Ex-footballer Weah vows 'better life' after Liberia presidential win

Yahoo – AFP, Philippe SIUBERSKI, December 30, 2017

Supporters of George Weah celebrate after final results in Liberia's presidential
election confirmed his as winner (AFP Photo/SEYLLOU)

Monrovia (AFP) - Liberia's president-elect George Weah vowed Saturday to "improve people's lives" after the former star footballer secured a stunning run-off victory in the country's first democratic transfer of power in decades.

Idolised in Liberia as "Mister George", Weah is to be sworn in on January 22, replacing Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who in 2006 took the helm of the West African country first founded for freed US slaves.

The electoral board confirmed Weah's run-off victory on Friday evening, as his rival, Vice President Joseph Boakai, conceded defeat.

In his first public comments since his victory, Weah told journalists in Monrovia he aimed to "improve the lives" of Liberians.

"I declare publicly today that transforming the lives of all Liberians is a singular mission," he said.

A victory speech was however postponed after crowds of energetic supporters gathered around a podium for Weah's address grew too boisterous, an AFP correspondent said.

Weah, 51, who starred in top-flight football at Paris Saint-Germain and AC Milan in the 1990s and briefly at Chelsea and Manchester City before entering politics in 2002, won 61.5 percent of the ballot, taking 14 of Liberia's 15 counties.

Boakai said he had called Weah to congratulate him and appealed for unity, saying: "My love for the country is far (more) profound than my desire for the presidency."

The White House called the vote "a major milestone for Liberia's democracy" while UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres applauded "all Liberians for the successful completion of the elections process, which was conducted in a peaceful environment".

Former international football star and Liberia's president-elect George Weah told

 reporters he would aim to 'build on the gains' of his predecessor Ellen Johnson 

Sirleaf (AFP Photo/Zoom DOSSO)

'Don't forget your roots'

The tumultuous events of the past 70 years in Liberia, where an estimated 250,000 people died during back-to-back civil wars between 1989-2003, have prevented a democratic handover from taking place since 1944.

Sirleaf's predecessor Charles Taylor fled the country in 2003, hoping to avoid prosecution for funding rebel groups in neighbouring Sierra Leone. Two presidents who served prior to Taylor were assassinated.

The Sirleaf administration guided the nation out of the ruins of war and through the horrors of the 2014-16 Ebola crisis, but is accused of failing to combat poverty and corruption.

Weah said he would aim to "build on the institutional gains made under Madame Sirleaf".

His former club Paris Saint-Germain tweeted its congratulations to the "world football legend on the latest chapter of his brilliant career!!!" while former Chelsea star Didier Drogba, Manchester City midfielder Yaya Toure and Marseille's former Cameroon midfielder Stephane Mbia also sent their best wishes.

Weah, who grew up in grinding poverty, is already facing pressure to improve the lives of millions of Liberians.

"I think the Liberian people will expect... Weah's presidency to (have a) pro-poor, pro-growth policy that will put the people at the centre of national development," said political analyst Vita Ishmael Tue.

Profile of George Weah who won the Liberian election (AFP Photo/
Paul DEFOSSEUX)

He added that he expected Weah's presidency to see power "given to the people; the provision of education, youth training for disadvantaged and vulnerable youths that are on the streets and who see themselves in him".

Clinton Taryor from Weah's CDC party urged the new leader: "Mr. President, don't forget your roots. We are not behind you because you're handsome or because you are a star.... Some of us are behind you because we know that you walked in our shoes."

Weah, the only African ever to have won both FIFA's World Player of the Year and the coveted Ballon D'Or, missed out on the presidency in a 2005 bid.

His latest campaign was not without controversy, however.

He has drawn some criticism for picking Jewel Howard-Taylor, the powerful ex-wife of former warlord and president Charles Taylor, as his vice-president. Taylor is serving a 50-year sentence in a British jail for war crimes.

Weah also had the backing of a notorious former warlord Prince Johnson, who sipped a beer as his men tortured former president Samuel Kanyon Doe to death.

Liberia's Ellen Sirleaf: a women's icon with nerves of steel who made history in 2005 when she became Africa's first elected female president https://t.co/kV5HusXMUw pic.twitter.com/KLUovkLajE

— AFP news agency (@AFP) December 30, 2017

Turning e-waste into art at Ghana's toxic dump

Yahoo – AFP, Stacey KNOTT, 27 December 2017

A young man carries an old refrigerator at Agbogbloshie dumpsite in Accra

Joseph Awuah-Darko sits on a stool at one of the world's largest electronic waste dumps, watching polystyrene and insulation cables burn on the blackened ground.

