Insight into Marseille's Contemporary Art Festival (PAC) - May 2024

 Corsica-born Senegalese-French artist Moussa Sarr opened his new exhibition at Château de Servières in Marseille as part of PAC, 'le Printemps de l'art contemporain' 2024: 

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more soon 

Gaza: The EU and France call on Israel not to attack Rafah

Monday 6 May 2024

 

As Israel has ordered evacuation from Rafah area in south Gaza, the EU’s top diplomat Josep Borrell has called on the Israelis authorities to “renounce” the idea of a ground offensive on Rafah.

Josep Borrell Fontelles wrote on social media on Monday that "Israel's evacuation orders to civilians in Rafah portend the worst: more war and famine. It is unacceptable."

He added that "Israel must renounce to a ground offensive and implement UNSCR 2728. The EU, with the International Community, can and must act to prevent such scenario."

The French embassy in Israel has also issued a statement saying Emmanuel Macron spoke on Sunday with Netanyahu on the phone. 

The president reiterated that France’s top priority is the release of all the captives as he encouraged Netanyahu to pursue a ceasefire, it said in a post on X. 

Macron also reiterated his firm opposition to the planned Israeli offensive on Rafah and the urgent need to ensure a massive entry of humanitarian aid through all access points to the Gaza Strip, the embassy added. 

On March 24, Macron had warned Netanyahu that any forced transfer of people from Rafah would constitute “a war crime”.

'Horrific suffering'

Israel'z offensive "could lead to the deadliest phase of this conflict, inflicting horrific suffering on approximately 1.4 million displaced civilians in the area", the secretary general of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), Jan Egeland, warned in a statement.

Natalie Roberts, the executive director of Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, has also called on the UK government to explain why it has not condemned Israel’s planned offensive on Rafah.

Israeli forces have killed 34,735 Palestinians in its seven-month war on Gaza, according to the Health Ministry in the besieged enclave. 

At least 78,108 people have been injured in the relentless Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, the ministry said in a statement on Monday. 

Even the Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid, has criticised the recent announcements, threats and irresponsible statements made by government ministers and the prime minister regarding the captives.

... "more devoted to 'order' than to justice”

 

“I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the White moderate who is more devoted to 'order' than to justice.”

 Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. 
 In 1963

UK: Local elections on 2 May 2024

 

London, May 1, 2024 (AFP) 

- Britain's ruling Conservative party is expected to suffer heavy losses in crunch local elections this week that are likely to increase pressure on beleaguered Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

   The polls are the last major electoral test before a general election that Sunak's party, in power since 2010, seems destined to lose to the Labour opposition.

   Sunak has said he wants to hold the nationwide vote in the second half of the year, but bruising defeats in Thursday's votes could force his hand earlier.

   "These elections form a vital examination for the Sunak premiership -- road-testing its claim that the plan is working and the degree to which voters still lend that notion any degree of credibility," political scientist Richard Carr told AFP.

   Incumbent governments tend to suffer losses in local contests and the Conservatives are forecast by pollsters to lose about half of the council seats they are defending.

   Sunak's immediate political future is said to rest on whether two high-profile Tory regional mayors get re-elected in the West Midlands and Tees Valley areas of central and northeast England.

   Wins for the Conservative mayors, Andy Street and Ben Houchen, would boost hopes among Tory MPs that Sunak can turn around their party's fortunes in time for the general election.

   But speculation is rife in the UK parliament that a bad showing could lead some restive Conservative lawmakers to try to replace Sunak before the nationwide poll.

   "If Andy Street and Ben Houchen both lose, any idea that Sunak can carry on is surely done," said Carr, a politics lecturer at Anglia Ruskin University.

   "Whether that means he rolls the dice on a general election or gets toppled remains to be seen."

   Factional infighting has plagued the Tories in recent years, serving up five prime ministers since the 2016 Brexit vote, including three in four months from July to October 2022.

   A group of restive Conservative MPs have drawn up a "policy blitz" for a potential successor to Sunak in the event of massive losses this week, British media have reported.

   

   - Another one? -

   

   Some observers say it would be madness for the Conservatives to topple another leader when Sunak has provided some stability since succeeding Liz Truss in October 2022.

