head continues: “What attracted our attention most was the consumption of glue – mixed with petrol or lacquer. Many of them go around with a small bottle in hand: this is the glue that they inhale throughout the day, girls and boys, all together. When we ask them why they sniff glue, they mostly say it helps them to be more lucid, to stop thinking of the shame of being beggars or to get the strength to work or endure the bad weather. As for the girls, they sniff glue so as to be able to accept a man, no matter who or how old. Glue sniffing is addictive and brings all the problems of other drugs: the inability to control their use, the tendency to look for stronger substances, harm to the brain and neurotransmitters”.

In recent months, the Coronavirus pandemic has created further emergency situations in the welcoming community. Jean-Pierre Godding comments: “Because of Covid-19, we had to close the centre for boys which is usually open. We have had fifteen boys permanently with us since the start of the epidemic. On the other hand, the centre for girls, which now has twenty, is usually closed so as to further protect the girls who are more frequently subject to violence than the boys. We have had to stop receiving street children and we would like to start doing so again as soon as possible”.
Despite so many difficulties, Jean-Pierre Godding believes in these boys and girls. He speaks of one of them: “Jeancy, 16 years old, who ran away from home after stealing some money that his father was saving up each month so that his son could continue going to school. After being received by Ndako Ya Biso, Jeancy was finally convinced he should return to his father who had been looking for him desperately for months. I think also of Asnate, a small girl of sixteen. She lost both her parents and went to live with her maternal grandmother who could not afford to keep her or her little sister. Very soon, Asnate found herself on the streets where she immediately became a victim of much violence. One day she came to Ndako Ya Biso. She was immediately given counselling and her grandmother received help to start a small business. She is now able to look after both her nieces.

Lastly, there is Bénédicte, a little girl of ten who suffers from epilepsy. As her mother said, ‘Many thanks to Ndako Ya Biso: when I was worn out and had lost all hope, a light appeared’. Trying to help her niece, her grandmother spent a lot of money on cures, taking her to traditional healers and churches who promised miraculous cures. One day, tired of such a life, Bénédicte decided to leave the place where she was being kept. She was taken in by Ndako Ya Biso where she was examined by an expert in epilepsy. Her condition improved and Bénédicte finally succeeded in going back to her grandmother who, having received some help from us, managed to start a small business”.
Jean-Pierre Godding concluded by saying: “All of these and many others, are the stories we come across all the time at Ndako Ya Biso. They are stories that sound as though they were parables taken from the Gospel, stories full of hope, and this is what we must give to these boys and girls of the streets”.

Chiara De Martino

Madagascar. Famadihana, the feast of Return.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

On the Madagascar plateau the bodies of the dead are exhumed from their tombs and brought out for a day of celebration which, with singing and dancing renders homage to their dead.

Close to the edges of the rice fields connecting the valleys of the central highlands, flickering lights can be seen in the darkness of the villages: nocturnal processions of 15, or at the most 20, people of the same family seeking tombs and ossuaries. It is in this period between June and September that, in the highlands of Madagascar the rite of the ‘Famadihana’ takes place; it is the exhumation of the dead, and a traditional ceremony that brings back – if only for a few hours – the bodies of the dead to the land of the living.
Famadihana literally means ‘turning the bones’, also known as the ‘Feast of Return’ or ‘Second Funeral’.“Among the Bara, Merina and Betsileo peoples, the cult of the spirits of the ancestors is a social element and is part of people’s daily life”, explains Anji, a zebu cattle raiser of the area, who paid several head of cattle to have the body of his father exhumed, for years after his death. What generally happens is that anyone who has the necessary means will not lose the opportunity to re-embrace the remains of a loved one and transfer their remains to a permanent tomb, much more elaborate than the first.

It is the task of the elders to examine the heavenly bodies and decide upon the days of exhumation. It may also happen that the spirit of the dead person asks for the ceremony, appearing in a dream to a relative, and accusing the relatives of having forgotten them.
The ritual is carried out in an atmosphere of rejoicing with singing and dancing: the remains are taken from the tomb, carried shoulder high to the sound of music and then wrapped in a sheet of silk and satin.
The bodies will later be placed on the grass, and a specially hired orchestra creates a festival atmosphere. Quantities of local beer, wine, and distilled drinks are distributed, as well as abundant food consisting of rice served with zebu meat and pig meat. Once they have eaten and danced, the people sit down around the bodies. Both men and women spray them with perfume.

