Africa Daily

The podcast explores the controversies and delays surrounding the African Games, reflecting on past memorable performances by athletes like Mary Onyali Omagbemi. It discusses the challenges of organizing the event, the unity required for its success, and the future of the games amidst declining standards.

“If the Islamist extremist groups succeed in entrenching themselves in Cabo Delgado, they will launch attacks in different parts of the continent” – Professor Adriano Nuvunga of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights Just as Mozambique's authorities thought Cabo Delgado province in the north of the country was beginning to stabilise, trouble started again. Insurgents linked to the group, Islamic State have launched new attacks on the area in recent weeks. As a result, more than 70 children are now missing. The authorities say they were separated from their families as thousands of people fled to a neighbouring province. According to Doctors Without Borders, over half a million people in that province remain displaced as of December 2023. The insurgency in gas-rich Cabo Delgado, launched by the IS-linked local al-Shabab militia, is now in its seventh year. High levels of poverty and disputes over access to land and jobs have contributed to local grievances. Today Alan Kasujja attempts to understand what it will take to end the conflict in Cabo Delgado.

In many parts of the continent, landing a job at a multinational company is a big deal – it promises growth and stability. But what happens when things go wrong? You get made redundant. Do you know what rights and protections you have?That’s the scenario that staff members in Ghana’s Twitter office found themselves in back in November 2022. Musk tweeted that "everyone" would get three months' severance pay. But it turns out, "everyone" didn't seem to include the Ghanaian staff.Alan Kasujja caught up with Carla Olympio, founder of Agency Seven Seven, the firm backing the Ghanaian staff fighting for their rights under Ghana's Labour Act of 2003. After a year-long battle, the agency successfully negotiated a redundancy settlement for the affected staff members.

“I think this community of BRICS is looking after each other and for sure it’s going to open more doors” – Gert Blignaut, South African beef exporter In August 2023, we brought you an episode on South Africa hosting about 70 heads of state from different parts of the world. They included China’s Xi Jinping, India’s Narendra Modi and Lula da Silva of Brazil, whose nations, along with Russia, form part of a bloc known as BRICS. Founded in 2009, this group aims to promote economic co-operation and increase trade among its member states. Russia’s Vladimir Putin couldn’t attend because of the International Criminal Court warrant of arrest against him, because of claims relating to the on-going war in Ukraine. At that two-day meeting held in Johannesburg, it was announced that Egypt, Ethiopia and several other developing economies were joining the bloc from the start of 2024. And this year, South Africa started exporting beef to Saudi Arabia, one of the countries who’ve been invited to join BRICS. So, what do these developments mean? Is Africa starting to see the benefits of aligning with BRICS? Does America and its western allies have a credible economic rival? Or is it all a pie in the sky? To answer these questions, Alan Kasujja sits down with South African beef exporter Gert Blignaut and Professor Patrick Bond from the University of Johannesburg.

“You just learn that the people who are against you… will always exist and they’ll always use every opportunity they can to amplify mistakes and actually very often try to portray them as deliberate. That’s part of the learning I’ve had to go through.” Being the mayor of Freetown is a tough job. Yvonne Aki Sawyer grew up in Sierra Leone but then went to the UK to study as a student. She stayed, built up a well-paid career in finance, got married, had kids. But after Ebola hit Sierra Leone in 2014 she took a sabbatical to help and became the director of Planning for Sierra Leone's National Ebola Response Centre. In the years since, she’s been voted in as mayor of Freetown twice – running on a ticket dominated with environmental concerns. But she’s also been investigated for corruption and accused of misappropriating public funds - allegations she denies and says are politically motivated. In a frank conversation, she tells Alan Kasujja about her attempts to work with the government, how women support women in Sierra Leone, and denies she’s drunk the political Kool-Aid. “My life is very different to what it was (in the UK)… I certainly don’t earn a fraction of what I used to earn… I am here because this is my heart,” she tells Alan. You can see the Africa Eye film about her work – and the pretty brutal election campaign she went through - “Mayor on the Frontline: democracy in crisis’’ on the BBC News Africa Youtube page.

