UN extends investigation of leader's mysterious 1961 death

Yahoo – AFP, December 28, 2019

Only the second secretary-general in UN history, Dag Hammarskjold was killed
along with 15 others on September 18, 1961 when their plane crashed in what was
then known as Northern Rhodesia (AFP Photo)

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United Nations General Assembly on Friday approved a resolution extending the investigation into the mysterious 1961 death of secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold.

The Swedish diplomat had been traveling in southern Africa for a mission when his plane crashed.

The text, initiated by Sweden and co-sponsored by more than 100 countries, was adopted by consensus without a vote.

Sweden recommended the reappointment of Tanzanian lawyer Mohamed Chande Othman, who has led the investigation for several years.

In his last report, published in early October, Othman accused the United States and Britain of withholding information regarding Hammarskjold's death.

Only the second secretary-general in the history of the UN, Hammarskjold was killed along with 15 other people on September 18, 1961 when their plane crashed near the city of Ndola in what was then known as Northern Rhodesia, now Zambia.

At the time, he was seeking to unite Congo and stop the mineral-rich Katanga province from seceding.

Two investigations concluded the crash was caused by pilot error. But since 2014, new probes have focused on a possible plot, a theory enforced by Othman's most recent report.

"South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States must be almost certain to hold important undisclosed information," he wrote.

The resolution urged member states, "in particular those referred to in the report, to release any relevant records in their possession."

In his report, Othman mentioned the likelihood that UN member states intercepted communications related to the crash, as well as the existence of Katangan air assets that could have attacked the secretary-general's plane.

He also cited the presence of foreign forces, including pilots and intelligence agents, on the ground at the time of the crash.

Ethiopian Airlines Boeing crashes killing all 157 on board

Yahoo – AFP, Michael Tewelde in Bishoftu with Chris Stein in Addis Ababa, March 10, 2019

Red cross teams work through the debris after an Ethiopia Airlines flight to Nairobi
crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing all 157 on board (AFP Photo/
Michael TEWELDE)

Bishoftu (Ethiopia) (AFP) - A Nairobi-bound Ethiopian Airlines Boeing crashed minutes after takeoff from Addis Ababa Sunday, killing all eight crew and 149 passengers on board, including tourists, business travellers, and "at least a dozen" UN staff.

Ethiopia declared a national day of mourning for Monday amid a global stream of condolences for loved ones, many of whom gathered in tears at Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA).

"The House of People’s Representatives have declared March 11, 2019, a national day of mourning for citizens of all countries that have passed in this tragic accident," Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's office said on Twitter.

Identities of the victims from 35 countries started to emerge as foreign governments and the United Nations reacted with shock.

"Deeply saddened by the news this morning of the plane crash in Ethiopia, claiming the lives of all on board. My heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of all the victims — including our own @UN staff — who perished in this tragedy," tweeted UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

The passengers included "at least a dozen" UN-affiliated staff headed for an annual assembly of the UN Environment Programme, which opens in Nairobi Monday with some 4,700 heads of state, ministers, business leaders, senior UN officials and civil society representatives, a UN source told AFP.

Some of the UN staff were from the World Food Programme and UN refugee agency (UNHCR), the agencies said.

Rescue teams collect bodies at the crash site of an Ethiopia Airlines plane which 

came down near the capital Addis Ababa, killing all 157 on board (AFP Photo/

Michael TEWELDE)

Wife, son, daughter dead

Slovak MP Anton Hrnko was among the bereaved.

"It is with deep sorrow that I announce that my dear wife, Blanka, son Martin and daughter Michala, died in the air disaster in Addis Ababa this morning," he wrote on Facebook.

Flight ET 302 ploughed into a field 60 kilometres (37 miles) southeast of Addis Ababa on what the airline's CEO Tewolde GebreMariam labelled a "very sad and tragic day".

An eyewitness told AFP the plane came down in flames.

