Twitter chief Jack Dorsey announces plans to move to Africa

The Guardian, Victoria Bekiempis, 29 Nov 2019

Tech executive declared plan to move temporarily in 2020 following a month-long visit to entrepreneurs on the continent

Jack Dorsey on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, on 5 September 2018.
Photograph: José Luis Magaña/AP

Twitter chief Jack Dorsey said this week that he plans to move to Africa for up to six months next year. The tech executive announced the planned move following a month-long trip visiting entrepreneurs on the continent.

“Sad to be leaving the continent … for now. Africa will define the future (especially the bitcoin one!),” Dorsey tweeted from Addis Ababa on Wednesday. “Not sure where yet, but I’ll be living here for 3-6 months mid 2020. Grateful I was able to experience a small part.”

Asked for comment, Twitter said in an email: “We’ve nothing to share beyond Jack’s initial tweet.”

Dorsey began traveling Africa on 8 November and visited Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria and South Africa, CNN reported.

In Ethiopia, he listened to startup pitches. In Nigeria, he had meetings with entrepreneurs and Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Twitter board member who formerly worked as managing director of the World Bank.

Software developer Dara Oladosu, who created the Twitter bot Quoted Replies, which aggregates comments on tweets, received a job offer after meeting company executives, CNN said.

Dorsey also met bitcoin business owners in Ghana. Dorsey has expressed plans to integrate bitcoin use on Twitter and the payment app Square, according to CNN.

Africa’s tech industry is presently experiencing rapid growth. GSMA, a mobile services industry group, said there were 618 “active tech hubs” on the continent this year, up 40% from 2018. According to GSMA, Nigeria and South Africa have the most, with 85 and 80, respectively.

The Kenyan tech entrepreneur John Karanja launched BitHub, an incubator for cryptocurrencies, in 2015. Ethiopia’s government reportedly hopes that a tech-centric economy could create 3m jobs.

Dorsey’s African tour comes as social tech giants continue to face criticism over the spread of hate speech and misinformation online. Dorsey announced in October that Twitter would ban political advertising, putting pressure on Facebook to enact a similar policy.

Nigerian sex slavery trial opens in France

Yahoo – AFP, Pierre PRATABUY and Clare BYRNE, November 6, 2019

One of the Nigerian defendants in a Lyon courtroom on Wednesday ahead of the
opening of a trial into alleged human trafficking and pimping of migrants in
France. (AFP Photo/ROMAIN LAFABREGUE)

Lyon (AFP) - Twenty-four alleged members of a trafficking ring accused of forcing Nigerian women into prostitution in France went on trial Wednesday, in the latest case to highlight the increasing use of migrants as sex slaves in Europe.

Only one of the 17 alleged victims was present for the first appearance of the accused in the court in the southeastern city of Lyon -- 10 women and 14 men, all but one Nigerian.

They risk 10 years' imprisonment on charges including human trafficking, pimping, money laundering and helping people live illegally in France.

Nigeria was the main country of origin for the tens of thousands of migrants who arrived in Italy by boat in 2016 and 2017.

Many were women and girls lured to Europe with false promises of jobs as hairdressers or seamstresses, only to find themselves selling sex to repay their smugglers.

Nigerians outnumber Chinese or Eastern European sex workers on the streets of France and some other European countries.

Last year, 15 members of a Paris-based, female-led pimping ring known as the "Authentic Sisters" -- many themselves former trafficking victims -- were jailed for up to 11 years for forcing girls into slavery in France.

Similar gangs have been dismantled in Italy and Britain.

The investigation in Lyon, where police estimate half the city's sex workers are Nigerian, began after authorities received a tip-off about a Nigerian pastor accused of exploiting sex workers who lived in apartments he owned.

Months of police wiretaps and surveillance of the pastor, Stanley Omoregie, and others led to the arrest of the suspects between September 2017 and January 2018.

Omoregie, 35, denied any wrongdoing, telling the court that he "wanted to help people" and that while he lodged the women in exchange for rent, he knew nothing of their activities.

"May God strike me down right now if any girl worked for me," he said. "I've always been against pimping."

But in wiretaps, when Omoregie is heard asking a woman identified as Bella where she is, she answers "at work."

"With Blessing?" he then asks, referring to another woman. "You're not in the same place?"

In another call read to the court, Omoregie asks if a woman is using the heater in her truck -- something she would have to pay extra for.

