ANGOLAN PRESIDENT CALLS FOR AN END TO EXCESSIVE USE OF FORCE IN DEMONSTRATIONS

 Angolan head of State João Lourenço said Thursday in Luanda that the demonstration should not degenerate into violence.

The president was speaking at the youth consultation meeting, stressing that there is no need for violence, either by demonstrators or authorities.

However, he recalled that everything is relative and depends on the behavior of citizens, who should not commit excesses, as happened in recent protests.

At the time, he discouraged rallies on the public road with more than five people, saying that social gatherings fuel Covid-19 emerges. "The Executive does not ban demonstrations.

The Executive prohibits gatherings ", he clarified. According to João Lourenço," if the demonstration is tantamount to a public gathering, it should obvious not be allowed, otherwise it will contribute to the spread of the Covid-19 virus throughout the national territory " .

The President underlined that, internally, it is the Executive's obligation to prevent Covid-19's progression from spiraling out of control.

João Lourenço called for collaboration of Angolan society to prevent the country's health system from collapsing, in the face of Covid-19.

The president considered the meeting with the youth an alternative way to avoid violating the Presidential Decree.

The Angolan Head of State was speaking at the meeting with representatives of various Angolan Youth.

Similar meetings took place in July and October last year, respectively in the cities of Soyo (Zaire) and Kuito (Bie).

ANGOLA’S LOCAL ELECTIONS UNLIKELY TO TAKE PLACE BY 2021

 Angolan President of the Republic João Lourenço said Thursday that the country is unlikely to hold the first municipal elections in 2021, due to the lack of completion of some tasks related to the process.

The president said so at the youth consultation meeting, having clarified that the local elections require complete legislative package, as well as conduct unofficial and in-person electoral registration.

Among the tasks, the president spoke of the need to establish the residence of citizens, the completion of the process of political-administrative division.

João Lourenço underlined that the National Electoral Commission (CNE) must issue an opinion, addressed to the President of the Republic, in which it declares that conditions have been created for municipal elections.

However, the Angolan statesman pledged the Executive’s commitment to municipal elections.

The President Joao Lourenço held similar meetings in July and October last year in Soyo (Zaire) and Kuito (Bie).

ANGOLA: 13.4 BILLION SET ASIDE FOR ENDEMIC DISEASES - EXECUTIVE

 The minister of Finance, Vera Daves, assured last Thursday, in Luanda, that the General State Budget (OGE) for the coming financial year sets aside, for great endemic diseases, an amount of 13.4 billion kwanzas (US $ 20.7million) and an additional 142 billion kwanzas (US $ 218.1million) for possible purchase of Covid-19 vaccines.

The official, who was speaking at the National Assembly in the ambit of the analysis, discussion and voting n the OGE for the 2021 financial year, said she took good note that parliamentarians have already internalized the awareness that there is little room to make the budget grow without aggravating the pressure on public accounts.

She clarified that what managers are asked to do is restructure their form of management, taking into account that there is little fiscal space and limited financial resources to meet the expectations.

The Executive recognizes the importance of dialogue with the social partners, within the current procedures, in the preparation of the OGE, which this year was reviewed.

She added that the situation with Covid-19 made the timings more challenging for the economic team and, therefore, procedures that had already been established were not fully implemented.

COVID-19: ANGOLA REGISTERS 99 NEW INFECTIONS AND 100 RECOVERIES

 The Angolan health authorities announced, last Thursday, the registration, in the last 24 hours, 99 new infections, 100 patients recovered and one death.

According to the secretary of State for Public Health, Franco Mufinda, who spoke at the usual Covid-19 data update session in the country, he pointed out also that the new infections involve citizens whose ages range from two months to 77 years, 65 being male and 34 female.

According to the official, there are 46 cases diagnosed in the province of Luanda, 21 in Huambo, 14 in Cunene, 7 in Cuanza Sul, 4 in Malanje and Cabinda, 2 in Uíge and 1 in Moxico.

Regarding the recovered patients, 34 are from Huíla, 32 from Luanda, 17 from Malanje, 13 from Huambo, 3 from Lunda Sul and 1 from Cuanza Sul, aged between 2 to 63 years.

On the death, Franco Mufinda informed that she is a 63-year-old Angolan citizen that resided in Luanda.

