Editorials

It was over a year ago that one of the most appalling cycles of violence and war in the Middle East began. It kicked off on 7 October 2023 when Hamas launched an unimaginable and savage attack beyond Gaza’s walls  into southern Israel. The over 1,200 victims included young people, couples, soldiers and kibbutzniks. Hostages were taken. 

At the time of writing, the results of the second round of France’s snap parliamentary elections (7 July) were not yet in. The elections were triggered by the dissolution of the National Assembly, which itself followed on the heels of the shattering European elections for the presidential majority.

It's a daily scourge that is quietly gaining ground, growing and worsening year by year. Between coups d'état, wars, terrorism, droughts and other distressing events plaguing the continent, no-one seems to be paying much attention to it. Yet drug trafficking and counterfeiting are skyrocketing in West Africa, claiming around 500,000 victims a year.

In less than two decades, climate change and its consequences have become a matter of the utmost urgency for Africa. We are the poorest, the most fragile, the least developed, and yet we are heavily impacted.

We often talk about emergence, the future, growth... Despite this flood of well meaning words and (legitimate) hopes, a few truths need to be stated as a prerequisite. For example: Africa is a continent with no energy. Both literally and figuratively. We consume around 5% of the world's primary energy, even though we account for 20% of its population.

Africa is central to the century's strategic challenges. This huge continent is home to almost 1.2 billion people, with a projected population of 2 billion by 2050. A developing continent, but one where the fight against poverty is a constant priority. A continent undergoing revolutionary urbanisation, which is overturning traditional social patterns, trade flows and the population's demands.

Africa Cup of Nations final game.  It was a hot night on 11 February and the Alassane Ouattara stadium in Ebimpé erupted with joy. The Elephants were the champions after a thrilling match against Nigeria's Green Eagles.

The Tunisian crisis seems to have come to a head. President Kais Saied dropped out of sight for days in late March, fueling all sorts of speculation and underscoring the fact that the country has had no Constitutional Court since 2011—despite two successive constitutions calling for its establishment. The stalemate is highly political (the independence of justice) and revealing of Tunisia’s paralysis. Opponents, intellectuals and journalists are in jail. Self-censorship has returned to the country where the Arab Spring began. Inflation has hit 10% since January, wiping out the working and middle classes. Young people, Tunisians or coming from sub-Saharan Africa, risk their lives crossing the sea while the well-to-do jet off to enjoy better lives elsewhere. The state is on the brink of bankruptcy, crushed by haphazard management and a debt of over $40 billion (93% of GDP). For months, the government has been negotiating a two-billion-dollar loan from the IMF, a possible windfall obviously tied to implementing major reforms, which nobody in Tunis seems willing to undertake. All this, while, roughly speaking, there is no way, budgetary wise, to make it until end of the year. Some certainly imagine that perhaps Russia, China, Algeria or a “knight in shining armor” will come to the rescue.

Here we are, all of us on the shores of the Red Sea, in Sharm el-Sheikh, for the 27th Conference of the Parties on Climate Change.