Betta Edu and predecessor are being investigated for suspicious financial dealings in the humanitarian affairs ministry.
Nigeria’s president on Monday suspended the country’s minister of humanitarian affairs and poverty alleviation over the use of a private bank account for ministry financial transactions in the government’s social welfare program.
Betta Edu was suspended with immediate effect while Nigeria’s anticorruption agency carries out a “thorough investigation” of all ministry financial transactions,” presidential spokesman Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement. It said the investigation would extend to the entire framework of Nigeria’s social investment programs.
President Bola Tinubu came to power last year promising to crack down on graft in Nigeria despite longstanding question marks around his source of wealth and educational records. Within a month of his inauguration, he suspended the head of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) indefinitely for abuse of office.
His government said the suspension follows his commitment “to uphold the highest standards of integrity, transparency and accountability” in how Nigeria’s resources are managed.
Edu’s suspension comes days after local media cited an official memo in which she directed that 585 million naira ($663,000) worth of grants meant for vulnerable groups should be paid into a private account — a decision that the minister’s office said followed due process. The minister has denied any wrongdoing.
In a country where the government’s austerity measures have further squeezed millions of people facing extreme levels of poverty, many Nigerians criticised the use of a private bank account for the grants program and called for the minister to be fired.
The office of Nigeria’s Accountant General of the Federation said in a statement that such funds are meant to be sent directly from government accounts to the beneficiaries.
Meanwhile, Edu’s predecessor, Sadiya Umar Farouq, reported to the EFCC on Monday as it investigated alleged corruption in the disbursement of public funds during her time as minister. Farouq said on social media that she was at the commission’s office to “offer clarifications in respect of some issues that the commission is investigating”.
Tournament format, venues, title favourites, groups and prize money for AFCON 2023 in Ivory Coast.
The Confederation of African Football’s (CAF’s) highly anticipated African Cup of Nations (AFCON) 2023 is set to kick off on January 13 in the Ivory Coast, where the continent’s biggest stars are expected to shine after an impressive showing for their respective clubs and the Qatar World Cup 2022.
The tournament boasts five teams from the tournament in Qatar, with semifinalists at the global showpiece – Morocco – the red-hot favourites to become the champions of Africa.
Here’s what you need to know about the upcoming AFCON:
Who are the hosts?
The African Cup of Nations takes place in Ivory Coast for a second time.
Matches will be held at six stadiums across five cities.
The capital, Abidjan, offers two venues – the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium and the Alassane Ouattara Stadium, which will also host the final.
Yamoussoukro, Bouake, Korhogo and San Pedro will host the remaining fixtures.
Group A – Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Equatorial Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau
Group B – Egypt, Ghana, Cape Verde, and Mozambique
Group C – Senegal, Cameroon, Guinea, and The Gambia
Group D – Algeria, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Angola
Group E – Tunisia, Mali, South Africa, and Namibia
Group F – Morocco, DR Congo, Zambia, and Tanzania
When are the opening fixtures?
Ivory Coast face Guinea-Bissau in the opening match at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium, Abidjan, on January 13 in Group A. The kickoff is at 20:00 GMT.
The host nation will have the focus on the first day, but after that, there will be a minimum of two games per day through the group stage.
On match-day two, Nigeria take on Equatorial Guinea at 14:00 GMT to complete the first round of fixtures in Group A, with the game again being played at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium.
Abidjan remains the focus for the next two games of the day as Egypt meet Mozambique before Ghana open against Cape Verde. Both Group B games will be played at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium that day, with kickoff times of 15:00 GMT and 20:00 GMT, respectively.
The newly built Alassane Ouattara Stadium will host the opening match and the final of the 34th edition of the African Cup of Nations [File: Luc Gnago/Reuters]
How does the group stage work?
The top two teams in each group and the four best-ranked third-placed teams will advance to the last 16.
The bottom teams and the two worst-ranked third-placed teams in each group will be eliminated from the tournament.
How does the knockout stage work?
There will be three rest days from January 24 before the last-16 fixtures commence.
This is how the last 16 stage looks:
Group D winners vs third place Group B/E/F
Group A runners-up vs Group C runners-up
Group A winners vs third place Group C/D/E
Group B second place vs Group F runners-up
Group B winners vs third place Group A/C/D
Group C winners vs third Place Group A/B/F
Group E winners vs Group D runners-up
Group F winners vs Group E runners-up
Egypt have won a record seven Africa Cup of Nations titles, but Mohamed Salah has lost in both the 2017 and 2021 finals [File: Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters]
Who are the past winners?
Egypt are the record winners in AFCON’s history with seven titles. They were also runners-up most recently, in 2017 and 2021.
Cameroon are the second most successful team with five wins.
Ghana have lifted the trophy on four occasions but not since 1982. That still, however, will irk their West African rivals, Nigeria, who have claimed the title three times.
Hosts Ivory Coast, Algeria (winners in 2019) and DR Congo have two wins each.
Senegal are defending their only Africa Cup of Nations crown, while Morocco, the highest-ranked nation, have also only been crowned winners once, and that was in 1976. Tunisia, Zambia, Sudan, Ethiopia, South Africa and the Republic of the Congo have also lifted the title on one occasion.
