Focus on Africa

South Africa's ANC party denies allegations of murders.

South Africa’s ruling ANC denies allegations of harassment and killing human rights activists in the country.

The Grenfell Tower fire in London report is out after seven years. 72 people, including several from Africa, were killed. Were any lessons learnt?

And why has Ethiopia suspended flights to Eritrea ?

Presenter: Audrey Brown Producers: Sunita Nahar, Yvette Twagiramariya, Joseph Keen and Bella Hassan in London. Charles Gitonga in Nairobi. Technical Producers: Francesca Dunne and Nick Randell Senior Producer: Paul Bakibinga Editors: Andre Lombard and Alice Muthengi

Duration:: 38m
Broadcast on:: 06 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

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So to recap, we're cutting the price of Mint Unlimited from $30 a month to just $15 a month. Give it a try at mintmobile.com/switch. $45 up front for three months plus taxes and fees, promoting for new customers for limited time. Unlimited more than 40 gigabytes per month slows. Full turns at Mint Mobile.com. Hello, I'm Audrey Brown and today in Focus on Africa, a spat between Addis Ababa and Asmara over Ethiopian Airlines reveals the deeper tensions in the Horn of Africa. It's got a lot to do with an agreement landlocked Ethiopia signed with Somaliland for access to a port. Could this need to open war in the region, involving Somalia and Egypt as well? The agreement with Somaliland has already made the Somali government to declare a diplomatic campaign and now their military preparations as well in partnership with the Egyptians. And here in London, we take a closer look at the final report into the Grenfell Tower Block Fire that exposed the divisions between people, many of them from Africa living together in a very wealthy part of the city. [Music] It's Friday, the 6th of September. First, we go to South Africa. The end of the system of legal discrimination and white domination in South Africa back in 1994 was meant to bring equality and dignity to millions of Black South Africans that had been deprived of their rights for generations. The organization that led that struggle was the African National Congress. So when the ANC, under the leadership of Nelson Mandela, came to power in 1994, there were high hopes that the brutal discrimination and inequality would be broken down and ended. 30 years in and many South Africans are deeply disappointed with the African National Congress, which still holds the reins of power and that power was reduced in elections in May when the organization lost the support of more than half the population. Now it runs the country with the help of other smaller parties in a government of national unity. It also faces accusations of not just betraying the people it was meant to empower, but there are also charges that it is deliberately stifling dissent by not adequately protecting human rights activists from harassment and intimidation. These charges are contained in a report by Amnesty International. It goes so far as to say that the ANC led government provides almost complete impunity to those who attack people like Tapelo Mohapi, the general secretary of an organization called Abakhlali by Semjondolo, which is a movement of landless people who live in informal settlements. Abakhlali says 25 of its members have been killed since 2005 for demanding land, housing and economic opportunities. The accusations made by Abakhlali by Semjondolo are serious, so we approached various authorities to respond. Some of them did, others didn't. We're here from them shortly, but let's first hear more about Abakhlali by Semjondolo from the secretary general, Tapelo Mohapi. The time when the movement was formed in 2005, it was exactly 10 years after the freedom that we have gained. And we recognized the freedom that was fought for, and the freedom was eventually gained in 1994. However, as people who are poor and living in Czech settlements, we have not received such freedom. Freedom was betrayed by those who served after Nelson Mandela. They have betrayed us through corruption. The black elite forgot about those who live in the informal settlements like ourselves. We continue to die from the informal settlements, prove Czech fires. When there's a fire, the entire community is engulfed, and people lose their lives. Not so long ago in a place called Canville in Durban, we lost a pregnant woman in the Czech fire, because when the shack gets banned, it's people's homes, and people lose everything. When there's floods during the floods in 2022, a lot of people who were washed away, some of them unaccounted for up until today, where people were living in Czech settlements. So we live like pigs in the mud. There are no services, there are no water access. More than 300 people will use one stand pipe of tap in post-apartheid South Africa. We have never imagined ourselves living under these conditions, when our fathers have fought the good fights against the evils of apartheid. And yet today, through corrupt politicians, who sell houses that are meant for the poor to the rich. There's a lot of corruption that is taking place in South Africa. And when you demand that there's transparency, that corruption is exposed, and if that's exposed in corruption, then you are met with the barrel of the gun. Like our movement, that since it was formed in 2005, we have lost 25 activists. And 14 of those activists, we lost through assassinations, people who were targeted for the work that they are doing as a human rights defenders. Now, you are not the only human rights defenders in South Africa. In fact, they are journalists who do the same, they are lawyers who do the same, they are judges who do the same. Why are you people particularly targeted? Is it because you don't have any protection? Because you're