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Associated Press
- December 17, 2022 00:51
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Elections, coups, disease outbreaks and extreme weather are some of the major events that took place across Africa in 2022.
Problems brewing thousands of miles away — climate change and the war in Ukraine — have been devastating to the continent, experts say.
The climate crisis is hitting Africa "first and hardest," said Kevin Mugenya, a senior adviser on resilience and food security for Africa at Mercy Corps, an international charity.
The continent of 54 countries and 1.3 billion people is facing "a catastrophic global food crisis" that "will worsen if actors do not act quickly," Mugenya told The Associated Press.
With less than 1% of arable land available for irrigation in a continent that suffers a third of global droughts, African farmers are exposed to erratic rainfall, rising temperatures and drought, according to an International Monetary Fund policy paper .
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The deadly effects of extreme weather conditions have intensified in the Horn of Africa. The worst drought in decades that has seen a fifth failed rainy season in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia is affecting an estimated 40 million people, according to the United Nations.
In Nigeria, 1 million hectares of farmland were submerged after the worst floods in a decade displaced more than 1.3 million people and destroyed crops that are already faltering in some areas due to protracted conflict, Mercy Corps said.
Humanitarian support for Africa has dwindled as the war in Ukraine distracts major donors, according to aid agencies.
Donors responded "in time - especially to Ukraine," the UN refugee agency said in a September report. Half of the agency's 12 "most important operations" struggling to get funding are in Africa, the report said.
Rising food prices due to the war in Ukraine hit sub-Saharan Africa hard, which imported 44% of its wheat from Russia and Ukraine between 2018 and 2020, according to United Nations figures.
On the political front, peaceful elections in Angola, Kenya, Lesotho and Senegal were bright spots for Africa.
But armed conflict loomed large across the continent. Jihadi insurgencies ravaged Somalia, Nigeria, Mozambique, Burkina Faso and Mali. Extremist violence threatened to spread to more countries, especially in the Sahel region of West Africa.
Eastern Congo suffered violence from several armed militias, notably the M23 group. As insecurity worsened and M23 rebels advanced to take territory, including a major city in August, neighboring Congo and Rwanda threatened to go to war as each side accused the other of supporting armed groups in the mineral-rich region.
In Ethiopia, the continued presence in Eritrea of allied government forces, who are accused of some of the worst abuses in the two-year war between Ethiopian and regional Tigray forces, threatens a peace deal in November to end a conflict that has was much more deadly than the one in Ukraine.
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Burkina Faso's two coups – the first in January and the second in September – brought Russia's involvement in the West African country under scrutiny. Within hours of the second coup, the head of Russia's secret mercenary group, the Wagner Group, was among the first to congratulate the new junta leader.
Protesters waving Russian flags attacked the French Embassy and the French Institute in the capital Ouagadougou. Many said they believed Wagner's mercenaries are better equipped to stop Burkina Faso's jihadist violence than Western allies like France.
Wagner Group mercenaries have already established bases for Russia in at least half a dozen African countries. These include the Central African Republic, Sudan and Mali, which is battling an insurgency similar to that in Burkina Faso that has killed thousands and displaced some 2 million people. The Wagner group has been accused of committing human rights violations in Mali.
The deepening instability caused by extremist Islamist rebels in the Sahel has caused "massive population displacement" across Burkina Faso, Mali and Nigeria, according to the UN's World Food Programme. Uprisings and coups have also raised fears that democracy is slipping in West Africa, analysts say.
The threat of the COVID-19 pandemic receded across the continent, but not before exposing global disparities in vaccine distribution.
After the Ebola virus outbreak in Uganda in September, the World Health Organization appealed for about $88 million to fight the resurgent disease. But by November, the WHO said it had received only 20% of the amount.
An outbreak of mpox - formerly known as monkeypox - spread around the world. Vaccinations were available in wealthy Western countries for the first time, but despite recording many deaths, poorer Africa was starved of vaccines.
Africa's improved capacity to combat disease outbreaks — largely built on experience fighting COVID-19 — is offering some optimism ahead of 2023.
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Matshidiso Moeti, the World Health Organization's regional director for Africa, told a web conference on December 11 that "the future, as difficult as the last two years have been, will find us in a much better situation for in terms of our strategies, investments and capacities to deal with public health threats".
Translated by: Forca Jashari