World Cup semifinalists Morocco are the clear favourites as they look to end a nearly 40-year wait for their second AFCON crown.
The 1976 winners are the highest-ranked team at the tournament.
Reigning champions Senegal and the team they defeated in the last edition, Egypt, are expected to be the teams to push them closest.
Nigeria boast the squad with the most depth.
How much is the prize money?
There will be a 40 percent increase in the prize money for the winners of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.
The winners of the latest edition in Ivory Coast will receive 5.5 million pounds ($7m).
The runners-up will get 3.165 million pounds ($4m), with each of the two semifinalists receiving 1.979 million pounds ($2.5m) and the four quarterfinalists taking 1.029 million pounds ($1.3m) each.
Ibadan, Nigeria – A wave of red corrugated roofs welcomes visitors to the city of Ibadan in southwest Nigeria. Inside the 200-year-old city’s centre, incessant traffic winds through narrow, unpaved roads and past crowded open-air markets.
At the edge of the city, Opeyemi Dasola’s home, a square fortress of cement, is a calm oasis. Dasola, a streetside cheese seller, is a quiet soul, and the only sound in her living room is the gentle hum of the air conditioner circulating air through the sparsely furnished space.
But just a week earlier, this house was rocked with chaos. Fowarogun, Dasola’s 17-year-old daughter, had woken at midnight with a shooting pain starting in her feet and eventually engulfing every part of her body. The girl was frightened, but Dasola already knew what was causing the problem.
Fowarogun had been diagnosed with sickle cell anaemia, a hereditary condition that limits the supply of oxygen to the blood, when she was four years old. The disorder occurs due to clusters of sickle-shaped red blood cells, which can obstruct blood vessels, hindering blood flow around the body. It can shorten life expectancy by 20 to 30 years in many countries, but in Nigeria, about 80 percent of sufferers do not even make it to the age of five. The mean age of death for those who do is currently just over 21.
This is a condition that Fowarogun’s mother has learned to manage by giving her daily folic acid supplements and avoiding extreme temperatures. Nevertheless, roughly every three years, Fowarogun requires a blood transfusion to keep her healthy.
Obtaining blood for her daughter is a source of great anxiety for Dasola. Severe blood shortages have left patients in Nigeria scrambling to find their own private donors, a practice that is illegal, according to the country’s blood regulator, the National Blood Transfusion Commission. The unmet demand for blood, however, has spawned a black market in which people donate blood for profit and where there are few regulations to ensure the blood is free of disease and safe to use.
A refrigerator with a few dozen donations of blood type B at Ibadan Transfusion Service [Omotayo Omokehinde/Al Jazeera]
With a population of 200 million people, Nigeria requires an estimated 1.8 million units of blood each year for patients who have been in accidents, undergo surgery and need it to treat conditions such as anaemia and other genetic blood disorders. However, each year, only about 500,000 pints (236,600 litres) of blood are collected through official channels. Nigerians are often reluctant to give blood because of beliefs that donating it will make them sick or will weaken men’s libidos.
The National Blood Transfusion Commission faces other challenges besides low supplies. Lack of funding is a major problem, Amedu Omale, the commission’s former director general, told Al Jazeera shortly before he retired in August.
He said it will cost an estimated $15m to reform the system but it has received only $50,000 from the government since its creation in 2021 by the National Assembly. Before the commission, Nigeria’s blood service was run by the National Blood Transfusion Service, which was created in 1990 and was merely a task force under the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare without much decision-making power. Al Jazeera contacted the ministry for comment but received no reply.
A spokesman for the National Blood Transfusion Commission told Al Jazeera that after the agency was established, the government quickly became preoccupied with the COVID-19 pandemic and the cost of living crisis but the commission hopes to conduct its own fundraising drives in 2024.
‘Family replacement’
With adequate funding, the commission could build a centralised blood collection system in which blood from donors could be screened and separated into components to avoid waste. Blood could also be stored in the right conditions and sorted so it would be ready for delivery to hospitals when needed. There would also be a system to allow hospitals all over the country to coordinate with each other to share blood supplies.
Instead, the lack of such a system has forced most hospitals to source blood through a problematic practice known as “family replacement”, in which patients must find a family member to donate the same amount of blood that has been used for the patient. The people donating will typically have to answer a questionnaire about their health, sign an agreement and then donate blood. The blood type does not have to match.
People who do not have a family member available to donate will need to find someone who they can pay who will pose as a family member – the hospitals do not check ID. Most hospitals impose a deadline of three to seven days and will not approve a patient for discharge until the blood has been replaced.
A commercial blood donor on a stretcher at a local clinic in Ibadan [Omotayo Omokehinde/Al Jazeera]
“Family replacement is not ideal because it creates shortcuts and discourages voluntary donation,” said John Aneke, a professor of haematology at Nnamdi Azikiwe University in the southeastern state of Anambra. This system is frowned upon by the public health community, he said, because it helps promote commercial donations from donors who engage in risky lifestyles and increases the risk of transfusion-transmitted infections, such as hepatitis.
The requirement that blood replacements must be found before patients are discharged also puts immense pressure on patients, whose bills from spending extra days in the hospital will continue to accumulate. Many end up turning to social media to appeal for donations and to illegal commercial donors or “racketeers”.