poor? We are killed for organizing and create awareness for those who are marginalized. At some point, we criticize for teaching people in the informal settlement about their rights when they are facing evictions. There are massive evictions that are taking place in Guazu Natal. Sometimes those evictions are taking place at gunpoint. But also, this province where we are in has a culture of violence from pre-apartheid, where there was the IFP and the ANC, Black on Black Violence. And that has continued over the years. That's why it is so cheap to take a life of an activist like myself. So many of us had to go underground as a result of being assisted by organizations such as the Amnesty International to actually run away because you are doing work that is actually going to put a lot of people in prison, people who are politicians. So you are making incredibly strong allegations against the ANC as an organization. How did they respond to this report from Amnesty International? Did they respond directly to it? They have not responded directly to it, but there's still a strong denial from the ANC, even though there's hard evidence on the ground that the ANC is responsible for the killings of commercial wars. We know for a fact that some of the high-ranking officials of the ANC made very serious threats against our members. Is it just the ANC or are there other organizations as well? Since 2009, which with the assassinations have been taking place. So it has been the responsibility of the ANC that has led to the killings of commercial. Some people were killed by police during protests. Some people have been killed by the excellent invasion units, which is the security armed force of the ANC, led government in the Israeli municipality. So some people have been tied in the hands of the ANC government, but through the police. And none of those have been investigated. And none of those have had anyone been arrested. You are speaking very freely, very frankly, very openly. Are you not afraid of doing that? Since 2015, I have been living in fear. You know, I had to have a meeting with my family, and my family had to say either I died because I buried 25 lives, or I raised my children. I must choose between the two. But I realize that this is a struggle that I need to stand for. It's a struggle that is going to liberate many people who are living in fear. So if I die, I'll be dying for a right cause. They've responded to the sins of crimes. I've seen very terrible things in my life. And so I'm ready any time. If this means that I must give in and sacrifice my life, but I cannot no longer keep quiet because they were comrades of mine who have lost their lives prior for the struggle. I'll be failing them if I run away as a coward and not speak out. Do you think speaking out will help? Well, like in the apartheid government, those who fought against apartheid relied on the outside world. We have spoken enough in South Africa. We've been trying to engage through the South African Human Rights Commission. We've tried many ways. And now we are relying on the international world to actually hear our voice and hear our cries. And through this report, we are now seeing the ANC having to respond. And however, we are very glad of the recent development in South Africa because the ANC is not really in power. The ANC has lost power. And having them losing power and having a government of national unity means that those who were using state's money to buy hit men to remove us, those who were using state's organs to actually deal with activists will not freely do so because there is a lot of political parties that are now involved and they will be watching each other. So we are happy about the developments that have taken place in South Africa that the ANC is no longer have full power and control of the country. That's the General Secretary of Abathali-Basimjondolo, Tabello Mohapi. We'll hear from the ANC shortly, but let's listen first to a statement from Cassandra Dorisami, a campaigner for Amnesty International. For over a decade, Abathali members who are human rights defenders often became the targets of those wishing to silence and suppress their struggle. This is exactly what we have seen happening in Ekhenana, which is bearing the brunt in the worst way possible. The state has the ultimate responsibility to protect human rights defenders and to prevent and effectively address allegations of violations committed against them. That's Cassandra Dorisami from Amnesty International. We approach the following organizations for comment on these allegations, the Office of the Mayor of Durban. We heard nothing back from them. The South African Police? No response. We did hear back from the African National Congress through its spokesperson in Guazulunatal. Mafika and Debele sent us this response. This is simply propaganda on the part of Abathali, who are looking to tarnish the image of the ANC. The allegations made may be made against an ANC member, but the ANC is not involved, and we urge Abathali to get in touch with the law enforcement agencies. The group is pretending to be victims, and the ANC has over the years demonstrated its ability to accept the will of the people without violence. Abathali is a group of desperate political players. And that's the African National Congress spokesperson from Guazulunatal, Mafika and Debele. (Music) Ethiopia and Eritrea are once again bearing their teeth at each other. They made friends a few years ago after a devastating hot war in the late 90s over a town on the border between the two. That conflict ended in a so-called frozen peace, following a judgement by an international court that Eritrea could lay claim to the town of Badmeh, which was what they appeared to be fighting over. Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abe Ahmed won lots of praise for unfreezing the conflict by offering to make peace with Eritrea. He visited Azmara and opened the border between the two countries, allowing families who had been separated for years to see each other again. Ethiopian Airlines took them there. All was hunky-dory for a while. Eritrea even helped the federal government of Ethiopia to quell the breakaway region of Tigray, which is on the border between the two countries. Then came the news this week that Ethiopian Airlines is suspending flights to Eritrea. Apparently, Azmara had blocked money transfers from its bank account in Eritrea. But there's so much more to the story. Ethiopia and Eritrea share a long and very difficult history, and what happens between them affects the entire region. So what's really behind the latest tensions? And can it spill over into a regional war? Abdul Rahman Syed is the Director of the Hall of Africa Centre for Regional Integration. He started by sharing his thoughts on the relationship between Eritrea and Ethiopia after 2018. The relationship has always been more personal than institutional and constitutional. The marriage was kind of like marriage of convenience. The two leaders had an identified common enemy, and they wanted to defeat this enemy, which is the TPLF, the Tigray People's Liberation Front, that was ruling Ethiopia for 27 years since 1991 to 2018. So why suspend the flights then? I mean, that is an enterprise that can continue without the leaders themselves being necessarily friendly toward each other. The official or semi-official version of this story is the Eritrean government spokesperson said that they were stopping all Ethiopian airlines' flights to Eritrea from the 30th of September 2024. That's this month. The reason for that was given that the mismanagement and mishandling of Eritrean travelers and their legages. The response to that was from the Ethiopian side. It was a complete surprise, and they seemed to have been caught up by surprise by that decision. Now, this has been kept at this stage as if it is just an issue between two countries and most likely between two civil aviation institutions stating whatever reasons, except the law or not. If there was to be a question, for example, was this really necessary to stop and suspend all the flights? In my opinion, I do not think it was. This could have still been addressed by the civil aviation institutions on the two sides, and if necessary, also by the embassies in the two countries or the foreign affairs ministries in the two countries, that leads me to suspect that this is not really about passengers and civil aviation. It's more than that. There is this deterioration relationship between the two governments, and I think this could be part of the preparations for the worst, I'm afraid to say. Oh, dear. Let's go into that. I was going to say that this is not so much about very on the face of a trivial matter of, you know, luggage. There seems to be a reservoir of bitterness between Eritrea and Ethiopia. That has historical reasons as well as more contemporary reasons. Give us a snapshot of what exactly is happening subterraneanally and on the surface as well. When the two governments, as you're getting earlier, Tran, signed the peace agreement in 2018. The fear was this may not be really addressing the best interests of the two nations and their peoples and their countries. They had a common enemy, the Tehran Liberation Movement, and therefore they went into war with this movement, and they almost defeated it. If not, wipe it out from the map. It still exists as a political movement, at least in the region of Tigray, North of Ethiopia. Now, the Praetoria Agreement that was signed between the government of Ethiopia and the Tigray Liberation Front does not seem to have been welcomed and accepted by the Eritrean side, because it didn't really come up with the zero-sum game that they were engaged in, and that is in the Ethiopian/Becinian tradition, historically, when two enemies fight, one has to win over the other, and there is no compromise and middle way. There's no peace agreement, in other words. It's a conquerant language. Exactly. That was about to happen with the war that was going on, the surrounding of the Mecheli, the regional capital of the Tigray region, and at that moment, the war stopped by the Ethiopian government, because it was under pressure from the Americans and others, so the Praetoria Agreement was signed, and I think from that moment onwards, the relationships started to take a different course. Let's go further back there, because there are other wars and other agreements and other difficulties and other disagreements between Eritrea and Ethiopia, right? Driven by Ethiopia's concerns for port and for Eritrea's concerns and demand for autonomy when it was occupied by Ethiopia. Tell us about that. Ethiopia is a landlocked country, and in 1952, the then Eritrea, which was under a temporary or provisional bridge administration, was handed over to Ethiopia in a federal union, sponsored by the United Nations. Now, that federal union was immediately violated by Ethiopia, and an exit Eritrea as part of its integral regions, and started to rule Eritrea from Elizabeth, from Ethiopia, and that obviously created a problem for the Eritrean people, and they waged 10 years of political struggle, and then 30 years of armed struggle, because the Ethiopians were not prepared to even go back to the federal union arrangement, and then when they started losing the battle, then they tried to cove the Eritrean port of Asab from the rest of Eritrea, but then they were caught up in the conflict and they had no time, so they were defeated and Eritrea as a whole, including the port of Asab became independent, first by military means of the Eritrean people, and then by open UN or a supervised referendum, which was held two