Omoregie told the court investigators had mistranslated the transcriptions of his calls.

- From prostitution to pimping -

The prosecution has presented the pastor as the kingpin of a family-based syndicate that includes one of Europe's most wanted women, Jessica Edosomwan, accused of recruiting destitute women in Nigeria for the sex trade in Lyon, Nimes and Montpellier in France.

Edosomwan, who is believed to be on the run in Europe, will be tried in her absence.

The UN estimates that 80 percent of young Nigerian women arriving in Italy -- usually their first port of call in Europe -- are already in the clutches of prostitution networks, or quickly fall under their control.

The accused in Lyon allegedly covered the entire gamut of sex trafficking activities, from iron-fisted "madams" and violent pimps to the drivers of vans in which the women performed sex acts, and those who laundered the proceeds.

Prosecutors estimate the victims, aged 17 to 38, made up to 150,000 euros ($166,000) a month for the syndicate by selling sex for as little as 10 euros.

Most of the women come from Benin City, capital of Nigeria's southern Edo State, a human trafficking hotbed.

Many told investigators they had taken part in "juju" or black magic rituals before leaving Nigeria, during which they had to promise to repay the money for their passage to Europe.

The trip often started with a perilous trek across the Sahara Desert to Libya, then across the Mediterranean to Italy, and finally to Lyon.

The victims' lawyers told the court Wednesday the women were absent because they feared coming under pressure from the accused or their representatives at court.

Unusually, one of the 17 victims in the case is also among the accused: a 28-year-old former prostitute who was released from sex slavery after paying off her debts only to then bring another young woman from Nigeria.

She was the only victim present.

Nigeria police rescue 259 'hostages' from another Islamic centre

Yahoo – AFP, November 5, 2019

Before Monday's case in Ibadan, Nigeria police rescued 300 young men from
an Islamic boarding school, seen here, in the north in September (AFP Photo/STR)

Lagos (AFP) - Police in southwest Nigeria have rescued 259 "hostages" from another Islamic correctional centre, police said Tuesday, in the latest raid on religious institutes accused of abuse.

Police have cracked down on several Islamic boarding schools and centres over the past month, often in mainly Muslim northern Nigeria, freeing hundreds of inmates who were tortured and kept in inhumane conditions.

"We discovered on Monday young men, women and children who were held hostage in an illegal detention centre at a mosque in the Ojoo area of Ibadan," police spokesman Fadeyi Olugbenga told AFP, after the rescue in the country's southwest.

"259 people were locked up there and crying for help," he said.

The owner of the centre and eight others were arrested by police, who were alerted by an 18-year-old who had escaped conditions that officials described as "dungeon-like".

Pictures carried by local media showed emaciated young men and boys, with their skin stretched against their ribs, sitting outside the centre in the city of Ibadan.

"Some had been there for years and had health challenges. They're currently receiving medical attention," Olugbenga said.

"The ones we interviewed told us they were fed once every three days, sometimes even less."

The spate of police raids since late September has shone a spotlight the widespread system of unregulated Islamic institutes across the country.

In each case, similar horrific revelations have come to light of adults and young children, some suffering from mental illnesses or drug abuse, detained in chains, starved of food, and physically or sexually abused.

Lacking facilities

The centres are common in Africa's most populous country due to a chronic lack of government services.

They are touted as a means to help parents cure their children of drug abuse and other behavioural problems in the absence of support from the state.

President Muhammadu Buhari, who hails from the majority Muslim north of the country, in October condemned the abuse.

"No responsible democratic government would tolerate the existence of the torture chambers and physical abuses of inmates in the name of rehabilitation," he said in a statement.

In June the president said he planned to ban private Islamic schools -- known locally as Almajiri schools -- widespread across the country, yet has given no further plans.

According to Hassan Idayat, director of the Centre for Democracy and Development, the government is partially responsible for the proliferation of these institutions.

"It is widespread because of the dearth of mental health institutions," she said. "The government needs to urgently invest in mental health."

Nigerian contemporary art booms and prices soar

Yahoo – AFP, Célia LEBUR, November 2, 2019

Nigerian artist Ben Enwonwu's work entitled 'Tutu' - the African Mona Lisa -- was
one of the works that captured the emergence of Nigeria's art market (AFP Photo/
BEN STANSALL)

Lagos (AFP) - First there was Tutu, the "African Mona Lisa" sold last year for 1.5 million dollars. Then a second portrait by revered Nigerian painter Ben Enwonwu, called Christine, sold in mid-October, for 1.4 million dollars.

