18th Edition

Good Afternoon folks! 😁😁

Delighted to have you here. And if you joined us this week, it’s great to finally connect with you… so here we go!

Welcome to The Friday Briefing, your weekly brief on geopolitics.

This is our seventeenth edition. It’s still a bit of a test, so if something does go wrong be sure to let us know… but anyway, we plan to send out your brief every Friday lunchtime 12pm GMT.

Our goal is to provide you with a balanced and insightful overview, allowing you to stay informed without being overwhelmed with information. But above all, we understand the value of your time. With our summaries, you can quickly grasp the major events shaping our world, deepen your understanding and be on your way in no time!

Our starting point…yes…Africa, but our vision extends beyond the boundaries of a single continent.

Oh don’t forget, feel free to leave behind any feedback, suggestions or further ideas you would like us to run with 🙂 

^{Why Africa? maybe because we don’t hear much…}

Back in 2013, the 42nd President of the United States tweeted the above tweet, “Just touched down in Africa…” ⬆️

Although Mr Clinton’s tweet was true, despite the brazen mistruths our leaders spout these days, he nonetheless could’ve worded it a lot better.

But the tweet tells us a lot more. It exposes an attitude that many of us may have towards Africa, either through ignorance or laziness or maybe because we don’t hear enough about African countries in our national news media.

This is a continent as diverse as it is complex, a continent home to over 1.4 billion people and 54 countries, making it the second-most populated continent in the world.

Events in Africa aren't isolated, they hold global importance too. Political transitions, economic developments and conflicts in Africa have ripple effects that stretch far beyond its borders.

And yes, while we begin with Africa, we’re dedicated to expanding our weekly round-ups to other continents in due course, taking our mission to new frontiers by connecting the dots between nations and continents.

So stay tuned! 👌

^{So, what’s been happening this week?}

• Egypt restores ties with Türkiye following Erdogan’s visit

• Ghanaian President sacks Finance Minister in reshuffle

• Two South African soldiers killed in DR Congo… Why?

• France considers revoking birthright citizenship in Mayotte

^{What does this mean?}

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan arrived in the Egyptian capital, his first visit to Cairo in over a decade, after meeting President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in the UAE.

His visit comes as ties between Türkiye (see below ⬇️) and Egypt are back on track after years of tensions and bitter relations. Turkey has long been a backer of the Muslim Brotherhood Group, which has been outlawed as a terrorist organisation in Egypt.

Their talks focused on bilateral relations signing a joint declaration on restructuring a high-level Strategic Cooperation Council. The council aims to serve as an important platform for coordination on various regional issues. This includes developments in Libya, Somalia and Ethiopia as both countries seek to establish security and stability on the African continent.

President Erdogan also vowed to boost trade with Egypt to $15bn (£11bn) in the short term, adding that the two countries were evaluating energy and defence cooperation.

Also featuring in the discussions, Gaza. Erdogan has emerged as one of the Muslim world’s harshest critics of Israel for its bombardment and ground offensive in Gaza. In a joint news conference President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi said;

“We agreed on the need for an immediate cease-fire in Gaza and the need to achieve calm in the West Bank to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks with the ultimate goal of establishing an independent Palestinian state”.

President Erdogan urged Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu to avoid a ground offensive in Rafah and accused the Israeli government of committing “massacres” in Gaza.

“Efforts to depopulate Gaza are not acceptable,” he said

Egypt has also threatened to suspend the country’s decades-old peace treaty with Israel.

Did you know…

In June 2022, the United Nation agreed to change the spelling of the country known in the English-speaking world as “Turkey” to “Türkiye” following a request by the government of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo’s has sacked Ken Ofori-Atta, his finance minister in a sweeping cabinet reshuffle ahead of the elections in December.

Mr Akufo-Addo’s office said that Ofori-Atta would be replaced by Mohammed Amin Adam, currently a minister of state at the finance ministry and previously deputy energy minister.

Mr Ken Ofori-Atta has been overseeing Ghana’s debt restructuring efforts after it defaulted on most of its external debt in December 2022. Inflation rose above 50% that year and local cedi currency plummeted.

The then finance minister faced calls to resign from opposition and ruling party MP’s but survived.

The President was reluctant to give any reason for the sacking, but the sweeping reshuffle saw 12 other minister of state sacked. President Nana Akufo-Addo’s second and last term in office will end in 2025.

Did you know…

Ghana is the second-largest producer of gold in Africa and English is used as the official language of Ghana

Two South African Soldiers were killed and three injured when a mortar landed in their base in the eastern part of the DRC. The South African National Defence Force said it believed the mortar explosion was a result of “indirect” fire.

What are members of the South African Armed Forces doing in the Democratic Republic of the Congo? 🤔

Well, South Africa decided to send soldiers to the DRC as part of the Southern African Development Community’s mission to fight against armed rebel groups in the east.

Violence in the conflict-hit region has increased in recent weeks, with many blaming the attacks on the M23 rebel group who have been fighting Congolese soldiers in the region for years.

The DRC government says M23 rebels are receiving miliary support from neighbouring Rwanda, but Rwanda strongly denies the accusation.

Did you know…

More than 1 million people have been displaced by the conflict since November. This adds to the 6.9 million who already fled their homes in one of the world’s biggest humanitarian crises.

France has announced plans to amend the constitution to restrict citizenship to people born to immigrants in the overseas territory of Mayotte in a move aimed at curbing immigration.

The announcement comes less than three weeks after France’s highest court scrapped large parts of a new immigration law designed to toughen access to welfare benefits for foreigners and curb immigration.

French Interior Minister announced that children of immigrants born in Mayotte would no longer automatically become French citizen. He said;

“It will no longer be possible to become French if you are not the child of French parent”. France currently grants citizenship through both parentage and birthplace.

Mayotte is one of the five overseas departments of France located in the Indian Ocean, off the East African coast comprising of only two islands. The other surrounding islands sought independence, thus becoming the Comoros Islands.

Did you know…

French department - France is divided into regions, which are then divided into departments. 96 department are in metropolitan France with an additional 5 constituting overseas departments

Mayotte is a Muslim-majority overseas territory, which voted to stay part of France in 1974 and became a full-fledged French department in 2011

The population of Mayotte is approximately 335,995*

^{Book of the week…. DEAL IN THE WORKS!}

The idea is every week we will hold a poll on our social media pages, asking our readers to recommend a book for the week…

STAY TUNED!

You’re done for the week. Follow us on our socials and see you next Friday!