Commercial donors give blood to earn cash and are normally contacted by middlemen who broker deals between them and the patients. A donor is advised to donate no more than twice a year, but because this practice is illegal, it is not regulated in any way. Many commercial donors donate blood much more frequently than this.
Oloyede Adebola, a 37-year-old mother of two, has had to deal with racketeers twice. Talking to Al Jazeera at her home in Sarumi, a quiet neighbourhood in Ibadan, she explained that her eight-year-old daughter suddenly fell ill in 2021 and received a transfusion at an Ibadan hospital that then refused to discharge the girl until the blood was replaced. Like most Nigerians, she prefers not to donate blood, so she was connected by a friend to a network of middlemen, which in turn connected her to a commercial donor. Adebola told the hospital this man was a relative and paid $23 for donating a pint (nearly half a litre) of blood – three times her monthly earnings. The middleman took half the money.
There are some privately run blood banks in Nigeria, but not all are registered with the National Blood Transfusion Commission and are, therefore, unregulated.
This causes an additional layer of anxiety for patients and their families who worry about the quality of blood they are receiving, especially for economically disadvantaged families who receive blood via clinics that don’t have state-of-the-art facilities and are not regulated.
There is no way to be sure that this blood has been checked at all, let alone collected and stored in accordance with proper medical practice. Patients also worry about the extra costs because they have to pay for the screening of the blood as well.
The commission itself does not have the resources to monitor these blood banks or oversee screenings of blood used by hospitals that has been sourced by patients themselves.
Selling blood is illegal in Nigeria, but in practice, it is rarely prosecuted [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera]
Commercial blood donations carry a penalty of six months in prison. In reality, however, few people have ever been prosecuted.
Even in Lagos, where the blood donation service receives higher funding than the one in Ibadan and where blood donations are screened and tracked, only two clinics have been shut down for operating without a licence. One prosecution is currently going through the courts but has dragged on for five years because of backlogs in the court system.
Ideally, Omale said, the commission aspires to transform all six regional blood transfusion services from mere donation centres to resources similar to the Lagos State Blood Transfusion Service, which carries out regular inspections of blood banks and hospitals to ensure that they follow safety guidelines.
For now, most hospitals cannot even verify the identity of donors. The process of doing so is just too far down the list of priorities that the commission needs to meet. Its primary focus is on meeting the demand for blood, which currently outstrips supply by 75 percent in Nigeria, according to the World Health Organization.
While enforcement of blood donation regulations is “the next phase in the plan”, Omale says, the commission is currently throwing its energies into advertising campaigns across the country to encourage voluntary blood donations through official channels.
In the meantime, the use of commercial blood donors remains a thriving business in most parts of the country.
A group of men wait at Ibadan University College Hospital to donate blood in return for payment [Linus Unah/Al Jazeera]
At Ibadan University College Hospital, the region’s main government hospital, a nurse and a janitor who spoke to Al Jazeera on the condition of anonymity confirmed that most people who come to donate blood are commercial blood donors.
These donors, overwhelmingly men, are usually contacted by a middleman and paid to pretend to be relatives of patients. One of the donors waiting at the clinic, a motorcycle taxi driver, told Al Jazeera that he donates blood at least twice a year in exchange for money and has been doing it since 2017.
“The price for donating blood changes depending on how I negotiate. Normally, I earn $10 from donating a pint of blood,” he said. “That’s double what I can earn on a good day if I work for 10 hours straight.”
A family in debt
To pay for Fowarogun’s emergency blood transfusion this year, Dasola took out a loan of $70 from a local lender who she frequently turns to whenever she needs a bailout. She had agreed to pay $3 a day for 24 days on the condition that missing a single payment would double her daily payment to $6. And if she failed to pay the lender back in full, he said he would show up at her house to cause a scene and seize her furniture. He even threatened to have her arrested for the debt.
On the one occasion Dasola could not afford to pay, Fowarogun’s 25-year-old brother, who works in aluminium manufacturing, was able to step in. He then became the guarantor for the loan – another issue that causes anxiety. “I am not happy about my condition,” Fowarogun said. “I get teary when I think about how burdensome it has been for my family.”
Fowarogun faces a future of constantly “chasing” safe blood. The teenager says she’s given up on her dream of becoming a nurse because her family can’t afford to pay for more schooling when they have already fallen into debt because of her medical treatment.
Dasola, preoccupied by a stack of medical receipts tucked into a maroon Bible on the family’s living room table, said that while she’s glad her daughter is healthy for the time being, she’s not sure how she’ll pay for the future blood transfusions that Fowarogun will inevitably need.
“I fear for my daughter,” Dasola says. “Her condition has taken a major toll on my health too because of stress and family finances. This would not be our situation if blood was readily available and safe.”
The world is drowning in a record amount of debt concentrated in developing countries.
Global debt has hit a record $307 trillion in 2023.
That includes the amount of money owed by corporations, governments and individuals around the world. And it’s equivalent to almost $40,000 for every single person on the planet.
Multiple crises in recent years have worsened the problem – pushing countries to the brink. And that simply means some of the poorest countries in the world are servicing their debts, instead of providing for their people.
So, who’s to blame for the delay in debt relief efforts?
Mine accidents are not uncommon in Zimbabwe where disused mines often attract young unemployed men.