Both record sales of famous works by the late "father of African modernism", captured the emergence of Nigeria's art market.

A decade ago, major African artists were largely absent from international auctions. But the continent is now a major attraction in contemporary and modern art.

Since his death in 1994, Enwonwu's star has only risen, epitomising the growing industry and value for art.

His two masterpieces, were sold by two of London's most prestigious auction houses, Bonhams and Sotheby's.

"Africa is one of the fastest growing markets in the art world today, and Nigeria is equal on the top with South Africa," Giles Peppiatt, director of African art at Bonhams, told AFP.

His auction house was one of the first in Europe to bet big on the continent with "Africa Now" beginning in 2007, auctioning African art as a stand alone sale.

In the vibrant commercial capital of Lagos, with 20 million people, its cultural season, awash with literary fashion and art festivals, culminates this weekend with the international fair "ART X".

Three years after it began, the fair has emerged as one of the premier art events on the continent, exhibiting the rich array of African modern and contemporary art.

Nigerian artist Queen Nwaneri paints during the Art X event in Lagos (AFP Photo/

EMMANUEL AREWA)

The famous Tutu, "lost" for almost 40 years and spectacularly found in 2018, almost by chance, in a London apartment, was the surprise attraction of the last edition, drawing several thousand attendees.

A show-reel of Nollywood's actresses, traditional leaders, wealthy collectors and artists trooped to the painting of the mysterious Yoruba princess.

At the end of the year, Nigeria's economic-hub becomes awash with glamor and arts.

Thousands of visitors rush from one exhibition to another, from ART X to the Lagos Biennale of contemporary art, Lagos fashion week and LagosPhoto, all of which take place between October and November.

But alongside the art, is an increasing market and appetite amongst investors and collectors.

New galleries like Art Twenty One have opened in recent years.

And the auction house Art House Contemporary Limited, whose turnover is more modest than that of its European peers, regularly exhibits the most notable artists in the region: Enwonwu, Yusuf Grillo, El Anatsui or Peju Alatise.

Collectors or investors?

This year, some twenty galleries and more than 90 artists will be represented at ART X, with representatives from Tate Modern (London) and Smithsonian (Washington) expected to attend.

Creative audio installations by renowned artist, Emeka Ogboh, based between Berlin and Lagos, will grace the background of the anticipated fouth edition of the fair.

If the appetite for contemporary African art continues to grow, apart from outliers that exceed one million dollars, the majority of works are still sold at "reasonable" prices in comparison with the rest of the world: "between $10,000 and $60,000," Peppiatt says.

This year, some twenty galleries and more than 90 artists will be represented at 

ART X, with representatives from Tate Modern and Smithsonian expected to

attend (AFP Photo/EMMANUEL AREWA)

"Events like Art X are changing the game, they enable cities like Lagos to shine and attract many enthusiastic collectors," he explains. "This is a very exciting moment."

The West African oil giant and largest economy on the continent has a growing middle class of rich bankers and industrialists, with a burgeoning appetite for purchasing contemporary art.

The biggest bids still take place in Europe, where the market is better structured, and better protected against fake works.

Yet collectors increasingly fly to buy works in London or New York and then bring them back to Africa, says Jess Castellote, director of the Yemisi Shyllon Museum of Art, a private museum that will open next year in the suburbs of Lagos.

"There are collectors, art lovers who want to reconnect with their culture, their legacy," he says, explaining that as well as art enthusiasts, serious investors have taken interest in art.

In Nigeria, as in South Africa, multi-million dollar investment funds have sprung up to acquire works and resell them as dearly as possible, again betting on a rising demand for art.

"Rich Nigerians who used to spend 250,000 pounds ($320,000) on a watch or a luxury car now prefer to invest in a painting or a sculpture," Castellote says.

Boko Haram mastermind of deadly Nigeria blasts arrested: police

Yahoo – AFP, December 21, 2018

Two blasts simultaneously ripped through the suburbs of Kuje and Nyanya outlying
Abuja, the Nigerian capital, on October 2, 2015, leaving 18 people dead and 41
 injured (AFP Photo/PHILIP OJISUA)

Kano (Nigeria) (AFP) - A top Boko Haram leader accused of organising deadly twin blasts in the Nigerian capital Abuja that killed 18 people has been arrested, police said Friday.