years later in 1993. Now, the current prime minister after the Pretoria Agreement, he started to talk about having access, not only access, but owning a port by Ethiopia. The idea and the intention was for Ethiopia to grab any port by any means, and this is the statement he used, and therefore that created, of course, discomfort in Eritrea, Djibouti, and Somalia. If Ethiopia is accusing Eritrea of interference in its internal affairs in Amharah, now, if this were not so serious, we'd be forgiven for stifling a laugh and saying, well, Ethiopia invited Eritrea into its internal affairs by enlisting its support in fighting the TPLF, right? When the conflict against the TPLF was raging, the Ethiopian army was actually no much to the TPLF army. Now, the Ethiopian government cleverly approached the Eritrean site for help, and because the TPLF was considered also by the Eritrean site as an enemy, the Eritreans welcomed the idea, and then the other help they sought from was, from the Amharah region, who had already a disputed territory that was occupied or managed as part of the Tigray region. Once that was completed and the Pretoria signature obviously made it, hostility was over, and the TPLF almost surrendered and accepted the terms and conditions of the Ethiopian government, the disputed area between the Amharah and the TPLF still remained an issue of dispute, the TPLF, according to the Pretoria agreement, is expecting for these territories to be reintegrated with the Tigray region. The Amharah are not willing to give these territories up, because they were always demanding that they were integral part of the Amharah region. Now, there is another strategic importance of this territory. We're talking about the north-west of Ethiopia. It has two significance. The first one is the economic. It's a very fertile agricultural land that has a production of crops like Sesem and others that is used for export and like a cash crop to bring foreign exchange. And the second one is the military and strategic importance, especially to the Tigrayans, because it becomes like a corridor to the Sudan. So if they were, the Tigray itself is not only a landlocked country, but it's surrounded also to the north by Eritrea, to the east by the Afars, and to the west and south by the Amharahs. So that means if they don't have access to Sudan or to Djibouti, their situation would become very much like very weak. The Eritrean side interest is, if they have to keep the TPLF under control, then they know that area has to remain under non-TPLF control. Now, the non-TPLF control cannot be the Ethiopian government, because they don't have a powerful army that can extend to controlling that area. And therefore, the only people who can manage that place is the Amharah, supported by their trends. Do you think it's just a matter of time before a regional war basically breaks out? It is indeed. We've already indicated the agreement done with Somaliland, has already made the Somali government to declare a diplomatic campaign, and now they're preparing military preparations as well in partnership with the Egyptians, but also with the Turks. The arrival of the Egyptians in Somalia is not good news for the Ethiopians, simply because the Egyptian problem with Ethiopia has firmly to do with the Nine River and the Grand Renaissance Dam that they've built there. There hasn't been any agreement. On the Egyptian side, there has been insistence on maintaining the status quo that was agreed in 1929 and 1959. The 1929-59 agreements make it almost compulsory for any upper stream country to seek the permission of Egypt to build any dam. Now, the upper stream countries like Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia may not have water shortages, but they do need electric power, hydroelectric power. And if the Egyptians are going to veto based on the agreements, then it means they will never have any kind of development. And as I said this, 60% of the Ethiopian population, in fact, has no access to electricity. So water, land, power, both in the sense of electricity and actual physical and geographic power is what is driving this conflict. What can stop it? A number of things. In the first place, soon after the peace agreement between Eritrean and Ethiopia, there were some movements, in fact, initiated and led by the Ethiopian prime minister, to create a strong link between the Somalis and the Eritrean governments. And they, in fact, even went to the extent of suggesting, of creating some kind of confederation between the three countries. Now, this is a really feasible and possible option that can also guarantee some kind of sustainable, not only development, but also sustainable peace, which is very crucial for development, too. Thank you very, very much. Thank you. That's Abdul Rahman Syed, Director of the Horn of Africa's Center for Regional Integration. This is Focus on Africa from the BBC World Service. Explaining football to the friend who's just there for the nachos, hard, tailgating from home like a pro with snacks and drinks everyone will love, any easy win. And with Instacart helping deliver the snack time MVPs to your door, you're ready for the game in as fast as 30 minutes. So you never miss a play or lose your seat on the couch or have to go head to head for the last chicken wing shop game day faves on Instacart and enjoy $0 delivery fees on your first three grocery orders offer valid for limited time. Other fees in terms apply. Hey, it's Mark Marin from WTF here to let you know that this podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. And I'm sure the reason you're listening to this podcast right now is because you chose it. Well, choose Progressive's name, your price tool, and you could find insurance options that fit your budget so you can pick the best one for your situation. Who doesn't like