Behind the sandbags, blast barriers, barbed wires and high walls, are impressive modern buildings in Somalia’s capital city. Despite the country struggling with war and drought, there is a strong pride in being Somali.



Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, is reportedly one of the most dangerous places in the world, off limits to most foreigners and a risky place for Somali government officials. Travel advisories don’t mince their words: “Do not travel to Somalia, due to armed conflict, the ongoing very high threat of terrorist attacks and kidnapping, and dangerous levels of violent crime,” they read.



For more than three decades Somalia has battled terrorism, drought, famine and war. A drive through its capital throws up reminders of the past in the form of bullet-ridden buildings and smashed concrete rubble that has been pushed to the side of the streets. In the middle of a main intersection where two truck bombings five years ago killed 587 people and injured 316, a donkey stands chewing on garbage, unfazed by the armed convoys driving past.



Four kilometers from the Green Zone, which is how distance is measured in this war-torn city, the once tarred roads are covered with sand and dust due to years of neglect. Styled on the Baghdad safe zone, the heavily-guarded security zone around Aden Adde airport is controlled by government security forces who man the checkpoints in and out.



It’s dangerous for non-Somalis to move around the capital. Most embassy, United Nations and NGO staff hold their meetings inside the Green Zone. Attacks by the al-Shabaab militant group have increased since the president recently ramped up an offensive against them and the areas of Somalia they control.



If you’re planning a trip to the capital, your first point of call is a security company. During my visit they advised me not to leave the secure compound where I slept and ate, at any time, for anything, without informing them.



Even a trip inside the Green Zone saw me being driven in a heavily-armed vehicle, wearing a bulletproof vest, as part of a convoy with six local contractors armed with AK47, riding in the front.



It wasn’t always like this. For millennia, this ancient port city connected traders across the Indian Ocean. In the 1800s, the country was colonized by Britain and Italy and the faded facades of mostly Italian architecture can be seen on some of the buildings.



While independence came in 1960, decades of civil war followed that virtually destroyed the economy and infrastructure and split Somalia into areas under the rule of various entities. Since the late 2000s, the US military has supported the government in its counter-terrorism operations as part of the ongoing ‘Global War on Terror’ that followed the September 11 attacks in 2001.



This has translated into more security and soldiers on the roads.



The struggle to survive underlies the friendliness and graciousness of the population. Soft-spoken and extremely polite, the Somalis I meet are those who work in the security compound that is my temporary home, as well as government officials and businessmen in their elaborate offices. It’s strange but behind the sandbags, blast barriers, barbed wires and high walls, are impressive modern buildings.



We arrive at one in a more rural part of the Mogadishu outskirts after passing a man sauntering down the road with an AK47 assault rifle casually slung over his shoulder. The driver confirms he’s alShabaab.



Driving into the complex, two watchguards are fast asleep on dirty mattresses in the garden, using their PK machine guns as pillows. They yawn, eye us, turn over and go back to sleep.



March and April are the hottest seasons and temperatures can soar to 34 degrees with 83% humidity. In a few months, unless something drastic and unforeseen happens, the country will be battling its sixth consecutive drought season. Dotted around the capital are camps for internally-displaced people that date back years but which still see newcomers arriving on a daily basis. The orange tarpaulin stick-framed structures shelter the estimated 1.3 million people who’ve moved here from other parts of the country. Eighty percent are women and children.



My security detail prevents me from leaving the safety of an armed Land Cruiser whenever we are on the roads. The vehicle fights its way through checkpoints, competing with an endless stream of mostly red three-wheeled bajajis (tuk-tuks) careering around – by far the most popular mode of transport in Mogadishu.



Through the bulletproof windows, hand-painted shops and garage signs bring color and vibrancy to the streets. New coffee houses are springing up in an attempt to introduce a sense of normality to the beleaguered capital. Women carry bundles of firewood on their heads as they walk along the pavements in their colorful hijabs while men play boardgames, lounging outside on plastic chairs.



Dromedary camels are in the middle of everything, often resting in the shade of a palm tree. I wish I could see more. I wish I could walk these streets and chat with the vendors who are endlessly curious to see foreigners. The country has a lot to offer. There are a number of historical sites, beaches, waterfalls, mountain ranges and national parks. After dozens of meetings and a brief glimpse into Somali life, it’s the resilience and optimism of the people that touches me the most.



I’m showered with a lot of hospitality and care, and despite the country struggling with war and drought, there is a strong pride in being Somali. Down-to-earth, people here are generally happy with what they have. There might be a lack of development and overwhelming challenges but as more than one Somali told me: “I only have one passport and this is my home, I have no intention of going anywhere else.”

Mogadishu Street Life Goes On, Despite Risk Of Al Shabaab Attack

More To Mogadishu: The Resilience And Pride In Being Somali

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Although AI has become popular in recent months for its ability to perform advanced tasks and make life easier, there’s also increasing concern it can be used negatively, creating racial biases in the fields of healthcare, law enforcement and big tech.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Joy Buolamwini, a researcher at MIT,&nbsp;<a href="https://time.com/5520558/artificial-intelligence-racial-gender-bias/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">discovered</a>&nbsp;some facial analysis software was unable to detect her face until she covered her dark skin with a white mask, and chalked this up to AI systems’ lacking data as they’re largely trained on white faces.



A major U.S. technology company claimed its facial recognition accuracy rate was 97%, but through her research, Buolamwini&nbsp;<a href="https://news.mit.edu/2018/study-finds-gender-skin-type-bias-artificial-intelligence-systems-0212" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">found</a>&nbsp;the company’s training set was more than 77% male and 83% white.



A&nbsp;<a href="https://www.hilarispublisher.com/open-access/face-verification-subject-to-varying-age-ethnicity-and-genderdemographics-using-deep-learning-2155-6180-1000323.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;published in the&nbsp;Journal of Biometrics and Biostatistics&nbsp;found Black women between the ages of 18 and 30 are the demographic with the poorest facial recognition accuracy.



A 2022&nbsp;<a href="https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3531146.3533138" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;conducted by institutions including Johns Hopkins University and the Georgia Institute of Technology programmed AI-trained robots to scan blocks with people’s faces from different races.



After the robots scanned the faces, they were tasked with designating which blocks were criminals—they consistently labeled the blocks with Black faces as criminals.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-peg">NEWS PEG</h2>



In 2015, Google Photos came under fire after its AI-based search tool pulled images of Black people when the term “gorilla” was searched. After this controversy was revealed, Google stopped its software from categorizing any image as a “gorilla” and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-33347866" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">promised</a>&nbsp;to fix the problem. However, after saving pictures of gorillas and different primates, a recent&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/22/technology/ai-photo-labels-google-apple.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;found that the issue hadn’t been fixed, and Google Photos’ software was still programmed to prohibit generating any images categorized as gorillas. It wouldn’t generate images for searches of any primates.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-crucial-quote">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



“AI is just software that learns by example,” Reid Blackman, who has advised companies and governments on digital ethics and wrote the book&nbsp;Ethical Machines,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/03/18/politics/ai-chatgpt-racist-what-matters/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;CNN. “So, if you give it examples that contain or reflect certain kinds of biases or discriminatory attitudes . . . you’re going to get outputs that resemble that.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-contra">CONTRA</h2>



According to a Pew Research&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/04/20/most-americans-say-racial-bias-is-a-problem-in-the-workplace-can-ai-help/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">poll</a>, 53% of Americans who believe racial and ethnic bias in the workplace is a problem think it would get better if employers used AI more in the hiring process, asserting that AI might potentially be beneficial in fighting against racial bias.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-dermatology">DERMATOLOGY</h2>



According to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.abq6147" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;Science Advances,&nbsp;diagnostic and decision support tools used in dermatology are AI models trained on a dataset of skin tones and skin conditions. However, the dataset the AI is trained on is limited, as it lacks images of uncommon diseases, as well as diverse skin tones. A&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33969523/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in the&nbsp;Archives of Dermatological Research&nbsp;found that Covid disproportionately affects non-white ethnic groups. However, the dataset used to train dermatologists included 92% of pictures of Covid skin lesions on fairer skin tones, only 8% showed lesions on more olive skin tones, and none of them included dark skin tones. Because skin conditions show up differently in different skin colors, the need for diverse training is essential. For example, melanoma is rare in African Americans, according to a&nbsp;Journal of the American Academy of Dermatology&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jaad.org/article/S0190-9622(03)02091-7/fulltext" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>, but because training and education on dark skin tones in the field of dermatology is poor, it’s more likely to go undiagnosed than in white Americans, leading to a drastically lower survival rate. A 2019&nbsp;<a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31157429/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;published in the&nbsp;British Journal of Dermatology&nbsp;found 47% of dermatologists felt they weren’t adequately trained to diagnose skin disease in people of color.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-tech-companies">BIG TECH COMPANIES</h2>