"It's survival and dystopia," says the 21-year-old British-born Ghanaian, surveying the stretch of wasteland around him as dense plumes of acrid smoke rise into the air.

Awuah-Darko and his university friends have ambitious plans for the sprawling Agbogbloshie dumping ground in Ghana's capital, Accra.

In January this year, he co-founded the non-profit Agbogblo.Shine Initiative, which encourages people working at the dump to turn waste into high-end furniture.

The dump workers typically risk exposure to harmful fumes by burning obsolete and unwanted appliances such as mobile phones, computers, televisions and plastics that are brought to Ghana from around the world.

After burning, they salvage and resell copper and other metals from these leftovers of modern consumer culture.

The dump and scrapyard sit next to the heavily polluted Odaw River in the slum-like area, home to an estimated 40,000 people.

The United Nations has said that salvaging materials for recycling provides income for more than 64 million people in the developing world.

Ghana is said to have the largest informal recycling industry in Africa and imports some 40,000 tonnes of this e-waste annually.

Ghanaian artist Joseph Awuah-Darko and his university friends have ambitious 

plans for the sprawling Agbogbloshie dumping ground, encouraging people working

at the dump to turn waste into high-end furniture

'We are suffering here'

When Awuah-Darko first saw the piles of circuit boards, wires and plastics at Agbogbloshie he decided he wanted to use his artistic talent as a force for change.

So he set up the Agbogblo.Shine project with Cynthia Muhonja, a fellow student from Ashesi University, about an hour's drive from Accra.

They repurpose the electronic scraps, "upcycling" them into furniture, and offer training for the young men who work at the dump to create the pieces.

The students straddle two worlds -- a privileged life on the lush campus of a private university in a forested area, and the harsh reality of life for some of Ghana's poorest people.

Mohamed Abdul Rahim, who is in charge of about 20 young men, has been working at Agbogbloshie since 2008.

The 25-year-old from the north of Ghana works 12-hour days, six days a week. On average the workers make only about 20 cedi each ($4.50, 3.75 euros) a day.

He knows the work is bad for his health but doesn't see any other option. However he is optimistic that Awuah-Darko's initiative will help.

Agbogbloshie dumpsite in Accra sits next to the heavily polluted Odaw River 

in a slum-like area that is home to an estimated 40,000 people

"We are suffering here because the heat is there, the smoke, too, it disturbs us. If we see good work we will go join it and leave this," he says.

The toxic fumes hurt his lungs, while his hips and waist ache from carrying heavy objects to burn. The money he earns supports his mother, wife and three children.

The ground he works on is black, muddy and littered with plastic bags, cables, bottles and broken shoes alongside smashed television sets and computer monitors.

Workers use plastics and polystyrene as fuel to melt down components to extract the copper.

Grandfather clock

Awuah-Darko recognises that the people of Agbogbloshie "are basically in pursuit of what we all want, which is a better life".

"Unfortunately, the side effects or the by-product of this is the detriment of their health," he said.

He hopes that his initiative will not only improve their lives but also the planet, as waste from the site is given another life.

When Ghanaian artist Joseph Awuah-Darko first saw the piles of circuit boards, 

wires and plastics at Agbogbloshie he decided he wanted to use his artistic talent 

as a force for change

Awuah-Darko's first upcycled work is a grandfather clock, made from a galvanised car axle, aluminium and part of a discarded wall clock.

Two high-end hotels in Accra are currently vying to buy the unusual timepiece, he said, and with such interest he has plans to create more and expand operations.

Awuah-Darko sees a future where around 100 people from Agbogbloshie can leave their harmful work to build furniture.

He also wants to exhibit the creations at major galleries around the world and sell them at auction houses.

That would be a world away for someone like Mohammed Sofo, a thin 26-year-old with small tattoos on his face.

But Sofo wants to live in a world where he does not have to burn waste to survive.

"Some people think we are bad because they think we are mad persons," he said.

"If we get money no one will look at us like that. Some day will come when no one will be working here."

Lonely Cape Verde rethinks West African isolation

The Citizen – AFP, Maria da Luz NEVES with Selim SAHEB ETTABA in Dakar

Cape Verde is an archipelago which lies about 500km (300 miles) off the coast
of Senegal and a former Portuguese colony which is home to half a million people

It was supposed to be tiny Cape Verde’s moment to shine: a chance for the Atlantic island nation to take up the rotating presidency of the commission of the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

But the archipelago has found itself once again out of step with its mainland cousins, who decided to hand the responsibility to Ivory Coast at a meeting in Nigeria last weekend.

Cape Verde is different. A pillar of democracy, stability and human rights, it is cited near the top of the yearly Ibrahim Index, which measures and monitors governance performance in African countries, this time coming fourth out of 54 nations.