A police statement said Umar Abdulmalik and seven other jihadists were arrested, without giving details.

Forty-one people were also injured in the October 2, 2015 blasts which simultaneously ripped through the suburbs of Kuje and Nyanya outlying the federal capital.

The explosions happened near a police station in Kuje and at a bus stop in Nyanya.

Kuje, near Abuja’s airport, is 40 kilometres (25 miles) west of the city centre and seat of government. Its prison at the time held dozens of Boko Haram prisoners captured by troops.

The same bus station in Nyanya, to the east, was hit twice in 2014. The first attack, on 14 April 2014, left at least 75 dead and was claimed by the Islamists; the second, on 1 May, left at least 16 dead.

In the latest attack, the jihadists ambushed a military convoy in the northeastern state of Borno killing at least two soldiers, military sources told AFP Friday.

Thursday's attack saw them attacking with guns and rocket-propelled grenades on a convoy of troops near Bongori village in Damboa district, two military officers said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The troops from the state capital Maiduguri, the cradle of the Boko Haram movement, were heading to the town of Damboa, about 90 kilometres away.

Three soldiers were injured and an armoured vehicle was damaged, a military officer said. The second officer confirmed the information.

Boko Haram has intensified attacks on military targets in Borno and neighbouring Yobe state, killing dozens.

Last week, two Nigerian soldiers were killed in a roadside mine explosion outside the town of Gamboru near the border with Cameroon blamed on the jihadists troops.

More than 27,000 people have died since the start of the insurgency in the remote northeast in 2009 and 1.8 million have been made homeless.

African nations vow to recover stolen assets

Yahoo – AFP, Ola AWONIYI, Joel Olatunde AGOI, May 20, 2018

African nations have vowed to recover billions of dollars held in off-shore
accounts (AFP Photo/Daniel ROLAND)

Abuja (AFP) - Former British prime minister David Cameron two years ago was caught talking about an anti-corruption summit and calling Nigeria "fantastically corrupt".

But meanwhile his country ranks among the top destinations for stolen assets from African countries.

Nigeria and ex-British colonies in Africa hope to change that by working together to repatriate billions of dollars in offshore accounts from London and beyond.

At a regional conference held this week in the Nigerian capital of Abuja, the heads of anti-corruption agencies from around Africa met to discuss strategies to overcome bottlenecks in the recovery of stolen assets.

"Concerned about the heavy losses that Africa suffers as a result of illegal transfers of proceeds of corruption and crime out of Africa," the anti-corruption representatives vowed on Friday to "strengthen cooperation and partnership in the tracing, recovery and return of assets".

They further pledged in a joint statement to encourage African countries to commit to greater corporate transparency and called for investment in anti-corruption agencies to "trace, recover and return assets."

'Fight this tsunami'

Commonwealth Secretary General Patricia Scotland said Africa is losing tens of billions of dollars annually to corruption, urging the anti-graft tsars to lead the "fight against this tsunami".

"We all know that the difference between the money we need to deliver the hopes and aspirations (of our people).... and the money we have, is the sum equivalent to that which is egregiously siphoned off by corrupt practices," Scotland said.

Nigeria, the continent's largest oil producer, is ranked among the most corrupt countries in the world by anti-graft group Transparency International.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has promised to continue his war against corruption as part of his 2019 re-election campaign.

Buhari's anti-graft chief Ibrahim Magu claimed earlier this year that his agency has recovered over 500 billion naira ($1.3 billion) in illicit funds.

But the government's fight against corruption has been accused of being politically motivated.

'Mafia of leaders'

Commonwealth adviser Roger Koranteng told AFP that leaders at the summit want a regional approach to recovery of stolen assets.

"There is strength in unity. If you go as a single country, you will have a problem because the countries outside the African countries are together," he said.

Sustaining the momentum however may be difficult. Ghana's independent prosecutor Martin Amidu said the will to tackle graft comes in ebbs and flows on the continent.

"For me, for the past decades, Africa has had a mafia of leaders who speak of corruption as if they are against it but internally didn't attempt to fight it," Amidu said.

Still, countries stand to gain huge amounts of money should they streamline asset recovery.

Nigeria announced in April it recieved over 300 million dollars from Switzerland as part of money seized from the family of ex-dictator Sani Abacha, who ruled the country from 1993 until 1998.

Buhari said the money will be spent on a welfare scheme targeting the "poorest of Nigerians", in a country where poverty is widespread and unemployment is rampant.