In 2022, Apple was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2022/12/27/apple-watch-blood-oxygen-oximeter-dark-skin-lawsuit/10955942002/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sued</a>&nbsp;over allegations that the Apple Watch’s blood oxygen sensor was racially biased against those with a darker skin tone. The Blood Oxygen app can measure oxygen levels in the blood by using sensors on the wrist, providing users with insights into their health, the app&nbsp;<a href="https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT211027" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">claims</a>. The lawsuit points to the Food and Drug Administration’s&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMc2029240?url_ver=Z39.88-2003&amp;rfr_id=ori%3Arid%3Acrossref.org&amp;rfr_dat=cr_pub++0pubmed#article_citing_articles" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">review</a>&nbsp;of pulse oximeter technology created after the Covid pandemic increased its use in hospitals. The review found Black patients were almost three times more likely to have dangerously low blood oxygen levels go undetected by pulse oximetry compared to that of white patients. In an October 2022&nbsp;<a href="https://www.apple.com/healthcare/docs/site/Blood_Oxygen_app_on_Apple_Watch_October_2022.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">white paper</a>, Apple acknowledged the potential difficulties that come with pulse oximetry taking measurements on darker skin, but claimed its device “automatically adjusts . . . to ensure adequate signal resolution across the range of human skin tones.” In 2020, Twitter released its&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-57192898" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">photo cropping</a>&nbsp;feature, which crops and focuses on photos to allow for a better viewing experience, especially when scrolling through Twitter’s timeline. However, it was soon&nbsp;<a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/global-tech-race-twitter-idUKL5N2GI5R2" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">revealed</a>&nbsp;that the tool favored white faces, focusing on their faces in the photo preview and only revealing the Black faces when the users clicked to view the full photo. This led Twitter to&nbsp;<a href="https://blog.twitter.com/engineering/en_us/topics/insights/2021/sharing-learnings-about-our-image-cropping-algorithm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">research</a>&nbsp;the algorithm, and it found in 2021 that it indeed had racial bias that favored white faces, leading to the company ditching the feature.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-law-enforcement">LAW ENFORCEMENT</h2>



Facial recognition software is used in a number of different entities, including on smartphones, for police face recognition, airport passenger screening and employment decisions. However, the AI behind facial recognition has proven to be used to promote a racial bias.&nbsp;<a href="https://sitn.hms.harvard.edu/flash/2020/racial-discrimination-in-face-recognition-technology/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According</a>&nbsp;to Harvard’s Science in the News, police facial recognition software is trained on mugshot data, in which Black people are overrepresented. Racist policing strategies contribute to this, like the New York Police Department maintaining a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.stopspying.org/latest-news/2019/7/23/the-nypds-gang-database-a-new-age-of-stop-and-frisk" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">database</a>&nbsp;of “gang-affiliated” people made up of 99% Black and Latino people, though there are no requirements to prove these people are gang affiliated, thus incentivizing false reports.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0740624X22000892?via%3Dihub" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Research</a>&nbsp;published in&nbsp;Science Direct&nbsp;found law enforcement agencies that use AI-based facial recognition technology disproportionately arrest Black people due to their overwhelming presence in the training dataset.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ajl.org/facial-recognition-technology" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">According</a>&nbsp;to the Algorithmic Justice League, “Face surveillance threatens rights including privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of association and due process.” Its controversial use in law enforcement has led to several cities across the country&nbsp;<a href="https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/05/movement-ban-government-use-face-recognition" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">banning</a>&nbsp;police from using facial recognition.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-related-targeting-ethnic-groups">RELATED: TARGETING ETHNIC GROUPS</h2>



Israeli authorities are relying on facial recognition to track Palestinians and restrict their passage through key checkpoints, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.amnesty.org/en/documents/mde15/6701/2023/en/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;by Amnesty International. The software, known as Red Wolf, is used at checkpoints, scanning Palestinians’ faces and using a color-coded system of either green, yellow or red to determine whether to allow them to pass, stop them for questioning or deny entry. This is just the latest example of Israel restricting Palestinians’ freedom of movement as the software heavily focuses on Palestinians, Amnesty argues, and the report calls it an “automated apartheid.” China has also used AI and facial recognition to identify minorities. The country came under fire for using the technology to racially profile the Uyghurs, a vastly Muslim minority group, the&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/technology/china-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-racial-profiling.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reports</a>. The facial recognition technology is embedded into China’s widespread network of surveillance cameras and exclusively looks for Uyghurs based on how they look, keeping a record of where they’re coming from—and going to. The U.S. even&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/06/china-sensetime-facial-recognition-uyghur-surveillance-us-sanctions" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">sanctioned</a>&nbsp;SenseTime, China’s largest facial recognition firm, for its alleged role in the surveillance of the Uyghurs.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/14/technology/china-surveillance-artificial-intelligence-racial-profiling.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Google’s Photo App Still Can’t Find Gorillas. And Neither Can Apple’s</a>&nbsp;(New York Times)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/04/14/youre-already-using-ai-heres-where-its-at-in-everyday-life-from-facial-recognition-to-navigation-apps/?sh=37c1cfb127ac">You’re Already Using AI: Here’s Where It’s At In Everyday Life, From Facial Recognition To Navigation Apps</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/04/10/heres-how-to-use-ai-like-chatgpt-and-bard-for-everyday-tasks-like-creating-a-budget-finding-airfare-or-planning-meals/?sh=43627396190d">Here’s How To Use AI—Like ChatGPT And Bard—For Everyday Tasks Like Creating A Budget, Finding Airfare Or Planning Meals</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/04/25/republicans-share-an-apocalyptic-ai-powered-attack-ad-against-biden-heres-how-to-spot-a-deepfake/?sh=4ac38d717753">Republicans Share An Apocalyptic AI-Powered Attack Ad Against Biden: Here’s How To Spot A Deepfake</a> (Forbes)

Students Working On Computer Assignment During Seminar Group

Racism And AI: Here’s How It’s Been Criticized For Amplifying Bias

Where does the continent fit into the chatbot conversation, and why it needs its own startups that focus on AI.



The ability to be able to have a conversation with someone else is a fundamental part of what it means to be a human being but today, it’s becoming more and more confusing to figure out whether you’re talking to a bot… or not.



Technology has advanced to the point where AI-powered conversational chatbots, like ChatGPT or Meta’s BlenderBot 3, are deceptively realistic. (More so when they go off the rails and say things like ‘I want to be alive’, which is exactly what Bing’s AI bot expressed earlier this year.) While chatbots like these are trained to avoid expressing personal or biased views, and are known to make factual mistakes and mix up information, they’re becoming smarter, more streamlined and sometimes, a little strange…



“Conversational AI is one of the first applications of NLP in artificial intelligence and this kind of technology has existed since Eliza in the sixties,” explains Professor Mpho Raborife, the deputy director at the Institute for Intelligent Systems at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa.



Natural Language Processing, or NLP, is a way for computers to understand human language. NLP uses AI tools like machine learning and neural networks to process and interpret large amounts of data.



“With the rise of big data, ChatGPT was inevitable. It’s trained on a very large dataset and the technologies behind it make it a lot more advanced than other conversational AI applications.”



One of the reasons for this, explains Raborife, is that ChatGPT uses reinforcement learning alongside sophisticated algorithms that manipulate its dataset. “It’s so sophisticated that people don’t realize that it really possesses no intelligence whatsoever,” she adds, “it really doesn’t understand the meaning behind anything, it just know how the words are supposed to work but not what they mean.”



OpenAI’s ChatGPT is a research experiment gone wild that has shown the incredible potential of conversational AI yet Africa is still being left behind. Consider smartphone voice assistants like Siri or Alexa – both examples of conversational AI used regularly; they work with English but struggle to understand local accents. They don’t support African languages.



