Africa

A selection of the best photos from across Africa this week.

As farmers are offered new leases, BBC Rewind looks at the background to the issue.

While many positive steps have been taken in the Central African Republic (CAR), progress has been too slow and is continually under threat from “those who seek private gains through violence,” the United Nations envoy on the ground told the Security Council on Thursday, underscoring that restoring government authority is “key”, both now and in the long-term.

The United Nations has announced its readiness to support Eritrea and Ethiopia following recent peace overtures between the two neighbouring States in the Horn of Africa.

Riek Machar has been a central figure in Sudanese and South Sudanese politics for around three decades.

Shirley Kordie's brother Joseph is a "perfect" stem cell match and is ready to donate.

Find out about the rebel commander who became the first president of Africa's newest country and has presided over its descent into civil war.

The multi-platinum selling artist announces his own cryptocurrency and city - both named after himself.

Only one of the 32 teams at the world's biggest football tournament has a black manager, reflecting a historical lack of opportunities for minority professionals in all levels of the game.

The postponed east and central African women's regional championship will now kick off on July 19 in Rwanda

June 20, 2018 (ADDIS ABABA) – The diplomatic corps of South Sudan's armed opposition faction (SPLM-IO) have lauded the Ethiopian government and the regional bloc (IGAD) for organizing face-to-face talks between Riek Machar and President Salva Kiir in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

South Sudan's rebel leader Riek Machar addresses a news conference in Uganda's capital Kampala January 26, 2016 (Reuters photo)

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiye Ahmed attended Wednesday's meeting, which saw the two rival leaders meet for the first time after nearly two years.

The meeting between Kiir and Machar was to discuss all outstanding issues in the power-sharing chapter within the peace agreement.

“By allowing the principals of the warring parties to sit and sift through their differences to address the root-causes and stop the war, IGAD has correctly diagnosed the problem and has set the negotiations on the right course,” the SPLM-IO said in a statement.

It further added, “We would, therefore, like to express our gratitude to Prime Minister Abiye for his wise leadership and timely decision.”

The armed opposition extended its appreciation to the regional countries and the Troika nations for their positive roles in efforts aimed at finding a lasting solution to the civil war in South Sudan.

The South Sudanese civil war is an ongoing conflict in South Sudan between forces of the government and opposition forces. In mid-December 2013, President Kiir accused his former deputy Machar and 10 others of attempting a coup d'état.

The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced over two million.

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June 20, 2018 (JUBA) – Indian peacekeepers serving with the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) have been praised for helping restore peace and security in a remote town, ravaged by fighting that forced civilians to flee and devastated the economy.

UNMISS troops from India patrol the perimeters of a compound in South Sudan's capital, Juba (AP)

Indian peacekeepers, UNMISS said in a statement, operate a temporary base set up in February this year in the Jonglei region town of Akobo in the north-east of the war-torn East African nation.

Previously, however, UN peacekeepers were stationed in Akobo, but their base was closed down after being targeted by an unprovoked attack in December 2013, in which two Indian peacekeepers and 30 civilians who had sought refuge within the UN premises were killed.

David Shearer, the UNMISS chief, said there was need for UN's presence in the area to as to reach communities in need in all parts of the country, regardless of their ethnic or political background.

Consequently, UNMISS said, the temporary base operated by the Indian battalion was established in February 2018 to help protect civilians and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance to vulnerable people, making it the first UN peacekeeping presence in a rebel-held territory of the war-torn country.

"The results are visible. When we arrived here in February there was nothing in and around this TOB (Temporary Operating Base)," said Lt. Colonel Singh Negi, the Indian battalion commanding officer.

"Now you can see the construction boom; many settlements have come up. This is a clear indication that the people are feeling safer since UNMISS came,” he added.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions displaced by the conflict in South Sudan.

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June 20, 2018 (ADDIS ABABA) - Eritrean President, Isaias Afwerki, Wednesday said he would send a delegation to discuss with the Ethiopian government ways to implement Algeria peace agreement over their disputed border.

President Isaias Afwerki (Photo Shabait)

The move comes two weeks after the announcement made by the Ethiopian government providing its full acceptance of the outcome of 2002 border commission ruling which awarded disputed area, including the town of Badme, to Eritrea.

This decision has been welcomed by the regional and international community as it paves the way to end a dispute that sparked in 1998, and negatively impacted the region.

Speaking on the occasion of Martyrs' Day, President Afwerki pointed to the “positive signals issued in these past days” saying it reflects the popular choice in the two brotherly countries that share common history and interests.

“For this reason, and outside myopic considerations of public relations stunts and advantages, we will send a delegation to Addis Ababa to gauge current developments directly and in depth as well as to chart out a plan for continuous future action,” he said.