"The plane was already on fire when it crashed to the ground. The crash caused a big explosion," Tegegn Dechasa recounted at the site, littered with passenger belongings, human remains, and airplane parts around a massive crater at the point of impact.

"The plane was in flames in its rear side shortly before the crash. The plane was swerving erratically before the crash."

The Boeing 737-800MAX was brand new, delivered to state-owned Ethiopian Airways on November 15, said the carrier, Africa's largest.

The plane is the same type as the Indonesian Lion Air jet that crashed in October, 13 minutes after takeoff from Jakarta, killing all 189 people on board.

A Chinese group look at the arrivals panel in Nairobi airport as they await information 

on the Ethiopian Airlines flight from Addis Ababa which crashed Sunday with the loss 

of 157 lives. (AFP Photo/Yasuyoshi CHIBA)

'Devastating'

Ethiopian Airlines said the plane had taken off at 8:38 am (0538 GMT) from Bole International Airport and "lost contact" six minutes later.

It came down near Tulu Fara village outside the town of Bishoftu.

The carrier, which changed its logo on Twitter to black and white from its trademark green, yellow, and red, said "there are no survivors".

"We can only hope that she is not on that flight," Peter Kimani, who had come to fetch his sister at Nairobi's JKIA, told AFP after news of the disaster reached those waiting in the arrivals hall.

Loved ones were later brought to the onsite Sheraton Hotel where they were debriefed and offered counselling. Journalists were not allowed in, but could hear sobbing from inside.

Ethiopian Airlines said Kenya had the largest number of casualties with 32, followed by Canada with 18, Ethiopia nine, then Italy, China, and the United States with eight each.

Britain and France each had seven people on board, Egypt six, and Germany five, according to the airline. France's government later said there were eight French victims though there was no explanation for the discrepency.

Twelve countries in Africa and 14 in Europe had citizens among the victims.

African Union commission chief Moussa Faki Mahamat spoke of "utter shock and immense sadness", while Mahboub Maalim, executive secretary of the IGAD East African bloc, said the region and the world were in mourning.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada and his British counterpart Theresa May both described the news as "devastating".

The scene of devastation where the Nairobi-bound Ethiopia Airlines plane came

down (AFP Photo/Michael TEWELDE)

Sympathy messages also came from the governments of Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, Britain, Germany, France and the United States.

Pilot had 'difficulties'

GebreMariam said the plane had flown in from Johannesburg earlier Sunday, spent three hours in Addis and was "despatched with no remark", meaning no problems were flagged.

Asked if the pilot had made a distress call, the CEO said "the pilot mentioned that he had difficulties and he wants to return. He was given clearance" to turn around.

Ethiopian and American investigators will probe the crash, said GebreMariam.

For one family member in Nairobi there was a happy ending.

Khalid Ali Abdulrahman was waiting for his son who works in Dubai and feared the worst when a security official told him the plane had crashed.

"I was shocked, but shortly after, my son contacted me and told me he is still in Addis and did not board that flight. He is waiting for the second one which has been delayed."

#UPDATE Ethiopia declared a national day of mourning for Monday after a plane crash killed 157 people, as identities of the victims from 35 countries started to emerge https://t.co/MtNim4E75T pic.twitter.com/YDmO4lrrvX

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 10 maart 2019

#UPDATE Airlines in Ethiopia, China and Indonesia ground Boeing 737 MAX 8 jets as investigators recover the black boxes from a brand-new passenger jet that crashed outside Addis Ababa a day earlier, killing all 157 people on board https://t.co/RxqDN1EZAI

— AFP news agency (@AFP) 11 maart 2019

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South Africa basks in continent's first solar-powered airport

Yahoo –AFP, Beatrice Debut, October 9, 2016

George, a town of just 150,000 residents on South Africa's south coast, is home
to Africa's first 'green' airport to be powered by the sun (AFP Photo/Gianluigi Guercia)

George (South Africa) (AFP) - At first glance there's nothing out of the ordinary about the regional airport in George, a town of just 150,000 residents on South Africa's south coast.