“We know that the Global North is not going to include our languages. Therefore, we need to find a way to make sure that we create an environment that the startups that come from Africa which do incorporate our languages have the same kind of impact,” Raborife adds. Duolingo, for example, is a popular language learning mobile app that uses an AI system called Birdbrain to personalize its content. Duolingo has 43 different languages (including made-up dialects such as Klingon, High Valyrian and Esperanto) but only isiZulu and Swahili are available when it comes to African language learning courses.



“When we talk about AI, our languages are not supported or even represented by these technologies,” says Raborife. “But conversational AI has the potential to bridge the language divide as it can be used in a variety of ways because it surpasses literacy levels. If people cannot read or write, they can use their voice to access services and this is something that is important to Africa.



This is why we need our own startups that focus on AI. Recently launched, Lelapa AI is an African AI research and product house looking to make a real difference within the continent with a special interest in agriculture, education, energy, healthcare, microfinance and language.



“There are so many problems on the continent that AI-type technologies can help with so there’s a responsibility for us to use our skills to help create better lives for everyday Africans,” says Pelonomi Moiloa, Lelapa AI’s co-founder and CEO. 



“What we intend to do is use technology in a very smart, resource-efficient way because there are challenges on the continent like rolling blackouts, water shortages and network issues…” Lelapa AI have already debuted an app called VulaVula which offers NLP-as-a-service for under-represented languages. Moiloa describes VulaVula as an underlying technology that supports other technologies. A banking chatbot, for example, could use VulaVula’s AI language capabilities to help customers interact in their own languages.



“The idea is that if an organization has a place for us to plug our models into and we can collaborate agreements around how that work can be done, then – ideally – if we have the resources and capacity we will help businesses do what they need.”



For Moiloa, creating African data sets to work from may be challenging but it’s also something she sees as a competitive advantage for Lelapa AI. “We’re having to think around clever ways of dealing with Africa’s data scarcity problem. We have to create models that are able to cope with less amounts of data, but models that can get really good at curating and gathering data,” she says.



And the fact that ChatGPT doesn’t necessarily draw its information from African data sets (it was apparently trained using real human conversations) means startups like Lelapa AI have the opportunity to develop responsible methods of dealing with problems that are relevant to the continent.



“I don’t think we should be trying to develop our own ChatGPT but maybe we can develop other textual tools that can help solve the problems that ChatGPT is meant to – but at the moment, it seems to be creating more problems,” she ends.

AI (Artificial Intelligence) concept. Electronic circuit. Communication network.

Talking A-‘bot Africa: The Potential For Conversational AI

<h2 class="wp-block-heading">TOPLINE</h2>



Eric Schmidt, who served as Google’s CEO from 2001 to 2011, said Wednesday that artificial intelligence could cause people to be “harmed or killed” amid possible “existential risks,” adding to concerns from other tech executives over the development of AI.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY FACTS</h2>



Schmidt, who&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wsj.com/video/events/life-with-ai/F13F8BDE-2AB5-4BA1-9191-997FC338C1AF.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">spoke</a>&nbsp;during the&nbsp;Wall Street Journal’s CEO Council Summit Wednesday, warned AI poses risks that “is defined as many, many, many, many people harmed or killed.”



Schmidt—who also served as the executive chairman of Alphabet from 2015 to 2017—suggested regulations on AI is a “broader question for society,” adding he believes it is unlikely the U.S. will establish a regulatory agency.



Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.ft.com/content/8be1a975-e5e0-417d-af51-78af17ef4b79" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">wrote</a>&nbsp;in the&nbsp;Financial Times&nbsp;that “AI is the most profound technology humanity is working on today,” adding it is important to “make sure as a society we get it right.”



Twitter CEO Elon Musk and Apple cofounder Steve Wozniak signed a&nbsp;<a href="https://futureoflife.org/open-letter/pause-giant-ai-experiments/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">letter</a>&nbsp;in March alongside politician Andrew Yang, Skype cofounder Jaan Tallinn, Pinterest cofounder Evan Sharper and Ripple cofounder Chris Larson, which urged AI labs to “immediately pause” work to slow down an “out-of-control race” to develop the technology.



OpenAI CEO Sam Altman&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL5wI3tkXkw&amp;ab_channel=ABCNews" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;ABC News in March that his company was “a little bit scared” over AI’s potential, adding it “will be the greatest technology humanity has yet developed.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CRUCIAL QUOTE</h2>



Schmidt warned, “There are scenarios—not today, but reasonably soon, where these systems will be able to find zero-day exploits in cyber issues, or discover new kinds of biology,” adding, “When that happens, we want to be ready to know how to make sure these things are misused by evil people.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">CONTRA</h2>



Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates has applauded the possible impact AI could have on society, noting he has seen “stunning” advancements in recent months. Microsoft, which Gates founded in 1975, has&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/dereksaul/2023/01/23/chatgpt-parent-open-ai-gets-game-changing-multibillion-dollar-boost-from-microsoft/?sh=2f9a49cc3c0c">reportedly</a>&nbsp;invested $10 billion in OpenAI. Gates acknowledged the issues raised in the letter signed by Musk and others in a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.gatesnotes.com/The-Age-of-AI-Has-Begun" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">blog post</a>, though he noted any social concerns about the technology should be regulated by the government in an effort to ensure it was used for good. Gates also&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/03/21/bill-gates-thinks-ai-will-revolutionize-healthcare-for-worlds-poorest/?sh=653e3470d192">suggested</a>&nbsp;AI could be used to improve productivity, reduce global preventable deaths among children and improve inequity in American education.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FORBES VALUATION</h2>



Schmidt, who also cofounded the venture capital firm Innovation Endeavors, is worth $20.1 billion, according to our&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/profile/eric-schmidt/?sh=6e033446138e">estimates</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Schmidt’s warning follows his time on the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which released a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nscai.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Full-Report-Digital-1.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">report</a>&nbsp;in 2021 that indicated the U.S. government was “not today prepared for this new technology.” Schmidt also called for increasing the nation’s budget for research and development to $2 billion in 2022, and then doubling contributions until it reached $32 billion in 2026. The White House&nbsp;<a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/05/04/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-actions-to-promote-responsible-ai-innovation-that-protects-americans-rights-and-safety/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">released</a>&nbsp;a plan earlier this month to tackle possible risks from AI, including $140 million in funding to establish research institutes to drive responsible innovation. Calls for regulating AI have accelerated in recent months following the launch of OpenAI’s ChatGPT late last year. Other companies—including Google—have since released their own iterations of AI chatbots.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/03/29/elon-musk-and-tech-leaders-call-for-ai-pause-over-risks-to-humanity/?sh=5275dbea6dfc">Elon Musk And Tech Leaders Call For AI ‘Pause’ Over Risks To Humanity</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2023/02/06/bill-gates-openai-microsoft-ai-hottest-topic-2023/?sh=6a484d444777">Exclusive: Bill Gates On Advising OpenAI, Microsoft And Why AI Is ‘The Hottest Topic Of 2023’</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/03/21/google-releases-bard-ai-chatbot-amid-competition-with-chatgpt/?sh=5c5f07bb32b7">Google Releases Bard AI Chatbot Amid Competition With ChatGPT</a> (Forbes)



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National Security Commission Holds Conference On Artificial Intelligence

Former Google CEO Warns AI Could Cause People To Be ‘Harmed Or Killed’

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-top-line">Top Line</h2>



Buckingham Palace in the United Kingdom (UK) has yet again reportedly declined a request to return the remains of an Ethiopian prince, Prince Dejatch Alemayehu, who came to be buried at Windsor Castle in the 19th Century. The re-emergence of this subject has caused a furore on social media with users calling the refusal “revolting”.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading">Key Facts</h2>



The descendants of Prince Alemayehu have made it abundantly clear that “it was not right” for him to be buried in another country other than his own.



&#8220;We want his remains back as a family and as Ethiopians because that is not the country he was born in,&#8221; one of the royal descendants, Fasil Minas, told the BBC.



However, a Buckingham Palace spokesperson has stated that removing his remains could affect others buried in the catacombs of St George’s Chapel in Windsor Castle.



“It is very unlikely that it would be possible to exhume the remains without disturbing the resting place of a substantial number of others in the vicinity,” the palace said, according to the BBC.



