Tag: africa

A Tale of Two Continental Tyrannies

It will soon be 5 years since the initial Covid 2020 Lockdowns. This article builds on what was written by Dr Ramesh Thakur’s article “Pandemic in Africa: Lessons and Strategies” and Jeffrey Tucker’s article “The Mass Betrayal of Trust” by giving an on-the-ground-perspective comparison of the social interactions and costs that happened in response to all the Covid mandates in Europe and Africa.

When the lockdowns hit in 2020, I was in Europe having built a life there as an immigrant engineer with minimal knowledge of geopolitics and Public Health (My little knowledge of Public Health revolved around the free exercise classes and stress ball some public health officials came to give in my Church – I thought they were just harmless doves—common, who doesn’t love a free stress ball?). Imagine my shock in 2020, when this same group of “nice guys” suddenly began to yell at us to sit at home, else you are a selfish grandma killer. My second shock was the next-to-nothing pushback from Institutions that were supposed to/designed to push back against Government tyranny. Jeffrey Tucker details it all in his article “The Mass Betrayal of Trust”.

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Tech Titan Microsoft Partnered Extensively with USAID on Third World Internet Projects

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) became the most visible symbol of government waste and ideological partisanship after DOGE exposed the vast sums it spent around the world promoting a variety of leftist causes including online censorship. What is less well-known is the now-shuttered agency’s work with big tech companies, notably Microsoft.

In 2023, Microsoft partnered with Internews, a USAID-funded global slush fund for journalists, to create the Media Viability Accelerator (MVA). The MVA sought to combine Microsoft’s tech resources with Internews’ global network of ideologically aligned journalists, allowing newsrooms to access market insights, data aggregation, analysis and visualization from Microsoft to support their efforts.

Microsoft and USAID also partnered on the progressive cause of women’s empowerment. A program called the Women’s Digital Inclusion Partnership saw Microsoft working with USAID to increase internet coverage for women in the third world. The program aimed to increase internet connectivity for women in rural areas of Columbia, Ghana, Guatemala, India and Kenya.

It’s unclear if this USAID-backed program was any more successful that the U.S. government’s domestic rural internet program, which according to analysts resulted in $42.5 billion in expenditure while connecting zero citizens.

Another USAID-Microsoft partnership on internet connectivity was the Airband Initiative, which aims to expand internet access around the world. The partnership brought together local coalitions of government agencies, nonprofits, and private sector companies to build digital infrastructure and provide “digital skills” training. The program aimed to expand internet access to 250 million people by the end of 2025, including 100 million people in Africa.

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Violence, Minerals, and the Inevitable in Central Africa

In January, the rebel group M23 captured Goma, the largest city in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. The ethnic Tutsi militants, who have been intermittently fighting the DRC government for years, restarted their rebellion in 2021 and have rapidly captured territory since the beginning of 2025. Since taking Goma, they have moved to the south and also captured the large city Bukavu, giving them control over an area that is home to millions of people. 

M23 is widely believed to be backed by Rwanda and its long-time President Paul Kagame, a charge that Kagame has always denied. This troubled region remains racked by brutal inter-ethnic and multinational conflict featuring countless armed factions. Perhaps more importantly, it contains some of the world’s largest deposits of key minerals, such as cobalt, which is necessary for the manufacture of electronics. Across a nearly impassable rainforest from the capital of Kinshasa, eastern Congo has proven impossible for the central government to rule, but the African Union and United Nations remain devoted to maintaining historic borders no matter how impractical. There is little the United States can or should do to help stabilize the situation, but it is long past time to consider accepting the breakup of the DRC.

The current troubles in in the eastern Congo date back to the 1994 Rwandan genocide, a story that is widely known but poorly understood. Western experts, in an extension of popular academic theories, have found it convenient to claim that the division of Hutus and Tustis was made up by Europeans as a method of colonial control. Although it was used that way, and their legal classification system was arbitrary and based on physical characteristics, this division within the society of this region dated back hundreds of years prior to the arrival of colonialism. The most simple way to understand the division is that the Tutsis were a noble class who kept cattle, while the Hutus were agriculturalist serfs. The colonialists ruled through the Tutsi monarchy, and Hutus overthrew both in the 1959 Rwandan Revolution.