“My girl got married, had a child and I am now a grandmother”, one woman recounts as she faces the shroud: in turn, each member of the family tells of what has taken place since the person died. The close relatives pin photographs and low denomination banknotes, while the people around them are dancing and glasses of rum are handed out.
Immediately before the burial, any young women who wish to have children take strips from the shroud and keep them under their mattresses as fertility charms.
Not far distant, on the other side of the valley, processional torches indicate the start of another exhumation. “You may look – someone remarks – but do not point your finger at them. It would be very impolite and the dead demand respect”.
When the ceremony is over, the dead are carried shoulder high for seven ritual rounds of the tomb and, just before the sun disappears below the horizon, they are restored to their own world.

In Madagascar death is not a cause of fear or sorrow since the kingdom of the dead is closely connected to the world of the living.
Each ethnic group has different customs, but passion and respect for the funeral rites are common to all.
Among the Merina and Betsilio ethnic groups, in the south of the Central Highlands of Madagascar, funerals last several days and the remains are interred in sumptuous mausoleums. The Vezo, in the south west of the country, build tombs of wood that are allowed to deteriorate: when they crumble, the soul of the ancestor is free and at peace. The Bara choose mountain caves where they bury their dead. The Mahalafy of the south build mausoleums in which they place coloured illustrations, small totems, even small airplanes, cement taxi boats, and zebu horns.

Mahafaly B. Dihy

Nicaragua. Street Children’s Circus.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

They are at the traffic lights, juggling their torches and coloured balls and performing acrobatics. The street children have invented a new approach to raising funds by amusing the motorists.

It is evening and the traffic flows along the brightly lit street of Managua. At the traffic lights, children both large and small have exchanged the soapy water used to wash dirty windscreens for a display of acrobatics with machetes, knives, oranges, coloured balls and torches. The entertainment can be dangerous but earns some money to take home.
Close to the large Avenida Masaya, near the statue of Alexis Arguello, a former multiple world boxing champion, we met with Jose Roman.
He is the most famous among the street ‘acrobats’. His main act is juggling flaming torches.
He is slim, very short and wears dirty old clothes. The lights turn red and he goes to the middle of the road, deliberately dropping a torch and using his feet to pick it up and start his juggling act. Higher and higher go the torches and again he uses his feet as part of the cycle.

Jose Roman extinguishes the torches and approaches the cars with open hands. Those hands, blackened by the smoke of the torches, collect the royal sum of ten Cordobas.Asked how much he collects each evening he answers: “About 100 pesos” (3 Euro).
It is eight in the evening and he has been performing for two hours. The light turns red again and he sprays his torches with petrol, lights them and again performs his act.Jose Roman is only twelve and lives in the Jonathan González Quarter. Two other boys accompany him almost every evening he goes to his work.

At the crossroads of Managua there are many children involved in the same sort of activity. They use their creativity and imagination to earn a little money. They all have one thing in common. Those boys and girls are always smiling, even when people shout at them.
Jose Roman has just finished another performance and collected another ten Cordobas. He tells us how he spends the money buying leftover food.“You don’t want to buy clothes or shoes?”, we ask him. “At present I am collecting money to buy my school uniform”, he replies. Another boy interrupts saying: “He is lying. He is not collecting money to buy food or a school uniform “.He shamefully admits this is true. He gives the money to his mother. “My mother doesn’t want me to do this but we need money at home. There are eight of us”.

The light turns red again and at the end of the show I ask Jose Roman where he learned to juggle torches. “Two years ago, on the road, a boy taught me. It was not easy. I burned myself a lot.” Then he says: “My friend began to sniff glue (a mixture of cobbler’s glue and petrol) saying it made him feel strong. He got sick and died”.
Robin, a brother of Jose Roman, tries his hand with the torches. He is a year older. The other boy is called Steve. Each one has his own traffic light. Jose Roman and Robin live with their mother and an aunt. They have two sisters, one older and one younger. The mother has no work and the aunt has two small children. They all live in a small two-roomed house. Jose Roman’s father has some informal work but is a heavy drinker and hasn’t lived with them for years.

