What do we know about Mali's recent coup?

 

Malian Air Force deputy chief of staff Ismael Wague (centre) speaks during a press conference on August 19, 2020. ANNIE RISEMBERG/AFP via Getty Images

Bruce Whitehouse, Lehigh University

Soldiers have ousted Mali’s President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta who has now resigned, alongside the country’s prime minister. Moina Spooner from The Conversation Africa asked Bruce Whitehouse, who has carried out studies on coups and violent extremism in Mali, to share his thoughts on what brought on this coup, and what needs to happen next to ensure stability in the country.

What laid the ground for the recent coup in Mali and who led it?

There are many long-term factors, but the immediate reason for the coup was Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta’s dismal performance as president. When first elected to the office in 2013, Keita had the ideal resume, having held nearly every top post in the Malian government (foreign minister, prime minister, speaker of the National Assembly). Yet he subsequently did not address the existential threats to Mali’s people and the state, from political violence to corruption.

His 2013 campaign promise to root out corruption and restore the country’s dilapidated sovereignty quickly proved hollow. Scandals over his acquisition of a new presidential jet and shady defence contracts gave the impression that his administration would be no more transparent or upright than those that came before.

Insecurity was already severe in Mali’s northern regions when Keïta took office, mainly due to jihadi militants and criminal gangs. In the subsequent seven years the situation steadily worsened as roadside bombings and raids on government targets (including military and police posts, prisons, and administrative buildings) spread to other parts of the country. Many troops have been killed by militants, and soldiers lacked the supplies and vehicles they needed to carry on the fight.

The violence resulted in a major humanitarian crisis. By the end of 2019, the UN estimated that 3.9 million people were in need of assistance and protection – an increase of 700 000 since the beginning of the year.

So ordinary Malians, and military personnel alike, were frustrated with Keïta’s government. As a consequence, since June there were persistent and massive street protests in Bamako, the capital, demanding Keïta’s resignation.

We don’t yet know much about the officers who led the coup. They call themselves the National Committee for the Salvation of the People and appear to be more highly ranked (colonels and possibly a general) than the officers who led previous coups in Mali. Colonel Assimi Goita has announced himself as the new leader.

This is not the first time Mali’s had a coup. The most recent one was in 2012 and, like this one, resulted in military control. How would you rate the transition to a civilian government after the 2012 coup?

In many ways, the 2020 coup resembles its 2012 predecessor. Both began as mutinies in Mali’s largest army base in Kati, on the outskirts of Bamako. The international response to both coups has been similar: statements of condemnation and promises of sanctions by the West African regional body, ECOWAS. And both seemed to garner quick popular support. A poll conducted after the 2012 coup showed that about two-thirds of Bamako residents backed the junta. The mass protests leading to this coup indicates that many Malians also support change.

One big difference is that the 2020 junta had President Keïta and his prime minister arrested on the first day and the president announced his resignation soon after on television. By contrast, the 2012 junta never managed to capture the president they ousted (Amadou Toumani Touré), leaving the coup’s outcome uncertain for several days.

Though the transition to civilian rule in 2012 appeared to happen relatively quickly - it took about a month for ECOWAS to negotiate a handover to an interim civilian government - it masked continued interference from the military who retained considerable power behind the scenes for many months. For instance, just a few weeks after the coup, the military orchestrated a mob attack that sent the interim president abroad for medical treatment.

This situation endured until 2013, when the French military intervention against jihadi militants began. From my own analysis, the presence of French troops discouraged the Malian military from meddling too openly with politics.

In August 2013, President Keita was voted in as president and, until now, seemed to have been able to keep the military in check, but military officers leading the coup appear to have been emboldened by the street protests of the past two months.

How should the transition to a civilian government this time around be handled to ensure political stability in the country?

The transition to a civilian government won’t be smooth.

There is significant public distrust in Bamako toward politicians. Under Mali’s 1992 constitution, the speaker of the National Assembly is supposed to become interim president and organise new elections after a president’s resignation, but President Keïta dissolved the body prior to resigning. This leaves no obvious successor.

The constitution also calls for new elections to be organised within a very short period - just 40 days - after the establishment of an interim government. Meeting this deadline proved impossible in 2012 for Mali, a poor country torn apart by conflict, and would be equally impossible in 2020.

This leaves the path forward uncertain and requiring negotiation between the junta, Malian civil society groups and political parties, foreign governments, and international bodies.

What are the likely regional implications, if any, of this coup?

West African governments don’t like to see a president, particularly an elected one, toppled from power by his own military. ECOWAS will continue issuing strong statements and talking about sanctions. This is also because heads of state throughout the region don’t want their own military officers getting any ideas about emulating what happened in Mali.

Yet we saw in 2012 that ECOWAS had neither the will nor perhaps even the capacity to isolate Mali economically. I don’t expect that has changed, but the stakes are different this time: the Sahel is a much more dangerous place in 2020 than it was eight years ago. I would expect France and the UN, which have thousands of troops in the country, to be the real drivers of an international response to this coup.

Bruce Whitehouse, Associate Professor, Lehigh University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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How to Address Youth Violence in The Niger-Delta

Young people’s lives in Niger Delta have not improved despite the setting up of development agencies Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP via Getty Images

Modesta Tochi Alozie, University of Sheffield

Twenty years ago, local resistance arose in the Niger Delta because of the way oil revenue was being shared and how oil pollution was undermining local livelihoods.