Yet it is difficult to trace how the repatriated money is being spent, with some critics voicing concerns that stolen money gets repatriated to Nigeria only to be looted again.

"There is a need for robust oversight mechanisms as well as continuous monitoring of the use of recovered assets to ensure that they are used properly and efficiently for development outcomes and poverty alleviation," said Marie Chene of Transparency International in a 2017 report.

'Global effort'

Greater global attention on the issue is helping reforms, say anti-corruption activists.

"It took the publication of the Panama Papers to expose many government officials with offshore accounts," said Debo Adeniran of the Coalition Against Corrupt Leaders lobby group.

"The decision to sign mutual legal assistance with several countries is helping the (Nigerian) government in its loot recovery efforts," Adeniran said.

In January, Nigeria signed a deal with the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on asset recovery.

Buhari's anti-corruption sweep and banking reforms are acting as a deterrent, Adeniran added.

"When you steal and cannot keep the money in the banks, you will stop stealing," he said.

Nigerians meet their Olympic bobsled team

Yahoo – AFP, Phil HAZLEWOOD, with Jim Slater in Washington, Feb 3, 2018

Nigeria's Seun Adigun (L), Ngozi Onwumere (2L) and Akuoma Omeoga (C) will
become the first African bobsleigh team in Winter Olympic history while Simi
Adeagbo (R) will be the first African to compete in the skeleton (AFP Photo/Stefan HEUNIS)

Lagos (AFP) - Nigerians met their Winter Olympic bobsled team for the first time just one week before the start of the Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

Thirty years after a Jamaican squad became a global sensation, the trio of Nigerian women Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere and Akuoma Omeoga will become the first African bobsleigh team in Winter Olympic history.

Born to Nigerian parents they all live in the United States but travelled to Lagos for a rousing Nigerian send-off on Friday night at a corporate reception held in their honour at a luxury hotel.

Their qualification late last year for the February 9-25 Games has since attracted massive interest around the world and won the previously crowd-funded athletes a string of big-name sponsors.

Many people in Africa's most populous nation said they were unaware the country even had a bobsled team. Some were keen to play up their supposed ignorance for comic effect.

"So, you are the driver?" the comedian compering the event said, pointing at Adigun.

"And you are the brake... appliers," he ventured eagerly to Onwumere and Omeoga, as if searching for the correct terminology. "And what is that thing you are pushing? A wheelbarrow?"

"First question," he asked the women's team-mate Simi Adeagbo, who will also make history by becoming the first African to compete in the skeleton. "What is that?"

Despite being new to hurtling down an icy track at 150 kilometres (93 miles) per hour, Nigerians -- noted more for their passion for football -- are happy to cheer the team on.

On the hotel's rooftop bar, with temperatures still in the mid-30s Celsius (95 Fahrenheit) by late evening, guests drank champagne and ate "small chop" (finger food). Dance music distorted through a skyscraper of loud-speakers. Most people arrived late. Everyone blamed bad traffic.

But Nigeria's pioneering winter sports team were made to feel at home with fairy lights and Christmas snowflake decorations twinkling overhead, above white plastic sheeting stuck to the floor with gaffer tape.

Nigerian bobsled team member Seun Adigun was a 100m hurdler for Nigeria 

at the 2012 London Summer Olympics (AFP Photo/Stefan HEUNIS)

Dry ice and cotton wool

To complete the frozen idyll, a bored-looking teenager wearing a single red rubber glove operated a dry ice machine that sent damp-smelling fog curling over snow drifts of cotton wool.

Nearby, air conditioning units were set to the equivalent of 16 degrees -- a good 10 degrees below the temperature that normally makes some in tropical Nigeria don a hat and coat.

The team took the gentle ribbing with good humour, batting back comparisons to Jamaica's participation in the 1988 Games in Calgary, Canada, that led to the 1993 Hollywood film "Cool Runnings".

Adigun is the driving force behind the team's Olympic dream, from working with the US team to learn the sport to hammering and nailing together a makeshift wooden sled in Houston and gathering fellow sprinters to make a run at history.

She was a 100m hurdler for Nigeria at the 2012 London Summer Olympics. Omeoga was a sprinter for the University of Minnesota and Onwumere was a double sprint medalist at the 2015 African Games.

"I basically got into the sport of bobsledding in 2015 after a little bit of a hiatus from athletics," the US magazine People recently.