Jose Roman and Robin explain how they began washing windscreens and just begging for money. They soon realised there was too much competition and knew they had to do something different.
One day they saw that other boy performing at a traffic light and they knew they had to do the same.
The three children say nobody ever tried to persuade them to give up their activity, even though the government has a plan involving the street children. They feel they are lucky as they can go home afterwards. In the capital Managua alone, there are said to be 15,000 children from 7 to 15 years old who live on the streets.
It is nine o’clock and there are fewer cars now. Jose Roman tells us how he was once hit by a car but not injured. They have to be careful. Robin looks at the burns on his hands. Steve is counting the money to buy food to take home. The lights turn red once more but the three friends are on their way home after their day’s work.

Mauricio González

Witnesses. Father Manuel. “I hitched my wagon to a star”.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

“I am totally paralysed, but I feel a fullness of mind and heart that surprises me, and I dream of an accomplishment that I have
not yet experienced… This wheelchair has become the best of
the pulpits for me”.

Manuel Joao Pereira Correia was born on 27′” October 1951, in Penajoia, a village on the banks of the Douro River, in northern Portugal. He entered the Comboni Institute at a young age and went through all the required training courses, in Portugal and Spain. In 1970, he took his first religious vows.
In 1973, he was in the Comboni Scholasticate in Rome for the study of theology. He took his final vows in March 1978, and was ordained a priest on 15th August of the same year. Soon after, the superiors assigned him to the Comboni community of Coimbra, Portugal, where, for seven years, he dedicating himself to the missionary and vocational animation of young people, and to the formation of new postulants.

In 1985, he went to Ghana, in West Africa. He recalls: ” My first destination was Liati, in Ghana. There I had to face the real difficulties of missionary life. The mission had about thirty communities scattered in a mostly Protestant or animist context. The communities were rather small, all characterised by poverty of means and of personnel. When I went to visit them, I felt all the weight of carrying the Word of God. The smile, which I never missed, often hid the suffering I felt inside. In the end, however, I became convinced that everything is grace. Even mistakes and weaknesses. The mistakes ‘learned’ in real life are worth much more than those never made”.
In 1993, Fr. Manuel was called to Rome to co-ordinate the formation of young candidates in the Comboni Institute. He returned to Togo in 2002, where the confreres chose him as Provincial Superior of the Comboni Province of Togo-Ghana-Benin.

At the end of 2010, a sudden and unexpected event happened that shock him. In a letter to his friends, he explained: “Next December, I will leave Togo and return to Europe, without knowing what is in store for me. I have been diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). It is a neurological disease, which has not yet a cure. It slowly deprives the person of muscular movements, reducing the body to become a prison of the soul and the spirit. It will follow its course and will invite – or force – me to take a different look at life.”
In another letter, he spoke of his forced return to Europe as a new opportunity and a new beginning: “I return calm and serene, certain that the Lord will continue to be faithful to the promise he made me: ‘I will always be with you, Manuel, to give meaning to your life!’ I return convinced that the best is yet to come!”
The disease progresses rapidly, affecting in particular the legs, thus limiting dramatically his movements. His mind, however, remains lucid and is far from being paralysed. His desire to work for the betterment of mission is unstoppable. He tells the superiors: “Give me a commitment in which I can still offer my contribution”.

The superiors take him at his word, and assign him to the Comboni Curia, in Rome, as a member of the team that co-ordinates the ongoing formation of the whole institute.
He resists the aggressive course of ALS by moving first with crutches and then with a wheelchair, defying the stern prognosis of the doctors. His fingers are flying fast over the computer keyboard, preparing booklets and leaflets to be distributed to all confreres.
In 2016, the worsening of the disease obliges him to leave Rome and go to the Comboni Nursing Home of Castel d’Azzano, near Verona. Once again, Fr. Manuel informs friends: “Here I can be better cared for, because my inseparable companion, the ALS, will not let me go. Now I need specialised attention and treatment.” He describes the new stage of his life as “a response to another call from God to depart from my security and to embark on a new mission. This is the ‘penultimate mission’: the last one will be the one that will be entrusted to me in Paradise. I am ready and willing to live it with the commitment and generosity of the workers of the last hour of the Gospel parable”.