Eleven subsistence mine workers are trapped in an underground shaft after a ground collapse at Zimbabwe’s Redwing Mine, 270 km (167.77 miles) west of the capital Harare, authorities said on Friday.
The incident took place on Thursday morning, with initial assessments pointing to earth tremors as the possible cause of the accident, Zimbabwe’s mines ministry said in a statement.
Metallon Corporation, which owns Redwing Mine, confirmed the incident in a separate statement. The company has deployed a rescue team to bring the trapped miners back to the surface, it added.
“The team has made several rescue attempts. However, the ground remains unstable, rendering rescue operations unsafe. Our teams are diligently assessing ground conditions to make sure the rescue operations proceed safely as soon as possible,” Metallon said.
Mining operations at Redwing have been undertaken by subsistence miners carrying out unsanctioned work since the mine was placed under corporate rescue in 2020, the company said.
Mine accidents are not uncommon in Zimbabwe.
For years, many unemployed young men in Zimbabwe’s gold-rich areas have earned a living by working in unregulated mines with little to no safety procedures. At least nine people died in September after the collapse of Bay Horse Mine, a disused gold mine in Chegutu, about 110km (70 miles) west of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare.
Nairobi, Kenya – In the past week, Kenyan President William Ruto has been locked in a row with the judiciary, threatening to disobey court orders restricting his flagship policies and accusing judges of corruption.
Speaking at a public function on Tuesday, Ruto said some unnamed judges are working with the opposition to delay key government projects like a housing fund and universal healthcare initiatives.
“It is not possible that we respect the judiciary while a few individuals who are beneficiaries of corruption are using corrupt judicial officials to block our development projects,” Ruto said.
The government suffered a major setback in November when a High Court in Nairobi declared a housing levy Ruto introduced unconstitutional.
According to the judges, the plan to raise taxes to construct affordable homes was unconstitutional and discriminatory, a declaration that angered the executive.
“We are a democracy. We respect, and we will protect the independence of the judiciary. What we will not allow is judicial tyranny and judicial impunity,” Ruto said on Tuesday, triggering a wave of outrage from Kenyans and judicial circles.
His remarks were the second time in three days that he commented on judicial decisions. In a national address in the final hours of 2023, he threw jabs at the judiciary, accusing it of making decisions against state policies at the expense of the public interest.
Here’s all you need to know about the unfolding situation:
A riot police officer fires tear gas at protesters during a rally in Nairobi called by opposition leader Raila Odinga against the high cost of living on March 27, 2023 [Patrick Ngugi/AP Photo]
How did it come to this?
The housing initiative was introduced by Ruto’s predecessor Uhuru Kenyatta at the beginning of his second term in 2018 as part of much-touted economic reforms.
Like Ruto, Kenyatta faced legal challenges after proposing to tax Kenyans to fund the project. A court blocked this bid in 2018, prompting him to partner with financial institutions and private developers.
By 2021, Kenyatta’s government said it had constructed about half of the projected 500,000 homes.
Since he took office in August 2022, Ruto has proposed several sweeping reforms. One was changes to the Employment Act to allow deductions of 1.5 percent of employees’ basic salaries and matching amounts by employers to fund low-income housing. Ruto planned to build up to 200,000 homes every year as part of the project.
Several Ruto reforms – including fuel subsidy cuts, planned privatisation of state assets and tax schemes – have met with legal challenges as Kenya struggles under the weight of crushing debt and a cash crunch.
Then there were the protests called by opposition leader Raila Odinga from March to July over the new taxes and soaring cost of living. Even today, Kenyans still complain.
Wilson Omondi, a 31-year old accountant in Nairobi, told Al Jazeera that tax deductions from his salary have become too much. “There are things I expect from the government like affordable quality healthcare, … but a house is not one of them, … [and] if the government wants to create jobs, let it build industries and improve the business environment. I don’t want to pay a housing levy for a house me or my children will never live in.”
All of this has frustrated the president, and the November ruling halting the implementation of the housing levy appears to have sparked his outburst.
Chief Justice Martha Koome listens as hearings commence on petitions challenging the result of the 2022 presidential election at the Supreme Court in Nairobi, Kenya, on August 31, 2022 [File: Ben Curtis/AP Photo]
The president’s remarks have raised fears among Kenyans of a return to the dark days of dictatorship with some even directly comparing him to his former mentor, ex-President Daniel Arap Moi.
Under Moi, who was president from 1978 to 2002 in what was for years a one-party state, extrajudicial killings were the order of the day. Ruto – whose favoured “safari suit”, beloved by past dictators, has only fuelled more comparisons to autocrats – began his political career as a youth leader in a group within the then-ruling party.
“The attacks by President Ruto towards the judiciary … bring back memories of the Moi era, where the president called the shots and he was the judge, jury and executioner – all powerful and controlling all arms of government,” Bravin Yuri, a political scientist told Al Jazeera.
There has also been opposition to Ruto’s reaction from Odinga, Chief Justice Martha Koome, the Law Society of Kenya (LSK) the Judicial Service Commission.
In a statement on Wednesday, Koome warned of a risk of anarchy if the judiciary’s independence is not respected. “When state or public officers threaten to defy court orders, the rule of law is imperiled setting stage for anarchy to prevail in a nation,” her memo said.
