Tuesday 29 Oct, 2024 {HMC} Morocco’s King Mohammed VI welcomed French President Emmanuel Macron to Morocco on Monday, kicking off a state visit with a series of bilateral agreements, including major investments in renewable energy and transportation.

Macron’s trip to Morocco — his first in six years — comes as immigrants, including North Africans, face continued scrutiny in France and while France reassesses its role in its former colonies throughout Africa. Morocco has historically been a key economic and security partner, but relations between the two countries have often been fragile.

Among the objectives of Macron’s visit, the Elysee Palace said, is “to rebuild the exceptional partnership that links our two countries.”

French and Moroccan flags on Monday flew throughout the capital, where crowds lined the streets to watch the motorcade containing Macron, his wife and members of Morocco’s royal family drive to one of their palaces.

Macron and Mohammed VI, who used a cane to walk, later oversaw a ceremonial signing of 22 agreements to facilitate future investments as well as cultural and scientific partnerships. The investments are worth a total of 10 billion euros and include expanding Morocco’s high-speed rail line southward to Marrakech, which the country hopes to complete before it holds events for the FIFA World Cup in 2030.

Also included were plans to develop green hydrogen, wind farms and water projects, which Morocco has identified as needed to help insulate the country from the effects of climate change.

In the days leading up to the visit, Moroccan publications lauded the “warm reunion” and a “new honeymoon” between the two countries.

Warmer ties

Macron changed France’s long-standing public position and backed Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara. Doing so endeared France to Morocco but alienated it from Algeria, which hosts refugee camps governed by the pro-independence Polisario Front and considers Morocco an occupying power.

France and Morocco have historically partnered on issues ranging from counterterrorism to migration. Morocco is the top destination for French investment in Africa and France is Morocco’s top trade partner. Morocco imports French cereals, weapons and renewable energy infrastructure, like turbines. France imports goods from Morocco including tomatoes, cars and airplane parts.

Moroccans are among the largest foreign-born communities in France, where North African immigrants are a key political constituency and a focal point of debates about the roles of Islam and immigration in French society.

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, a member of the French delegation in Morocco this week, has pushed for the country to take a hard-line approach toward immigration and seek deals with countries like Morocco to better prevent would-be migrants from crossing into Europe.

On Macron’s last visit to Morocco, he and King Mohammed VI inaugurated Al Boraq, Africa’s first high-speed rail line, made possible by French financing and trains manufactured by the French firm Alstrom. The rail line currently functions from central to northern Morocco, running from Kenitra to Tangiers. The extension will more than double its length.

Despite close ties, relations have at times been fragile between France and Morocco, which was a French protectorate from 1912 to 1956. In 2021, Morocco suspended consular relations after France momentarily reduced the number of visas offered to Moroccans in protest of its refusal to provide documents needed to deport people who migrated to France without authorization. France later reversed the decision.

Relations between the two countries soured further that year, when a 2021 report revealed Morocco’s security services had used Israeli spyware to infiltrate the devices of activists and politicians, including Macron. Morocco denied and sued over the allegations.

SOURCE VOA

Tuesday 29 Oct, 2024 {HMC} Botswanan opposition activists took to the streets of capital Gaborone over the weekend ahead of general elections set for this Wednesday. They wanted to march to Zimbabwe’s embassy with a petition that voiced concerns the neighboring country is conspiring to help Botswana’s ruling party extend its 58-year hold on power. But the marchers did not reach their destination.

The weekend march was organized by a coalition of opposition parties under the Umbrella for Democratic Change, or UDC.

But police, wielding guns, batons and shields pushed back the marchers and barricaded roads, forcing them to disperse.

UDC representative Phenyo Butale read out the petition despite the failed effort to reach the Zimbabwean Embassy. The petition urged Zimbabwe not to interfere in Botswana’s election.

Butale told VOA there have been reports Zimbabwe wants to aid the ruling Botswana Democratic Party, or BDP, by helping it rig this Wednesday’s election. The party has been in power since 1966. Its candidate, President Mokgweetsi Masisi, is seeking a second term. He faces three challengers.

“We decided to march to the Zimbabwe Embassy because we have been receiving credible information that there is an attempt by the Zimbabwean government to assist their friends here, the ruling party in Botswana, through clandestine means,” Butale said.

He said the police were not supposed to prevent them from marching to the embassy.

“We were met by brute force,” he said. “Heavily armed police blocked the way and said we cannot go to the embassy; we need a permit. We told them that our interpretation of the law is that the process of asking for a permit is not because we need permission to enjoy our freedom of expression; the purpose is for the police to facilitate us and ensure our safety.”

Police said that for a demonstration to take place the organizers must obtain a permit first.

But political analyst Zibani Maundeni, a professor at the University of Botswana, says the police’s actions could be viewed as political.

“The police have to be a neutral body,” Maundeni said. “If people organize a peaceful demonstration, there is no reason it should be stopped. In many countries in the region, the police have been a problem, acting in favor of the ruling party.”

Meanwhile, the ruling BDP has denied claims it is working with Zimbabwe’s ruling ZANU-PF party to win the elections.

Equally, ZANU-PF spokesperson Farai Marapira said there is no truth in the Botswana opposition’s allegations.

“We do not interfere in the internal activities of any other country, Marapira said. “We do not interfere in the processes. We respect the electoral processes in different countries, and we support what the people of those countries will have decided on. This is just absurd and an insult to ZANU-PF and an insult to the people of Botswana themselves.”

The handling of early voting in Botswana has also been criticized, with reports saying some polling stations ran out of ballot papers.

Masisi is a former vice president. He took office in 2018 after he was handpicked to succeed President Ian Khama, who stepped down that year. Masisi was officially elected in 2019 to a five-year term.

SOURCE VOA

Tuesday 29 Oct, 2024 {HMC}  Guinea authorities dissolved dozens of political parties and placed two major opposition ones under observation late Monday, while the transitional government has yet to announce a date for elections.

The West African country has been led by a military regime since soldiers ousted President Alpha Conde in 2021. The West African regional bloc known as ECOWAS has pushed for a return to civilian rule and elections are scheduled for 2025.

The mass dissolution of 53 political parties and required observation of 54 others for three months is unprecedented in Guinea, which held its first democratic election in 2010 after decades of authoritarian rule. The Ministry of Territorial Administration and Decentralization announced the moves based on an evaluation of all political parties begun in June. The evaluation was meant to “clean up the political chessboard,” according to the ministry.

The 67 parties that will be under observation for three months can operate normally but must resolve irregularities noted in the report. Those parties include the Rally of the Guinean People, which is the party of former President Alpha Condé, and another major opposition party, the Union of Democratic Forces of Guinea.

The authorities said the parties placed under observation failed to hold their party congress within the time limit and to provide bank statements, among other issues.

Guinea is one of a growing number of West African countries, including Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, where the military has taken power and delayed a return to civilian rule. Earlier this year, the military junta in Burkina Faso extended its transition term by five years.

Col. Mamadi Doumbouya, who leads Guinea, overran the president three years ago, saying he was preventing the country from slipping into chaos and chastised the previous government for broken promises.

However, since coming to power he’s been criticized by some for being no better than his predecessor.

In February, the military leader dissolved the government without explanation, saying a new one will be appointed.

Doumbouya has rebuffed attempts by the West and other developed countries to intervene in Africa’s political challenges, saying Africans are “exhausted by the categorizations with which everyone wants to box us in.”

SOURCE VOA