In 1990, the Rwanda Patriotic Front, made up of Tutsi refugees based in Uganda, started a civil war trying to take back control of Rwanda, and in response in 1994 Hutu extremists began a genocide against the country’s Tutsi population. Ultimately, the RPF were able to chase the Hutu militants out of the country and won the civil war. In a dark historical irony, though the world had stood mostly silently during the genocide, or in France’s case sided with the government, once the genocidaires were exiled in the eastern DRC, their well-being became a major international concern. The Hutus who committed genocide received more assistance than the original victims; granted, the humanitarian needs were genuine, as they were facing famine and retributive violence.

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USAID accused of funding Boko Haram’s REIGN OF TERROR against Nigerian Christians

In a shocking revelation that has sent ripples across international borders, Nigerian politician Adamu Garba has accused the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) of funding Islamic terrorist groups, including Boko Haram and ISIS, in Nigeria. Garba, a prominent member of Nigeria’s All Progressives Congress, claims that USAID funds have been used to purchase weapons for these groups, which have waged a brutal campaign of violence against Christians in the region.

Boko Haram, often operating under the guise of Fulani herdsmen, has terrorized northeastern Nigeria for years. Their tactics include burning homes, killing men, and kidnapping and raping women and girls. A 2018 report by Voice of the Martyrs documented the displacement of over 300,000 people and the deaths of more than 500 individuals in that year alone. Garba’s allegations suggest that these atrocities were bankrolled, at least in part, by U.S. taxpayer dollars.

Garba’s claims align with recent statements by U.S. Congressman Scott Perry, who during a February 12 hearing titled “The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments and Fraud,” accused USAID of misdirecting 697 million to terrorist organizations. Perry highlighted a specific example in which 136 million intended for the construction of 120 schools in Pakistan vanished without a trace.

“I mentioned this before that Boko Haram, ISWAP, and most of these terrorists, the weapons they get are actually funded by some clandestine foreign operators,” Garba stated in a video posted on his X page. “The exposé about USAID has confirmed that Boko Haram and all these terrorists are getting their weapons through the funding from USAID.”

Garba questioned the whereabouts of $824 million in USAID funding allocated to Nigeria last year, which was ostensibly intended for child mortality and education programs. “When did the money come in, where did it go to?” he asked. “These monies go to the funding of Boko Haram and kidnappers that are used to kill and destroy our land.”

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The Congo Enters Chaos Spiral As Rwanda Backed Insurgents Invade

After years of relative quiet, conflict between the Democratic Republic of Congo and its much smaller neighbor Rwanda struck yet again in 2021 while the world was distracted by the global covid pandemic. Fighting has continued to escalate as an insurgent group called “M23”, which is backed by the government of Rwanda, continues cross-border raids and has expanded into the neighboring province of South Kivu.  They now claim to have encircled and taken the key city of Goma.

Though Rwanda’s total population is 14 million compared to the DRC’s 102 million, Rwanda has been purchasing advanced weaponry from China since at least 2018, including man-portable anti-tank missiles, ground to air missiles, anti-ship missiles, armored vehicles and artillery.  Congo rebels like the M23 group have been caught transporting such weapons and moving back and forth over the Rwandan border.  

Though there are a host of ethnic and political grievances between the various tribes of the Congo region (the Rwandan genocide of 1994 still reverberates to this day), the current conflict appears to lean more towards control of resources.  The Congo exports 40% of the global Coltan supply and is also suspected to have the world’s largest lithium deposits.  Coltan is a Rare Earth metal vital in the production of high end electronics and weapons systems.

International interests including the UN assert that Rwanda is using the M23 rebels as a proxy to obtain mineral rich territory in the DRC.  They estimate that between 3,000 and 4,000 Rwandan army troops are on the ground in DR Congo in support of M23 – based on authenticated photographs, drone footage, video recordings, testimonies and intelligence.

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Sen. Banks Asks Secretary of State Rubio to Investigate Reports Biden Administration Tried to Force Radical Abortion on Foreign Country In Exchange for Aid

Senator Jim Banks (R-IN) has asked Secretary of State Marco Rubio to investigate reports that the Biden administration tried to pressure a foreign nation into adopting radical pro-abortion legislation in exchange for aid.

A December 2024 report from The Daily Signal showed that the Biden administration was pressuring Sierra Leone to pass a pro-abortion bill, deceptively named the ‘Safe Motherhood Act,’ in order to receive aid for affordable electricity through the  Sierra Leone Compact.

The so-called Safe Motherhood Act would legalize abortion up to 14 weeks for any reason and up to birth to protect the “mental health of the woman.” Abortion to save a woman’s life is already legal in Sierra Leone.