The LSK called on its members to participate in a peaceful nationwide protest next week as its president, Eric Theuri, said Ruto, as “the foremost custodian of the rule of law”, should use the courts to challenge legal decisions.
The president, Theri added, ought to remember that he was a beneficiary of the judiciary’s rulings after the 2022 presidential election.
Odinga called Ruto’s attacks on the judiciary unacceptable and said his rival has crossed a line.
What happens next?
According to Faith Odhiambo, LSK vice chairperson, if the president has serious allegations against the judiciary, he should present them to the Judicial Service Commission to investigate
“The president’s remarks were suspicious, especially coming at a time when the Court of Appeal was hearing the case of the housing levy that [the executive] had appealed,” she said. “So it’s an act of intimidation to the judges who will be hearing those matters. What we are telling the president is that he should follow due process in this matter.”
She added that in addition to the planned protests, her organisation is considering suing Ruto.
In response to the criticism, presidential spokesperson Hussein Mohammed said on Wednesday that the president had promised to crack down on corrupt judicial officers as a believer in the constitution.
The statement did not clarify whether the president will respect orders already given by the courts.
Meanwhile, the appellate court on Thursday ruled that the government may continue collecting the levy until January 26 when the courts are to decide whether to grant a further extension or end the collection.
Ruling could jeopardise popular politician’s chances of running in February’s presidential elections.
Senegal’s Supreme Court has ruled against opposition politician Ousmane Sonko’s appeal in his defamation conviction, a decision that puts his chances of running in presidential elections at risk.
“The sentence and fines have been confirmed. Sonko lost on all counts,” state lawyer El Hadji Diouf said on Friday after the judge ruled to uphold the six-month suspended sentence following a more than 12-hour hearing.
He added that Sonko was “now totally banned from taking part in an election”. The 49-year-old had filed his candidacy papers last month, while in custody, to compete in the February 25 elections.
Sonko has been in jail since July after his arrest on insurrection charges, when he was also struck off the country’s electoral rolls.
He has faced multiple court cases over the past two years for charges including libel and rape, which he denies. The cases against him have triggered deadly violence in the West African nation.
After deliberations that extended from Thursday into the early hours of Friday, the court rejected Sonko’s appeal against the May conviction. According to Senegalese law, Sonko cannot compete in the presidential race while such a conviction is upheld.
His legal team, however, said the setback was not final. “The fight will continue,” his lawyer Cire Cledor Ly told reporters outside the court building in the capital, Dakar.
Sonko’s legal troubles began when he was accused of rape in 2021, sparking deadly unrest across the country that has since flared up sporadically over various court decisions.
He denies any wrongdoing and says all charges against him are politically motivated. The government, which accuses Sonko of stoking violence, dissolved his Patriots of Senegal (PASTEF) party in July.
“No one doubts the political aspect of this affair which aims to eliminate the leader of the opposition,” said PASTEF spokesperson El Malick Ndiaye on the latest ruling. “Sonko still remains in the race,” he said on national radio.
Sonko placed third in Senegal’s 2019 presidential election and is popular with the country’s youth. His supporters maintain the charges against him are part of a government effort to derail his candidacy in this year’s polls.
He is seen as a main opposition challenger in the race to succeed President Macky Sall, who announced in July that he would not seek a controversial third mandate following months of ambiguity and speculation about his intentions.
Indian captain says pitches in his country are unfairly criticised after the match in Cape Town ends in record time.
India’s cricket captain Rohit Sharma has lashed out at critics of Indian pitches after his side recorded the quickest ever win in a Test match by beating South Africa by seven wickets in four-and-a-half sessions of the five-day match.
Speaking to reporters after the win at Cape Town on Thursday, Rohit called for a review of how pitches are rated as he claimed India receive undue criticism.
India’s victory made the Test match the shortest ever in history in terms of balls bowled in a win, after the visitors set the tone when they bowled the home side out for 55 before lunch on day one, largely helped by player of the match Mohammed Siraj, who took six wickets for 15 runs in the first innings.
The next best of any of Markram’s teammates in either innings was 15.
Rohit described the conditions as dangerous, but added he had no problem playing on such surfaces as long as it was accepted that Indian pitches will turn from day one.
“I don’t mind being on pitches like this as long as everyone keeps their mouth shut in India and no one is talking about the pitches there,” Rohit told reporters.
“Yes it is dangerous, but you come here (South Africa) to challenge yourself and you must face up to it.”
Rohit believes there is inconsistency in the way match referees rate pitches in different countries.
“In India, when it turns on day one, people say, ‘Oh, there is a puff of dust’. We need to stay neutral, especially match referees. I would love to see how the pitches are rated.
“I still can’t believe the [Cricket] World Cup final pitch [in Ahmedabad] was rated below standard. A player [Australia’s Travis Head] got a hundred there. They must rate pitches based on what they see, not based on countries.”
Rohit added there should be no difference in the rating of a pitch based on spin or seam on day one.
“We know pitches in India will spin but people don’t like it because it turns from ball one. But if it seams from ball one, that is OK? That is not fair.”
Meanwhile, South Africa’s stand-in captain Dean Elgar bowed out of Test cricket on the losing side but said he finished what had been a “bit of a journey” with “amazing memories” as an international cricketer.