In fact though, the small site is Africa's first "green" airport to be powered by the sun.

The control tower, escalators, check-in desks, baggage carousels, restaurants and ATMs -- every service here depends on a small solar power station, located a few hundred metres away in a field of dandelions next to a runway.

Its 2,000 solar panels produce up to 750 kW every day, easily surpassing the 400 kW needed to run the airport.

The excess is fed back into the municipal power grid, and a computer screen in the terminal informs passengers: "Within this month (September), 274 households were supplied through this system with green electricity."

For environmentally-conscious travellers keen to reduce their carbon footprint, it's a welcome development.

"Planes have such a big carbon print," said passenger Brent Petersen, 33, in George. "If we compensate, that's cool."

George Airport was originally built in apartheid-era South Africa in 1977 to make getting home easier for PW Botha, a government minister at the time and later president.

It now serves as a transit hub for shipments of homegrown flowers and oysters, as well as golfers visiting one of the region's many courses. Some 700,000 passengers pass through its doors each year.

The solar plant, launched in September 2015, is the second solar-run airport in the world after Cochin airport in southern India.

Nestled between the Indian Ocean on one side and the majestic Outeniqua Mountains on the other, George was a surprising location for the first attempt at a solar-powered airport in South Africa.

Africa gets is first solar-powered airport in George, with a plant that converts 

solar energy into direct current electricity using solar panels (AFP Photo/

Gianluigi Guercia)

Ambitious project

The town's weather is unpredictable: in the space of half an hour, the temperature can plummet by 10 degrees celsius, the blue skies quickly replaced by a steady drizzle.

But so far, so good: even on overcast days, the plant still produces some power.

At night or when necessary, the system automatically switches over to the traditional power grid.

"The thinking was if we put (the solar system) in the worst unpredictable weather, it will absolutely work in any other airport in the country," the airport's maintenance director Marclen Stallenberg told AFP.

The environmental value of the ambitious project is already evident.

Since solar became the airport's main source of power, the hub has reduced its carbon dioxide emissions by 1,229 tonnes –- the equivalent of 103,934 litres of fuel.

The electricity bill has been cut by 40 percent in the space of a year, "which is a plus for me on the budget," said airport manager Brenda Voster.

Voster says it will take another five to 10 years to pay off the initial 16-million rand ($1.2 million) cost.

Meanwhile, regular power cuts, which in recent years have plagued Africa's most developed economy, are a thing of the past, she adds.

Heavily dependent on coal, which is the source of 90 percent of the country's electricity, South Africa is looking to diversify its options to avoid power cuts.

Robyn Spence, who works at Dollar car hire company at the airport, said they "had to replace quite a few computers" fried by electricity surges caused by power cuts last year –- no longer an issue with the solar system.

George airport's 2,000 solar panels produce up to 750 kW every day, easily 

surpassing the 400 kW needed to run the facility (AFP Photo/Gianluigi Guercia)

Untapped potential

But not all the retailers at the airport are feeling the benefits yet.

Lelona Madlingozi, a kitchen manager at Illy restaurant in the main terminal, said they had two power cuts lasting about three hours each just a month earlier. "We could not sell anything in the shop," she said.

Restaurants, said the airport, are not one of the essential services prioritised during power cuts.

Expanding the use of renewable energy is a key focus for management firm, Airports Company South Africa, said its president Skhumbuzo Macozoma.

The company's goal is to achieve "carbon neutrality", or net zero carbon emissions, by 2030.

In a country with an estimated average of 8.5 hours of sunshine a day throughout the year, solar's untapped potential looks huge.

After the success in George, the airports in Kimberley -- South Africa's diamond capital -- and Upington near the Namibian border have also gone green, with three other regional airports next in line.

