Africa

Archived

In a concerning development on the cyber-espionage front, China-linked threat actor APT41 has been attributed to a new targeted campaign that infiltrates government IT infrastructure across Africa. The attackers used advanced techniques including command execution, credential harvesting, DLL side-loading, and covert command-and-control (C2) communication through internal systems like SharePoint servers.

While APT41 has a long-standing history of cyberattacks against global organizations across sectors such as energy, healthcare, telecom, and education, this is one of the few known large-scale campaigns that focuses on African targets—an area traditionally considered outside their operational focus.

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This espionage campaign [...] represents a sophisticated intrusion that combines both custom-built and publicly available tools. It involves multiple attack stages: from initial access using Impacket modules, to privilege escalation via credential theft, to command execution using a compromised internal SharePoint server.

APT41’s strategy showcases a blend of traditional malware deployment and living-off-the-land (LotL) techniques, where trusted system tools and internal services are repurposed for malicious activities—making detection far more difficult.

The attackers demonstrated advanced knowledge of the victim’s infrastructure by embedding hardcoded IP addresses, internal service names, and proxy servers within their malware. The use of SharePoint as a C2 server is particularly unique, allowing the attackers to remain under the radar within internal network traffic.

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A two-year investigation into 139 complaints lodged by communities in Africa and Asia affected by tropical plantation company Socfin has confirmed that many of the allegations are at least partly valid, according to a statement released by a collective of 33 civil society organizations from around the world.

archived (Wayback Machine)

https://archive.ph/LdvBg

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/20289846

More than 3,600 households displaced from their homes alongside the site of an oil pipeline under construction in Uganda have rightfully complained of being inadequately rehoused or compensated, a report published by Haki Defenders Foundation, a Kampala, Uganda-based rights group, and the University of Sheffield in the UK, has found.

The EACOP project is a joint venture between the governments of Uganda and Tanzania with French oil company TotalEnergies, and China National Offshore Oil Corporation.

While the project has been touted by project owners as important for the region’s economy, the Haki Defenders Foundation, led by Executive Director Leah Munokoh, and the Urban Institute at the University of Sheffield, say the $5 billion project, has raised significant concerns due to community displacement, environmental damage, and human rights violations.

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For the first time in its history, Canada has unveiled a comprehensive Africa strategy, marking a significant milestone in the Canadian approach to engaging with the African continent.

Launched on March 6 by Liberal MP Rob Oliphant, the parliamentary secretary to the foreign affairs minister, the strategy represents a crucial step towards a more coherent and intentional relationship with Africa.

Authors:

• David J Hornsby | Professor of International Affairs and the Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President (Academic), Carleton University
• David Black | Professor of International Relations and Development, Dalhousie University
• Edward Akuffo | Associate Professor and Department Head, Political Science, University of The Fraser Valley
• Thomas Kwasi Tieku | Professor of Politics and International Relations, King's University College, Western University

Cross posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/17450686

Sexual violence, as defined by the World Health Organization (WHO), includes any sexual act or attempt to obtain sex through coercion, regardless of the relationship between the parties. This encompasses rape, unwanted sexual touching, and non-contact forms of sexual violence.

One of the factors that differentiates healthy intimate partner sex from violent sexual encounters is consent: the voluntary, ongoing agreement to engage in sexual activity. It is essential in every sexual act, regardless of relationship status or prior interactions. And it can be withdrawn at any time.

Yet, deeply rooted cultural and societal beliefs continue to shape how consent is understood. A new wide-ranging study conducted by South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council sheds light on the scale of the issue. The results offer a sobering look at how South African women’s autonomy in sexual matters is often dismissed or undermined.

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7.9% women had experienced sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. That means an estimated 1.1 million women in South Africa have experienced sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. And, 7.5% of male participants self-reported that they’d perpetrated sexual intimate partner violence in their lifetime. This translates to an estimated 917, 395 men who have sexually violated a partner. These grim statistics cannot be ignored.