Social media users are up in arms by this decision with many calling for Buckingham Palace to not only return the remains of Alemayehu but other priceless artifacts that “do not belong to them”.



“It’s revolting how the monarchy won’t return the remains of Prince Alemayehu who they kidnapped from Ethiopia. So many of the world’s priceless artifacts were stolen by them and The British Museum, and should be returned.” 



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">It’s revolting how the monarchy won’t return the remains of Prince Alemayehu who they kidnapped from Ethiopia. So many of the world’s priceless artifacts were stolen by them and The British Museum, and should be returned. <a href="https://t.co/SAJLJTlzMz">pic.twitter.com/SAJLJTlzMz</a>&mdash; Merone (@Merone) <a href="https://twitter.com/Merone/status/1661077095793999872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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“The idea that the British royals are somehow entitled to the body of Prince Alemayehu, even in death, is nothing short of grotesque. But it’s not unrelated to the fact that the young man was taken to England with a huge hoard of artifacts.” 



<figure class="wp-block-embed aligncenter is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">The idea that the British royals are somehow entitled to the body of Prince Alemayehu, even in death, is nothing short of grotesque. But it’s not unrelated to the fact that the young man was taken to England with a huge hoard of artifacts. <a href="https://t.co/b5od93LE9C">pic.twitter.com/b5od93LE9C</a>&mdash; Aparna Nair (@DisabilityStor1) <a href="https://twitter.com/DisabilityStor1/status/1660982626612641792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">Return Prince Alemayehu to his home, he was captured in war&#8230;.British Royal family truly is savage and barbaric to deny this child peace in his death&#8230;.Shame on you King Charles and Buckingham Palace, treating a human being as looted treasure and denying him dignity in death <a href="https://t.co/vlrK3M5Ujb">pic.twitter.com/vlrK3M5Ujb</a>&mdash; Renee (@Aditiya_renee) <a href="https://twitter.com/Aditiya_renee/status/1660702214816448525?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 22, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
</div></figure>



<figure class="wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter"><div class="wp-block-embed__wrapper">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">How colonizers colonize&#8230;.If the price of righting this wrong is to &quot;disturb&quot; Windsor burial sites, that&#39;s what consequences mean for a stealing a life, and a body. &quot;British royals refuse to return the remains of &#39;stolen&#39; teenage prince&quot; <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PrinceAlemayehu?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PrinceAlemayehu</a> <a href="https://t.co/5hp9dt6jci">https://t.co/5hp9dt6jci</a>&mdash; karla fc holloway (@ProfHolloway) <a href="https://twitter.com/ProfHolloway/status/1661021336087715845?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">May 23, 2023</a></blockquote><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
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The history of the prince’s story is well documented in both Ethiopia as well as in British society. At just seven years old, Prince Alemayehu was taken to the UK by British army officer Captain Tristram Speedy. As the son of one of the most prominent rulers in Ethiopian history, Emperor Tewodros II; Tewodros committed suicide as the British troops stormed the citadel of Magdala.



In 1868, British soldiers “looted” Tewodros’ imperial fortress after the battle, plundering thousands of cultural and religious artifacts such gold crowns, manuscripts, necklaces and dresses.



According to reports, once in the UK, Speedy presented the Prince to Queen Victoria who allegedly sympathized with the prince and agreed to support him financially. Multiple tales in history, including a diary entry by Queen Victoria, note how despite receiving a British Education, the rest of his upbringing he was miserable. Historians say that he was “deeply unhappy” during his time at



prestigious boarding schools like Rugby and Sandhurst military college as he frequently encountered racism, and that his requests to return home were ignored.



He died of pneumonia at age 18 and, at the reported request of Queen Victoria, was entombed in the catacombs in a corner of St George&#8217;s Chapel at Windsor Castle, the royal residence west of London.



This is not the first time that a request has been made to the Royal Family to return the remains of Alemayehu. According to The Guardian, the campaign to return the Prince to his home country began as early as 2006 with the late Queen Elizabeth II “rebuffing” the request. According to the Ethiopian embassy, the Lord Chamberlain replied on behalf of the Queen, saying “while Her Majesty was in favour of repatriation […] identifying the remains of young Prince Alemayehu would not be possible”. The prince’s remains had been added to a grave at St George’s Chapel with nine others.



This is a developing story: FORBES AFRICA reached out to the British Museum and Embassy of Ethiopia in London, but did not receive comment from either at the time of publication.

Dejatch Alamayou, King Theodore’s Son.

‘We Want His Remains Back’ Says Descendants Of Ethiopian Prince To Royal Family, But Palace Refuses

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Netflix users in the U.S. will no longer be able to share accounts with others who don’t live with them, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/update-on-sharing-may-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;Tuesday, after the same password crackdown was instituted in four other countries earlier this year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



Netflix&nbsp;<a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/update-on-sharing-may-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;U.S. users an “account is for use by one household,” urging subscribers to sign out their accounts on devices that “shouldn’t” have access to the user’s account, and set a primary location for the account.



Netflix users who want to share their account with someone outside their household can either pay $7.99 for a “sub account” or they can transfer a profile to a new membership that someone else pays for—a move that would allow users to keep their watch history and saved list.



Users will still be able to watch Netflix from their personal devices or log into new TVs at hotels or other locations, the company&nbsp;<a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/update-on-sharing-may-us" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



Earlier this year, Netflix&nbsp;<a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/an-update-on-sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">announced</a>&nbsp;it was instituting password-sharing restrictions in Canada, New Zealand, Portugal and Spain. At the time, Netflix said similar measures would be coming to the U.S. in the coming months. Netflix began testing paid sharing, with the same restrictions U.S. users will now face, in its Latin America market last year. Netflix is one of the first major streaming services to start cracking down on password sharing, in a move likely prompted by&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/08/09/netflix-loses-subscribers-as-disney-catches-up-heres-how-the-major-streaming-services-are-faring-so-far-this-year/?sh=2f446c22a1c4">last year’s</a>&nbsp;loss of subscribers and the need for additional revenue.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-big-number">BIG NUMBER</h2>



100 million.&nbsp;As of February, that’s how many households share their passwords, Netflix&nbsp;<a href="https://about.netflix.com/en/news/an-update-on-sharing" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">said</a>.



Forbes Daily: Get our best stories, exclusive reporting and essential analysis of the day’s news in your inbox every weekday.Sign Up



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<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anafaguy/2023/02/08/netflix-password-crack-down-begins-in-canada-new-zealand-portugal-spain/?sh=3ff300a22f34">Netflix Password Crack Down Begins In Canada, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/anthonytellez/2023/02/02/netflixs-password-sharing-crackdown-and-what-amazon-prime-hulu-others-are-doing-explained/?sh=61031c7d56ea">Netflix’s Password Sharing Crackdown—And What Amazon Prime, Hulu, Others Are Doing—Explained</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/marisadellatto/2022/08/09/netflix-loses-subscribers-as-disney-catches-up-heres-how-the-major-streaming-services-are-faring-so-far-this-year/?sh=2f446c22a1c4">Netflix Loses Subscribers As Disney+ Catches Up: Here’s How The Major Streaming Services Are Faring So Far This Year</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



CORRECTION (5/23): This story has been updated to clarify that Netflix users will not have to set a primary location and to clarify that users will not need one-time access codes to log into Netflix from other locations.

In this photo illustration the Netflix logo seen displayed

Netflix Starts Long-Awaited Password-Sharing Crackdown—Here’s How

A recent cholera outbreak outside the administrative capital of Tshwane has led to at least 15 deaths and dozens hospitalized. While the source of the outbreak is yet to be confirmed, residents and analysts point to long-running water quality and supply issues in the area as a failure of service delivery.



South Africa is grappling with a devastating cholera outbreak just outside the administrative capital of Tshwane in Hammanskraal in northern Gauteng province. The outbreak has claimed at least 15 lives and left another 34 individuals hospitalized.



This severe bacterial outbreak, which leads to intense dehydration and can ultimately be fatal, is typically associated with unsafe, contaminated water supplies. Hammanskraal, a rural township on the outskirts of Tshwane, has grappled with water supply issues for at least a decade. In 2021, an independent commission of enquiry found that the local Rooiwal Water Treatment Plant has borne the brunt of the responsibility for the poor water quality and supply afflicting the residents.