George Airport now plans on increasing the capacity of the small power station by an extra 250 kW and will soon install batteries capable of conserving energy generated during the day for use at night.

Related Article:

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UN asks US, Britain to open files on ex-secretary general's death

Yahoo – AFP, 18 Nov 2015

An 1960 photo captures a meeting between then-UN secretary-general Dag 

Hammarskjold and Moise Kapenda Tshombe, leader of the Katanga provincein

what is nowthe Democratic Republic of the Congo (AFP Photo)

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The United Nations on Wednesday pressed demands that the United States and Britain release secret files on the mysterious death more than 50 years ago of former secretary-general Dag Hammarskjold.

Hammarskjold, the UN’s second secretary-general, died when his plane crashed on 17 or 18 September 1961 near Ndola in Northern Rhodesia -- now known as Zambia.

A UN panel said in July that it had uncovered new information pointing to the possibility that his plane may have been attacked and suggested that answers may be found in classified documents.

Requests sent by the panel to the United States and Britain for the secret files were turned down, but UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon asked for the information to be released in July.

Ban's request, however, was ignored and the UN chief renewed his appeal on Wednesday.

"There is a possibility that unreleased material relating to the crash of flight SE-BDY on the night between 17 and 18 September 1961 may still be available," Ban's spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.

"Therefore, the secretary-general again urges all member states to disclose, declassify or otherwise make available all information they may have in their possession related to the circumstances and conditions of the crash," he said.

While no country was singled out, UN officials confirmed that Britain and the United States were rejecting requests for information on the Hammarskjold case.

The mysterious circumstances of the crash has for years fueled conspiracy theories, and the panel did ask Belgium, Britain, France, Germany, South Africa and the United States for specific information.

The 56-year-old Swedish diplomat died in the plane crash while on his way to negotiate a ceasefire for mining-rich Katanga province in what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, a former Belgian colony.

The UN General Assembly adopted a resolution in December last year demanding that Hammarskjold's fate be cleared up once and for all.

Dujarric said Ban is "personally invested in fulfilling our duty to the distinguished former secretary-general and those who accompanied him, to endeavor to establish the facts after so many years."

The General Assembly is due to present a new draft resolution on Thursday demanding more action to shed light on the former UN chief's fate.

Crash means gloomy days ahead for Egypt's tourist jewel

Yahoo – AFP, Jay Deshmukh, November 7, 2015

Mounting evidence that the Airbus A-321 was downed by a bomb has prompted 

several governments to warn their citizens against travelling to the Egyptian 

Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh (AFP Photo/Mohamed El-Shahed)

Sharm el Sheikh (Egypt) (AFP) - Mohammed Mansour worries that the Russian tourists at his hotel could be the last for some time after Moscow stopped flights to Egypt over the downing of a Russian airliner.

"About 50 percent of my hotel occupants are Russians," Mansour, manager of a leading five-star hotel in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, told AFP.

President Vladimir Putin has ordered all 

Russian flights to Egypt to cease, hitting 

the tourist industry in Sharm el-Sheikh just

 ahead of the peak holiday Christmas and

 New Year season (AFP Photo/Mohamed

El-Shahed)

"The blow comes just ahead of the peak holiday season of Christmas and New Year."

"Since the 2011 revolution, the Germans, French and other Europeans are already coming in small numbers," Mansour said, referring to the uprising that toppled longtime president Hosni Mubarak.

"Now if the Russians avoid coming, Sharm el-Sheikh will be doomed."

"I don't know what happens tomorrow," he said, adding that more than 100 Russians were currently still at the hotel.

On Friday, President Vladimir Putin ordered all Russian flights to Egypt to cease after Cairo and Moscow initially dismissed a claim by the Islamic State group that it downed the plane flying from Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg, killing all 224 on board.

Nine of those killed in the October 31 crash had stayed in Mansour's hotel, including a woman and her two children, he said.

Mounting evidence that the Airbus A-321 was downed by a bomb has prompted several governments to warn their citizens against travelling to the Red Sea resort.