In the course of 2018, there is another ‘turning point’ in his journey. He tells his friends about it: “I had a serious breathing crisis and I had to be in hospital for four weeks. They carried out a tracheotomy on me. Now, I am breathing with the help of a machine and it is with difficulty that I can make myself understood by words. Anyway, I have not lost my good humour. I am fine. Above all, I feel serene – this is a gift that God keeps granting me, thanks to you and your prayers. Now I am completely paralysed. Yet, I can still smile. It comes naturally to me. I am in a good frame of mind, and I praise God every day for the gift of life”.
Not being able either to use the keyboard, or to dictate, he learns to use an “eye tracking device” in order to access his computer by using his eyes as a mouse. He is enthusiastic about it: “The device, connected with the computer, can follow my eyes, with amazing accuracy, to see where I am looking on the screen. So, I can select the item I am looking at by dwelling on it and blinking my eyes. In other words, I can write with the eyes. Oh, the marvels of technology!”
Fr. Manuel’s missionary spirit is still flying, and his heart continues to expand to the measure of his dreams. He continues to smile.

Fr. Manuel Augusto Ferreira

A Journey into Islam in Senegal.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

More than 90% of the population of Senegal, an officially secular country, profess the Islamic faith. Besides being Sunnis (like the majority of Muslims), the dominant form of Islam is Sufi: this means it belongs to the mystical trend whose adherents (talibé) of the brotherhoods (tariqa) follow the directives of the spiritual guides (sheikhs, better known as ‘marabouts’) to follow correctly the ‘Path that will lead them to God’.

This path, apart from some small differences in the practice of the cult, is based on the Koran and the Sunnah (traditions and sayings of the Prophet Mohammed) and the central rite of Zikir (or Dhikr), repetition of the principle of the unicity of God, “ʾilāha ʾillā -llāhu.Senegalese Sufism has, however, its differences in understanding the meaning of ‘adherent’ who was traditionally a hermit who renounced material life but is now a disciple in search of God, immersed in ordinary daily life.

The specific element of Senegalese Islam, both of the brotherhoods and the Marabouts, lies in the importance acquired by the religious leaders who are spiritual guides but also masters of life, who introduced Islam to the area but adapted it to cultural context. The result: a sort of Islam which is living and variegated, moderate and open, based upon peace, tolerance and traditional African values and on relationships of co-existence with Christian and animist minorities.

There are four Senegalese brotherhoods: Qadiriyya, Tijaniyyah, Muridiyya and Lahiniyyia. The first two, which are more ancient and exogenous, are schools of Islam that helped to Islamise Senegal between the XVIII and XIX centuries; the others are more recent and autochthonous, having been founded at the end of the XIX century. While the Qadiriyya may boast of being the oldest brotherhood, the Tijaniyya is the one with the largest number of faithful; the Muridiyya is the better known while the Layene is the only one to tie itself to a single ethnic identity, Wolof. Some are internally fragmented but each tariqa (brotherhood) has its General Caliph, its wird (a collection of prayers and invocations said using beads), places of worship and pilgrimages, as well as its own means of diffusion and iconography: the images of their holy founders and Caliphs are to be seen everywhere, painted on walls and in shops and hanging
in buses and taxis.

The Qadiriyya Brotherhood. One way, two souls.
In the XIV century, the Qadiriyya spread to other countries besides Arabia, North Africa, Mauritania, Mali, and Senegal. It was founded by Abdul Qādir al-Jilani (1077-1166), a learned Sufi ascetic who preached at the then renowned Islamic centre of Bagdad. In Senegal, the propagation of the first and oldest brotherhood came about through two personalities who gave rise to two groups of Qadiri.

Abdul Qādir al-Jilani, founder of the Qadiriyya Brotherhood.

The largest group of Qadiri faithful in Senegal has its centre of worship in Mauritania, at Nimzatt. The faithful refer to the Fâdil dynasty whose initiator was a direct descendant of the Prophet, Sheikh Muhammed Fâdil; the existence of so many groups of Qadiri scattered throughout Western Africa is explained by the fact that he had sons. The spread of different ethnic groups in Senegalese territory came about through his son Sheikh Saad-Bouh, whose descendants became not only the Caliph of Nimzatt but also the Qadiri families in various parts of Senegal. Even though the Senegalese locality of Guéoul (North) may consider itself the national reference point, the capital of worship and the residence of the Caliphate nevertheless remain at Nimzatt.
Another branch of the Qadiri disciples, whose adherents describe themselves as ‘Qadiri of Senegal’ or ‘of Ndiassane’, traces its origin to the Kounta family. The initiator of the dynasty was Sheikh Sidy Moctar Al Kountiyou (1724-1811), a sapient who was stationed on the present border between Mali and Mauritania, but it was Sheikh Bou Kounta who settled in Senegal and founded Ndiassane, in the north of the country a few kilometres from Tivaouane, built a mosque there together with schools for the formation of disciples and set up the Caliphate.