The Gauteng Department of Health confirmed on Sunday the presence of cholera in the region based on lab results of stool specimens collected from 19 individuals. These patients presented themselves at Jubilee District Hospital, exhibiting symptoms including diarrhea, stomach cramps, and nausea.



Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation David Mahlobo underscored the severity of the water supply and quality issues during a media briefing. He pointed to the constant upheaval within the metro governance as a significant contributor to these issues. Mahlobo stated, &#8220;The Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment, the frequent change of mayors in the City of Tshwane, and defaults on agreements are at the epicenter of the Hammanskraal water issues.&#8221;



Residents have not remained silent on these issues, with protests against poor water quality taking place as recently as March of this year. However, this is not a new challenge for residents – in 2014, about 73 people were treated for cholera-like symptoms within a single week at the local Jubilee Hospital, leading to an intervention from the then mayor and a task-team being formed.



Fast forward to 2021, both an independent commission of enquiry and a report produced by the South African Human Rights Council found that the water supplied to Hammanskraal residents was contaminated. They stated that the City of Tshwane had neglected its obligation to provide basic services to its residents.



The city&#8217;s political landscape hasn&#8217;t helped matters, with reported political infighting within the City of Tshwane, which has seen five mayors in as many years, being a significant impediment to service delivery. The incumbent mayor, Cilliers Brink of the opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA) attempted to visit Hammanskraal yesterday for a site visit, before being chased away by residents furious over lack of service delivery.



In a video statement Brink confirmed that tap water testing revealed no E. Coli bacteria, adding that the source of the outbreak is yet to be confirmed and cautioned residents against consuming tap water without proper treatment.



To deal with the outbreak, water tankers, social workers, additional wards, and nursing staff have been mobilized. Despite these efforts, and with Jubilee Hospital being overwhelmed, the future seems bleak for the residents of Hammanskraal who have had to endure more than a decade of inadequate water quality and supply.



One resident, speaking to FORBES AFRICA outside Jubilee Hospital, succinctly captured the mood of the people: &#8220;It&#8217;s been so long overdue. People have died.&#8221;

Cholera Outbreak In Hammanskraal

Cholera Outbreak Exposes Long-Running Water Crisis Outside South Africa’s Administrative Capital

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Facebook’s parent Meta has been ordered to pay a record $1.3 billion (€1.2 billion) fine by the European Union, for failing to adhere to the bloc’s stringent privacy rules, in the latest severe financial penalty handed to an American tech giant by the EU.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The ruling was&nbsp;<a href="https://www.dataprotection.ie/en/news-media/press-releases/Data-Protection-Commission-announces-conclusion-of-inquiry-into-Meta-Ireland" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">issued</a>&nbsp;by the Irish Data Protection Commission, Meta’s chief regulator in the EU, as the company’s regional headquarters are located in Dublin.



The amount is the largest fine issued under the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation, which has previously snagged the likes of Amazon and Google.



The Irish DPC said its investigation into Meta found that the company failed to address the risks to “the fundamental rights and freedoms” of EU citizens whose data it was transferring to the U.S.



Aside from the record fine, the regulator has ordered Meta to suspend “any future transfer of personal data” to the U.S. within the next five months.



Meta also has been given six months to stop the “unlawful processing” and storage of personal data of EU residents in the U.S.



In a lengthy blog post, Meta’s chief legal officer Jennifer Newstead and top spokesperson Nick Clegg said the penalty is “flawed” and “unjustified,” setting a “dangerous precedent for the countless other companies transferring data between the EU and US.”



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



The Irish DPC’s decision is part of a wider tussle between the European Union and American tech companies over cross-border data flows. Tech companies have long argued that the free flow of data across borders is essential for a global internet and attempts to prevent this will fragment the web and dramatically raise costs. In 2020, the European Court of Justice canceled a data flow agreement between the U.S. and the EU due to concerns over the surveillance practices of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agencies. Since then, American and European officials have been working together to come up with a new data flow agreement, which is expected to be finalized later this year. U.S. tech giants, left in legal limbo in the meantime, have relied on alternate methods to transfer data, including something called standard contractual clauses (SCCs). The DPC’s investigation, however, found that Meta’s use of the SCCs failed to mitigate the risks identified by the European top court’s ruling.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



In its statement, the DPC said it disagreed with the fine imposed on Meta, but it was forced to go ahead with it due to a decision by the pan-EU European Data Protection Board (EDPB). The EDPB’s intervention came after the DPC’s original ruling in the case—which only suspended Facebook’s data flows—faced opposition from four other national regulators in the bloc, who demanded a monetary fine.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



New York-listed shares of Meta actually rose 2.5% in early trading, hovering near a 15-month high.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-22/meta-fined-record-1-3-billion-in-eu-over-us-data-transfers?leadSource=uverify+wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Meta Fined Record €1.2 Billion in EU Over US Data Transfers</a>&nbsp;(Bloomberg)

Facebook Covers Sign At Menlo Park Headquarters

Meta Fined Record $1.3 Billion For Violating EU Privacy Rules

March 1 marked the beginning of my term as Rector of the United Nations University (UNU). Along with my initial excitement and ambition is the recognition that I am starting my Rectorship in an era defined by our shared efforts to address immense challenges — climate change, lasting peace, and sustainable development for all. 



It is also an era where technology will play a pivotal role in our success, challenge our ethics, and reshape our values. UNU’s contributions and expertise are more vital than ever as we approach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals’ (SDGs) deadline and overcome the very real SDG setbacks caused by the Covid-19 pandemic and our structural inequalities. 



Access, distribution and capacity are demonstrably skewed, and our divisions have grown. As a 2021 UN report on the SDGs found, the SDGs have long been off track. If we hope to reverse this trend, we will all have to work hard to achieve them. The work of UNU and our partners must be grounded in justice that transcends our physical, mental, and digital capacities.



In Africa, the challenges of achieving the SDGs are compounded. This is because development seems to have stalled. A 2022 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) publication demonstrated that Africa’s growth rates in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic hindered its convergence with other global economies. This lag in growth is, in turn, stunting the continent’s development and has pushed more than 29 million people into extreme poverty.



The research and application thereof that emerges from the UNU present a unique opportunity to emerge from this malaise while addressing broader global challenges. Hassatou Diop N’Sele of the African Development Bank (AfDB) stated in an October 2022 report: “The economic and security shocks experienced by Africa over the last few years have been devastating, both in their reach and their repercussions. If there was ever a time to reaffirm the relevance and critical role of security and its interrelation with development, that time is now.”



To help meet these challenges, three principal actions need to be implemented by UNU. First, we should raise the University’s global profile. Second, we should expand the activities of UNU, especially in the Global South. And third, we should increase UNU’s capacity in teaching, learning, research, and policy-work in partnership with universities and other key stakeholders worldwide.



We need to mobilize financial, political, human and intellectual resources in both the Global South and Global North to achieve these goals. UNU should continue to create partnerships that provide sustainable support for our work in new regions and communities. We should use digital platforms to expand the teaching, learning, research, and policy offerings of UNU. 



We should produce and spread digital programs primarily targeting a just transition to the fourth industrial revolution. We should prioritize using artificial intelligence and other technologies for responsible, peaceful, and sustainable policies and applications. We need to further UNU’s role as a critical player in tackling contemporary global challenges and position UNU as an essential intellectual resource for stakeholders worldwide.



The work currently being done by the UNU is innovative, exciting and impactful in positing sustainable solutions. The institutes and programs now span Japan, China, Malaysia, Finland, Germany, Holland, Portugal, Ghana, Belgium, Venezuela, New York and Canada. There is a call to expand further into the Global South physically and through our work. 



Additionally, there is a call for a greater focus on technology. As the pandemic has demonstrated, we are deeply entrenched in a digital era characterized by intelligent technology. It would be myopic to approach any of our shared challenges without an awareness of this context or to use these tools to contribute towards sustainability. As a 2020 PwC report states: “For all the potential that these technologies offer, however, they could also put greater stress on the Earth, its resources, and on our society.



We should ensure, therefore, that these technologies are harnessed in the right way, to fulfil their potential to revolutionize our world, transform the lives of people, and unlock new pathways to prosperity – fast-tracking sustainable development globally.”