"I also learned that Nigeria had never had any Winter Olympians... and then to cap it off I learned the continent of Africa had never been represented, man or woman, by any bobsleigh team.

Their qualification last year for the Olympic Games has won previously 

crowd-funded athletes (L-R): Seun Adigun, Ngozi Onwumere, and Akuoma 

Omeoga a string of big-name sponsors (AFP Photo/Stefan HEUNIS)

"So I was like, 'OK, this is obviously something that's going to hang over my head if I don't step in and try and do something about it."

At the reception, questions about the basics of the sport -- from timings to the number of people participating -- were met with polite responses.

But in a country where self-sufficiency is a matter of life and death for most people, the women's hard work and commitment to achieving their goals got the loudest cheer.

Adigun explained that once she had told herself out loud that she was going to try to make the Winter Olympics there was no going back.

"Once you speak (something) into existence, that's an affirmation that you're going to commit," she added.

"Can you speak gold into existence?" asked the compere.

Adigun smiled. Then the dancing started.

Widows in Dutch court, Shell may face legal action over activists’ deaths

DutchNews, June 29, 2017 

Photo: Depositphotos.com

The widows of four activists executed by Nigeria in the 1990s are in court in The Hague on Thursday, hoping to force the prosecution of oil giant Shell for complicity in their deaths. 

In particular, they say Shell helped the Nigerian authorities suppress demonstrations against drilling for oil in the Ogoniland area of Nigeria at the beginning of the 1990s. 

Nine men who had campaigned against Shell’s involvement in the region and the military regime were hung in 1995. Their number included the writer Ken Saro-Wiwa. 

The civil case has been brought by Esther Kiobel, the widow of Barinem Kiobel, and three other women. She accuses Shell of complicity in the unlawful arrest and detention of her husband; the violation of his personal integrity; the violation of his right to a fair trial and his right to life, and her own right to a family life. 

‘Shell encouraged the government to stop Ken Saro-Wiwa and MOSOP, knowing this was highly likely to result in human rights violations being committed against them. Shell had plenty of evidence that the Nigerian military was responding to the Ogoniland protests with abuse,’ said Audrey Gaughran, senior researcher at Amnesty International, which is supporting the women. 

Shell has always denied any involvement in the case.

‘The executions of Ken Saro-Wiwa and his fellow Ogonis in 1995 were tragic events that were carried out by the military government in power at the time. We were shocked and saddened when we heard the news of the executions. SPDC appealed to the Nigerian government to grant clemency,’ the company said in an emailed statement. 

‘SPDC did not collude with the authorities to suppress community unrest and in no way encouraged or advocated any act of violence in Nigeria.  In fact, the company believes that dialogue is the best way to resolve disputes.’ 

Esther Kiobel first filed a case against Shell in New York in 2002, but in 2013 the US Supreme Court ruled that the US did not have jurisdiction. She now hopes that the case can be heard in the Dutch legal system.

Related Articles:

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Dutch courts to judge Shell in landmark oil spill case

Africa rejects Europe's 'dirty diesel'

Ghana and Nigeria are the first countries to respond to reports of European companies exploiting weak fuel standards in Africa. Stricter limits on the sulfur content of diesel will come into force on July 1.

Deutsche Welle, 29 April 2017

Governments in West Africa are taking action to stop the import of fuel with dangerously high levels of sulfur and other toxins. Much of the so-called "dirty diesel" originates in Europe, according to a report published by Public Eye, a Swiss NGO, last year.

The report exposed what Public Eye calls the "illegitimate business" of European oil companies and commodities traders selling low quality fuel to Africa. While European standards prohibit the use of diesel with a sulfur content higher than 10 parts per million (ppm), diesel with as much as 3,000 ppm is regularly exported to Africa.

From July 1, diesel being sold at the pumps in Ghana and Nigeria will have to meet a maximum 50 ppm standard.

"We're very happy to see this change in policy," Public Eye's Oliver Classen told DW. "We are still hoping that other West African countries will follow suit, such as the Ivory Coast, Benin, Togo or Mali."

Health risks of dirty diesel

During an investigation spanning three years, Public Eye tested the fuel for sale at gas stations in eight African countries, five of which were in West Africa. They found that more than two thirds of the samples taken had a sulfur level 150 times the European limit.