Earlier this week we heard on Africa Daily from people struggling to manage as the cost of essential food items and fuel rockets in Nigeria. Inflation is now close to 30% and many stores have stopped displaying prices for the goods on sale - because prices are increasing so fast. Some people have begun hoarding food.Protesters have taken to the streets in cities around the country calling on the government to intervene - but the unions cancelled a second day of strikes on Wednesday - giving the government two weeks to meet their demands.So what has the government said in response? And what are they likely to do?For Africa Daily, Alan Kasujja talks to the BBC’s West Africa reporter Nkechi Ogbonna - and we hear from Nigeria's Finance Minister, Wale Edun.

“Society calls us waste pickers but I am a reclaimer, I don’t collect waste,” says Luyanda Hlashwayo, who for the last 12 years has made a living by sifting through household garbage to find recyclables for sale.It is estimated there are 15-20 million people worldwide who, like Hlatshwayo, depend on the informal waste sector for livelihood.Their work is dangerous and they are paid poorly.Through the Africa Reclaimers Organisation which he helped found, waste pickers from South Africa and Kenya are discussing ways to improve their working conditions and livelihoods, as they continue to push for recognition as formal stakeholders.In this episode of Africa Daily, Alan Kasujja talks to Hlatshwayo and Winnie Wanjira who has been a waste picker at one of the largest landfills in East Africa.

“South African deployment of soldiers to DRC is out of order. It must be withdrawn with immediate effect. Not that South Africa is not supposed to deploy in DRC. We [are] supposed to deploy in the DRC and be in the forefront. We just don’t have the army” – Julius Malema, EFF leader The war in the Democratic Republic of Congo is affecting several African nations. Just recently, Africa Daily produced a podcast demonstrating how tensions between Burundi and Rwanda are tied to the conflict in the DRC. And now, it’s South Africans who’ve been affected. Local opposition parties insist that their nation’s army lacks the intended weapons, drones and mortar groups to protect them. It comes after two of the troops were killed in a mortar strike in eastern DRC. They were part of 2, 900 soldiers deployed to that country for a peacekeeping mission. So, is South Africa up for this operation? Why does president Cyril Ramaphosa’s government feel so strongly about having a presence in the DRC? What’s in it for them? But also, who decides which countries should be part of such missions?

It’s been 10 months since fierce fighting between the Sudanese army and the parliamentary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) broke out. A civil war that continues to heavily impact Sudan and its civilians. Earlier this month, the United Nations appealed for just over $4 billion to fund humanitarian operations in the country and neighbouring countries hosting refugees. They’ve described human suffering of epic proportions and say nearly nine million people have been displaced. More recently, Sudan has been plunged into an internet blackout. The blackout has left people in the country unable to access essential services, like transferring money. To find out more on the situation, BBC Africa Daily’s Alan Kasujja spoke to Suliman Baldo who is the founding director of the think tank Sudan Transparency and Policy Tracker and Buthina who was born and raised in Khartoum, Sudan’s capital. She had to relocate when the war started and now works for an international organization supporting local groups on the ground.

In Nigeria, consumers are struggling. The cost of many basic necessities like rice, yams and even onions, have doubled since last year. It follows the decision by the government of President Bola Tinubu to remove a subsidy on fuel, and to devalue the naira – which had cost the government billions of dollars. But while the policies were aimed at increasing foreign investment, they’ve seen costs rocket for consumers in Nigeria. People have reacted in a variety of ways: from protests, to food hoarding, to prayers and fasting in the hope God might just intervene.For today’s Africa Daily, Alan @Kasujja speaks to a Tolani and Femi Sarumi, who work respectively as a travel agent and estate surveyor, to find out how they’re coping – and talks through the background to the crisis with business analyst, Endurance Okafor.