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Archived version

Journalist Ephrem Yalike took part in the relentless disinformation regime Russia employs in the Central African Republic. After narrowly escaping death while under interrogation by his case officer, he fled his country. For the first time, he tells the inside story of Russia’s campaign to influence public opinion: a secret network you can only leave at the risk of your life.

• Central African journalist Ephrem Yalike offers evidence revealing the underbelly of Russian disinformation campaigns in the Central African Republic, in which he himself took part.
• Africa Politology, a secret organization belonging to the “Prigozhin galaxy,” uses Central African journalists to manipulate public opinion in the country.
• Among those in charge of coordinating disinformation campaigns is Mikhaïl Mikhaïlovitch Prudnikov, a close associate of the Wagner Group who worked on behalf of Moscow in Sudan before influencing public opinion in the Central African Republic.

Russia has vetoed a UN Security Council resolution calling for an immediate halt to hostilities in Sudan, where a brutal conflict between two rival generals continues unabated.

The draft of the resolution, prepared by Britain and Sierra Leone, called for the warring Sudanese Armed Forces and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces to “engage, in good faith, in dialogue to agree steps to de-escalate the conflict with the aim of urgently agreeing a national ceasefire”.

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Shame on [Russian President Vladimir] for using his mercenaries to spread conflict and violence across the African continent and shame on Putin for pretending to be a partner of the Global South while condemning black Africans to further killing, further rape,” [Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy] said.

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Since April last year, Sudan has been ravaged by fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces – headed by Gen Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, who seized power in a 2021 coup – and the Rapid Support Forces, led by Gen Al Burhan's one-time deputy, Gen Mohamed Dagalo.

The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 11 million people, including 3.1 million who have fled the country, according to UN data.

The humanitarian toll is severe, with 26 million facing acute food shortages and both sides facing accusations of sexual violence.

Archived link

Kenya is hosting unprecedented lawsuits against Meta Inc., the parent company of Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Mercy Mutemi, who made last year’s TIME 100 list, is a Nairobi-based lawyer who is leading the cases. She spends her days thinking about what our consumption of digital products should look like in the next 10 years. Will it be extractive and extortionist, or will it be beneficial? What does it look like from an African perspective?

Question: Behind the legal battle with Meta are workers and their conditions. What challenges do they face in these tech roles, particularly content moderation?

Mercy Mutemi: Content moderators in Kenya face horrendous conditions. They’re often misled about the nature of the work, not warned that the work is going to be dangerous for them. There’s no adequate care provided to look after these workers, and they’re not paid well enough. And they’ve created this ecosystem of fear — it’s almost like this special Stockholm syndrome has been created where you know what you’re going through is really bad, but you’re so afraid of the NDA that you just would rather not speak up.

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Content moderation work, annotation work, and algorithm training, [...] in its very nature involves a lot of exposure to harmful content. That work is dumped on Kenya. Kenya says it’s interested in digital development, but what Kenya ends up getting is work that poses serious risks, rather than meaningful investment in its people or infrastructure.

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When the initial version of ChatGPT was released, it had lots of sexual violence in it. So to clean up an algorithm like that, you just teach it all the worst kinds of sexual violence [...] if you ask ChatGPT to show you the worst rape that could ever happen, there are now metrics in place that tell it not to give out this information because it’s been taught to recognize what it’s being asked for. And that’s thanks to Kenyan youth whose mental health is now toast, and whose life has been compromised completely

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Big Tech is not planting any roots in the country [of Kenya] when it comes to hiring people to moderate content or train algorithms for AI. They’re not really investing in the country in the sense that there’s no actual person to hold liable should anything go south. There’s no registered office in Kenya for companies like Meta, TikTok, OpenAI.

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Instead, what you have are these middlemen. They’re called Business Process Outsourcing, or BPOs [...] It’s almost like they’re agents of big tech companies. So they will do big tech’s bidding. If the big tech says jump, then they jump. So we find ourselves in this situation where these companies purely exist for the cover of escaping liability.