Its nine inhabited islands have weathered different cultural currents for hundreds of years which is shown in its unique musical traditions and racial diversity: 71 percent of its people identify as mixed race, according to official figures.

In the generally culturally conservative West African region, Cape Verde has a vibrant LGBT community. The Afrobarometer polling company found in 2016 it ranked “most tolerant” of all African nations in terms of attitudes to homosexuality.

But its impact is barely felt a hop and a skip across the Atlantic, where its population of 500,000 is dwarfed by giants such as Nigeria (population some 190 million).

“In a world dominated by quantity, Cape Verde feels that it barely registers,” Cape Verdean diplomat Corsino Tolentino told AFP of the former Portuguese colony.

Mutual ignorance

Chronically poor transport links between Cape Verde and the rest of
Africa have not helped to foster ties, says former president Pedro Pires

Whispers of unmet financial contributions began surfacing after the decision to exclude Cape Verde from heading up the Commission but President Jorge Carlos Fonseca took to public broadcaster TCV to denounce “political subterfuge” which he said broke ECOWAS rules.

Created in 1975, ECOWAS is seeking greater long-term economic integration for its 330 million citizens, notably with the longstanding aim of a single currency.

But chronically poor transport links with the rest of Africa have not helped to foster greater understanding, said former president Pedro Pires, who won the Ibrahim Prize for African leadership in 2011.

“Regarding our relationship with ECOWAS, one has to look at everything that makes it complicated,” he said in an interview with AFP. “How do you develop economic links if you don’t have any sea transport?”

In fact, Cape Verde has vastly better flight connections to former colonial master Portugal and fellow former colony Brazil than with West Africa.

Pay more attention

President Fonseca said this weakness was compounded by mutual ignorance, with Cape Verde often unfamiliar with decision-making processes in the bloc.

“Cape Verdians don’t really know how the structure and projects of ECOWAS work. It’s not an accident that there aren’t many of us working in these bodies. And the other countries don’t know what Cape Verde is really like,” he explained.

Cape Verde’s nine inhabited islands have weathered different cultural
currents for hundreds of years, as shown its unique musical traditions

Of the more than 50 protocols and conventions, Cape Verde has signed less than half — the lowest total of all member states.

Former prime minister Jose Maria Neves has defended the country’s ECOWAS record, saying its officials have been appointed to senior posts, even if he admits more is left to be done.

“I don’t think ECOWAS ignores Cape Verde, but the organisation needs to pay more attention to the peculiarities of the archipelago,” he told AFP.

Nelson Magbagbeola, Secretary-General of the ECOWAS parliament, said naming an ambassador to the body and putting into practice the rules of free movement of people and goods would go a long way towards better integration.

The country’s labour market is already saturated, however, making free movement of migrants from the rest of West Africa a difficult proposition, according to the government.

Egypt's Coptic Pope rejects Pence meeting over Jerusalem

Yahoo – AFP, December 9, 2017

Egypt's Coptic Church head Pope Tawadros II cancelled a meeting with US
Vice President Mike Pence in Cairo later this month in protest at Washington's
decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the church said (AFP Photo/
KHALED DESOUKI)

Cairo (AFP) - Egypt's Coptic Church head Pope Tawadros II cancelled a meeting with US Vice President Mike Pence in Cairo later this month in protest at Washington's decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital, the church said Saturday.

US President Donald Trump's decision "did not take into account the feelings of millions of Arab people," the church said in a statement, adding it decided not to receive Pence when his visits Egypt.

"The Egyptian Coptic Orthodox Church declines to receive American Vice President Mike Pence," it said, adding it would pray for "wisdom and to address all issues that impact peace for the people of the Middle East".

The decision comes a day after Egypt's top Muslim cleric Ahmed al-Tayeb, the head of Al-Azhar, also declined to meet Pence.

Egyptian Coptic Christians make up about 10 percent of the country's 93 million people, and are the largest religious minority in the region.

Trump's move to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel sparked Palestinian protests, sporadic clashes and a call for a new intifada or uprising amid fears of new bloodshed in the region.

Coptic Pope Tawadros II

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Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, and Pope Francis embrace

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2017 (AFP Photo/STRINGER)

Yemen's Saleh: the ex-president who clung to power

Yahoo – AFP, December 4, 2017

Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh addressing loyalists in Sanaa on
March 10, 2011 (AFP Photo/MOHAMMED HUWAIS)

Sanaa (AFP) - Yemen's ex-president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who was killed on Monday, ruled the Arabian Peninsula country for more than three decades, remaining a key player long after his 2012 resignation.