choice? Try it at Progressive.com. And now some legal info, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates, price and coverage match limited by state law, not available in all states. In the early hours of June the 17th 2017, some people in a giant block of flats in one of the wealthiest parts of London woke up to the fact that there was a fire in their building. It started on the fourth floor and very quickly blazed out and around the building. People from all over the world and all walks of life lived in Grenfell Towers. It was that kind of place. Along with people from elsewhere, there were people from at least eight African countries. This being the age of instant information, social media images of the fire began circulating almost immediately. They showed a voracious fire roaring up the sides of the building, but people were instructed to remain inside their flats by the authorities. The fire burned and smolded for days. 72 people lost their lives that night. More than 70 others were injured and 223 people escaped. Seven years later, bereaved families are still trying to come to terms with the deaths of their loved ones and the devastation wrought on their lives. Nobody knows who gonna be alive for the justice. Maybe not me, maybe not my mother. So who gonna tell us like what happened after me? That night from that night, I've not been the same person. Mentally, I'm messed up, I suffer from PTSD and obviously for stuff that happened in the past, it led to me losing my job. But what we demand, we are demanding justice for these lives. Feel I found just after the fire. So bliss, bliss. Just over a week after the fire, the then Prime Minister Theresa May announced that there would be an inquiry into the causes of the blaze. This week, the final findings were made public and they were unsparing. Accusing the authorities of indifference and incompetence, the manufacturers of the cladding or the covering on the outside of the building that caused the fire to spread so rapidly were accused of systemic dishonesty. Damning words spoken by the man who led the inquiry, Sir Martin Moore Bick. The simple truth is that the deaths that occurred were all avoidable and those who lived in the tower were badly failed over a number of years and in a number of different ways by those who were responsible for ensuring the safety of the building and its occupants. Kate Lamble has been reporting on the inquiry right from the start. She told me first about the people who lived in Grenfell Towers. There were some, for example, recent refugees from Syria who'd come over to the UK as one of them told me the other day because they thought it would be safe and were renting a flat there. There were some professionals in the finance industry who owned their flats. There were some people who were social workers. There were some people who were moms looking after their toddlers. It was a whole mix and people often talk about when they went to the lifts and the lifts were always broken down so they were waiting for the lifts. They get to meet their neighbours who'd come out and they describe it as they'd always complain about what was happening and you know you chat to your neighbours, don't you? I know that some people came from Eritrea, Ethiopia. Yeah, there are eight African countries, so Eritrea, Ethiopia, Sudan, the Gambia, Nigeria, Egypt, Morocco and Sierra Leone. But there were people from Bangladesh, the Philippines, people from Europe, Portugal and Italy. It was this whole melting pot. There was an inquiry into the fire. Seven years later we've heard the final report. What were the broad strokes of it? So the inquiry said that this was the result of decades of failure by people at all levels, from governments and others in the construction industry. And it basically goes through and criticises almost everyone involved in that refurbishment which covered the outside of that building in combustible materials, whether that is the government who set the regulations who decided what was allowed on the building, whether it was the companies who sold those materials, who marketed them as safe and whether it's the people involved in the refurbishment. So it scribed those involved in the refurbishment as incompetent. It talked about the systematic dishonesty of the companies selling those materials and it talked about how the government at times this agenda of deregulation. So this idea that the government should control things left shouldn't have regulations and rules in place dominated the thinking so much that even issues including life safety were not necessarily at the forefront of people's minds. This most striking words for me in the final analysis is that every death was avoidable, but companies, success of governments, so it's not just the conservative government that was in power at the time, but government upon government upon government and the local South Kensington Authority are washing their hands off the incident in the inquiry. What struck you about how they presented themselves? Yeah, I think what was really notable about watching all this evidence over all these years was almost no organizations took responsibility for their role in the fire and essentially, they'd often point to another group. They'd often say, "Okay, well, we didn't do that because we expected this other people to be in charge of it." And then these other people would say, "Oh, no, we expected these other people." The inquiry called it this merry-go-round of buck-passinking. They drew this diagram called a web of blame. It kind of looked like a load of noodles put on a plate, all these strings into twining. And so what this report has been trying to do is untangle all of that to say, "Okay, so you're saying you blame them and let's pull that apart and let's list out in black and white who was responsible." Essentially, it