After 23 wickets fell on the first day, the second morning turned into a battle between Aiden Markram and India’s Jasprit Bumrah.
Apart from Markram, who hit 106 off 103 balls in South Africa’s second innings of 176, batsmen struggled throughout the match on a pitch with pace, seam movement and uneven bounce.
The Indian bowler took six for 61 – and was denied the wicket of Markram when the batsman, on 71, edged a drive and wicketkeeper KL Rahul could not hold a catch above his head.
Markram defied a pitch on which the next highest individual score was 46 by Virat Kohli in India’s first innings but South Africa were bowled out for 176 runs in their second innings by lunch. That gave India a tricky chase of 79 on a pitch of variable bounce.
Opener Yashasvi Jaiswal scored a quickfire 28 off 23 balls, with six boundaries. He was caught at long leg off Nandre Burger.
Rohit survived two dropped catches, and was unbeaten in the end with 17 not out.
Kagiso Rabada bowled Shubman Gill for 10, and finished the short series with 11 wickets.
Marco Jansen nicked off Virat Kohli for 12 runs when India were four runs away from only their fifth win on South African soil. Five balls later, Shreyas Iyer hit a boundary to seal the historic victory.
On Monday, an agreement signed in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, between Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and President Muse Bihi Abdi of the breakaway republic of Somaliland preceded a shocking announcement that has already set the tone for interstate relations in the Horn of Africa this year.
The memorandum of understanding was for the leasing of 20km (12 miles) of Somaliland’s sea coast to landlocked Ethiopia. In exchange, Somaliland will receive shares in its neighbour’s flagship carrier, Ethiopian Airlines – and receive formal recognition as a sovereign state.
International recognition has been a long-sought goal for Somaliland, a region in northern Somalia that has enjoyed de facto independence since 1991. But the groundbreaking agreement has created shockwaves in the region and fury in Somalia, which views it as a hostile violation of Somalia’s sovereignty.
“As a government, we have condemned and rejected the illegal infringement of Ethiopia into our national sovereignty and territorial integrity yesterday,” Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said in a statement on X shortly after convening an emergency cabinet session on Tuesday. “Not an inch of Somalia can or will be signed away by anybody.”
In Ethiopia, where for much of 2023 the government stressed the economic need for a seaport and even subtly hinted at possibly invading Eritrea for access to the Red Sea, the deal is being portrayed as a victory.
But the terms of that victory differ for Ethiopia and Somaliland, and that could further complicate the situation in the coming days.
While Somaliland insists that recognition has already been agreed upon and settled, Addis Ababa has been reluctant to firmly address the matter of statehood. In a published communique, the government said it had yet to formally recognise Somaliland. But social media posts by Ethiopian Ministry of Foreign Affairs official Mesganu Arga this week appear to support Somaliland’s interpretation of the deal.
The ambiguity of the messaging continues to fuel speculation. A draft of the agreement has yet to be published, but all indications suggest that it would all but nullify a 2018 tripartite treaty cementing ties between Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea, details of which were similarly never made public.
Somaliland President Muse Bihi Abdi, right, and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attend the signing of an agreement in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on January 1, 2024, that allows Ethiopia to use a Somaliland port [Tiksa Negeri/Reuters]
Pressure or patriotism?
Ethiopian officials have been far more eager to speak of the benefits the agreement is said to have secured.
“The agreement is mutually beneficial, and Ethiopia will share military and intelligence experience with Somaliland, so the two states can collaborate on protecting joint interests,” Redwan Hussein, Abiy’s national security adviser, said at the event announcing the agreement. “To facilitate this, Ethiopia will establish a military base in Somaliland as well as a commercial maritime zone.”
Abiy hopes the agreement can help kick-start Ethiopia’s revival after a year of worsening economic woes, internal conflicts and a breakdown in relations with Eritrea. Since the signing of the two countries’ widely heralded peace treaty in 2018, which helped Abiy land the Nobel Peace Prize a year later, Ethiopia has been keen to redirect its imports to Eritrean ports.
But this has never materialised.
“Previously, Abiy had cultivated a personal relationship with [Eritrean President] Isaias Afewerki for access to the Red Sea, but the Pretoria agreement has seen it stumble,” author and researcher Mohamed Kheir Omer explains, referring to the 2022 mediated peace process that ended Ethiopia’s war in its northern region of Tigray. Eritrea, whose troops were allied with Ethiopia in that conflict, opposed the deal.
Domestically, conflict with Faro militiamen in Amhara and unrest in Oromia has weakened key support bases for Abiy. Failure to make payments on Ethiopia’s eurobonds at the end of 2023 has also heightened pressure on the prime minister.
So there are whispers in the Horn of Africa and in foreign circles that he has turned to the popular move of getting port access for Africa’s second most populous nation to shore up his support.
There are also domestic woes in Somaliland, which has known relative stability for decades. The enclave is struggling with an uprising by local clan militia who pushed its forces out of the disputed town of Las Anod in August.
That conflict is seen as a blow to Somaliland’s hopes for recognition, which had been pinned on maintaining stability in a functioning state. But some observers said it is unclear if the conflict factored into Bihi’s decision to sign the agreement in Addis Ababa.