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[The workers'] mental health is destroyed – and there are often no measures in place to protect their well-being or respect them as workers. And then it’s their job to figure out how to get out of that rut because they still are a breadwinner in an African context, and they still have to work, right? And in this community where mental health isn’t the most spoken-about thing, how do you explain to your parents that you can’t work?

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I think when you give people work for a period of time and those people can’t work again because their mental health is destroyed, that doesn’t look like lifting people out of poverty to me. That looks like entrenching the problem further because you’ve destroyed not just one person.

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MM: Let me just be very categorical. My position is not that this work shouldn’t be coming into Kenya. But it can’t be the way it is now, where companies get to say “either you take our work and take it as horrible as it is with no care, and we exploit you to our satisfaction, or we, or we leave.” No. You can have dangerous work done in Kenya, but with appropriate level of care, with respect, and upholding the rights of these workers. It’s going to be a long journey to achieve justice.

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[Edit typo.]

Africa is losing up to $4.2 billion annually in interest payments on its loans due to stereotypical narratives that dominate global media coverage of the continent, study says

Biased media coverage imposes on African nations a significant cost burden, particularly during electoral periods, ultimately deterring foreign direct investment (FDI) in a continent known for its low default rates and high returns in strategic sectors, research by the 'Africa No Filter' and 'Africa Practice' finds.

The study used academic estimates indicating that media sentiment can influence borrowing interest rates by up to 10%, with a 10% improvement leading to a 1% decrease in rates.

• Negative narratives dominate the discourse around African elections compared to non-African countries with similar risk profiles. Fir example, 88% of media articles about Kenya during its election period were reported as negative, compared to only 48% for Malaysia, which affects Kenya's ability to attract foreign investments​.
• African countries consistently face higher bond yields, with Egypt having an average bond yield of 15%, compared to Thailand’s 2.5%
• Improved media sentiment could reduce borrowing interest rates by up to 1%, translating to potential savings of $4.2 billion annually across the continent. This amount could fund the education of over 12 million children, provide immunizations for more than 73 million children, or ensure clean drinking water for two-thirds of Nigeria’s population.

The report emphasises that while Eurobond debt servicing constitutes only 6% of Africa’s financing portfolio, further exploration into other financial inflows is essential to fully understand the extent of the ‘prejudice premium’ affecting African nations.

The findings underline the need for a recalibration of global media representations of Africa, urging for more accurate portrayals that reflect the continent’s diverse realities. The study serves as a clarion call for stakeholders in both media and finance to work collaboratively towards fostering a more equitable representation of Africa. By addressing these biases, substantial investment can be unlocked.

Here is more information: https://www.stopeacop.net/

A group of 28 NGOs have written to 34 banks, insurance companies and the Chinese government, urging them to deny financing and other support for oil and gas projects in Uganda.

The letters, written by U.S.-based Climate Rights International (CRI) and 27 Africa-based NGOs, follow a report detailing numerous human rights violations and environmental harms at the Kingfisher oil project sites in Uganda. Similarly, Uganda’s Tilenga oil fields also face scrutiny over their ecological and social harms, including impacts on wildlife and displacement of local communities.

Both Kingfisher and Tilenga are co-owned by French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies, the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company Uganda Ltd. (CNOOC), and the Uganda National Oil Company (UNOC). Both projects are also part of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline initiative (EACOP), where TotalEnergies is a major partner. The initiave aims to transport oil and gas from Uganda to Tanzania for export.

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Major banks and insurance companies in Europe, Japan and North America have ruled out support for the projects, he added. “Now it’s time for all banks and insurance companies, whether in Europe, China, the Gulf States, Africa, or elsewhere, to publicly rule out any continuing or further support.”