Africa's cities are growing quickly. Lagos, Nigeria's largest city, has a population of 21 million, and estimates suggest this number could almost double by the year 2050. Bigger cities mean a much greater risk from air pollution. While rapid urbanization and the poor quality of the largely second-hand car fleet in the region are partly responsible for the high levels of air pollution, low quality diesel also has a significant impact.

Nigeria's largest city, Lagos, already has a population of 21 million

Fuel pollutants have been linked to the development of asthma, lung cancer and cardiovascular diseases. The Public Eye report claimed that switching to low sulfur fuel in Africa, as well as introducing cars with modern emissions control technologies, could prevent 25,000 premature deaths in 2030 and 100,000 in 2050.

"Double standards"

Classen explains that Public Eye has been driving a "two-fold campaign" in order to force change in the fuel industry.

"Our partner organizations in West Africa made sure that this strong message from the people who are suffering from these sulfurous emissions on the ground is heard by their governments," he says. "In Switzerland we put pressure on the companies that take advantage of these double standards - shamelessly, ruthlessly, systematically."

The report focuses on Swiss trading companies that use a process known as "blending" to combine low and high specification fuel, creating a mixture that complies with weak African regulations. As the report explains, "the closer to the specification boundary the product lies, the larger the potential margin for the trader."

The harmful effects of diesel have been well publicized in Europe in recent years

This sub-standard product, known in the industry as "African Quality," could not be sold in Europe, but it is not illegal for it to be sold elsewhere. The blending process - which takes place either in European ports or en route to Africa, via a "ship-to-ship" transfer - complicates the matter, because fuel from various suppliers can be mixed into one product.

According to Public Eye, Swiss companies also own, or are major stakeholders in companies that own, a great deal of the "downstream" infrastructure used for blending, transporting and distributing fuel - such as ships, storage tanks, petrol stations and pipelines.

Despite having significant oil reserves, West Africa lacks sufficient refinery resource to process its own higher quality oil and has therefore welcomed cheaper imports from abroad.

Whose responsibility?

Following the report, governments in five West African countries were quick to pledge an overhaul of fuel regulations. Ghana and Nigeria are the first to follow through on this promise. But what about the commodities traders in Europe?

"They actually didn't respond at all," Classen says. "We brought up a petition here in Switzerland, and 20,000 people signed that petition asking those commodities giants to stop selling dirty diesel to Africa. But nothing happened. Zero."

The two main commodities companies implicated in the report were Trafigura and Vitol. Both told DW that, while they accepted that the problem of high sulfur fuel needed to be dealt with, the onus was on the governments in Africa to ensure the quality of diesel being sold at the pumps.

Vitol added that, under current regulations, European companies cannot be certain that what they supply to importers from a certain country will then be sold in that country. "If Vitol, or any other supplier, were to supply EU-specification (at a financial loss) to an importer, there is nothing to stop the importer from reselling the cargo, at a profit, and sourcing a cargo with a cheaper specification for local use."

Pressure on the middle men

Around 50 percent of the European oil that ends up in West Africa flows through the ports of Antwerp, Rotterdam and Amsterdam, known as the ARA region. Public Eye called on these "export hubs" to ban the export of fuel that does not meet European standards.

"There's a huge public debate going on in the Netherlands and Belgium," Classen explains. "There have been parliamentary motions and a whole lot of media coverage on the issue, and there's pressure on their governments there. We are hoping to see some change of mind which would put Swiss commodity traders under sever pressure to change their business practices."

In response to concerns about tougher regulations pushing up fuel prices, Public Eye points out that five East African countries adopted low sulfur fuels in January 2015 "with no impact on prices at the pump."

Ghana has significant oil reserves but only one refinery, the state-owned
Tema facility

Mahamudu Bawumia, the Vice President of Ghana, said that the introduction of the new regulations would see Ghana "moving to be at the same level as the western countries or the East African countries."

He added that the changes "will reduce respiratory diseases triggered by fuel toxins with higher sulfur content."

Nigeria has also announced plans for all domestically produced fuel to meet the 50 ppm standards by 2020. At a meeting of African fuel producers in February, Ndu Ughamadu, the spokesperson for the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, said that the installation of equipment to cut sulfur emissions was already underway or planned at three of Nigeria's four refineries.

Related Articles:

Netherlands must prosecute dirty diesel exporters: report

Ploumen: reported export of toxic diesel ‘scandalous’

Dutch ports at centre of dirty diesel trade, Swiss report claims

A lorry near Accra. Photo: Carl De Keyzer – Magnum