But Putin's order on Friday delivered a devastating blow to what is easily the jewel of Egyptian tourism and a favourite holiday hub for Russians.

'Look at the chaos'

The resort, long promoted by Egypt for its pristine beaches and scuba diving, has attracted millions of tourists a year, including hundreds of thousands of Russians and Britons.

At various hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh, stranded Britons mostly stayed indoors or

 on private beaches, ready to leave for the airport at short notice (AFP Photo/

Mohamed El-Shahed)

Before Putin's decision, some two dozen flights a day had ferried thousands of tourists between Sharm el-Sheikh and Russia.

Moscow said that nearly 80,000 Russians were in Egypt on Saturday.

Hundreds queued at Sharm el-Sheikh airport, waiting for their bags to be screened and hoping they could fly out.

"I really don't care what happens to Egyptian tourism now. I just want to go home safe," said Alessandra Kondratieva.

Tourists said many people would also avoid Sharm el-Sheikh because of the way airlines handled the situation in the crash aftermath.

"Look at the chaos. Nobody knows anything," said Bhuvesh Patel, an investment banker from London who has been stranded with his three-year-old son and pregnant wife.

"This puts a negative spin on the holidays and makes you think never to come back."

Sharm el-Sheikh had already been badly hit in 2005 when a series of bombings killed nearly 70 people, but it soon bounced back.

However, what happened to the Saint Petersburg flight could haunt the town for a long time.

Tourists queue up at check-in counters at the airport of Egypt's Red Sea resort

of Sharm El-Sheikh on November 6, 2015 (AFP Photo/Mohamed El-Shahed)

"Tourism in Sharm is driven by Russians," said a senior official with one foreign airline, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Russian tourists are very resort-based, and Sharm meets that profile."

"But Russians are also very disciplined. They take their government's decisions very seriously. At least for the near term, tourism in Sharm will be hit."

Jihadist attacks

Every fifth Russian tourist going abroad flies to Egypt, Russian tourism officials say, adding that even the turmoil that followed the 2013 ouster of Islamist president Mohamed Morsi failed to curb their numbers.

Tourism has faltered in Egypt since the anti-Mubarak uprising in 2011, however.

Instability and a rising tide of attacks claimed by jihadists have deterred many would-be visitors, damaging the economy and sending foreign exchange reserves plunging.

Last year, just under 10 million tourists visited Egypt, sharply down on the 15 million who came in 2010.

Tourism accounts for about 12 percent of Egypt's gross domestic product and some 15 percent of its foreign exchange reserves.

And much of this comes from Sharm el-Sheikh.

Once a remote beach on the shores of the Red Sea, the town thrives all year.

Debris from the A321 Russian Metrojet airliner at the site of the crash in Wadi

el-Zolmat, a mountainous area in Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, pictured on November 1, 

2015 (AFP Photo/Khaled Desouki)

Attractions such as Soho Square are popular for their brightly lit streets, cafes, pubs and children's parks.

"All this will just die if the Russians and Britishers stop coming," one tourist guide told AFP of Soho Square.

"The consensus among intelligence agencies has emerged that an explosive device was planted on the plane, that Sharm el-Sheikh airport was infiltrated," said Fawaz Gerges, professor at the London School of Economics.

"Imagine the long term impact of this. Sharm el-Sheikh is a lifeline... It is the only bright spot for Egyptian tourism and now it has been dealt a devastating blow."

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Russian plane broke up 'in the air': expert probing crash

Yahoo – AFP, Haitham El-Tabei, 1 Nov 2015

Mourners lay flowers at Pulkovo International Airport outside St. Petersburg on

 November 1, 2015 as Russia mourned its biggest-ever air disaster, a crash in

Egypt that claimed 224 lives (AFP Photo/Olga Maltseva)

WADI Al-ZOLOMAT (Egypt) (AFP) - A Russian airliner that crashed in Egypt broke up "in the air" strewing fragments across a wide area, an expert said Sunday as investigators probed the disaster that killed 224 people.