Asmara's reaction has been awaited in Addis Ababa since the 5th of June as many analysts cast doubt on the willingness of President Afwerki to negotiate an end of the border conflict which led to the isolation of his country.

The Eritrean leader warned against what de called the “TPLF clique, and other vultures” saying they would seek to obstruct any positive change in the relations between the two countries.

“This is best illustrated by their ambivalent public pronouncements of “yes…but” in these past days. This is designed to prevent a durable solution to the senseless border conflict that they unleashed in the first place without any justification. But their principal preoccupation and ill-will is to avert and frustrate any positive change in Ethiopia”.

President Afwerki was referring to statements by some leading members of the ruling party, EPRDF, who are ethnic Tigrayans living in the border disputed area and opposition to Abiy decision to hand Badme over to Eritrea.

Ethiopia and Eritrea fought a war from 1998 to 2000 over their border dispute, which left about 80,000 people dead.

Abiy welcomes Afwerki's response

Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed welcomed the "constructive response" of President Isaias Afwerki of Eretria saying it "is essential for the mutual benefit of both countries".

The Premier pointed to the face to face meeting between President Salva Kiir and SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar and expressed his optimism that the coming years will offer the spirit of unity and respect among the East African countries.

Addis Ababa in the past several times asked for negotiation before to implement the ruling of the arbitration commission but Asmara demanded to withdraw Ethiopian troops first from Badme before talks.

The decision of President Afwerki could allow the new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to consolidate his power and implement economic and social reforms in the country.

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As Zimbabwe heads towards election season, have Robert Mugabe's supporters really turned into democrats?

June 20, 2018 (ADDIS ABABA) - Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu Wednesday met with the SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar ahead of a meeting with his rival President Salva Kiir in Addis Ababa.

Machar arrived in the early morning to Addis Ababa where he was received by Mrs Hirut Zemene, Ethiopia's State Minister of Foreign Affairs.

In a statement released this afternoon, the foreign ministry said Minister Gebeyehu held talks with Machar on the IGAD's efforts to revitalize the peace process in South Sudan.

"Workneh added, albeit the slow progress of the High-Level Revitalization Process, “We are, to a great extent, encouraged by the progress we have witnessed over the past one year,” said the statement.

Kiir and Machar are expected to discuss the outstanding issues in the implementation of the power-sharing in the 2015 peace agreement especially the cabinet composition, the parliament and the state governments.

The regional body is keen to narrow the gaps between the two mains parties to the revitalization process saying the outcome of the face-to-face meeting should be the driving force towards the end of the war and the peace implementation process.

According to the statement, Machar expressed his own and his party's keenness to bring about peace in the country.

"I am ready to bestow what is expected from me," said Machar.

The outcome of the face-to-face meeting will be discussed Thursday by the IGAD Council of Ministers that Gebeyehu chairs, following what the IGAD heads of states and governments will meet to endorse what the conclusions submitted by the Council of Ministers.

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June 20, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - Sudan's Ministry of Oil and Gas on Wednesday said a delegation from South Sudan would arrive in Khartoum at the end of this month to discuss ways to scale up oil production.

A worker at the power plant of an oil processing facility in South Sudan's Unity state on 22 April 2012 (Photo: Reuters)

Sudan's State Minister of Oil and Gas Saad al-Din Al-Bushra told the semi-official Sudan Media Center (SMC) that the visit comes in implementation of bilateral agreements to increase production of South Sudan's oil fields.

Earlier this month, a Sudanese delegation visited Juba to discuss economic issues between the two countries. During the visit, Sudan and South Sudan ministers of petroleum discussed oil cooperation and resumption of production in South Sudan's oil fields.

Sudan lost 75% of its oil reserves after the southern part of the country became an independent nation in July 2011, denying the north billions of dollars in revenues. Oil revenue constituted more than half of Sudan's revenue and 90% of its exports.

Sudan currently produces 72,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd). The country's production is stationed mainly in the Heglig area and its surroundings, as well as western Kordofan.

Chinese companies control 75 per cent of foreign investment in Sudan's oil sector.

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June 20, 2018 (KHARTOUM) - The hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) on Wednesday said hundreds of displaced persons fleeing the fighting in Jebel Marra have gathered around the Mission's newly established base in Golo area.

Since last March, government forces and Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM-AW) led by Abdel-Wahid al-Nur fighters resumed clashes in different parts of Jebel Marra.

“In the evening of 15 June 2018, displaced persons started gathering outside UNAMID's newly established Temporary Operating Base (TOB) in the Golo locality, of the Jebel Marra area, Central Darfur,” said the Mission in a statement on Wednesday.