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Why Terrorism Continues in Nigeria

Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Sheriff Folarin, Covenant University

For ten years, the Nigerian authorities have engaged the terror group Boko Haram in the northeast without making much headway. After what appeared to be some success in 2015 and 2016, there was a resurgence of Boko Haram violence in 2017.

This worsened with the emergence of Islamic State in West Africa and, in more recent times, banditry and kidnap gangs all over the northern Nigeria region.

Having studied this crisis over the years as a political scientist, my view is that it is rooted in ethnic, religious and partisan politics and corruption. National security springs from mutual respect, peaceful co-existence and equality of social groups. But as argued in a paper I co-authored, the affiliation of Nigerian leaders to identity groups poses a challenge to national security.

We conclude that the government must show the will to fight the terrorists and eschew nepotism and ethnic or religious sentiments in the war. It must also deal decisively with corruption.

Additionally, we underscore that neither Boko Haram or Islamic State in West Africa is Nigerian or Muslim. No responsible or patriotic leader should see it as such. Nigeria should be unified in the struggle and united against terrorism. This is how to beat it into a permanent retreat.

Ebbs and flows

Religious fundamentalism has long been a feature of social existence and relations in northern Nigeria. But religion-inspired terrorism emerged from 2009 after the murder by security forces in Maiduguri of the Boko Haram leader, Muhammed Yusuf, and hundreds of his followers. What started as targeting some members of the political elite in Borno by Boko Haram soon turned into organised bombings of public places.

Despite involvement of the military, foreign partners and counter-terrorism measures from 2011 to 2015, the government seemed unable to get a grip of the situation. Boko Haram grew stronger, expanded its operations and declared an Islamic Caliphate.

By 2015, over 10,000 people had been killed and about 3 million internally displaced. Hundreds of thousands had to flee into neighbouring countries.

The emergence of a former military ruler as president in 2015 created the expectation that the terror group could be brought under control. Instead, the Islamic State’s West African Province also emerged – a breakaway faction of Boko Haram. Violence escalated and spread.

There were some successes in rolling back the expansion of Boko Haram. Between mid-2015 and late 2016, the federal government moved the terror and counter-terror “situation room” to Maiduguri, the heart of the crisis. The military halted the expansion of the “Caliphate” and took back the 14 local governments seized by the terror group. Flights and normal business returned to most parts of the northeast. Attacks stopped and the military could claim that Boko Haram had been technically defeated.

But then, just when it seemed the menace of Boko Haram had been ended by sheer military force, the federal government suggested dialogue and ransoms. Aggression and violence returned in Northern Nigeria and still hasn’t been completely controlled.

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Read more: How Boko Haram has evolved over the past ten years

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One school of thought argues that the will and dynamic approach in the fight against Boko Haram were short-lived, which wasted the success achieved in two years. When the government sought dialogue and negotiation and paid ransoms, it re-energised the terror group.

Another view is that the current administration was weakened when it began considering amnesty for repentant members of the group and swapping their prisoners for release of innocent Nigerian and foreign captives.

Yet another view is that the group’s breakup into factions fueled internal competition, with the groups’ targets on the receiving end.

For me, two theories explain the protracted crisis. They also amplify the other perspectives.

Factors at play

First is that there are people in government who lack the will to fight because of religious and ethnic affiliations or connections. Some in government consider Boko Haram members as northerners or Muslims who should therefore be dealt with cautiously.

Some military leaders have been accused of nepotism and of giving away vital details to compromise the onslaught against the terror gangs. The Borno State governor recently accused the military of sabotage in an attack on his convoy.

The second explanation is corruption. Since 2014, some senior soldiers and their civilian counterparts directing the war have come to see the war budget as an endless means to draw money for personal enrichment. There are examples of counter-terrorism or so-called counter-insurgency funds stolen by the national security adviser and dozens of others as well as some isolated cases of stolen war money by some security or service chiefs. While some opted for plea bargains, others are still undergoing trial.

The recent rise in banditry and demonstrations against it show that the people can no longer accept the circumstances. Boko Haram, Islamic State, bandits and kidnap gangs are threats to Nigeria’s peace, stability, security and economic prosperity. Everyone wants a stop to it. What do we do?

How to break the vicious circle

Government has the responsibility to provide genuine leadership in the war. The statement credited recently to the army chief that the crisis can only be stopped by Nigerians, thus passing the buck to civilians, is irresponsible. It’s only the armed forces that have the arsenals and training to fight Boko Haram and other such groups.

Corruption must be fought and conquered. The Borno governor once accused soldiers of extorting money from motorists where Boko Haram has a strong presence. Such practices – as well as instances of compromised military intelligence – are a big problem the military high command must stop by itself.

Dialogue, negotiation, ransom payments, amnesty and integration of repentant insurgents into the army and society are not the solution. They will only serve as the internal seeds of destruction of the army and its efforts against terrorism.

And, in my view, any attempt to integrate “repentant” terrorists in the army will expose the military and security architecture to intelligence and operational compromises.

Sheriff Folarin, Professor of International Relations, Covenant University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Has Nigeria's poor health system been exposed by COVID-19 outbreak yet?

 

High school students wear face masks as they wash their hands on August 3, the first day of partial resumption of classes in Lagos, Nigeria, since the COVID-19 lockdown. Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Oyebola Oyesola, Cornell University; Christian Happi, Redeemer's University; Dr Adewole A Adekola, University of London; Dr Chinedu Ugwu A, Redeemer's University; Jonathan Heeney, University of Cambridge, and Opeoluwa Adewale-Fasoro, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

The pace of SARS-CoV-2 transmission has triggered different government responses globally. These have had varying levels of effectiveness and some unintended outcomes.

Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with many densely populated cities, presents a unique situation for the explosive spread of SARS-CoV-2. Factors include high population density, limited health-care resources and access, and a high poverty index among a range of other socioeconomic factors.

Yet, by early August the number of reported confirmed infections (44,443) and mortality (910) was lower than other countries with dense urban populations and similar socioeconomic challenges.

As we point out in our paper, Insights into the Nigerian CoVID-19 Outbreak, the exact reasons for this are not clear but might include societal, immunological, epidemiological, political and infrastructural factors.

In our paper we set out to describe the ongoing CoVID-19 outbreak and its associated peculiarities. We also identify critical steps that still need to be taken to contain and control the outbreak.

Insights

We found that the CoVID-19 outbreak in Nigeria showed age and sex specific differences. More young people were affected compared to older people. This was different to the global trend.

This age-specific difference was also seen across other African countries. Examples include Ghana and South Africa.

We hypothesise that the age difference in the profile of cases in Nigeria could be due to the lower median age (a more youthful population) in Nigeria and Africa compared to the US and European countries.

Also, there was a sex and gender-based difference in the severity of the outbreak in Nigeria. More males than females have been infected. This is similar to patterns elsewhere in the world.

The reason for this is not clear. Several factors have been suggested. These include the role of sex hormones in the regulation of immune response and the expression of the SARS-CoV-2 receptor.

The expression of the viral receptor - ACE2 - in the Nigerian population should be investigated using various tools such as immunogenetics. This kind of study would help us understand differences in the expression of the receptor across the country, and how this has affected the outcome of the disease.

In immunology, constant exposure to disease causing agents (pathogens) like viruses makes a critical arm of the immune system (innate immune system) more primed to be able to respond quicker and faster to different pathogens. This concept – called trained immunity – is being debated as a possible explanation for the low COVID-19 incidence in Nigeria and Africa due to constant exposure and high burden of different infectious disease.

However, the benefits or detriments of this still have to be fully explored.

Lastly, we argue that public mistrust, misinformation and disinformation could be a major driver of COVID-19 in Nigeria. This mistrust has been an offshoot of the initial widespread dismissal of the reported cases as a “disease of the elite” and an embezzlement ploy for allocated response funds.

This was further reinforced by conspiracy theories emanating from various traditional and online media sources. The consequences of this mistrust were reflected in non-compliance with lockdown rules and social distancing restrictions. This potentially undermined the impact of the government containment response.

A scientist at the African Center for Genomics of Infectious Disease receives suspected COVID-19 samples for processing. African Center for Genomics of Infectious Disease

Modelling

Our research used the age-stratified SEIR (susceptible-exposed-infected-recovered) model to predict and model the Nigerian COVID-19 outbreak.

This showed that Nigeria is still in the early stages of the outbreak. The expected trajectory depends on the mitigation measures to contain the spread. A surge is expected in the coming months.

It is important to note that the COVID-19 situation in Nigeria is fast evolving. It is therefore difficult to ascertain the efficacy of the mitigation measures.

In addition, this is only a prediction and comes with a level of uncertainty in the parameters and the simplification of the model we used. As with all models, it might not capture the full complexity of the outbreak. But it can help better understand the dynamics of the outbreak. And it can inform government decisions on future interventions.

Consequence and impact

The incidence and spread of COVID-19 has affected Nigerian public health facilities both negatively and positively.

One of the negative consequences includes the impact on other infectious diseases. For example, an evaluation of the Lassa fever epidemiological trend over the past 5 years (2016 – 2020) of the same reporting period (week 1 – 23) also indicates the highest case peak reported in 2020.

This surge might not be absolutely associated with the current COVID-19 outbreak. But the impact of the outbreak would undoubtedly influence resource allocation and the working capacity of the national public health infrastructure.

This suggests that the current pandemic could affect the epidemiology and response to other endemic and integrated diseases. These include cerebrospinal meningitis, malaria, cholera, measles, Lassa fever and Yellow fever.

On a positive note, the COVID-19 outbreak has brought improvements to the health sector. This has included an increase in the implementation of the collaborative One-Health approach. This involves the collaborative participation of stakeholders from the human, animal and environmental health sector.

Examples include the incorporation of veterinarians and environmentalists in the Joint Task Force in response to CoVID-19, and port authorities in the establishment of the Coronavirus preparedness group.

There has also been rapid scale-up and activation of various stand alone laboratories. Lastly, the pandemic has highlighted the enormous potential for genomic surveillance in Nigeria.

But the COVID-19 outbreak, like other infectious disease outbreaks, has exposed the fragile health system in Nigeria. The lack of adequate testing, the poor health infrastructure, sub-optimal investment and funding in the STEM field and inadequate trained health professionals, leave Nigeria on an unknown trajectory.

As we work towards returning to normal, we argue that Nigeria’s leeway out of the COVID-19 outbreak, and other future outbreaks, will require improved diagnostic capacity, effective testing and tracing, and massive investment in research and health infrastructures.

Oyebola Oyesola, Recent PhD graduate from Cornell University, Cornell University; Christian Happi, Professor of Molecular Biology and Genomics, Redeemer's University; Dr Adewole A Adekola, Pathobiology and Population Sciences, Royal Veterinary College, University of London, University of London; Dr Chinedu Ugwu A, Research Fellow/Lecturer, Africa Centre of Excellence for Genomics of Infectious Disease (ACEGID), Redeemer's University, Redeemer's University; Jonathan Heeney, Professor of Comparative Pathology, Cambridge University, University of Cambridge, and Opeoluwa Adewale-Fasoro, Researcher, Molecular Microbiology and Immunology department, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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What is ammonium nitrate (NH4NO3), the chemical that exploded in Beirut?