President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged patience to determine the cause of Saturday's crash, after the Islamic State jihadist group (IS) claimed it brought down the A-321 in Egypt's restive Sinai Peninsula.

"The disintegration happened in the air and the fragments are strewn over a large area," said Viktor Sorochenko, a senior official with Russia's Interstate Aviation Committee, quoted by the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti from Cairo.

Sorochenko, who is heading an international panel of experts, said it was "too early to draw conclusions" about what caused the flight from the Red Sea holiday resort of Sharm el-Sheikh to Saint Petersburg to crash.

Investigators have recovered the "black box" flight recorders and the Egyptian government said its contents were being analysed.

Egyptian soldiers stand guard next to the luggage and belongings of passengers

 of the A321 Russian airliner piled up at the site of the crash in Wadi el-Zolmat

in the Sinai Peninsular on November 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/Khaled Desouki)

"In such cases, leave it to specialists to determine the cause of the plane crash because it is a subject of an extensive and complicated technical study," Sisi said.

The crash site in the Wadi al-Zolomat area of North Sinai was littered with blackened aircraft parts Sunday as the smell of burnt metal lingered, an AFP correspondent said.

There were no bodies visible, but soldiers guarded dozen of bags and suitcases belonging to passengers from flight KGL 9268.

A tiny red jacket underlined the horror of the tragedy that also killed 17 children.

Officers involved in the search efforts said rescue crews had recovered 168 bodies so far, including one of a girl found eight kilometres (five miles) from the main wreckage.

Army helicopters hovered above the site as the search for bodies continued.

IS claim downplayed

Flags flew at half mast in Russia on Sunday and entertainment programmes on television were cancelled on a national day of mourning for the victims, most of them Russians ranging in age from 10 months to 77 years.

Cairo said there were 214 Russian and three Ukranian passengers on board, and seven crew members.

Thousands of Russians gathered in Saint Petersburg's Palace Square to observe a minute's silence and release doves and balloons to the darkening sky.

"It was impossible for me not to come," said Nika Kletskikh, 27, who lost a friend in the crash.

"It's so awful to think that she's no longer there."

Both Cairo and Moscow have downplayed the claim from Egypt's IS branch that it brought down the aircraft flown by the airline Kogalymavia, operating under the name Metrojet.

Russia held a day or mourning after 224 people died when a Russian airliner 

crashed in Egypt's Sinai (AFP Photo/Yury Kirnichny)

Prime Minister Sharif Ismail said experts had confirmed the militants could not down a plane flying at 30,000 feet (9,000 metres), the aircraft's flight level, and Russian Transport Minister Maxim Sokolov said the claim "cannot be considered accurate".

A Russian team including Sokolov and the emergencies minister, Vladimir Puchkov, visited the scene in a remote part of the Sinai. Later on Sunday they left for Moscow.

Two air accident investigators from France -- Airbus's home country -- were also due in Egypt along with six experts from the aerospace giant.

Germany's Lufthansa, Emirates and Air France all said they would halt flights over Sinai until the reasons for the crash were known.

The plane lost contact with air traffic control 23 minutes after take-off early on Saturday.

Wreckage and dead bodies were found scattered over a large area south of the town of El-Arish. Many bodies were missing limbs, said an officer, who requested anonymity.

The IS affiliate waging an insurgency in the Sinai claimed it brought down the aircraft in revenge for Russian air strikes against the jihadist group in Syria.

But experts dismissed the idea.

To reach a plane at that altitude "you would need hard-to-use missiles, so it seems unlikely," said Jean-Paul Troadec, former director of France's BEA aviation investigation agency.

"This requires trained people and equipment that IS does not have, to my knowledge."

Experts said a surface-to-air missile could have struck the aircraft if it had been descending, and that a bomb on board could not yet be ruled out, but technical or human error was more likely.