   Others say the party's credibility is already shot so why not try one last desperate throw of the dice to try to stop a predicted Labour landslide.

   Some 52 MPs would need to submit letters of no confidence in Sunak to trigger an internal party vote to replace him -- a tall ask.

   "I still expect Sunak will lead the Conservatives into the general election," Richard Hayton, a politics professor at Leeds University, told AFP.

   "But some MPs may seek to move against him, which will further damage his standing with the general public."

   Sunak, 43, was an internal Tory appointment following Truss's disastrous 49 days premiership in which her unfunded tax cuts caused market turmoil and sank the pound.

   Despite numerous leadership resets under Sunak, the Tories have continued to trail Labour, led by Keir Starmer, by double digits in most opinion polls.

   An Ipsos poll earlier this month put Sunak's satisfaction rating at a joint all-time low of minus 59 percent.

   More than 2,500 councillors are standing in England on Thursday, as well as London's Labour mayor Sadiq Khan who is seeking a record third term in office.

   Most of the council seats up for re-election were last contested in 2021, when ex-Tory premier Boris Johnson was popular as he rolled out Covid-19 vaccines.

27 April: South Africa's Freedom Day

 

South Africa celebrates 'Freedom Day', 30 years after the end of apartheid, with mixed feelings

In 2024, South Africas are celebrating their first multiracial elections from 1994, and the advent of democracy. But the legacy of Nelson Mandela's party seems poorer than ever, and many call for change while young people seem to have lost faith in elections.

People attend Freedom Day celebrations in Pretoria, South Africa [Themba Hadebe/AP]

On 27 April 1994, after a historic election, Nelson Mandela was elected president, and the country turned the page on the apartheid years.

Freedom Day is now a public holiday in South Africa celebrated on 27 April, to
commemorate the first post-apartheid elections and the day the new constitution was introduced.

It is also a moment to honour the "unsung heroes and heroines who fought for freedom and paved the way for an equal, representative, non-racial nation", the government says.

The day means a lot for South Africans, including for the ones living abroad.

"For me Freedom means Transformation", one the representative of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party in France, Mary Paccard, told me.

This year, 27 April marks the 30th anniversary of South Africa’s first democratic elections.

The government decided to take a whole month, in April, to "reflect on the progress made over our democratic journey thus far and consider how we can further strengthen our democracy."

From progress to decline

Since April 1994, Mandela's party, the ANC has remained in power.

The economy has continued to develop, and the country is now one of the most industrialised on the continent.

One of ANC's most striking successes is the introduction of a minimum wage.

South Africa's social benefit system is among the most developed on the continent, and a lifeline for the poorest: almost 30 percent of the population benefits from it, not counting the post-Covid aid still distributed.

But, despite progress, South Africa remains one of the most unequal countries in the world, according to the Gini index.

But from 2012, the South African economy made very little progress, with a significant decline in growth.

The "rainbow nation" envisioned by Mandela is nowadays afflicted by poverty, inequality, corruption and crime.

Jobs are scarce, and many young people get sucked into crime.

Election year

For all these reasons, the ANC is losing momentum.

As South Africans are called for general elections on 29 May, the party could for the first time since coming to power 30 years ago lose its absolute majority in Parliament.

The same goes for the eight regions out of nine that the party governs in the country so far.

So, many observers expect a potential coalition government.

On 13 April, the organisation Defend Our Democracy organised a conference in Johannesburg to discuss the best way to approach possible future negotiations.

If the leaders of ANC still claim they can win a majority, other parties are getting organised. 

Meanwhile, one of the main challenges will be for parties to convince young voters to believe in democracy again, as their parents had with the end of apartheid.

More reaction on the UK migrant deal: from Rwanda

 

My latest for RFI:

UK - RWANDA

Rwandan opposition deplores UK deportation deal as 'modern slavery'

A British law to send unwanted migrants to Rwanda, which passed this week after months of wrangling, has generated fierce criticism at home and abroad. In Rwanda, opponents of the longtime president say the country is unfit to host asylum seekers – while accusing the UK of outsourcing its responsibilities.