Angola registers 14,920 positive cases so far, 341 deaths, 7,617 recovered and 6,962 active cases (diseased).

Of the diseased, 7 are in critical condition with invasive mechanical ventilation, 13 severe, 175 moderate, 185 with mild symptoms and 6,582 asymptomatic.

The health authorities are also taking care of 380 patients admitted to treatment centers in the country.

PRESIDENT JOÃO LOURENÇO TRAVELS TO GABON

 The President of the Republic, João Lourenço, has left the Angolan capital heading to Gabon, where he will participate in the eighteenth Summit of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS).

At the 4 de Fevereiro International Airport, the Head of State was bid farewell by the Vice President of the Republic, Bornito de Sousa, members of the government and office aides.

In Libreville, João Lourenço will witness the transition from the ECCAS presidency from the Gabonese Head of State, Ali Bongó, to his Congolese counterpart Dennis Sassou Nguessou.

The contributions of the member states, the organization's budget for 2021, and the activity report of the ECCAS Commission, a body that is now headed by Angolan Gilberto Veríssimo, are some of the documents that will be analyzed at the Libreville Summit.

The Head of State is due back home this Friday.

AfCFTA Secretariat rolls out “Vision” initiative backed by “super-app”

 With barely two weeks left to the Extraordinary Summit of African Union Heads of State on December 5, 2020, ahead of the expected start of trading under AfCFTA on 1st January 2021, the AfCFTA Secretariat is pleased to announce AfCFTA Vision, an initiative in partnership with the Sankoree Institute, an affiliate of AfroChampions.

In addition to building a community of visionaries (the “AfCFTA Visioneers”) and creating a platform for knowledge creation and sharing to help accelerate the pace of implementation of AfCFTA, the initiative also creates room for entrepreneurial contests to find investable solutions that can propel AfCFTA to success with the backing of the continent's development finance institutions.

Major African DFIs and other visionary financial institutions such as TDB, Africa50, AfDB, AFC, Equity Bank, Ecobank and Afreximbank will serve as the institutional jury for the AfCFTA Vision Challenge.

Compelling solutions to challenges posed by some of Africa’s foremost political leaders, and analyzed by leading continental thinkers, in 8 identified issue areas submitted ahead of the two deadlines of 30th November and 22nd December stand a chance of securing syndicated investment from these leading institutions.

Innovators and doers of all stripes, committed to the ideal AfCFTA, are therefore encouraged to submit their plans through the online portal (https://www.afcfta.blog/challenge).

AfCFTA’s success shall however require more than brilliant solutions from Africa’s finest minds and doers. It shall require more intense connections among problem-solvers, infrastructure to bridge gaps and differences, and vast material resources.

The role of the AfCFTA Secretariat is to coordinate capacity that already exists on the continent in order to generate the necessary momentum. Digital technology can play a critical role in this quest due to its leveling function and exponential network creation ability.

Above all, digital technology has become one of the most efficient ways to bring large but marginalized communities like Small, Medium & Micro Enterprises (SMMEs), youth, women and the informal sector into the productive sectors of an integrated African company.

Thus, a major component of the AfCFTA Vision Initiative is a suite of apps (or collectively, a “super-app”) that shall serve as the base for a continental business registry, trade directory, cross-border trade facilitation network, and a dashboard for the private sector to interact with the upcoming Africa Trade Observatory (for beta access, visit: www.afcfta.app).

As an integral part of the AfCFTA Digital Strategy, and building on top of the AVRIVA (www.avriva.org) program developed to support the AU's Open Corridor Initiative, the AfCFTA App offers a free “trusted identity” (known as the “AfCFTA Number ”) to every AfCFTA Actor, as well as a range of complementary tools to discover opportunities made available to all economic actors throughout the continent in the wake of AfCFTA.

The partners are of the view that all the components of the AfCFTA Vision Initiative work seamlessly together to boost the chances of a spectacularly successful AfCFTA rollout.

About AfCFTA Secretariat

The AfCFTA Secretariat is a creation of the AfCFTA Agreement tasked with the responsibility of coordinating the successful implementation of the Agreement.