Worship and Pilgrimages
After each of the five daily prayers, the Qadiri order requires the recitation of a series of formulas asking God’s forgiveness and prayers of the Prophet that are repeated 200 times, ending with the Zikir.
The Senegalese Qadiri are also noted for the traditional musical accompaniment of five different drums that are used during the various ceremonies. Even though the two groups of Qadiri in Senegal are united by the wird (a collection of prayers), they are distinguished by their different ascetic styles and daily life. In fact, the Qadiri of Ndiassane respect the autochthonous dress and customs; the members of the Fâdil family bring together the Senegalese and Mauritanian cultures of dress, furnishings and their way of making tea.

Places of pilgrimage indicate certain differences. Each year the Qadiri Fâdil go to Nimzatt to receive the blessing of the Caliph on the day of the korité (the feast of the end of Ramadan). At the same place, the faithful gather on 22 July each year to celebrate the anniversary of the death of Sheikh Saad-Bouh.
In Senegal, the Qadiri Fâdil celebrate the Gamou (the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet) at Guéoul, on the same day that it is celebrated by the Tijane at Tivaouane. The Qadiri of Ndiassane, instead, celebrate the baptism of the Prophet a week after the Gamou in their own villages, which become, on that day, the goal of their pilgrimage. At the present time, 8% of Senegalese belong to the Qadiriyya Brotherhood. (L.d.M.)

The Layeniyya Brotherhood. The Meaning of Equality.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

On one of the Atlantic beaches of Yoff, rises the Great Layene Mosque-Mausoleum. The low cube-shaped, white building surrounded by golden sands and crowned with a green cupola, contains the tomb of the founder of the Brotherhood, Seydina Limamou Laye and his two sons, Seydina Issa Laye, the first Khalif of the Brotherhood (1909-1949) and Seydina Madione Laye II, a brother and successor to the latter (1949-1971).

The small Layene community is made up of the Lebou, of the Wolof ethnic group. For the Layene, nothing is the result of chaos but everything derives from destiny seen as the divine plan. This includes names. While Limamou means ‘the guide’ (Al Imam), the name of his son Issa is the Wolof version of Jesus.

Seydina Limamou Laye, founder of the Layeniyya Brotherhood.

Born in Yoff about the middle of the XIX century, Seydina Limamou Laye, aged forty, called by God, declared himself Mahdi, ‘the awaited’ in the Islamic tradition. His community rejected him and then, after being exiled to Gorée by the French, he moved to a place a few kilometres away on the shore where he founded the Layene community at Cambérène. Limamou Laye died in 1909 and the work was continued by his son Issa, aged thirty-three: the age Jesus was when he died.In accordance with Muslim belief, which assigns a fundamental role to Jesus among the five chosen prophets sent by God (after Noah, Abraham and Moses but before Mohammed), Jesus would have been called by God to be concealed in Heaven while waiting to return to earth. According to the Layene, Jesus did so in 1909, in the person of Issa, to complete the mission and have descendants and a tomb like all human beings and more besides.“In the New Testament and in the Koran, explains Macalou Cissé, a Muslim researcher who became a Layene, Jesus affirms that he is the ‘star of the morning’ announcing a new day and would return at the end of time. Therefore, just as in the first mission, Jesus came to announce the future coming of the ‘Sun’, the universal prophet Mohammed, at the beginning of the last century he returned to confirm the reward of Mohammed in the person of the Mahdi, and definitively conclude the prophetic cycle. And just as the morning star and the sun rose in the west, they must also set in the east. The place where we are at present corresponds to the most western point of Africa and, in our view, of the world”.