“It would be too speculative to link the agreement to Somaliland’s current domestic issues, considering its persistent pursuit of international recognition since 1991,” Muhammad Abdi Duale, founder and senior editor of the Somali news portal Horn Diplomat, told Al Jazeera. “Somaliland … established diplomatic ties with Ethiopia long before the port deal was announced.”
A military truck takes part in a parade to celebrate the 24th self-declared independence day for Somaliland, the breakaway region in Somalia, in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa, on May 18, 2015 [File: Feisal Omar/Reuters]
Ethiopia’s quest for a port
Diplomatic ties between them date back to the 1980s when Ethiopia supported Somaliland rebel fighters who helped win its de facto independence in 1991, the same year Ethiopia became landlocked after Eritrea’s successful war of independence.
Ethiopia continued to use Eritrea’s Red Sea ports until the two states severed ties and fought a 1998-2000 border war, which killed 70,000 people.
Since then, Ethiopia has used Djibouti’s port as its main trade conduit, but the billions Djibouti is believed to charge Ethiopia annually in port fees has had it exploring alternatives in Sudan, Somaliland and Kenya since the mid-2000s.
Agreements between Ethiopia and Somaliland over the use of its Berbera port date as far back as 2005, but issues including logistics and potential harm to relations with Mogadishu have prevented Addis Ababa from implementing a wholesale shift from Djibouti.
In 2017, Ethiopia acquired shares in Berbera port as part of a deal involving Emirati logistics management company DP World to expand the port and turn it into a lucrative trade gateway catering to the needs of 119 million Ethiopians. At the time, Somalia denounced the deal as illegal. Ethiopia did not follow through on commitments and eventually lost its stake by 2022.
Despite this history and the generally warm relations between authorities in Addis Ababa and Hargeisa, Addis Ababa had never openly considered granting Somaliland full recognition.
Even now, Redwan has stressed that the agreement signed this week is only a starting point for negotiations – with no specified timetable – that would require extensive deliberations and approval of both parliaments.
Nevertheless, the possibility of Ethiopia becoming the first state to formally acknowledge Somaliland’s independence threatens to damage diplomatic relations between Ethiopia and Somalia, two states with a lengthy history of military conflict and animosity.
A new strain in relations
After Somali independence in 1960 and until the end of the Cold War, the status of Ethiopia’s Somali region, its second largest by area, has been hotly contested between the two countries.
The region, also known as Ogaden, is home to ethnic Somalis, who make up about 7 percent of Ethiopia’s population. It has witnessed numerous conflicts. One was the Ogaden War from 1977 to 1978, which killed tens of thousands of people before Ethiopia, with the assistance of Soviet military advisers and Cuban troops, reasserted dominance over the land.
Under the governments of Ethiopia’s Mengistu Hailemariam and Somali President Siad Barre, both countries supported rebel factions in each other’s countries, which would go on to weaken and eventually lead to the overthrow of both leaders by 1991.
Somalia has never regained the stability it knew during the Barre era. Swathes of the country currently are under the control of fighters from al-Qaeda offshoot al-Shabab.
A considerable segment of Ethiopian troops has been part of the African Union peacekeeping mission mandated to fight the rebels in Somalia. Their semi-permanent presence in the country since 2006 has fuelled further resentment.
So Monday’s agreement has only further strained fragile relations between the neighbours.
“This is by far the most egregious violation of the sovereignty of Somalia by a foreign country in about a decade and a half,” Abdi Aynte, a Somali politician and former minister of planning, told Al Jazeera. “The last country to have violated Somalia’s sovereignty was Ethiopia when it invaded in 2006, which ended disastrously. [The 2006 invasion] in fact led to the rise of al-Shabab, the most violent militant group in the region, so you can only imagine what this could do in Somalia and across the region.”
Another politician, lawmaker Abdirahman Abdiskakur, has called for the African Union’s headquarters to be moved away from Ethiopia, according to the Somali National News Agency.
With military action unfeasible, Somalia will likely use formal diplomatic channels at the AU or United Nations to prevent any implementation of the agreement. Thus far, the European Union and the United States have issued statements expressing support for Somalia’s position.
The stance of other influential players in the region isn’t as clear yet.
“It’s possible that the UAE, which has cordial relations with both Ethiopia and Somaliland, may have encouraged the parties to proceed with the deal,” Mohamed explained. “The UAE is ambitious to have presence in ports along the Red Sea, Gulf of Aden and the Indian Ocean. With the Rapid Support Force [paramilitary] it supports gaining ground in Sudan, the UAE may be keen on consolidating its gains in the region.”
Meanwhile, Israel’s bombardment of the Gaza Strip has had a ripple effect, including most recently, Houthi rebel attacks on ships in the Red Sea, impacting the strategic Bad al-Mandeb Strait.
With both areas just off Somaliland’s coast, the New Year’s Day agreement in Addis Ababa could set off more than just economic activity in Ethiopia’s latest quest for a seaport.
A few minutes after joining the elite 150-goal club for Liverpool and helping his team climb to the top of a closely contested Premier League table, Mohamed Salah laid bare his ambition to “win this competition”.
Egypt’s captain Salah would soon depart the United Kingdom to link up with his teammates for the continental championship being held in the Ivory Coast from January 13 to February 11.