My approach to UNU in the coming months will be a convergence of the emphasis on the solid collaboration network that spans from the Global South to the North facilitated by technology to achieve lasting peace and sustainable development. This is how we create a more equitable world and ensure that Africa and the rest of the world are part of the conversation and action.



The writer is a Rector of the United Nations University based in Tokyo.

Aerial view of a green highway and railway tunnel covered with solar panels in Belgium.

A Critical Player In Tackling Contemporary Global Challenges: An Africa Perspective

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



Instagram has been secretly testing a text-based app similar to Twitter for months with celebrities and influencers and is preparing to launch it as early as June, Bloomberg&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-19/instagram-readies-twitter-competitor-for-summer-release?srnd=premium&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;Friday, as some people look to leave Twitter due to changes made under CEO Elon Musk.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The app will be separate from Instagram—which is owned by Meta—though users will be able to connect their accounts and follow all of the people they follow on Instagram on the new app with just one click, according to a&nbsp;<a href="https://twitter.com/liahaberman/status/1659553280891179010/photo/1" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">screenshot</a>&nbsp;posted by Lia Haberman, professor of social and influencer marketing at UCLA and author of the newsletter&nbsp;<a href="https://liahaberman.substack.com/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">ICYMI</a>.



The app may eventually be compatible with others attempting to appeal to former Twitter users—including Mastodon—according to Haberman’s screenshot, which says users on Mastodon will “soon” be able to follow and interact with posts on Meta’s new platform without needing to create a new account.



Haberman said users will be able to post up to 500 characters of text, along with images and pictures.



Meta has been testing the new app secretly with celebrities and influencers for months, people familiar with the project told Bloomberg.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



In March, Money Control first&nbsp;<a href="https://www.platformer.news/p/meta-is-building-a-decentralized" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that Meta was exploring the creation of a social network for text updates to compete with Twitter. Shortly after that, Meta officials&nbsp;<a href="https://www.platformer.news/p/meta-is-building-a-decentralized" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">told</a>&nbsp;Platformer they “believe there’s an opportunity for a separate space where creators and public figures can share timely updates about their interests.” Many users have been looking for an alternative to Twitter since billionaire Elon Musk took over in October 2022 and began quickly making changes to the platform ranging from&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/12/heres-how-twitters-appearance-has-changed-under-elon-musk/?sh=75eb23385f68">adding</a>&nbsp;an algorithm-driven “For You” page to charging people to be verified and get access to features like an edit button. Mastodon launched shortly after Musk bought Twitter, offering a similar&nbsp;<a href="https://joinmastodon.org/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">platform</a>&nbsp;but with “no algorithms or ads to waste your time.” But it doesn’t seem that platform is filling the need.&nbsp;Wired&nbsp;<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-mastodon-bump-is-now-a-slump/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;that Mastodon’s number of active users had fallen to 1.4 million at the end of January—dropping by more than one million—since people flocked to it in November 2022.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-tangent">TANGENT</h2>



A recent&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/05/17/how-us-adults-on-twitter-use-the-site-in-the-elon-musk-era/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">study</a>&nbsp;by Pew Research Center found that while people are still logging on Twitter, the most active Twitter users are posting about 25% less after Musk’s acquisition. The study also found that six in 10 Americans who used Twitter in the past year&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2023/05/17/majority-of-us-twitter-users-say-theyve-taken-a-break-from-the-platform-in-the-past-year/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reported</a>&nbsp;taking a break from the platform, and 25% of respondents said they aren’t likely to be on the platform one year from now.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-19/instagram-readies-twitter-competitor-for-summer-release?srnd=premium&amp;leadSource=uverify%20wall" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Instagram Readies Twitter Competitor for Summer Release</a>&nbsp;(Bloomberg)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/12/heres-how-twitters-appearance-has-changed-under-elon-musk/?sh=75eb23385f68">Here&#8217;s How Twitter&#8217;s Appearance Has Changed Under Elon Musk</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/"></a>By Molly Bohannon, Forbes Staff

In this photo illustration the Instagram logo seen displayed

Instagram Is Preparing A Twitter-Like App To Be Launched This Summer, Report Says

South Africa is set to surpass carbon emission goals, but for the wrong reasons. Loadshedding and the subsequent impact on heavy industry have, ironically, proven to be a boon for the environment.



South Africa’s unexpected emissions victory is a silver lining in an otherwise dark cloud. South Africa has recently outperformed its United Nations&#8217; Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) emissions reduction targets. However, this victory is not the result of a concerted green initiative or a shift towards renewable energy. Instead, it is a byproduct of the country&#8217;s ongoing loadshedding crisis, a situation that has seen coal-fueled power plants and electricity-dependent heavy industries frequently offline.



The loadshedding crisis, a crippling issue for the nation, has hampered economic growth and caused widespread frustration. In a perverse twist, it has also led to a significant reduction in the country’s carbon emissions.



The year 2023 has been the darkest so far, with over 100 consecutive days of continuous scheduled power outages, at an estimated daily cost of $50 million to the economy. With an estimated 80% of the country’s power generation fleet still coal-reliant, it was forecast that South Africa would only begin to reduce its carbon emissions footprint after 2025, a goal that it is set to surpass at the current rate.



So significant have the electricity outages been that the country appears to be ahead of this target, said Crispian Olver, Executive Director of South Africa’s Presidential Climate Commission, in an interview with Bloomberg on Monday.



“The country may achieve its climate goals as per the NDCs without closing any coal stations thanks to loadshedding and poor plant output.”



While this bodes well for South Africa meeting its climate objectives, it has also been pivotal in securing international financing for the country’s Just Energy Transition plan, which provided $8.5 billion in 2021, the vast majority of which was to be invested in transitions toward renewable energy solutions such as wind and solar power.



However, Minister of Electricity Kgosientso Ramokgopa believes that it is possible to both extend the life of the existing coal power fleet of state-owned generation utility Eskom, while still keeping the country on track to meet its climate goals, a seemingly contradictory position.



“We are modeling the impact of emissions and cost implications, and we will decide whether to extend the life and by what period. But I want to emphasize that we will not renege on our NDCs, our decarbonization agenda, and net zero path by 2050,” said Ramokgopa during a media briefing last week.



However, energy analyst and Managing Director of EE Business Intelligence Chris Yelland believes that these goals are not in conflict. “Low economic growth and loadshedding have already led to a slow decline in electricity consumption,” he said, speaking to FORBES AFRICA. “If we are just running the coal-fired stations we have now…just to see us through the crisis of the next two or three years, that may be palatable to donor countries of the Just Energy Transition Partnership.”



However, Yelland believes both the immediate and most sustainable path forward is still for the country to aggressively pursue the development of renewable energy sources, but it requires the will from the government.



“There are very short-term options for renewable energy, particularly in the domestic, commercial, and agricultural space in particular,” continues Yelland. “But the government&#8217;s focus seems to be on the utility-scale projects, and those will take a minimum of two to three years to come onstream…And that’s not quick enough, we need solutions now.”

Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. Power Stations as Outages Intensify

South Africa’s Unexpected Emissions Victory A Silver Lining In Otherwise Dark Cloud

Nigerian teen golf prodigy Iyene Essien is focused on her goal to become ‘the female African Tiger Woods’. She has been acing her game from when she was six. 



By Peace Hyde



When Tiger Woods won the prestigious Arnold Palmer Invitational, a professional golf tournament on the PGA Tour, in 2012 for the seventh time, little did he know he was inspiring a five-year-old, Iyene Essien, in faraway Nigeria to pick up a golf club and play. 



At the time, Essien’s dad took her to a golf club in Abuja and she was immediately hooked.



“I was fascinated and asked if I could play,” says Essien in an interview with FORBES AFRICA. Convinced, it was not long before her dad bought her golf clubs and hired a coach to take her through the paces.



Today, she is a teen golfing sensation. 



After winning her first golf event by age six, Essien has consistently dominated the African golfing world and gone on to represent Nigeria at international competitions. She finished second in the Champion of Champions golf tournament in Northern Ireland, playing on the same course as golfing legend Rory Mcllroy and has also won the prestigious Hurricane Junior Golf Tour (HJGT) in the United States, twice.



The HJGT tour is a prestigious program that affords truly exceptional junior golfers between the ages of 8-18 the opportunity to play world class courses competitively; the perfect ground for Essien to hone her skills if she is to make her dream of becoming



“the female African Tiger Woods” a reality.