Debris from the Russian A321 at the site of the crash in Wadi el-Zolmat 

on November 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/Khaled Desouki)

Full check

An Egyptian air traffic control official said the pilot told him in their last exchange that he had radio trouble, but Civil Aviation Minister Mohamed Hossam Kamal said communications had been "normal".

"There was nothing abnormal... and the pilot didn't ask to change the plane's route," he said.

Russia has a dismal air safety record, and while larger carriers have begun upgrading ageing fleets, the crash is likely to raise concerns about smaller airlines such as Kogalymavia.

On Sunday, the Russian transportation watchdog, Rostransnadzor, ordered Kogalymavia to perform a full check on its A-321s.

Kogalymavia confirmed the instructions but denied this amounted to a de facto grounding of its remaining fleet of six A-321 airliners.

The last major air crash in Egypt was in 2004, when a Flash Airlines Boeing 737 plunged into the Red Sea after taking off from Sharm el-Sheikh, killing all 148 people on board.

Egypt air crash: Accident or attack? https://t.co/SpTFyxSnhJ pic.twitter.com/5LGCZUcf2v

— Agence France-Presse (@AFP) November 1, 2015

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China to launch direct air routes to Africa

Want China Times, Xinhua 2015-05-08

A Southern Airlines flight at Wuhan Tianhe International Airport,
Dec. 16, 2014. (Photo/Xinhua)

China will launch its first direct air route to Africa, according to an announcement by China's Southern Airlines.

Operated by Southern Airlines three times a week, the new route will fly from China's southern city of Guangzhou to Nairobi, Kenya starting on Aug. 5, significantly cutting travel time between China and Africa.

In addition, Air China will follow the suit, opening a Beijing-Johannesburg, South Africa route on Aug. 30 and Beijing-Addis Ababa, Ethipoia on Oct. 26.

Official data showed that the number of air passengers flying between China and Africa increased 15% annually in recent years.

African countries including Ethiopia, Kenya and Mauritius launched air routes to China last summer.

Mali flies into international storm over purchase of $40m presidential jet

Purchase of Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta's private plane may be a tipping point in Mali's relations with aid donors

theguardian.com, Alex Duval Smith in Bamako, 16 May 2014

Mali prime minister Moussa Mara with Andris Piebalgs, the European development
commissioner, and French MP Annick Girardin. Photograph: Habibou Kouyate/EC

Controversy about the purchase of a presidential jet and recriminations over transparency overshadowed a meeting in Bamako on Thursday between the Malian government and international aid donors.

The conference was called a year to the day after a massive $4.1bn (£2.4bn) was pledged to Mali by 55 countries and institutions. It took place as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which has granted the country a phased three-year extended credit facility worth $23m, demanded explanations regarding the acquisition of a Boeing 737 costing about $40m.

In a robust speech aimed at deflecting donor criticism, Mali's prime minister, Moussa Mara, called for more transparency from the country's partners. He confirmed that $1.2bn of the pledged money had been spent. But he complained that only about a third of that amount had been channelled through government ministries and just $280m had gone directly into the treasury.

Mara told donors gathered at Bamako's international conference centre: "For the sake of the transparency you are all attached to, we demand that the concerned partners inform us of the use of the money and its impact. We want the remaining money to be used in a way that is totally traceable."

Mara, 39, appointed in a cabinet reshuffle last month, Mara, was responding to a passionate speech by Annick Girardin, the French secretary of state for development. Girardin insisted "the Brussels conference was not only about economics, it was deeply political" and had committed Mali to profound institutional reform.

Malian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta, whose acquisition of a private jet has
 raised questions among donors, at Conakry airport. Photograph: Cellou Binani/
AFP/Getty

She said: "Parliament must deal with the social and economic development of the country. It must also – and I am thinking in particular of the fight against corruption and justice reform – [accept that] these are areas where vigorous measures are expected.''