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--Comment by Siguru Wahutu, Professor of Media and Genocide, New York University, and David Cheruiyot, Assistant Professor of Journalism and Media Studies, University of Groningen--

There are some positive developments regarding how Africa is being reported internationally. But an ongoing cultural change is needed, mainly in the ways news is produced. This calls for rethinking journalism training and shifting to more community-oriented approaches of reporting.

And, in this rethink, should African media should not also be taking stock of their own damaging historical role in supporting colonial interests and global north perspectives?

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It’s critical for minority world countries to reckon with a dark history of colonisation, slavery, genocide or racial discrimination. But there is also the question of how – or even if – this is something that news organisations and professionals in Africa themselves need to reckon with.

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Archived version

“It is only through collective action that we can ensure a sustainable future for all,” Russell Mmiso Dlamini, Prime Minister of Eswatini, stressed.

“Ironically, Taiwan and its 23.5 million people continue to be left by the United Nations and its specialized agencies,” he continued, calling for their inclusion, so that they can also fully participate in global development.

“There is a need to reconsider the operations of the multilateral institutions such as the IMF [International Monetary Fund] and the World Bank and particularly the Security Council,” he stressed, recalling that in 2005, his country hosted the African Union meeting that resulted in the Ezulwini Consensus which articulated Africa’s common position on the reform of the UN. “We urge the global community to implement these long-standing commitments and ensure that all regions and peoples have a voice in shaping our collective future,” he said.

He also condemned all forms of violence and supported efforts aimed at silencing the guns across the world, particularly in Africa. As his country continues to grapple with significant health challenges, he called for collaborative efforts in strengthening health systems, enhancing disease surveillance and building capacity for rapid response to health emergencies.

Archived version

The Government of Uganda had dragged 80 people in different parts of Lwengo, Kyotera and Rakai districts to court for rejecting compensation fees for their pieces of land that are onn the demarcated route of the East African Crude Oil Pipeline-EACOP project.

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Cosma Yiga, one of the [defendants who refuse to give their land] accuses the government of favouring the interests of the oil company at the expense of the nationals, arguing that they are still grieved with the little money allocated to them.

Yiga, who according to the project design will lose about 2.7 acres of land planted with coffee, banana, and coffee plantations, dozens of mangoes, and jackfruit trees was allocated a compensation of 43.6 million shillings, a figure which he says is too little compare to the value of the property.

He alleges that although some Project-Affected Persons signed consent forms to give out the land, the majority are dissatisfied with rates and are struggling to rebuild their livelihoods.

The government and partners are undertaking to construct a 30-meter-wide and 1,443-kilometer-long pipeline which will transport Uganda’s crude oil from Hoima to the Chongoleani peninsular in Tanzania for export to the international market.

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French oil giant Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation are on the cusp of building a massive crude oil pipeline right through the heart of Africa – displacing communities, endangering wildlife and tipping the world closer to full-blown climate catastrophe.

The African initiative StopEACOP, supported by several international NGOs, has been fighting against tbe project, saying the East African Crude Oil Pipeline needs to be stopped and we have a plan to do exactly that.

Olympic marathon runner Rebecca Cheptegei, who was set ablaze by her former boyfriend and later died has been buried in her father's homestead in eastern Uganda.

As she was also a member of Uganda's armed forces, soldiers carried the coffin and she was given a three-volley salute.

Dickson Ndiema attacked Cheptegei with petrol just under a fortnight ago outside her home in neighbouring north-west Kenya, close to where she trained.

The 33-year-old's killing, and its brutal nature, left her family distraught and shocked many others across the world.

It underscored the high levels of violence against women in Kenya and the fact that several female athletes have been victims in recent years.

Among those at the sombre and emotional funeral ceremony in a school field in Bukwo, Cheptegei's home district, were fellow athletes wearing black T-shirts with the slogan "say no to gender-based violence".

"We are guilty as [a] government, but also the community is guilty," Kenya's Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Kipchumba Murkomen told mourners.

Russia is using media and cultural initiatives to attract African journalists, influencers, and students while spreading misleading information.