Issued on: 26/04/2024

Read the story on RFI English from here: https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20240426-rwandan-opposition-deplores-uk-deportation-deal-as-modern-slavery

Staff stand at the reception at Hope Hostel, which is getting ready to host asylum seekers deported from the United Kingdom, in Kigali, Rwanda, on 24 April 2024. © AFP / GUILLEM SARTORIO

Read the story on RFI English from here: https://www.rfi.fr/en/africa/20240426-rwandan-opposition-deplores-uk-deportation-deal-as-modern-slavery

French university students also protest for Palestine

 

Students have blocked access to Paris’ Sciences Po university in a protest over the war in Gaza, demanding the institution condemn Israel’s actions. 

The demonstration echoes student protests taking place in the US, where multiple arrests of students have been made on campuses.

Demonstrators hold posters reading "dismantle colonial borders" as students occupy a building of the Institute of Political Studies (Sciences Po Paris) in support of Palestinians, in Paris on April 26, 2024. A few dozen students stay mobilized in support of Palestinians occupying a new building at Sciences Po Paris since April 25, 2024, evening, the day after police evacuated another of the school's sites, in the wake of actions at American universities.

Dimitar DILKOFF / AFP

What's in the UK-Rwanda migrant deal NGOs and top UN officials decry?

 

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised on Monday to start sending asylum seekers to Rwanda after parliament passed much-delayed legislation to facilitate the deportation of those arriving in Britain without permission. The plan however is deemed risky and rejected by a large array of human rights actors.

Melissa Chemam

Britain's Prime Minister Rishi Sunak welcomes Rwandan President Paul Kagame
outside 10 Downing Street in London, Britain, on 9 April 2024.

Official figures put 2022 annual net migration to Britain at a record of 745,000, and Sunak has set out a series of measures to cut legal migration by 300,000.

Figures show more than 80,000 asylum applications remain to be decided.

Now that the bill has passed into law, the government wants to start detaining asylum seekers, before scheduling deportation from the month of July.

How the plan came about 

The scheme was first agreed in April 2022 by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson, to send anyone who arrived in Britain illegally to Rwanda, some 6,400 km away.

However, the first deportation flight in June 2022 was blocked by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR).

The UK Supreme Court then upheld a ruling and said that the scheme was unlawful because migrants were at risk of being sent back to their homelands or to other countries where they would be at risk of mistreatment.

The new conservative leader Rishi Sunak made his pledge to "stop the boats" one of his top five priorities, as soon as he became prime minister in late 2022.

Britain is spending more than 3 billion pounds a year on processing asylum applications, he insisted, with the cost of housing migrants awaiting a decision in hotels and other accommodation running at about 8 million pounds a day.

Taking back control of Britain's borders and ending the free movement of people into the country was a major factor that led to the 2016 vote for Britain to leave the European Union.

Polls show it remains one of the most important issues for British voters.

How the plan would work

Sunak promised on Monday to start sending asylum seekers to Rwanda within 10 to 12 weeks.

He said an airfield was on standby, slots were booked for flights, 500 staff were ready to escort migrants and courts had been reserved to process appeals.

The deportation would concern those arriving in Britain without permission, from any country.

The UK Home secretary James Cleverly, on a visit in Lampedusa in Italy on Thursday, said the UK intends to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda “indefinitely”.

No deportation has been taking place yet, but Britain has already paid Rwanda more than 200 million pounds.

To resettle some 300 refugees could cost more than 600 million pounds.

The National Audit Office said in a report the scheme could surpass £580m by 2030.

Some 50,000 people could potentially be sent to Rwanda, but it remains unclear how many people the country can actually take.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame said he is "pleased" by the move, his government's spokeswoman said on 23 April 2024.

In Kigali, the Hope Hostel is getting ready to welcome the first migrants from the UK.

Yet the move will most likely trigger further legal challenges by charities, campaigners and unions who argue that Rwanda is not a safe destination.

And the ECHR could again issue orders to block deportation flights.

Strong risks

Many UN agencies warned that the plan threatened the rule of law and set "a perilous precedent globally".

They urged the UK to instead "take practical measures to address irregular flows of refugees and migrants, based on international cooperation and respect for international human rights law".