The cave of Ngor, near the sea and next to Yoff, is the goal of a pilgrimage that celebrates yearly the Call of Limamou Laye. In the cave, a place of recollection, Limamou Laye said he waited more than a thousand years before coming into the world. And Cissé: “In the Koran it is written that Mohammed said that, after his death, he would have stayed in the tomb for three days and would then have taken a ‘step’, even though it is not specified in what direction: our belief is that it is right here in the most western part of Africa and of the earth, in this cave on the Atlantic seaboard, that we can find the spot referred to by Limamou Laye”. Calculations show that, from the death of Mohammed to the birth of Limamou Laye, 1211 years passed. The Layene community is presently represented by the fifth Caliph, Abdoulaye Thiaw Laye.
The principles that form the structure of Layene thinking and practices are clearly defined: solidarity, equality, tolerance and purity of spirit. There are no differences of class or social status: those with economic resources bestow their donations anonymously on the Brotherhood to help brothers in difficulty. Equality is a well-founded and radical value. White clothes prevent dress from becoming a symbol of riches.

Yoff, Ndigala, and Cambérène are the three main holy cities for the Layen. Though they are located just a few kilometres from Dakar, the capital, they are real independent districts where religious principles determine the norms to be observed. Today, it is estimated that around 6% of all Senegalese belong to the Layeniyya Brotherhood.
What does the future hold for the Brotherhoods? According to various analysts, the power of the Marabouts is slowly diminishing due to secularisation, urbanisation and migration. The globalisation and social media processes are playing an increasingly important role among the youth who are starting to reject rules and submission dictated by the various Brotherhoods.
On the other hand, there is also the birth of more integralist groups which, though minorities, may one day grow and begin to question the Senegalese model.

Luciana De Michele

Niger. Elections on the frontier of jihad.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

The country is at the crossroads. Presidential and parliament elections are scheduled for the next 27 December in a country which is facing a number of serious challenges including jihadism, climate change, migration and the fall of uranium prices.

The parliament elections and the first round of the presidential elections are due on the next 27 December, after local and regional elections which will be hold on the 13 December. If necessary, a second round of the presidential election will be organised on the 20 February 2021. The stakes are high since over the last three years, elections have been postponed several times, owing to floods and the need of setting up a credible voters’ registry.
The EU has pledged Euro 4.5 million to finance a “credible, inclusive and transparent” ballot by strengthening the capacities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (CENI) and civil society organisations which will monitor the elections.
The vote is seen crucial in Brussels, owing to the strategic role of Niger, as a main migration corridor to the EU and as a major uranium producer and as a pillar of the struggle against jihadism.

Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou.

Since President Mahamadou Issoufou has declared that he would not run for a third mandate, the ruling Nigerien Party for Democracy and Socialism, has chosen the Minister of Interior, 60 year old Mohamed Bazoum as its candidate. Bazoum, an ethnic Arab, a polyglot and a doctor in Philosophy, started in June an intense electoral campaign, insisting on good governance and rural development
His main rival is the former Prime Minister Hama Amadou. But this 70 year old politician has a major handicap. Indeed, he may not be eligible. According Article 8 of the electoral, the one-year prison sentence for his complicity in a case of human trafficking does not allow him to run. Hama Amadou has been accused in 2014 by the Nigerien Justice to have been involved with his wife in a network which buys new-borns from a baby factory in Nigeria.
Other candidates appear to have even less chances to win. The list includes former President Mahamane Ousmane, who is also 70 and 69 year old Seini Oumarou who presents himself as an ally of the incumbent head of state, Mahamadou Issoufou. The former Foreign Minister, Ibrahim Yacouba (49) and the former Minister of Transports, Omar Hamidou Tchiana are also candidates alongside with the journalist, Salou Gobi and the 55 year old four stars general, Salou Djibo, who is the author of a coup in February 2010. The problem, says the Nigerien political scientist, Elisabeth Shérif, is the lack of consensus between the 15 presidential candidates about the rules of the competition.