Wael Hamzeh/EPA

The Lebanese capital Beirut was rocked on Tuesday evening local time by an explosion that has killed at least 78 people and injured thousands more.

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Decrypted messages from the Biafran war that have remained secret for 50 years

A freedom march for Biafra held to mark the anniversary of the unilateral declaration of independence in 1967 that sparked a brutal 30-month civil war in Nigeria. Stefano Montesi - Corbis/Getty Images

Richard Bean, The University of Queensland; Frode Weierud, CERN, and George Lasry, University of Kassel

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Biafran conflict in 1970.

The trigger for the conflict was the proclamation by Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu on 30 May 1967 that Biafra had become a republic. After 30 months of war, Biafra surrendered and was once again incorporated into Nigeria.

According to the author John de St Jorre, between half a million and a million Nigerians died, mainly from starvation, during the war.

Through the efforts of their roving diplomats during the war, Biafra achieved recognition from the states of Tanzania, Gabon, Haiti, Ivory Coast, and Zambia. But the fledgling state struggled to secure wider diplomatic support. It also found it difficult to purchase weapons and smuggle them into its controlled territory via airlift.

The efforts of these diplomats have recently come to light through the decryption of telexes sent from Portugal to Biafra during the war. Telex, short for teleprinter exchange, was a method for transmitting messages electronically over land lines or radio. Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, had become the centre for Biafran diplomacy in Europe because the government of Portugal under António de Oliveira Salazar supported Biafra with air landing and communication privileges. Paris and London were also key centres for Biafran diplomats.

In our paper we set out what was in the encrypted messages, and how we solved them. Three of us worked on the project, each with different disciplines – a mathematician, a computer scientist and a radio technologist. We used manual and computerised cryptanalysis methods to decipher a series of transposition ciphers sent by Biafran officials in 1968 and 1969.

It took us three months to figure out how the encryption worked and what keys were used. We also needed to read about the context of the war to understand and interpret the messages. The historical figures were unfamiliar to us and many codewords were used for people, countries and objects.

In the end, the decrypted messages provided a treasure trove of information about how men and women working for the breakaway state in Europe tried to garner support for Biafra from afar during the war.

Decades long decryption project

At the time, the Biafrans sent some of their messages in plain English text and made some extra effort to encrypt some in order to ensure that at least casual eavesdroppers couldn’t read the encrypted ones. However, they made mistakes which meant that professional as well as amateur eavesdroppers could have read them.

We know of at least two professional organisations that did intercept them: the Swedish signals intelligence agency, the FRA, and the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

Some were also intercepted by at least one amateur radio operator, Frode Weierud, in Oslo, a co-author of our academic paper.

At the end of July 1969 Weierud discovered a signal in the shortwave band transmitting a regular message in radioteletype: “This is Biscaia testing to LDA/3”.

Using teleprinter devices, he was able to intercept a series of messages from the station “Biscaia”. The messages were initially in understandable English, but soon they started arriving in ciphertext, in both five-letter and five-figure groups.

Example of five-letter encrypted message.

These messages were from a telex link between Biafra and Lisbon. During the war, Biafra had only one telex machine. It was the only communications link to and from the outside world. The machine was moved around Biafra depending on what territory was controlled.

The unencrypted, or “plaintext” messages sent over the link were often intended for wider distribution via Biafra’s public relations firm in Geneva, Markpress. The encrypted messages were between Biafran diplomats in European cities and the leaders of Biafra and were not intended for public distribution.

Although Weierud tried to decipher the messages in 1974 and wrote to a cryptography journal about them in 1978, the messages remained publicly undeciphered until he published them on his website in 2019. A Swedish signals intelligence veteran, Jan-Olof Grahn, also described the content of some messages in a 2019 book.

After Weierud published the messages, I joined him, as did George Lasry, a computer scientist from Israel, to decipher the messages. This was a difficult task as the cipher system was unknown. In fact, we used advanced computer algorithms, and also needed to improve them, to decipher some of the more challenging traffic. We also had to resort to manual methods at some points, writing out the letters on strips of paper and rearranging them by hand to form readable English.

Solving the ciphers by hand.

The task took many hours across all the messages. In general, the task for a code breaker is easier when more “ciphertext”, or encrypted messages, are available. The Swedish intelligence agency would have made short work of the messages, given the great number of messages intercepted by their superior equipment and the regular nature of the messages.

For instance, each message begins with the word “SECRET” followed by the name of the sender and recipient, which is given in both plain and ciphertext. If the codebreaker knows a particular phrase like this, called a “crib”, occurs in the plaintext, this can make the process of deciphering much easier.

Being able to see the original texts allows for a more accurate record of history, as the messages offer a contemporary, first person view into the conflict. Later accounts may well be whitewashed or self-serving by contrast.

What we found

The broad subjects covered by the messages included travel arrangements, arms deals, expenses and public relations.

The longest message was from Austine Okwu, the Biafran representative to Tanzania, to Colonel Ojukwu about taking the Biafran cause to the United Nations General Assembly. Other key characters in the messages were Christopher Mojekwu, described as “Ojukwu’s closest confidant of all”, and Chris Onyekwelu, Ojukwu’s brother-in-law.

One of the messages referred to members of the delegation bringing Biafra into disrepute by not being able to pay their hotel or telephone bills. The leaders urged frugality in the message.