And as luck would have it, in 2017, Woods acquired a stake in HJGT to help grow the sport and expand it globally. According to Forbes, more than 30,000 boys and girls have competed in the events that have produced close to 4,000 golfers since 2007. 



“I look up to Tiger Woods because of his dedication to the sport and his ambition to keep going against all odds. He shows how passionate he is about the sport whether he is winning or losing,” says Essien. 



Essien could very well be on the golfing legend’s radar if she continues her winning streak on the HJGT course.



It is no surprise that her long-term goal is to be able to play professionally full-time but Essien is pragmatic enough to invest in education as a back-up plan.



“Not everyone makes it to playing professionally so it is essential that I have a stable education before fully devoting my life to golf.” 



She is currently attending high school at The Taft School in the United States (US). She is the number two player and also an member of The Taft School Girls’ Varsity Golf team – winners of 2022 Founders League High School Golf Tournament in Connecticut, US. 



Golf is still an up and coming sport in Nigeria, a country that is dominated by football.



The current president of the Nigerian Golf Federation, Otunba Olusegun Runsewe, has vowed to usher in a new era for golf. At the top of his agenda is positioning Nigeria to be a viable and attractive destination for international golf funding.



“There is about $4 billion worth of funding available for golf in Africa by 2023 and it is my duty to ensure we have the infrastructure here to attract that level of investment,” says Runsewe.



For Essien, the support from her family and friends has been crucial. Like most women in sports, even at the tender age of 16, Essien still has to deal with the stigma that comes with the territory.



“The challenges I’ve personally faced are people don’t really see me as a golfer. When I tell people ‘I play golf’, they don’t expect me to be as good as I am. Imagining a female to be good at a sport seems to not be the norm and it honestly doesn’t surprise me.



Everyone is majorly interested in male sports and female sports are seen as slow and boring.”



Boring or not, this Nigerian prodigy is determined to make her mark in the golfing world and if her recent achievements are anything to go by, she is aiming right.

Iyene Essien

The Nigerian Teen Who Is A Big Shot In Golf

<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-topline">TOPLINE</h2>



A panel of independent experts on Thursday <a href="https://www.pfizer.com/news/press-release/press-release-detail/fda-advisory-committee-votes-support-approval-pfizers" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">recommended</a> the Food and Drug Administration approve an RSV vaccine by Pfizer designed to protect babies by vaccinating pregnant parents, potentially paving the way for the first RSV shot for infants—weeks after the agency approved the country’s first shot for the common but potentially deadly infection.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-facts">KEY FACTS</h2>



The FDA panel voted unanimously (14-0) on the drug’s effectiveness, and 10 of the advisory board’s 14 members voted that the vaccine—known as Abrysvo—is safe, with some members flagging a&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2023/05/18/health/rsv-vaccine-newborns-fda/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">slightly higher rate</a>&nbsp;of preterm births among vaccine recipients.



RSV, which stands for respiratory syncytial virus, is a common respiratory infection that typically causes mild illness in healthy adults but can trigger severe, possibly fatal, disease in younger children, older adults and those with underlying medical issues.



As protective antibodies can be passed from mother to developing fetus, the maternal shot, given to pregnant people between 24 and 36 weeks of pregnancy, also protects children in their first months of life.



Evidence from Pfizer’s late stage clinical trial, which included nearly 7,400 pregnant people, indicated the shot was 82% effective at preventing severe disease for the first three months after birth and 69% for the first six months.



The shot was also 51% effective at preventing doctor’s visits for RSV-related illness within the first six months of life, the trial found.



Safety data for the shot is also “generally favorable,” the FDA said in briefing&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fda.gov/advisory-committees/advisory-committee-calendar/vaccines-and-related-biological-products-advisory-committee-may-18-2023-meeting-announcement#event-materials" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">documents</a>&nbsp;released ahead of the meeting, with relatively standard side effects reported like injection site pain, muscle pain and headaches.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-to-watch-for">WHAT TO WATCH FOR</h2>



The FDA still has to approve the vaccine and a decision is likely still months away. The agency does not have to follow its advisors’ recommendations but it almost always does and the panel’s decision will carry considerable weight. Further down the line, Pfizer is also seeking FDA approval for its RSV shot to be used in older adults. A number of other companies are also in the process of completing late-stage trials for shots of their own and the FDA is in the process of reviewing an antibody injection to protect infants from RSV that is being jointly developed by European pharma heavyweights Sanofi and AstraZeneca. The European Union’s regulator, the European Medicines Agency, has already signed off on the preventative shot.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-what-we-don-t-know">WHAT WE DON’T KNOW</h2>



From the analysis in its briefing, the FDA was keen to hear its advisors’ thoughts on the number of premature births observed in Pfizer’s trials. While the agency’s analysts note the overall incidence of preterm births in the trial—both for vaccine and placebo recipients—was lower than the background rates in all countries where the study was conducted, there was a slightly higher rate among vaccine recipients. This difference, 5.7% in vaccinated pregnant people versus 4.7% in the placebo group (the overall U.S.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/reproductivehealth/features/premature-birth/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">rate</a>&nbsp;is around 10%), was not statistically significant and it is not clear whether the vaccine played a role. The issue is salient, however, and the prospect of preterm births will have already loomed large in the minds of the FDA’s advisors and officials after Pfizer’s rival GlaxoSmithKline (GSK)&nbsp;<a href="https://www.fiercebiotech.com/biotech/advantage-pfizer-gsk-stops-phase-3-trials-maternal-rsv-vaccine-after-seeing-safety-signal" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">halted</a>&nbsp;its own trials of a maternal RSV vaccine after noticing concerning early data&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/381/bmj.p1021" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">involving</a>&nbsp;preterm births and neonatal deaths.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-news-peg">NEWS PEG</h2>



The FDA&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mollybohannon/2023/05/03/fda-approves-first-ever-rsv-vaccine-after-brutal-2022-season/?sh=9bb0aca10b2b">approved</a>&nbsp;an RSV shot from GSK in early May. The agency’s green light marked the culmination of decades of hard work from scientists and followed numerous&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-022-04434-5" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">setbacks</a>. It also marked a major coup for GSK, whose shot, Arexvy, beat out stiff competition from an increasingly crowded&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/04/06/first-fda-approved-rsv-vaccines-expected-later-this-year-the-top-vaccines-and-their-effectiveness/?sh=3c1103815f81">field</a>&nbsp;that includes the likes of Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson &amp; Johnson. If approved, Pfizer’s shot will still mark an important milestone, however, as GSK&#8217;s vaccine is targeted towards older adults ages 60 and up.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-key-background">KEY BACKGROUND</h2>



RSV is a very&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2022/10/28/rsv-infections-are-spiking-among-kids-and-swamping-childrens-hospitals---heres-what-parents-need-to-know/?sh=3b6d8f5c42f5">common respiratory virus</a>&nbsp;and it infects&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/high-risk/infants-young-children.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">almost all</a>&nbsp;people by the time they are two years old. Healthy adults will typically experience nothing more than mild, cold-like symptoms like a runny nose, coughing and fever,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/about/symptoms.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">according</a>&nbsp;to the CDC, and barring any other health issues most will quickly and easily recover. Infection can be more deadly for other groups, however, most notably very young infants, older adults and people with conditions like weakened immune systems. In such people, RSV can be lethal. In young children in the U.S., complications from RSV&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/research/index.html?CDC_AA_refVal=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cdc.gov%2Frsv%2Fresearch%2Fus-surveillance.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">kill</a>&nbsp;between 100 and 300 young children every year and hospitalizes many more. The danger is particularly acute for very young infants, particularly in the first months and years of life, as inflammation and mucus triggered by the infection can be enough to block already small airways. In the U.S., RSV is a much more serious concern among older adults and is&nbsp;<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/rsv/research/us-surveillance.html" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">responsible</a>&nbsp;for 14,000 deaths in people aged 65 years and over each year.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-surprising-fact">SURPRISING FACT</h2>



After malaria, RSV is the&nbsp;<a href="https://academic.oup.com/cid/article/73/Supplement_3/S229/6362482" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">biggest</a>&nbsp;<a href="https://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/vk/rsv" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">killer</a>&nbsp;of young infants worldwide. In 2017 the World Health Organization estimated RSV results in more than 3 million hospitalisations and nearly 60,000 deaths in children under five years old annually. Children under six months accounted for nearly half of this figure.