criticizes almost everyone but in very, very different ways. So it sort of talks about how between 1991 and 2017, so this huge period of governments where there were many opportunities to identify these problems, it talks about these sustained strategies to manipulate the market, so how you sell products. It talks about the incompetence of the people involved in the refurbishment. It talks about how people were treated in the aftermath of that fire. What happened was the fire spread out of a window on the fourth floor. It went up the building, it wrapped around the entire building. And as people left, they'd lost everything inside. And they were expecting, they said, to see an authority, to see someone to come along and say, "Okay, you can come over here and we'll look after you." And what they say is that they didn't find any authorities. The community came out and opened clubs and mosques and churches and community centers. People talk about not being given any money for a month or being asked to write down everything they needed or being asked, "Why do you need to buy clothes because some have been donated?" And they describe that experience as quite embarrassing, quite dehumanizing in their words. And there's been issues of discrimination, so the fire happened in the middle of Ramadan. But when they put people up in hotels, those hotels didn't have halal food. Grenfell stands now as a tower. I think it's still not habitable right now, is it? No, so Grenfell at the moment is still this shell. It's covered in white plastic, covering it up because on the morning of the fire, it was this blackened burnt out shell. So that shell has been covered with white plastic, but it still remains standing at the moment. And there is a big debate about what's going to happen with it, because some people would like to see it taken down and replaced with the memorial. For other family members who lost their loved ones in that tower, it is a place, their last resting place of their loved ones. And they want to see it remain standing as a memorial that people can see from a really long way around, because it's 24 stories tall. The government has said that it's now unsafe and they'd like to bring it down, but there's no real conclusion about when or if that might actually happen. You listened to Testimony. You saw the people that were being questioned, being accused, that were affected. You also did a podcast for it for the BBC. What did you come away with? What were the things that stuck in your mind, experiences that kind of were egregious? The inquiry was put into two parts. The second part was why it happened, how it happened, the very technical part. The first part was what happened on the night, and a lot of that evidence will always stay with me, whether that is family's talking about what happened to them after the fire, or what some of them describe as the violence of that night, and those experiences. And a lot of them talked about very personal, final moments with their loved ones, who were still inside the tower on the phone, and being on the phone, hearing the fire broken through the window. But I think what is also going to be with me is the themes that you heard throughout the evidence of the people involved in the refurbishment and the regulations, because a lot of them said, even though these people had never met before, that they didn't think something that bad could happen here, and by that they mean here in the UK. They'd seen fires in other countries, they'd seen fires in Dubai, they'd seen cladding fires in Australia, they didn't think it could happen here. Thank you very much, no worries. That's Kate Lamble, and you can listen to her reporting on the Grenfell Tower inquiry podcast. The people affected by that fire were given monetary compensation, but they say they want justice. Keir Starmer, the new British prime minister, has promised to seek justice for them. In the light of such findings, it is imperative that there is full accountability, including through the criminal justice process, and that this happens as swiftly as possible. So I can tell the House today that this government will write to all companies found bad inquiry between part of these horrific failings as the first step to stopping them being awarded government contracts, and we will of course support the metropolitan police and the prosecutors as they complete their investigations. That's the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer. Focus in Africa was put together by Sunita Naha, Yvette Waguiramaria, Joseph Keene, and Bella Hassan here in London. Charles Kitonga brought it from Nairobi. Paul Batcha Binger was our senior producer. Francesca Dunn and Nick Rundell were our technical producers. Andre Lombard and Alice Wudengi are our editors. I'm Audrey Brown, and we'll talk again next time. Hey, it's Mark Marin from WTF here to let you know that this podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. And I'm sure the reason you're listening to this podcast right now is because you chose it. Well, choose Progressive's name your price tool, and you could find insurance options that fit your budget so you can pick the best one for your situation. Who doesn't like choice? Try it at Progressive.com. And now some legal info, Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates price and coverage match limited by state law, not available in all states. As Dawn broke over the seven seas, the pirates of the Crimson galleons set sail for adventure. But there was one problem, paperwork, mountains of it, filing invoices, you name it. Luckily, their captain had an idea. She used the smart buying tools on Amazon Business, so they could work more efficiently and get back to doing what they do best. I know, right? Amazon Business, your partner for smart business buying. [BLANK_AUDIO]