Other messages referred to logistics, travel and shipments. For instance, one message from Mojekwu to Ojukwu referred to a weapons transfer and contacting “Achebe” – perhaps referring to the famous author.

Another message from October 1969 referred to the possibility of flights for salt and meat, and the extension of a hospital under the direction of Edgar Ritchie, an Irish obstetrician.

What next

Many of the cities and characters are still obscured by acronyms or codewords and remain to be identified, such as “HY” and “Chabert”. On the other hand, we were able to identify a whole series of other codewords concerning places because the plaintext described public events using codewords.

The key to the solutions was increased by computer power, storage, improved algorithms and international collaboration. The five-figure ciphers remain unsolved for any readers who want a challenge; although if a “one-time pad” encryption system has been used correctly, they may never be solved. Such a system provides perfect security if certain conditions are met.

In contrast, the system used would not have provided security to a determined eavesdropper. This gave us a rare window to see diplomatic communication – often protected by strong encryption – in action. To listen in, intelligence agencies either break the codes or insert a “backdoor” into the machines used.

Apart from being a fascinating project, we also believe the messages we decrypted provide a useful complement to the later written accounts of the participants in the war.

Richard Bean, Research Fellow, The University of Queensland; Frode Weierud, Electronics engineer, CERN, and George Lasry, Ph.D., the DECRYPT Project, University of Kassel

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Discovery of the earliest glass production in Nigeria and what it means.

Glass related artifacts excavated from Igbo Olokun, Ile Ife. Left: glass beads, Right: fragments of glass making crucibles. Courtesy Author

Abidemi Babatunde Babalola, University of Cambridge

The story of humankind from the earliest times to the present is in many ways a story about technology. Archaeologists tend to study the development of technology to show how people lived and how they interacted with their environment.

Discoveries of technological innovation and skill in ancient African societies have challenged western theories that had no place for such evidence. Western scholars tried instead to explain these findings as the result of external influence. For example the debate on the invention of iron metallurgy in Africa remains unsettled. And it took several decades before Africans were credited for the construction of the Great Zimbabwe stone architecture.

My ongoing research is another example of how archaeological evidence continues to overturn assumptions about technology in African societies. I found archaeological evidence of sophisticated indigenous glass technology at Ile-Ife, in southwest Nigeria, dated to about 1,000 years ago.

The evidence shows that the region was not just a consumer of glass made elsewhere but also contributed to technological development, innovation and creativity. It also suggests that glass beads were mass-produced at Ile-Ife and traded as prestige items.

Looking for evidence

The first evidence of glass made by humans dates to 2,500 BC. Globally, archaeologically known centres of primary glass production are few and concentrated in the Middle East, Mediterranean and Levant.

When investigating ancient glass making, archaeologists look for furnace remains, tools, finished objects, production waste, and presence or availability of raw materials. To complicate the matter, glass production does not generate much waste because failed products, scrapings, or droppings are added to and melted with the next batch. But sometimes archaeologists are fortunate to have more than one form of material relating to glass production to work with. This was the case at Ile-Ife, where my research on indigenous glass making has been going on for nearly a decade.

Over the years, we focused on a site called Igbo-Olokun, where evidence of a glass workshop had been known for over a century but never studied in detail. We also studied archaeological materials stored in the Natural History Museum at Obafemi Awolowo University in Ile-Ife.

The findings from the archaeological excavations at Ile-Ife include several pits that appeared to be furnace ruins, over 20,000 glass beads, 1,500 crucible fragments (ceramic vessels used in glass production), and several kilograms of glass waste. Another artifact from the site is semi-finished glass, which is the object of study of my recently published work. Semi-finished glass is a halfway vitrified glass. The raw materials for the glass have coagulated but not yet turned completely into glass.

Laboratory analysis of this material with my colleagues Professor Thilo Rehren and Dr Laura Dussubieux provided a better understanding of the chemical signature of the glass. We could determine the source and types of the raw materials used, and decipher the technological process.

Results of the analysis show that Ile-Ife glass is chemically distinctive. It is now referred to as high lime high alumina (HLHA) glass – not known from anywhere else in the world.

What this tells us

The Ile-Ife site is the first known primary glass workshop in sub-Saharan Africa. Like their counterparts in other parts of the world, the glass makers at Ile-Ife explored the raw materials – geological and forest resources – that were available in the area. The concentration of the elements of the glass is consistent with that of the geological components in the region, which suggests that the glass makers invented their own glass recipe using the available resources.

The glass makers in ancient Ile-Ife used feldspar-rich granitic sand and/or pegmatite as the source of silica. They also used snail shell, which would have helped to reduce the melting temperature of the silicate materials and improve the quality of the glass. The quality was as good as glasses from other ancient societies.

Besides telling us how sophisticated this technology was, the research also tells us more about the role of West African forest communities in early regional commercial networks. We have established that bead was the main product manufactured at the workshop in Ile-Ife. It appears to have been produced in large quantities for trade. This means Ile-Ife was a producer and supplier of prestige items.

It is known from the archaeological evidence that sub-Saharan Africa was entwined in global connection through importing items like glass beads as far back as 600-400 BC. But this luxury item was also available within the region a thousand years ago.

Africans patronised the local sources, circulating and consuming locally made items. Ile-Ife HLHA glass beads have been found in early West African trading towns and cities such as Gao and Essouk in what is now Mali, and among the glass beads used to adorn the elite burial at Igbo Ukwu in eastern Nigeria.

This research has illuminated an aspect of Africa’s past that is often misrepresented or completely obliterated. Africa has always contributed to global technological breakthroughs and economic systems. The continent has an untold history of creativity.