Adept at navigating Yemen's complex politics, he survived civil war, rebellion in the north, an Al-Qaeda insurgency in the south and a June 2011 bomb attack on his palace that wounded him badly.

In 2014 he allied with his former enemies, Huthi Shiite rebels from Yemen's north, to seek revenge against those who forced him from power.

But the collapse of their alliance was the beginning of the end for the wily leader.

A stocky man with piercing eyes and a moustache, Saleh was for decades Yemen's most powerful man.

In 2015, a UN panel of experts accused him of corruption, saying he may have amassed up to $60 billion the country descended into poverty during his 33 years in power.

Hailing from the same Zaidi minority as the Huthis, Saleh joined the army aged 20 and took part in the 1962 coup against Yemen's Zaidi imamate.

The ensuing six-year civil war ended in victory for Egyptian-backed nationalists who in 1968 formed the Yemen Arab Republic, also known as North Yemen.

A few months earlier, an independent South Yemen had been formed following the British withdrawal. It would eventually become the Communist-ruled People's Democratic Republic of Yemen.

Reunification

Saleh showed his leadership skills at an early age and swiftly climbed North Yemen's military and political ladder.

Following the June 1978 assassination of president Ahmad al-Ghashmi, a constituent assembly elected Saleh -- by then a colonel -- president of North Yemen.

A picture from June 1, 2000 shows Ali Abdullah Saleh diving during free time 

at his private presidential club (AFP Photo)

He immediately surrounded himself with close aides, notably his brothers, appointing them to key military and security posts.

Saleh deftly steered the country towards reunification in 1990 and four years later crushed a southern secession bid.

He became Yemen's first directly elected president in 1999, winning more than 96 percent of the vote, but elections during his tenure were widely criticised and he was accused of stifling dissent.

Saleh became a US ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda, allowing drone strikes on Yemeni territory, the first of which in 2002 killed the group's Yemen chief, Qaed Salim Sinan al-Harithi.

Between 2004 and 2010, Saleh fought several wars against the Huthis, who had long complained of marginalisation.

In the late 2000s he also grappled with growing pro-independence demonstrations in the south.

But the first real challenge to his rule came with the eruption in 2011 of Arab Spring-inspired protests that brought thousands of people onto the streets.

Saleh clung to power amid a deadly crackdown on demonstrators demanding an end to his regime.

He left Yemen for Saudi Arabia in June 2011 to receive medical treatment after being burned in a bomb attack on his presidential compound, but returned less than four months later.

He eventually ceded power in February 2012 under a Gulf-brokered deal that granted him immunity from prosecution.

'Dancing on snakes'

Vice President Abedrabbo Mansour Hadi took power after Saleh's resignation but struggled to assert his authority.

The ex-president remained behind the scenes, refusing to go into exile and remaining head of his General People's Congress party.

Ali Abdullah Saleh addressing parliament in Sanaa in

October 2001 (AFP Photo/KHALED FAZAA)

The Huthis' seizure of Sanaa in September 2014 would have been impossible without support from Saleh loyalists, analysts said.

An expert report to the UN Security Council alleged Saleh provided "direct support" to the Huthis through funding and the backing of elite forces still under his influence.

Hadi in February 2015 fled to the southern city of Aden after escaping house arrest in Sanaa, then to Saudi Arabia as the rebels advanced south.

Yassin Makkawi, an adviser to Hadi, in 2015 described the ex-president as a "tyrant", saying "the Huthis are puppets in the hands of Saleh".

A coalition led by Saudi Arabia, which feared the Huthis would help its arch-rival Iran spread its influence in Yemen, launched air strikes and sent ground troops to Yemen in support of Hadi.

That escalation has since killed more than 8,750 people and dragged Yemen towards what the UN calls the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

The intervention helped loyalists win back control of large parts of the south but they were unable to dislodge the Huthis from Sanaa and other key strongholds.

Saleh was reported to have remained in the capital and boasted: "I will never leave Sanaa."

But in mid-2017, his alliance with the Huthis began to collapse amid simmering resentment over money, power-sharing and suspected backdoor dealings.

When Saleh reached out to the Saudi-led coalition last week, the Huthis accused him of "great treason" and staging a "coup" against "an alliance he never believed in".

A smart tactician who had portrayed himself as a "saviour" after his resignation, Saleh once compared ruling Yemen to "dancing on the heads of snakes".

But Saleh's gamble in quitting his alliance with the Huthis proved to be a fatal step.

As gun battles rocked the capital on Monday, the Huthis announced that Saleh had been killed, and a video supplied to AFP by the rebels showed what appeared to be his corpse.

Hours later, his party confirmed the news.

At the age of 75, the man who had shaped much of Yemen's post-independence history was dead.