The human rights watchdog of the Council of Europe, which Britain is still a member of, has condemned Sunak’s Rwanda scheme, saying it raises 'major issues about the human rights of asylum seekers and the rule of law.'"

The Refugee council published an⁩ analysis on Thursday showing the scheme is causing a system meltdown and will leave 100,000 people in limbo.

Even if the UK government was successful in flying 2,000 people to Rwanda by the end of year, a further 115,575 asylum seekers would be left stranded in the UK, the report states.

Even in Rwanda, major doubts have emerged.

One of the rare opponents to President Paul Kagame, Victoire Ingabire Umuhoza, told me that she thinks the deal equates to "modern slavery"...

(More on this tomorrow on RFI English)

'Expensive way to be cruel'

In the UK, the Green Party totally opposes the bill. It is “an incredibly expensive way to be cruel”, the co-leader Carla Denyer said.

Sending refugees to Rwanda, or anywhere else, will never be an effective solution, also warns International Rescue Committee (IRC).

"Rather than outsourcing its responsibilities under international law, we urge the government to abandon this misguided plan and instead focus on delivering a more humane and orderly immigration system at home," Denisa Delić, Director of Advocacy, at IRC UK, said.

"This includes scaling up safe routes, such as resettlement and family reunion, and upholding the right to seek asylum," she added. "Sending refugees to Rwanda, or anywhere else, will never be an effective solution.”

"It is a dark day in the United Kingdom," Human Rights Watch responded in a report. "This will have a devastating impact on human rights and the rule of law, risking the lives of people who came to the UK seeking safety and setting a dangerous global precedent."

The Care4Calais charity has previously challenged the policy and said it would work tirelessly to block any flights, seeking to reassure migrants in Britain.

"They can be assured that Care4Calais will not only stand in solidarity with them, we are absolutely committed to fighting for their safety here in the UK," their head Steve Smith said in a statement.

 

Mass graves at two Gaza hospitals

 

UN rights chief ‘horrified’ by reports of mass graves at two Gaza hospitals

Spokesperson says some bodies allegedly had their hands tied while others were bound and stripped

The UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has said he was “horrified” by reports of mass graves containing hundreds of bodies at two of Gaza’s largest hospitals.

Palestinian civil defence teams began exhuming bodies from a mass grave outside the Nasser hospital complex in Khan Younis last week after Israeli troops withdrew.

“We feel the need to raise the alarm because clearly there have been multiple bodies discovered,” said Ravina Shamdasani, spokesperson for the UN high commissioner for human rights.

She described bodies “buried deep in the ground and covered with waste”, adding that “among the deceased were allegedly older people, women and wounded”, including some bound and stripped of their clothes.

Senegal's new leader calls for a rethink of the country's relationship with the EU

 

Senegal's new leader Bassirou Diomaye Faye has called for a rethink of the country's relationship with the EU during a visit by European Council President Charles Michel.

Faye, who was inaugurated as president on 2 April, was elected on pledges of radical reform and promises to restore national "sovereignty" over key industries.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Michel on Monday night, Faye said cooperation between Senegal and Europe was "dense and multifaceted, but together we want a rethought, renovated partnership", one "capable of supporting the innovative dynamic we want to imprint on our relations".

 As part of his promised reforms, Faye recently announced the renegotiation of oil and gas contracts, and hopes to do the same with fishing agreements signed with the European Union.

Fishing is a significant part of Senegal's economy, but the industry is grappling with the effects of overexploitation of marine stocks.

Improvements for both sides

Michel said the two parties "should not dread" broaching difficult subjects if it meant "bringing about improvements for both sides", pointing to the fisheries issue in particular.

Faye said his government would pursue a model of boosting development from within, focusing on agriculture, livestock and fishing, while also strengthening infrastructure such as railways, electrical grids, telecommunications and roads.

• AU/EU summit interview: Africa needs to find its own way, NGO director says

"European investors whose companies have recognised skills in these different sectors are welcome," he added.

Michel said Europe had an "objective interest in Senegal being able to meet the challenges of development, economic emergence and improvement of the living conditions of the people".

"The world order is the result of political choices that were made in the last century in a totally different world", which is why the European Union "supports more justice and more inclusion", Michel said.

(with AFP)

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Read more African news on RFI English