Abidemi Babatunde Babalola, Smuts Research Fellow in African Studies , University of Cambridge

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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How we learnt more about dangerous pollutants in Lagos lagoon

Plastic bottles, containers and other waste washed up from the Lagos lagoon at one of the waterfront jetties Stefan Harris/AFP via Getty Images

Aina Adeogun, University of Ibadan

Lagos lagoon is the largest of four lagoon systems off the Gulf of Guinea. Several rivers and waterways empty into it, and it plays an important role in the West African coastal ecosystem as well as the Nigerian economy.

Several aquatic organisms in the lagoon are commercially important species, providing food and income for surrounding communities and beyond. The fish caught here represent more than half of Nigeria’s fisheries production of nearly 800,000 metric tonnes. This unique brackish water environment also plays significant roles in ecosystem stability and as a breeding ground for aquatic species.

Unfortunately, the lagoon receives enormous amounts of largely untreated industrial and other wastes. Lagos State accounts for most of the country’s industries and is home to an estimated 20 million people.

The Ogun, Osun, Ona and Yewa rivers empty large volumes of water from inland and coastal cities. This water is generally polluted by industrial, domestic and agricultural activities. The lagoon also receives a large quantity of pollutants from manufacturing and municipal activities in the greater Lagos metropolis. They include organic and inorganic pollutants which produce potential health risks for fish, shrimps and crabs – and people who eat them.

We conducted a study to evaluate the effects of these pollutants on fish food and the environmental health of the Lagos lagoon. We aimed to provide environmental health management authorities with scientific data for effective protection of marine ecosystems and human health. We used a novel method for analysing sediment samples, to understand how the different pollutants distribute within the lagoon ecosystem and affect the organisms that live there.

We found that the complex combination of pollutants in Lagos lagoon interferes with fish and mammal biology – especially their endocrine systems – and is potentially harmful to humans.

Makoko hotspot with associated sawmill industrial waste. Courtesy Author

How we tested the effect of pollutants

The growth and industrialisation of big cities such as Lagos contribute many pollutants to water and land ecosystems. A number of pollution hotspots have also been identified in the area, including the city of Ikorodu, the slum area of Makoko and Idumota market. Plastic products, used tyres and car parts are some of the waste items that end up in the Lagos lagoon, through inappropriate waste disposal methods, dumping, and industrial and agricultural activities.

The end-station for these pollutants is the bottom of the lagoon. The sediments store pollutants and release them during heavy rainfall, winds and underwater turbulence. Bottom-dwelling organisms, particularly invertebrates, also stir up sediments during feeding and interactions between predators and prey, returning contaminants to the water.

In our study we tested three of the ways in which contaminants are released into the water in nature. This gave us a better understanding of how contaminants affect organisms in water.

The first method was elutriation, a process which simulates the natural process of mixing bottom soil and water, for example when boats disturb the water. In this process, pollutants are re-suspended in the water.

The second was polar extraction, which isolates pollutants that can dissolve in water and remain there in high concentrations.

The third was non-polar extraction. This method was used to evaluate the effects of pollutants that are transferred from sediment to organisms when they feed on particles of the bottom soil. Snails, earthworms, crabs and some fish can take in pollutants this way.

The different extraction methods produce results that are comparable to what happens in the natural environment. They allowed us to learn more about the complex interactions between water and bottom soil pollutants. We could also learn about the effects of pollutants on aquatic organisms, including the threat to their growth and reproduction.

We then exposed fish cells and rat cells to the pollutants extracted from the lagoon bottom soil.

Using animal cells (fish and rat) is a new way to avoid using live animals for research. It resolves the ethical dilemma associated with animal use in research and provides a deeper understanding of several biological processes. The molecular analysis of these cells can give an early warning of damage to animal and environmental health. Steps can then be taken to reduce harm.

What we found

Our assessment of contaminant loads at various parts of Lagos lagoon revealed a wide range of priority pollutants. These are pollutants with significant toxic potential for wildlife and humans. They include heavy metals such as mercury and cadmium, as well as organic compounds PCBs, phenols, PAHs and organotins. Some of these contaminants are known endocrine disrupting chemicals. They also induce enzyme systems that may alter the pollutant into a less harmful chemical and eliminate it from the body.

We reported that they produce hormonal imbalances with disruptive effects on the endocrine and chemical transformation systems of fish, crabs, shrimps and crocodiles. Such effects may lead to changes in reproductive organ development and result in gender confusion or the intersex condition. Documented effects on wildlife populations include reductions in fish species.

Our findings showed that exposing cells to low concentrations of the pollutants extracted from Lagos lagoon sediments not only killed the cells, but also activated the enzymes that metabolise these pollutants. Ultimately, this reduces the ability of the cell to break down pollutants properly, with further consequences for growth and reproduction.

Pollutants from industrial and domestic sources in the Lagos lagoon represent a cocktail of environmental contaminants. They are capable of interfering with the growth and reproduction of fish and mammals that depend on the stability of the lagoon ecosystem.

These findings imply that there are potential risks for harmful effects on human health. The pollutants are potentially transferred to humans from aquatic food resources. They become more concentrated along the food chain. Given that the hormone systems of vertebrates are similar, pollutants that affect fish will potentially affect humans in similar or comparable ways.

This indicates possible negative health consequences for people who depend on the lagoon as a food source.

The heavy pollutant load may also be contributing to the observed decrease in fish catches at the lagoon in recent times. This effect may arise from the inability of enough fish eggs and young fish to develop into adults. Or it could be from damage to food and nursery habitats for young fish.