The tournament was originally scheduled for the summer of 2023, but was postponed due to the rainy season in the West African host nation.
Following his two goals against Newcastle at Anfield, which also sent him to the joint top of the scoring charts alongside Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, Salah was pressed about his priorities by former Liverpool and England defender Jamie Carragher on Sky Sports.
“It means a lot to play in the national team,” Salah replied. “It’s a great feeling every time you step on the field with the national team jersey.”
“It’s something I cannot take for granted. I am just happy to be there, happy to play in the tournament.
“I want to win this competition [AFCON]. I would love to win it,” he reaffirmed.
Salah has been at the losing end of two AFCON finals – in 2017 as a young striker and in 2021 as the captain who tearfully saw his side lose to Senegal in a penalty shootout.
Now a talismanic leader of the Pharaohs, Salah would be determined to ensure his team walks away as champions for a record-extending eighth time.
In esteemed company 😤@MoSalah is only the third player to amass 20+ Premier League goal involvements in seven successive seasons 👏 pic.twitter.com/KkSXBHW2k9
Despite its popularity in the football-mad African continent and beyond, AFCON has been somewhat of a controversial competition in the past given its historical placing midway through the league seasons in Europe.
It has even led to clubs suggesting they would not sign African internationals given their absence from club duties as they participate in the event, which is staged every two years.
Salah is arguably the biggest departure from the European stage for this edition of Africa’s showpiece tournament.
The 31-year-old has helped Liverpool, which finished fifth last season and failed to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, to a three-point lead at the top of the Premier League as it enters its second half.
A shot at a second league title in 34 years is within touching distance for the Reds, but their record-breaking forward, who also leads the charts for assists in the Premier League in 2023, is going to leave a pyramid-sized hole behind him.
When AFCON’s move from the summer of 2023 to the beginning of 2024 was confirmed, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp termed it a “catastrophe”.
“If we have to make a decision about bringing in a player [to the club] – it’s massive because, before the season, you know you don’t have him for at least four weeks,” Klopp added, referring to players missing club matches in order to participate in AFCON.
With Klopp’s team leading the league by a slim margin of three points, Salah’s availability – or lack thereof – has made Liverpool fans uncomfortable.
As the Premier League top-four race heats up, Dan Plumley – a sport finance expert – believes it will be interesting to watch how Salah’s absence affects Liverpool’s title push.
“There may not be a big difference in prize money for each place in the Premier League, but winning the title itself is huge – much like winning AFCON would be for Salah,” Plumley told Al Jazeera.
“The UEFA Champions League is the biggest [financial] issue and assuming Liverpool drop off [in the Premier League] and go outside the top four spots, that’s worth around 50 million pounds ($63m).”
Salah is slated to miss seven games for Liverpool should he lead his side to the final on February 11. This includes Chelsea’s visit to Anfield on January 31 and Liverpool’s trip to title rivals Arsenal four days later.
In England, Arsenal and Tottenham will also be hit hard by AFCON in terms of absentees.
Spurs and Liverpool will also have to do without South Korea’s Son Heung-min and Japan’s Wataru Endo respectively as the pair depart for the Asian Cup, which is running simultaneously to AFCON.
Manchester United are set to lose their first-choice goalkeeper Andre Onana.
The Cameroonian stopper retired from international football following his expulsion from the national team during the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
After Onana was sent home following a fallout with manager Rigobert Song, it appeared his future with Cameroon was over. However, Onana reversed his decision last September, barely two months after Onana’s debut for United.
Would United have signed him had they known he may return for Cameroon?
Plumley, who teaches sport finance at Sheffield Hallam University in the UK, agreed that player availability can affect signings.
“Scheduling is likely to influence player signing decision-making,” he said.
The Confederation of African Football proposed in 2017 for AFCON to be held during European summer months from 2019 onwards. While the 2019 edition in Egypt was held in June and July, the 2021 tournament in Cameroon was pushed to January and February 2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to avoid adverse weather conditions.
Plumley believes scheduling poses a problem for the wider football calendar.
“The revamped FIFA Club World Cup will likely move to the summer and there are also the Euros and Copa America, so it’s a crowded schedule,” he said.
“Ultimately, you have to protect AFCON, so clubs will have to put up with it wherever it falls, but it if stays in winter it will continue to cause issues between clubs and country.
“Clubs will be factoring things like this into the signings, especially when the [player signing] fees are so high.”
📅 December 2022: André Onana retires from international football after a disagreement with Cameroon coach Rigobert Song ❌
📅 September 2023: André Onana announces he will return to international football 👋
Which clubs will miss players to AFCON and the Asian Cup?
Joining the list of club absentees, the recently crowned men’s African footballer of the yearVictor Osimhen will also turn up for Nigeria after taking his leave from Italy’s defending champions Napoli, whom he helped clinch their first Serie A title since 1990.
French champions Paris Saint-Germain will lose Achraf Hakimi to one of the pre-tournament favourites Morocco.
In the Saudi Pro League, Al Nassr will have to do without defending champions Senegal’s Sadio Mane, and Al-Ahli will lose Riyad Mahrez to Algeria.
Here are some of the big-name players replacing their club colours with that of their country during AFCON and the Asian Cup 2023:
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