Opposition leader Hama Amadou

The opposition has rejected as invalid the voters’ registry despite its approval by International Organisation of Francophonie experts. It claims that the electoral commission (CENI) is unable to guarantee transparent elections and that both the CENI and the Constitutional Court are biased.
Another problem is that the campaign is not only about issues but also about ethnicity. His rivals want Bazoum to be excluded from the race because he was not born in Niger allegedly. which, according to the Constitution, makes him ineligible. It also blames Bazoum who was the former Defence Minister for the alleged embezzlement of EUR 116 million earmarked for the purchase of military equipment.
Furthermore, there is no guarantee that the election can be held in all parts of the country. In at least four regions (Diffa, Tillaberi, Tahoua and Maradi ) the security of the local population can hardly be guaranteed, warned the UNHCR in September 2020. Accordingly, in six months, 1,200 incidents including murders, rapes and kidnappings were registered in these areas

France has classified Niger as a no-go area for its citizens on the 13 August, except for Niamey, after the killing of six French aid workers and their Nigerien driver, on the 9 August, at 60 km from the capital, in the Kouré National Park.
On the 17 September, the Islamic Stat claimed responsibility for the attack. Since early 2020, according to the UK NGO Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project 957 people died in similar incidents.
This security deterioration will pose a serious challenge to the new President in a country where the government already allocates 18 percent of its national budget to the restoration of the security and which is threatened on three fronts by jihadists.

To the West, Niger has suffered attacks from Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and by a coalition including Ansar Dine and the Macina Katiba led by a Malian Fulani imam called Amadou Koufa who recruits also among the Fulanis from Niger. The country has become particularly vulnerable because of the total loss of control by the Malian state of the north and the centre of its territory. In December 2019 and January 2020, jihadist attacks killed 160 soldiers in the Western area of Tillaberi. To the South-East, the threat of the Nigerian group Boko Haram is permanent. And there might be a third front in the North because Niger is getting caught in Libya’s civil war between the UN and Turkish-back government of Tripoli and Marshall Khalifa Haftar’s army, warns the French political scientist and economist Olivier Vallée.
Indeed, Niger took sides in this conflict in June 2019 by accepting the installation on its territory of a military base by the United Arab Emirates which support Haftar.
According to a report from the International Crisis Group from June 2020, none of the options tried by Niamey to contain the jihadists, from force to persuasion, has worked so far.
The jihadist groups are growing stronger. The military push has led to an alarming escalation in alleged killings of civilians by security forces, which the jihadists try to exploit. In 2017, Niger authorised operations by Malian Tuareg armed groups against targeted Peul groups accused of collaborating with the jihadists. Moreover, locals often perceive the Islamic State as an authority competent in resolving land disputes and protecting livestock against raids.

As a result of the increasing insecurity, 3.2 million Nigeriens are needing humanitarian assistance in 2020 as against 2.3 million in 2019. Only 41 percent of the needs are being financed, warned the UN in September. Besides, about 450,000 refugees are caught in Niger where hundreds thousands of citizens were by the floods in 2019. The country is particularly hit by the consequences of climate change including erratic changes of flows of the Niger River.
The insecurity and the consequences of the Covid 19 pandemics have forced the authorities to review the GDP growth forecast down from 6.9 % to 1% in 2020, in a context where huge efforts must still be accomplished to reduce the extreme poverty which still affects 41% of the 23 million inhabitants. The challenge is particularly difficult since Niger is also hit by the fall of the price of its main export product, uranium since the Fukushima nuclear accident of 2011 and Germany’s decision to stop the production of its plants by 2022. The authorities hope however that perspectives might improve if the country manages to increase five-fold its crude oil exports by 2021 with the completion of a 2,000 km pipeline between Agadem and the Atlantic Ocean in Benin by a Chinese corporation.

François Misser

The real aims of the United Arab Emirates in Africa.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

The country invests its capital also to diversify its oil-based economy. To contain Turkey, Qatar and Iran may cause an increase in the instability of the continent.

For some years now, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has been seen as a relevant geopolitical actor on the African scene. Many believe this to be a good opportunity for the development of the continent, given that the UAE has funds available and is the second-largest investor in Africa after China. But what are the real aims of the Emirates? It has three main identifiable aims.

The first is geo-economic: the continent of Africa represents a considerable opportunity for the Emirates to invest its petrodollars and so diversify its economy presently based on income from oil sales. There are many companies presently operating on African territory in the infrastructure, real estate and industrial sectors.
They are also present in agriculture since this Gulf country is almost totally dependent upon imports to supply its food needs.According to data provided by the Emirates ministry of finance, in 2018, the volume of commerce with Africa was worth around 161 billion dollars and this is bound to increase.