What needs to happen

Until now, a lack of scientific information about pollution in the lagoon has made it difficult for regulatory bodies to develop and enforce water and food safety regulations. The information provided by our studies could contribute to developing protocols for treating industrial effluents. This is also in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14, on the protection of life under water.

We recommend that regulatory agencies develop and adopt a Nigerian version of REACh (Registration, Evaluation, Authorisation and Restriction of Chemicals), the European Union Regulation 1907/2006/EC regarding chemicals. They should also do more to enforce the legal protection of natural habitats.

Government and industrial facilities should work together to find ways to reduce pollution before effluents reach the lagoon.

And finally, scientists need to routinely monitor the environment to see how species are responding.

Aina Adeogun, Professor of Aquatic Toxicology, University of Ibadan

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Football and politics: when Algeria won the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations

ISLAM SAFWAT/NurPhoto/Getty Images

Mahfoud Amara, Qatar University

With African football on hold and the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) rescheduled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there’s plenty of nostalgia to go around. But memories of the Algeria’s biggest football wins can offer more than just nostalgia. The 2019 Afcon win in Egypt also offers insights into how governments co-opt the game.

Algeria’s victory against West Germany in the 1982 FIFA World Cup, still in Algeria’s post-independence, was an iconic moment. As was their first Afcon win in 1990 in Algiers.

A decade later the country entered one of its darkest times since independence. Under Abdelaziz Bouteflika – who would serve as president for 20 years from 1999. Political violence caused the deaths of thousands and deeply affected Algerian society.

The 2019 Afcon trophy would be lifted 29 years after the first. This game, in Egypt, is especially worth recalling because of the political circumstances surrounding it. All the elements of a Greek tragedy were in place that day.

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Read more: Bouteflika steps aside as Algerians push to reclaim and own their history

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On the streets

On Friday 22 February 2019, after a campaign on social media following the announcement by the ruling National Liberation Front that an ailing Bouteflika would stand for a fifth term, hundred of thousands of demonstrators took to the street to express their discontent. The prospect of enduring another five years of Bouteflikism was too dire.

Since then, every Tuesday for students, and every Friday after the prayer, Algerians of all ages and regions have returned to the streets. The peaceful protesters want real change, including the end of the army-backed establishment that has ruled since independence in 1962. On March 8, Women’s Day, the number of demonstrators, men and women of different age and class in the hirak (the Arabic word for “movement”), reached an unprecedented level.

The army, led by General Major Gaïd Salah, Minister of Defense, pushed for Bouteflika’s resignation and the postponement of the election. This led to the disintegration of Bouteflika’s high profile entourage, called the essaba (gang), who accumulated colossal fortunes in exchange for financially backing political manoeuvres to maintain Bouteflika’s regime.

Demonstrators in Algiers in October 2019. Mustafa Hassona/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

In the stadia

This money was also used to co-opt sport, football in particular. Each election, photos of Bouteflika would adorn football stadia and be displayed at the opening of matches. It was not unusual for club bosses and former players to be seen at political rallies for Bouteflika, who famously claimed during a 2009 speech that Algeria “has the means to organise two football World Cups”.

One example of this interplay between football, business and politics is a long-time backer of Bouteflika, construction magnate Ali Haddad, who purchased the football club USM Alger in 2010 and became its president. Interestingly, the club’s fans continued with their chanting attacks on the symbols of Bouteflika’s privileged class or “les nouveaux riches” who controlled the networks of politics, media and business in Algeria.

Football fans have been active in the hirak from the beginning, and their politicised football chants have been embraced as an expression of popular resentment with political systems and socio-economic conditions.

Following on the heels of Bouteflika’s resignation amid massive protests and the nomination of a caretaker president, the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations came in the right time. It was for the new decision makers, led by General Salah, an opportunity to reconcile with the population and rebrand the new ruling elite as guarantors of stability and the fight against corruption.

For the Algerian national football team, after years of instability and management changes, it was another opportunity to reconcile with supporters at home and among the large Algerian diaspora in Europe and in North America.

On the Afcon field

In 2014, Algeria experienced its first time in a knockout round at the FIFA World Cup. But when Djamel Belmadi was appointed as new coach in August 2018, the team had plunged into a crisis of confidence. Results were absent and critics were present and acerbic. So when Belmadi announced that Algeria would go to Egypt to lift the cup, few took him seriously.

The tournament was being played in Egypt, one of the favourites for the title. For Algeria, Egypt was a rather hostile sporting environment. The two countries had been football foes for decades – and at political loggerheads over the Libyan conflict – and the animosity was tangible. The hostility continued especially after Egypt failed to reach the second qualifying round. Yet opposition to Algeria’s opponents in the final, Senegal, was also great.

With the logistic support of the army, the new Algerian leadership organised the airlifting of Algerian supporters from different regions of the country into Egypt, even offering them free tickets once in Cairo.

In the stadium Algerian fans cheered a team that was “reborn alongside the hirak”.

Back on the streets

And so the celebrations of Algeria’s second Afcon cup happened in a unique context. They extended to the Algerian community around the world, in Europe, Canada and the US, and in France in particular.

Algeria’s supporters in France celebrate after Algeria beat Senegal 1-0 in the final. Estelle Ruiz/NurPhoto/Getty Images

And, as always, raising the Algerian flag in French cities fuelled the debate on French identity and the question of alliance with Algeria’s former colonisers.