The Secretariat operates as an autonomous organ of the African Union charged with implementing the decisions of the higher organs of the body in respect of the wide array of areas covered by the Agreement, ranging from industrialization to intellectual Property, and from trade in professional services to harmonization of standards for manufactured goods.

About Sankoree Institute

An affiliate of the AfroChampions Initiative and other leading pan-African institutions, the Sankoree Institute brings together many of Africa's most passionate and eminent leaders, thinkers, and doers to reimagine all the best paths to a strong, globally influential, integrated, and prosperous Africa .

Sankoree leads the charge in experimentation, exploration, prototyping and execution of the best ideas resulting from robust, rigorous, and action-oriented dialogue, analysis and design-thinking

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Source: Myjoyonline

Libya’s rival forces have stopped shooting, but they’re not pulling back

 In Libya’s frontline city of Sirte, parts of which still lie in ruins, the commission set up to oversee warring rivals ’recent ceasefire has put its name on a large downtown conference center - an outward sign of its commitment to peace.

So far the ceasefire is holding, and some elements of the truce have been implemented: flights between rival cities Tripoli and Benghazi have summarized and foreign fighters have left oil facilities - the keys to Libya’s economy.

But meetings of the Joint Military Commission in northern Libya, attended by five officers each from the two sides, have yet to make progress on other key demands of a U.N.-brokered agreement, underlining its fragility.

The rivals in a civil war that has left thousands dead and the country in chaos have yet to withdraw troops from frontline positions, open a major coastal road linking Sirte to Misrata and rid their ranks of foreign mercenaries.

“The danger won’t end unless the process of national reconciliation is completed,” said Mohammed Mofteh, 33, the head of a charity in Sirte, summing up widespread public skepticism about permanent peace.

Since the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA) drove Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) back from the capital Tripoli in June, the shooting has given way to political jostling.

The U.N.-led diplomatic effort has set a roadmap to elections at the end of next year and implemented an audit of the central bank, which is split between the sides.

The 75 participants in a U.N.-led political dialogue, which is separate from the military commission’s work, also have a Dec. 24, 2021 election date. But they have not agreed on a unified transitional government needed to oversee the vote.

Progress in those political talks slowed when they turned to the question of who would be on the new presidential council and the prime minister, said Hamad al-Bandaq, an eastern-based member of parliament who took part.

“We reached a stumbling block, which is the choice of who will be in the presidential council and government,” he said.

Beyond the GNA and LNA's involvement in the peace process, their foreign backers - Turkey in the case of the GNA and Russia, the UAE and Egypt in the case of the LNA - also support it, although they, too, have invested heavily in the conflict.

Some of their military and economic interests could be lost or reversed under a new unified government.

Situated near Libya’s main oil terminals, and seen as the gateway to the OPEC producer’s “oil crescent”, Sirte - now under the control of the LNA - was a major prize in the civil war.

Its domed Ouagadougou Conference Center, an undamaged part of which is now the Joint Military Commission headquarters, serves as a reminder of what is at stake.

The biggest building Muammar Gaddafi gave to his hometown, the center hosted the 2009 African Union summit. But it is pitted with bullet and shrapnel marks from a battle in the 2011 uprising that toppled the former leader.

After Islamic State seized Sirte in 2015, its black flag was painted onto the center. Today a new banner for the commission hangs where GNA and LNA negotiators hash out details of their October ceasefire.

They have pledged to remove foreign mercenaries from Libya by late January, pull forces back from forward positions and open the road across frontlines.

But U.N. acting Libya envoy Stephanie Williams last week told the Security Council the GNA was still patrolling, the LNA setting up new fortifications and both sides landing cargo planes at bases they have used to resupply.

A Western diplomat focused on Libya said the two sides had asked for only limited outside monitoring of the ceasefire - a sign they may not plan new withdrawals until the political situation is clearer.

In Sirte, queues of up to 50 cars at petrol stations point to the hardships of life near the frontline. Living conditions in Tripoli and the eastern center of Benghazi this summer led to widespread protests.

Williams has said this public frustration will aid the push for a deal. The U.N. process helped resolve an eight-month LNA blockade of oil exports which aggravated economic problems in both east and west.

The third strand of talks beyond the military commission and the political process is economic negotiations. There, too, the tussle, particularly over the National Oil Company and Central Bank of Libya, continues.