<h2 class="wp-block-heading" id="h-further-reading">FURTHER READING</h2>



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/roberthart/2023/02/21/first-rsv-vaccine-for-kids-given-to-pregnant-moms-could-arrive-months-early-as-fda-fast-tracks-review/?sh=30e7adc1a281">First RSV Vaccine For Kids—Given To Pregnant Moms—Could Arrive Months Early As FDA Fast-Tracks Review</a>&nbsp;(Forbes)



<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-00212-z" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Will a new wave of RSV vaccines stop the dangerous virus?</a>&nbsp;(Nature)



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/ariannajohnson/2023/02/17/first-fda-approved-rsv-vaccines-expected-later-this-year-the-top-vaccines-and-their-effectiveness/?sh=62990cd87fc1">First FDA-Approved RSV Vaccines Expected Later This Year: The Top Vaccines And Their Effectiveness</a> (Forbes)



By Robert Hart, Forbes Staff

Human respiratory syncytial virus inoculation

RSV Vaccine: FDA Advisors Recommend Pfizer Shot To Protect Infants From Infection—Here’s What To Know

After two months of testing its new natural language-based AI tool&nbsp;<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/rashishrivastava/2023/03/16/microsoft-announces-new-ai-powered-tools-for-its-office-apps/?sh=5edc5d075bce">Copilot</a>&nbsp;with 20 large companies, Microsoft announced an expanded preview of the feature on Tuesday for 600 customers, widening access to a tool embedded in its Office application that was initially met with&nbsp;<a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/17/23644501/microsoft-copilot-ai-office-documents-microsoft-365-report" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">reviews as a game-changer</a>.



The “early access” program will be invitation only and a paid preview that requires an additional fee, said Jared Spataro, Microsoft’s corporate vice president for modern work, who would not share when the tech giant planned to roll out the program more widely to its full customer base, even though “the demand to me seems almost bottomless right now,” Spataro said in an interview with&nbsp;Forbes. “I don’t talk to a customer right now that isn’t interested in it.” The company said it is not disclosing pricing externally.



Spataro said early customers reported Copilot’s meeting tools—the ability to summarize what happened in a missed meeting and act as a real-time assistant while a meeting is going on—have been most frequently cited by early customers as particularly useful. In a blog post, he also identified early feedback Microsoft has gotten on the tool, such as the need for more conversational, multi-step interactions with Copilot.



Asked about concerns that generative AI tools might&nbsp;<a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/ip-law/chatgpt-poised-to-expose-corporate-secrets-cyber-firm-warns" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">expose</a>&nbsp;corporate secrets or customer information—with some employers even instituting&nbsp;<a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-05-02/samsung-bans-chatgpt-and-other-generative-ai-use-by-staff-after-leak" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">bans</a>&nbsp;of ChatGPT’s use following leaks of sensitive data—Spataro said Copilot does not use corporate users’ data to “train” the larger model.



“Everything that happens related to large language models and the use of AI happens within what we call a ‘tenant boundary’” in the Microsoft Cloud, Spataro says. “No data ever leaves your ‘tenant’ and no data is ever used to train the large language models. Even those statements give us a really good foundation with most customers.”



The company, which purchased an exclusive license to the underlying technology behind ChatGPT&nbsp;<a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2020/09/22/microsoft-teams-up-with-openai-to-exclusively-license-gpt-3-language-model/" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">in 2020</a>, also announced a new “semantic index” capability that will require Microsoft 365 users to have its E3 and E5 versions to access Copilot’s capabilities. Rather than finding files by title names or keywords, Microsoft says the feature maps data and uses a conceptual understanding of the data to retrieve it.



Microsoft also announced new features on Copilot such as integrating DALL-E, OpenAI’s image generator, into PowerPoint and adding AI-powered coaching tips in Outlook to improve email writing, an enhancement that could help workers struggling with the “digital debt” phenomenon Microsoft identified in its&nbsp;annual&nbsp;<a href="https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/worklab/work-trend-index" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">Work Trend Index</a>, the results of which it also released Tuesday.



The report, which surveyed 31,000 people in 31 countries and analyzed data from Microsoft 365, found that 68% of respondents said they don’t have enough uninterrupted time during the workday to focus. It also found that nearly 60% of users’ time spent in Microsoft 365 is using communication tools like Outlook or Teams, with just over 40% being used for actually producing work with tools like Excel or Word. The heaviest email users, the analysis found, spend nearly nine hours a week on email, while the most prolific Teams users spend 7.5 hours a week in meetings.



Respondents cited ineffective meetings—not too many meetings—as their biggest obstacle to productivity in the survey. Microsoft, of course, hopes its customers will add on AI features that will help change that. “What many people are feeling now is it takes work to do work,” Spataro says.



<a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jenamcgregor/"></a>By Jena McGregor, Forbes Staff

Logo Photo Illustration

Microsoft Expands Copilot AI Tool To 600 Customers In Paid Preview As ‘Digital Debt’ Weighs On Workers

By Paula Slier



The humanitarian crisis in Sudan is worsening by the day and within the first month of violence, erupting on April 15, at least 700 people have been killed&#8230;and counting. Those fighting vow to do so until death–or at least until they’re exhausted or one of the sides has a military breakthrough.



Pitted against each other are the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Lieutenant General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), controlled by Mohamed Hamdan ‘Hemedti’ Dagalo. In their fight to control the country, the two generals are seemingly committed to destroying each other which is why observers don’t foresee an end to the conflict any time soon.



Sudan was one of the first African countries to gain independence from British rule after World War II, but its governance has always been compromised and is reflected in the country’s numerous civil wars. The latest violence can be traced directly back to the ousting of former military officer and head of state, Omar Hassan Ahmad al-Bashir, in 2019, that was coordinated by the RSF and the SAF. But a power-sharing deal between the generals soon turned into a deadly power struggle.



RSF is a proxy militia that was historically used against the people of Sudan in marginalized regions. They’ve reportedly been found guilty of mass killings and rapes, pillage, torture, and the destruction of villages. Its key leaders have been indicted by the International Criminal Court of genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.



Since the start of the current conflict, a variety of voices with different motives and backgrounds have called for the continuation of the war, in the belief that this will eliminate the RSF once and for all. In the eyes of many members of Bashir’s former regime, the RSF represents the main obstacle preventing them from re-seizing power.



Peace talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, have so far failed to end the violence. Brokered by Riyadh and Washington, thousands of foreign nationals have been ferried out of the country. Sudanese journalist Mohamed Amen is following the talks and says: “Recent strides towards a ceasefire open the passage for relief aid in many parts of Sudan, especially Darfur…Amid all these tensions, people are still fleeing the capital Khartoum and other parts of the country. The humanitarian situation in Khartoum continues to deteriorate because of the fighting that is still continuing. The lack of food, the cutting off of water and electricity, and the shortage of fuel and other basic needs are mainly caused by the two sides not honoring the various ceasefires that were previously put in place.”



The humanitarian situation is nothing short of catastrophic. The conflict has driven many to seek refuge in neighboring countries. Hospitals are under pressure. Many are without water and electricity and have been vandalized. Health practitioners’ and patients’ lives are also in danger and Sudanese doctors are warning of a healthcare crisis. A call for humanitarian aid has so far delivered too little to salvage the situation.



The war has also left many jobless and exacerbated an already deflated economy.



Homes have been destroyed, families torn apart and many civilians have looted shops in a desperate effort to get some food.



Sadly, the instability is also creating new opportunities for armed groups and there are reports of them taking over laboratories for infectious diseases. Former staff are worried there might be a bio-risk if they open and sabotage fridges.



Sudanese civil wars are rooted in the historical context of the country, with the first one breaking out in 1955 to 1972.Until today, the second Sudanese civil war (1983-2005) remains one of the longest civil wars to ever erupt in Africa. Although it led to South Sudan eventually gaining independence from Khartoum, it left poverty and dependency on foreign aid in its wake. The latest conflict only exacerbates the situation, with infrastructure now even more dilapidated, poverty even worse and Sudanese people in greater despair.

Tag: South Africa

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