Algeria’s captain Ryad Mahrez, after scoring a winning free kick against Nigeria to qualify for the final, had tweeted “the free kick was for you, we are together” with Algerian and French flag emojis. There were a number of French-Algerian dual nationals on the team.

The tweet was in response to a far-right tweet “to avoid the tide of Algerian flags, to preserve our national holiday … Trust the 11 Nigerian players.”

You could also read how around 2,500 police officers had been mobilised in Paris to “prevent street clashes”. The situation led French-Algerian coach Belmadi to urge Algerian supporters in France to celebrate in an “orderly” way – a reference to the peaceful and orderly hirak protests.

A number of supporters were nonetheless arrested after clashes with police.

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Read more: Why, after one year, protests continue to rock Algeria

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Looking back, the 2019 Afcon win underscores how the Algerian regime has long understood how to mobilise the national football team victories for its own agenda. But the regime is also now very aware of the liberty football can bring.

For years young Algerians have understood that stadiums are the ideal venue to freely voice their socio-political and economic discontent. These football chants and slogans reached their zenith when they were eventually repeated by thousands every Friday during hirak marches.

Abdelkader Abderrahmane contributed to this article. He is a geopolitical researcher and international consultant on African peace and security issues.

Mahfoud Amara, Associate Professor in Sport Policy & Management, Qatar University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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COVID-19 Outbreak in Kano Is One of Africa’s Alarming Hotspots

Dozens of doctors are infected and gravediggers are overwhelmed in Kano, Nigeria’s second-largest city, where inaction led to an unchecked outbreak. Across Africa, other hot spots are emerging.

A Mobile Lab in Kano

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7 Real-Life Heists That Were So Crazy You'll Forget All About 'Money Heist

Now, a lot of you have obviously watched Money Heist and have a great love for the show . But here's the thing. If you think that the show has somehow the greatest heist story ever, you are in for a surprise.

1. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Heist, Boston, 1990

While the city celebrated St. Patrick’s Day by chugging beers, two thieves dressed as Boston police officers entered the museum and stole 13 works of art . The missing pieces include a Rembrandt, Manet, and a few by Degas, estimated at $500 million total. Nothing compared to the monetary value of Money Heist but then, art's priceless, isn't it?

Empty frames currently hang in the room, in homage to the missing art, which remains one of the greatest unsolved American crimes of all time.

2. The unsolved case of the stolen $6 billion in Post-Saddam Iraq

In all the chaos that followed Saddam's fall, with both private contractors and US military forces trying to gain control of the region, someone stole $6 billion worth of the money that the US Congress had sent to be spent in Iraq.

The special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction, Stuart Bowen, said he couldn't account for the money and called it the ' largest theft of funds in national history'.

 3. The Great Train Robbery of England, 1963

In 1963, £2.3 million (£40 million today) was stolen from a post office train in England by a 15- member gang who did not even use a gun. Bruce Reynolds along with an 11-member gang, tampered with railway track signals and stopped a Royal Mail night train travelling from Glasgow to London carrying letters parcels and large amounts of cash, They would not have been caught had they not played a game of monopoly in a barn with all the stolen cash, and left fingerprints all over the place! Reynolds evaded capture, fleeing with his wife and son. On his return to Britain, he was caught and sentenced to 25 years in prison for the train heist, of which he served just 10. 

4. D.B Cooper's leap of faith, 1971

D.B. Cooper, a favourite amongst conspiracy theorists, performed the only unsolved air piracy act in 1971. He hijacked a Boeing 727, extorted $200,000 and then leapt out of the plane with the money somewhere between Portland and Seattle, never to be seen again. The case is active in the FBI even after 40 years. Till now, no one has been able to identify who the thief was. And yes, he is referenced to in Prison Break  .

5. The Vastberga Helicopter Robbery, 2009

This was quite simple though the Swedish police force had never seen anything like this. A crew of thieves stole a helicopter and parked it on the roof of a cash depot building. They broke through the glass with sledgehammers, blew through security doors with explosives and raided the cash store vaults.

All the cop cars arriving to save the day had their tires blown out by caltrops. Even the thieves who were caught received no more than 7 years in prison as per the law.

6. Thomas Blood steals the English crown jewels, 1671 If you hadn't guessed by the name, Thomas Blood was an Irish assassin, who had made the ambitious plan of stealing the monarch's crown jewels.

Now this one has the potential to be a Hollywood blockbuster. Blood's plan involved costumes, a fake title, a fake wife and a fake nephew which he claimed would marry the daughter of Talbot Edwards, the keeper of said jewel 

.After securing a private viewing of the jewel, they knocked Talbot out, and stuffed the jewels in their pants and made a run for it but were caught by the guards. However, King Charles II was so impressed by the attempt that he allowed Blood to live out the rest of his days on a nice piece of land in Ireland.

7. The Antwerp Diamond Heist, 2003

This diamond heist has rightfully earned the moniker of the 'heist of the century'. The estimated worth of the missing items was more than $100 million but this heist was just a stepping stone to something else entirely.

Leonardo Notarbartolo, the man who planned the whole thing, lived beside the diamond centre for three years before D-Day. Leonardo posed as an Italian diamond merchant in order to familiarise himself with the centre. However, Leonardo was arrested while his entire crew got away

Years later, he said that the whole thing was actually an insurance fraud attempt by the diamond merchant who hired him. Apparently, the actual stolen amount was about $20 million, leaving the lion’s share of the theft to be suffered by the insurance company!

Holy shit, right? Anybody getting any movie ideas from this, do not forget where you first read this - your friendly neighbourhood writer guy! 

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