“By the next day, 16 June, 305 IDPs, including 200 children and 85 women, were outside the TOB and had started erecting temporary shelters” added the Mission

According to the statement, UNAMID staff “provided protection and water to the displaced as well as first aid to an IDP woman who gave birth near the base”.

It pointed out that the displaced people “informed UNAMID that they were fleeing from villages in Jebel Marra where fighting has been reported, including Gubbo, Gur Lumbung, Kawara, Saboon El Fag, Abuloto, Ujongole, Kara, Jari, Buju Buju and Wira”.

UNAMID added it is coordinating with UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) and local authorities to address the humanitarian needs of the displaced.

On Tuesday, Troika countries including United States, United Kingdom and Norway denounced the ongoing fighting between the Sudanese army and the SLM-AW in Jebel Marra saying this “unnecessary violence” affects only the civilians.

In a report covering the security situation in Darfur for the period from 16 February to 15 April 2018, the hybrid peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) reported low-scale skirmishes in Jebel Marra area between the government forces and the SLM-AW fighters.

On 12 April 2017, the Sudanese army declared Darfur a region free of rebellion following the capture of Srounq area, the last SLM-AW stronghold in Jebel Marra. However, the army continued for several months to carry out attacks on rebel's pockets in the mountainous area.

Jebel Marra, which spans over three states including North, Central and South Darfur, is located in a water-rich area that is characterised by a mild climate.

Last year, the UN Security Council decided to reduce the UNAMID, admitting that the security situation has improved but it decided to reinforce its presence in Jebel Marra because there is no cessation of hostilities as the SLM-AW refuses to declare it unilaterally or to engage in peace negotiations.

The Sudanese army has been fighting armed groups in Darfur since 2003. UN agencies estimate that over 300,000 people were killed in the conflict, and over 2.5 million were displaced.

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June 20, 23018 (ADDIS ABABA) - South Sudan President Salva Kiir and SPLM-IO leader Riek Machar Wednesday have finally met on Wednesday in a meeting attended by the Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

The meeting was announced in a twit released by the Director of Ethiopian Prime Minister's Office Fitsum Arega without details about the outcome of the encounter.

"HE PM Abiy Ahmed hosted a private dinner to President Salva Kiir and Dr Rieck Machar together. The two met for the first time in two years," said Arega.

"Faced with the continued suffering in South Sudan, Ethiopia simply can't stand by. With more work, a peaceful future is possible in S. Sudan," he further said.

Different sources reached in Addis Ababa said the face-to-face meeting only gathered the two rival leaders and the Ethiopian premier.

The first meeting between Kiir and Machar since July 2016, was supposed to discuss only the outstanding issues in the power-sharing chapter of the peace agreement.

South Sudanese officials under the cover of anonymity told Sudan Tribune that the meeting was not successful and the two leaders didn't agree on anything.

"If the meeting was positive, at least, Abiy would be happy to issue a statement about its outcome, but this was not the case," an official said.

Machar, in a meeting with the civil society and opposition groups, pledged to defend their points of view in the meeting.

The IGAD Council of Ministers will discuss the outcome of the intensive consultations and then will submit its conclusions for considerations to the summit of IGAD head of states and government in the evening.

President Kiir is scheduled to return to Juba on Friday but it is not clear if another meeting will take place between him and Machar.

Upon his arrival to Addis Ababa, Kiir held a separate meeting with Abiy. President Kiir was accompanied by Minister of Cabinet affairs Martin Elia Lomuro, Ambassador Ezekiel Lul the Minister of Petroleum, Michael Makuei Lueth the Minister of Information and Awud Deng Achuil the Minister of Gender, and Social Welfare.

The meeting with Kiir, which began at 08:00 pm (local time), discussed the outcome of the Intensive Interlink Consultations and ways to move forward, according to a statement released by the information ministry.

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Daniel Mirera has been writing upside down since he was a child.

By Santino Ayual Bol

IGAD which has been facilitating and mediating the slow-heel Agreement to Resolve the Conflict in the Republic of South Sudan shortly abbreviated as ARCISS has unilaterally cogitated and scheduled a face to face meeting between the President of the Republic of South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit and rebel chief Dr.Riek Machar on Wednesday, the 20th June 2018 in Addis Ababa. The ARCISS due to difficulties being encountered in the process seems now to be metamorphosing into slightly something else both in name, contents, and approaches which will be elucidated a little bit more the next paragraphs. However, in this first opening paragraph, it is imperative upon the writer to category state the position of the war affected -downtrodden common citizens of the Republic of South Sudan as follows:

We the common citizens of the Republic of South Sudan welcome anybody and any chance that will bring meaningful, total, and lasting peace tranquillity, and normalcy in the Republic of South Sudan forever. The current political quagmires in the country caught all South Sudanese people of good will by surprise. Nobody in his or her right mind who participated in the agitation for fundamental changes in the then one Sudan whether through nonviolent political resistance in government-controlled towns, or the clandestine support with logistics, intelligence, foodstuffs to the movement, or the diplomatic campaigns waged bravely and intellectually by our compatriots of the diaspora, or the direct active participation and self-sacrifice in the armed liberation struggle in the fields of combats or frontlines had foreseen the current debacles. All of us were fighting in one way or another for true comprehensive freedom, total peace of mind and body from Arab-Islamic daily menace, belittling, arbitrary arrest and killings, enslavement, exploitation, discrimination, the list is long, against African people of South Sudan. In short, we were aspiring for a happy, free, corruption free, nontribal, progressive, and democratic country of our own under the sun. A country where our leaders would treat us the common citizens as the custodians Number One of power and not pawns and gunpowder. No one ever dreamed the current state of affairs was what was awaiting the current long-suffering folks of South Sudan. Make no mistake about it, I'm not regretting our legitimate and correct decision taken during the referendum in 2011 to be free and manage our own affairs in our own homeland called the Republic of South Sudan. No, I'm not regretting. What I absolutely abhor and this is what underlies the above statement is the mindless spilling of blood and taking away of lives of innocent fellow countrymen and women whether in government-controlled areas or rebel territories and mindless vandalism of scanty properties of fellow folks in the cities and countryside. “I hate to hate a man” as correctly remarked by one of our freedom fighters during the SPLA/SPLM 21 year liberation struggle period. To hate a man is bad and above all worst still if he/she is a fellow countryman/woman.

This wanton killing and war madness that has perverted the country must stop. Our leaders from all the political divides (government, rebels, and non-violent opposition parties) should take it upon themselves as a matter of urgency and top priority and bring total long lasting peace in the country. Let the suffering of innocent little kids, orphans, women, widows, disabled and elderly stop through the good intention and decisions that our leaders should take soon while negotiating peace in Addis Ababa. Our esteemed people have become the laughing stocks for humanitarians and foreigners in POCs across the country and refugee camps in neighbouring. This fact alone if our leaders listen and care about the people and the country called South Sudan in the core of their hearts should voluntarily convince them to bring sincere lasting peace and not foreign coercion and threat of sanctions. We desire to celebrate the forthcoming Christmas in total peace and love for one another from Renk to Nimule, Kapoeta to Raja, Aweil to Yambio, Wau to Malakal, Akobo to Rumbek, Abiei to Bor, Ruweng to Torit, Fashoda to Juba, Nasir to Warap, Pibor to Yirol, etc. We want sincere patriotic love to replace tribal hatred and diabolic negative labelling of ourselves.

I would like to conclude this piece of opinion that the longer the war and anarchy last in South Sudan the deeper the suffering entrenches itself in the midst of our people. The longer the war lasts, the more likely that many generations of innocent children will be lost to illiteracy, malnutrition, six killer diseases, poverty, and other preventable maladies. The longer the current war lasts, the more likelihood of South Sudan's backward lagging in development gap widens and exacerbates itself. Nowadays the suffering of South Sudanese people has become the carcass of humanitarian vultures who have swarmed the country and the region from far and wide. UNMISS seems to be another emerging form of MONUC (La Mission des Nations Unis Au Congo) which arrived in DR Congo in the 1960s and has since then not left the same country and UNMISS like MONUC may not leave under the pretext that there is constant war and anarchy in the country with flimsy no cogent argument that the government is failing to protect its citizens as well as not being able to deliver basic services as is required of any government.

Foreign bullying of South Sudan by some neighbouring countries through encroachment into our borders and support of armed elements as well as arms and economic embargoes and sanctions by some bullying superpowers will continue to be invoked under the pretexts of the civil war in the country.

Hence, it is incumbent upon our leaders who will converge in Addis Ababa for the next few days to make needed compromises and bring peace on their own without being coerced to do so for the patriotic sake of saving the country and its people from the war itself and from unnecessary foreign interference, insults, and bullying.

The same patriotic spirit and zeal that drove during Anyanya One and for 21 years during the SPLA/SPLM struggle both President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Dr.Riek and their comrades to bravely fight for the liberation of South Sudan from Khartoum belittling and insults and which again guarded them wisely during the interim period from 2005 – 2011 and referendum campaign should make them come to their true senses again to save the country from the current unfathomable abyss it has descended into. It is not too late to help the country out of this shame. No South Sudanese in his/her right mind is at the present moment happy about what is happening in the country whether in government-controlled towns, in rebels territories in the countryside, in neighbouring countries, or overseas. Let this mindless war stop through the compromises we faithfully urge our national figures to undertake in the course of this coming week in Addis Ababa.