Its second aim is geopolitical. By means of its militarised diplomacy, based upon money, the government of Abu Dhabi is seeking to acquire its own zones of influence. In Egypt, it supported the 2013 military-led coup that brought General Al-Sisi to power. Today, it is still actively supporting General Haftar in the bloody Libyan conflict. However, it was chiefly with the start of the war in Yemen that the UAE monarchy made its military presence felt by its military intervention in that country, close to the Horn of Africa, using its military bases in Eritrea and Somaliland. The latter, a separatist region of Somalia under UAE influence, is being used to destabilise the government of Mogadishu. For the same reason, the UAE gives financial support to the local political opposition.

The third motive is ideological/religious. The UAE is seen as a ‘tolerant’ country from a religious point of view. It has excellent relations with the Vatican State, as shown by the visit of the Pope to Abu Dhabi in February 2019. Last August, they established historical diplomatic relations with Israel. It is actually a very conservative country where religious practice is based upon Salafist Sunniism imported from Saudi Arabia and practised by al-Qaida and its offshoots. Its doctrine rejects all forms of religion different from Salafism and considers the Muslim Brotherhood and Shiites as unbelievers.

This also holds for followers of other faiths. By means of its intense political activism in Africa, the UAE seeks: to stem the religious influence of the Muslim Brotherhood represented by Turkey which, in turn, is spreading its tentacles over the continent; to undermine the political interests of Qatar, an ally of the Turks and supporter of the Muslim Brotherhood; and to oppose the increasingly important presence of Iran – a geopolitically powerful country – on the continent fearing the possible mass conversion of African Muslims to Shiite doctrine.

Mostafa El Ayoubi

Power Games at the expense of Libyans.

Sunday, 1 November 2020 8:00

What has become of Libya? Nine years ago, NATO launched a military offensive that destroyed the country. A country now without a state.

Before 2011, Libya was the most prosperous country in Africa. Today basic supplies are in short supply and water and electricity are lacking.
In the past eight months, oil production, a primary resource, diminished by 90% and there is a shortage of petrol.
Before NATO intervened, it was a destination for immigrants. It is now a country where people emigrate.

Due to the grave crisis instigated by the war, hundreds of thousands of Libyans and African migrants left the country to start a new life mainly in Europe. Politically, the situation is equally dramatic. Libya is divided. There is a transitional parliament and government – required by the UN – based in Tripoli. There is also a parallel parliament in Tobruk, Cyrenaica, a region under the control of a military junta, the self-proclaimed Libya National Army (LNA).

General Khalifa Haftar, the founder of the LNA, was a comrade of Gadhafi in the military revolt of 1969 that brought down the pro-western monarchy of al-Sanusi. He later became a CIA collaborator (and an American citizen). In 2011, he returned to Bengasi, the city where the so-called February 17 evolution took place.

Today, Haftar controls Cyrenaica and part of the region of Fezzan. Most importantly, he took over a large part of the oil sites of Libya, while the government headed by Fayez al-Sarraj, controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood movement, is confined to Tripolitania.
Let us see the conditions of these two poles. Supporting the government of al-Sarraj are Turkey, Qatar, and Iran, while it has the direct support of the governments of Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia. France and Germany also lend some support.

The United States, instead, has one foot in each camp. No matter who wins this conflict, they will carry out the wishes of Washington. Nevertheless, the failure of Haftar to conquer Tripoli is changing the situation in Cyrenaica. There is ongoing political conflict between Haftar and the parliament in Tobruk.
An ally of his, Aguila Saleh Issa, president of the Tobruk Parliament, some months ago presented an inclusive opening the way for dialogue with the government of Tripoli, something that the head of the LNA has always refused to do. Indeed, at the end of April, Haftar proclaimed himself head of state and declared null and void both parliaments and the government of al-Sarraj. This move proved disastrous after the military defeat in June.

NATO is following these new developments with interest and is thinking of collaborating with the government of Tripoli, as recently affirmed by NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg. This ought to be seen from an anti-Russia perspective. Turkey was the architect of the defeat of Haftar. The move by NATO seems to be a gesture of approach to Ankara, in the hope of distancing it from Moscow whose government is becoming increasingly present on the Libyan scene. Western governments fear that the Russian experience of gains in Syria may be repeated in Libya. In the meantime, the real flesh and blood victims of this geopolitical war are the Libyans themselves.

Mostafa El Ayoubi

Photo Gallery – Jubilee 2025. Pilgrims of Hope

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