These events are being promoted by African Initiative, a newly founded Russian media organisation which defines itself as an “information bridge between Russia and Africa”. It inherited structures previously set up by the dismantled Wagner mercenary group and is believed by experts to have links with the Russian security services.

Registered in September 2023, a month after Wagner’s leader Yevgeny Prigozhin died in a plane crash, African Initiative has welcomed former employees from his disbanded enterprises.

Its efforts have been particularly focused on the three military-run countries of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

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Alongside cultural events on the ground, African Initiative maintains a news website with stories in Russian, English, French, and Arabic, as well as a video channel and five Telegram channels, one of which has almost 60,000 subscribers.

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Stories on the African Initiative’s website suggest without evidence that the US is using Africa as a production and testing ground for bio-weapons, building on long-discredited Kremlin disinformation campaigns.

One story echoes the Kremlin’s unsubstantiated claims about US bio-labs being relocated from Ukraine to Africa. Another maintains without evidence that US bio-labs on the continent are increasing, claiming that “under the guise of research and humanitarian projects, the African continent is becoming a testing ground for the Pentagon”, suggesting that secretive biological experiments are being conducted.

While Prigozhin’s propaganda efforts targeted mainly France, African Initiative “targets Americans to a greater degree,” says researcher Jedrzej Czerep, head of the Middle East and Africa Programme at the Polish Institute of International Affairs. “It’s far more anti-American.”

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In June, a group of bloggers and reporters from eight countries were invited for a seven-day “press tour” of the Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. The trip was organised by Russian state media and Western-sanctioned Russian officials, and the journalists visited African Initiative’s headquarters in Moscow.

"Africa wasn’t getting much information [about the war]," Raymond Agbadi, a Ghanaian blogger and scientist who studied in Russia and who participated in the “press tour”, told the BBC. "Whatever information we were getting was not convincing enough for us to understand what the war was really about.”

American influencer Jackson Hinkle, a vocal supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin who has spread multiple false claims about Ukraine, was also on the visit.

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[Edit typo.]

China's foreign ministry on Wednesday called on Eswatini, the sole diplomatic ally of Taiwan in Africa, to "recognize the trend" and “make correct decisions.”

Eswatini is the only African country absent from the 2024 Summit of the Forum of China-Africa Cooperation that is being held in Beijing this week.

Joined by representatives from 53 African countries and other regional and international organizations, the summit is expected to adopt an action plan for the two sides to further strengthen cooperation in global governance, security, trade and investment in the next three years.

China's Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters that is "It is not in Eswatini's interest to develop official diplomatic relations with the Taiwan region."

China has long regarded the self-ruled Taiwan as a reneged province that has no right to establish diplomatic relations with other sovereign states.

At the daily news briefing, Mao said she was unaware of a report that a former New York governor’s aide has been charged with acting as an undisclosed agent of Beijing.

Linda Sun was arrested Tuesday morning along with her husband at their multimillion-dollar home on Long Island, New York.

Prosecutors say Sun blocked representatives of the Taiwanese government from having access to high-level officials in New York and shaped New York governmental messaging to align with China's priorities, among other infractions.

Olympic athlete Rebecca Cheptegei has died days after being doused in petrol and set on fire by a former boyfriend.

The 33-year-old Ugandan marathon runner, who competed in the recent Paris Olympics, had suffered extensive burns after Sunday's attack.

The authorities in north-west Kenya, where Cheptegei lived and trained, said she was targeted after returning home from church with her two daughters.

Her father, Joseph Cheptegei, said that he had lost a “very supportive” daughter. Fellow Ugandan athlete James Kirwa told the BBC about her generosity and how she had helped out other runners financially.

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Cheptegei, from a region just across the border in Uganda, is said to have bought a plot in Trans Nzoia county and built a house to be near Kenya's elite athletics training centres.