In a direct reference to the presidential plane, she added: "I am thinking also of financial and economic management – an area where the Malian government must respond to legitimate questions raised by international institutions."

The scandal surrounding the purchase of the Boeing 737 in April is likely to be at the forefront of donors' thoughts in forthcoming weeks as they decide how to reconfigure aid and loan payments to serve more effectively the needs of 14 million people living in one of the world's poorest countries.

The swiftness with which the multimillion-euro French-led military operation ousted the core of Islamists occupying northern Mali last year has been matched only by the alacrity with which President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta's government – elected by a landslide in August 2013 – appears to have revived some of the poor governance practices that opened the door to extremism in the first place: nepotism, high-living, lack of accountability, political aloofness and what the IMF sees as "threats to the integrity of the budgetary process".

Most of the pledged money has been spent through established international aid organisations that have revived existing programmes, targeting Mali's longstanding shortfalls in sanitation, health, education and food security. But continuing security fears in the underdeveloped north, where the government has failed to initiate meaningful peace talks with rebel groups, mean much aid is still spent in the south of Mali, which was never occupied. At least a quarter of a million northerners are still displaced or living in refugee camps in neighbouring countries.

For months after he came to power in an EU-funded election, diplomats gave Keïta and his government the benefit of the doubt. Wary of being accused of colonial-style heavy-handedness, they tolerated his seemingly endless round of expensive foreign trips, his failure to travel to the far north of his own country, the lack of regular broadcasts to the crisis-bound nation, and an initial round of political appointments that included his son and three members of his wife's family.

Hints were dropped by visiting ministers, especially those from France, and by the UN security council. But the international silence has proved dangerous. Malians are beginning to believe in a conspiracy theory – never dismissed by Keïta – that suggests greedy "foreign powers" have secret information about massive oil and mineral wealth in the north of Mali and are siding with secessionist rebels.

Finally, last month, on the sidelines of the Rwandan genocide commemorations, UN secretary general Ban Ki-moon took Keïta to task about his failure to hold talks with northern armed groups. But when Keïta returned from Kigali on 9 April, his new plane had been delivered. A tour of the aircraft at Sénou airport followed, and international pressure for more rigour, accountability, peace talks and general leadership was, it would seem, a distant memory.

It has taken until now for the IMF to shame Keïta's government by demanding an explanation for the purchase of the aircraft. "I learned about the plane by reading the local media,'' said Op de Beke, a senior economist at the IMF. "It had not been mentioned by the government when our team carried out its review in March.''

Since the purchase of the jet was never put to parliament, little is known about it beyond airport staff observations that it arrived with an Arab-speaking crew. Mara claims it cost $40m; the presidency says $34m. The biggest question surrounds whether Keïta needs a new plane; Mali already has one, which ferried his predecessor, the interim president Dioncounda Traoré.

De Beke says the IMF has also asked for explanations about a state guarantee of $200m given for defence procurement. Again, details of what the amount was or will be spent on – and whether aid money has been part of the guarantee – are subject to speculation. But the Malian army was recently, and somewhat mysteriously, rekitted in new uniforms, boots and hats, and given a new logo.

Ordinary Malians are not about to take to the streets, however. The middle classes have been tweeting frantically to decry the jet, but 80% of Malians are illiterate. In the election, they voted for "IBK", as he is called, because religious leaders told them to do so. Most like their president, and are from the south; the security situation at the time of the election left thousands of displaced northerners without voting cards.

Now that the conference is over, many donor chiefs – including European development commissioner Andris Piebalgs – are staying on in Mali to visit projects they are funding. They must decide how and if they are to release a remaining $140m in direct budget support to Mali's treasury. And they must insist that Mali moves swiftly to incorporate more checks and balances in its own government processes, so that the national budget cannot be treated as petty cash.

Indonesia’s first presidential plane. (JG Photo/Ezra Sihite)

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