Attacks on women have become a major concern in Kenya. In 2022 at least 34% of women said they had experienced physical violence, according to a national survey.

"This tragedy is a stark reminder of the urgent need to combat gender-based violence, which has increasingly affected even elite sports," Kenya's Sports Minister Kipchumba Murkomen said.

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[Edit typo.]

The China-Africa cooperation forum [that takes place in Beijing at the beginning of Septmber] has become the most important event on the African international relations calendar. More African leaders attend these summits than the United Nations general assembly. Data shows that the forum attracts 40 to 60 African heads of state and government, far more than any other regular summit with a single country.

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Although the EU, France, South Korea and the US are important to the African continent, they do not have the same ambition that China has. Nor the kind of free hand that China’s authoritarian system allows its leaders. The Forum on China-Africa Cooperation is therefore important for African leaders because it often leads to big promises which outweigh anything that can be promised by other partners in one sitting.

It has become clear, however, that the forum is a platform for China to dole out aid and loans to African countries, and to articulate priorities that serve its own broader ambitions. Africa’s voice is minimal in the agenda-setting, due mostly to the multiplicity of African states, African Union weakness and competing needs among African countries.

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Unequal gains likely to persist

The result of a lack of an African strategy is the imbalanced terms of trade between China and African countries. This is seen most notably in the trade surplus that China enjoys: most recently measured at US$64.1 billion as of 2023 and still seemingly growing (having been at US$46 billion the previous year and US$42 billion in 2021).

Over the past ten years, the structure of that trade has not changed either, despite China’s pledge to help Africa industrialise.

African countries still largely export raw minerals and agricultural goods to China, while it sends back advanced manufactures, such as electronics, machinery and vehicles. Without an African strategy, the same pattern looks set to continue.

Archived version

Namibia, grappling with one of the worst droughts in decades, is preparing to cull more than 700 wild animals, including 83 elephants, as part of an effort to address food insecurity among its population. The decision, announced by the country’s environment ministry, comes as southern Africa faces a prolonged drought that has led to widespread food shortages and increased human-wildlife conflict.

The culling will target animals in national parks and communal areas where officials have determined that the wildlife population exceeds the available resources of grazing land and water. In addition to elephants, the cull will include hippos, buffalo, impalas, blue wildebeest, zebras, and eland. The ministry’s plan involves distributing the meat from these animals to communities struggling to feed themselves. The United Nations reports that Namibia has already depleted 84% of its food reserves.

This move has sparked controversy, with Animal rights activists expressing concern over the lack of a comprehensive assessment of the potential economic and environmental impacts. They argue that the decision might be driven by political motivations, especially in an election year, and have launched a petition to halt the culling.

Archived version

The DFRLab analyzed twenty suspicious YouTube channels acting in a highly similar fashion, mimicking pro-Kremlin and anti-Western news content in videos targeting African audiences in several countries. The channels used comparable tactics, including possible AI-generated voice narrations, related titles and thumbnails, and publicly available footage.

The channels published content targeting Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, Mali, Rwanda, and Congo. Their videos covered real news events but presented them in a misleading way with clickbait titles that further sensationalized the content. Notably, one of the channels was cited by a media outlet and in an academic study, highlighting the breakout ability of such content to reach different audiences outside of YouTube.

In our latest study we found that samples taken from mothers and newborn babies younger than one week in Nigeria already had colistin-resistant bacteria present in their bodies. But neither the babies nor their mothers had been treated with colistin.

Colistin is one of the last remaining antibiotics that is still effective in killing bacteria and fighting infections such as pneumonia. It is deemed critically important for human medicine by the World Health Organization.

We surmise that mothers may have picked up these colistin resistant bacteria from the environment. We cannot speculate on the specific mechanism. The babies, meanwhile, could have picked up the bacteria from the hospital, the community, or from their mothers. It’s not yet known if these colistin-resistant bacteria stay in the mothers or babies – but if they do this may increase their chances of acquiring future drug-resistant infections.