Per The Daily Signal:

The letter cites The Daily Signal’s Dec. 16 report that the Biden administration was pressuring Sierra Leone to pass an unpopular pro-abortion bill before Donald Trump took office.

It is common knowledge among nongovernmental organizations, or NGOs, in Sierra Leone that a U.S. foreign aid agency called the Millennium Challenge Corporation is threatening to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars from a U.S. agreement with Sierra Leone unless the West African country’s parliament passes the bill decriminalizing abortion, a former senior U.S. government official who has worked in the West African region told The Daily Signal. Millennium Challenge Corporation denies this.

In his letter to Secretary Rubio, Banks requested Rubio look into the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC).

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U.S. Military Launched Airstrikes Against ISIS Operatives In Somalia

The U.S. military has conducted coordinated airstrikes that were ordered by President Donald Trump against ISIS operatives in Somalia, making it the first strikes carried out in the African nation under the new Trump administration. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said Saturday that the strikes by U.S. Africa Command was directed by Trump and coordinated with Somalia’s government.

This morning I ordered precision Military air strikes on the Senior ISIS Attack Planner and other terrorists he recruited and led in Somalia. These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies. The strikes destroyed the caves they live in,…— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 1, 2025

“These killers, who we found hiding in caves, threatened the United States and our Allies,” Trump posted on social media.

“The strikes destroyed the caves they live in, and killed many terrorists without, in any way, harming civilians.”

The president ended his post with: “The message to ISIS and all others who would attack Americans is that “WE WILL FIND YOU, AND WE WILL KILL YOU!”

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Russian Defense Ministry accuses Bill Gates of funding bioterrorism for population reduction in Africa

In a startling press briefing, the Russian Ministry of Defense (MOD) has accused billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates of funding bioterrorism-related activities with the alleged goal of reducing global populations. Major General Aleksei Rtishchev, Deputy Chief of Russia’s Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Protection Troops, delivered the explosive claims, asserting that the Gates Foundation is a primary sponsor of U.S. biological research in Africa. The allegations, which also implicate the Clinton Foundation, come amid growing scrutiny of Gates’ controversial experiments in developing nations, including his recent admission of using India as a “laboratory” for vaccine trials. The Russian MOD’s claims, if proven, could have far-reaching implications for global health governance and the ethical boundaries of scientific research.

The Russian MOD’s briefing painted a grim picture of U.S. biological activities in Africa, alleging that the continent is being exploited as a testing ground for dangerous pathogens and experimental drugs. Major General Rtishchev claimed that American specialists are actively enhancing the pathogenic functions of microorganisms, raising concerns about the potential for bioterrorism. “The U.S. administration views the region as an unlimited natural reservoir of dangerous infectious agents and a testing ground for experimental medical drugs,” Rtishchev stated.

The Russian military leader also accused the Gates Foundation and Clinton Foundation of sponsoring these activities, which he claims are part of a broader strategy to manage biological risks. According to Rtishchev, the U.S. has established a network of biological laboratories across Africa, including in Nigeria, Kenya, Senegal, Ghana, and Djibouti. These facilities, he alleges, are part of a Pentagon-backed initiative to monitor and manipulate infectious diseases, with potential consequences for global health security.

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US Launches Airstrike in Somalia, Claims 10 al-Shabaab Fighters Killed

US Africa Command said on Tuesday that its forces launched an airstrike in southern Somalia on December 31, which it claimed killed 10 al-Shabaab militants.

The command said the strike was launched on a town about 35 kilometers southwest of the southern port city of Kismaayo. AFRICOM claimed that its “initial post-strike assessment” found no civilians were harmed, though the Pentagon is notorious for hiding civilian casualties in Somalia.

AFRICOM framed the attack as a “collective self-defense airstrike” since it was launched in support of the Mogadishu-based government’s forces fighting on the ground.

“In addition to the airstrike, US forces provided support to Somali forces by evacuating Soldiers that were attacked while fighting the terrorist group,” AFRICOM said.

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The Possible Reasons Donald Trump’s Administration Is Recognizing Somaliland

In a move straight out of left field, the incoming Trump administration is slated to recognize Somaliland as an independent state, according to a report by Semafor.

Somaliland is a former British colony bordering Djibouti, Ethiopia, and Somalia that declared independence from Somalia in 1991 without receiving international recognition. Under international law, Somaliland is currently deemed an autonomous district of Somalia.

If media reports turn out to be true, why is the Trump administration moving to recognize Somaliland’s independence? It boils down to advancing Israeli interests.

Due to its proximity to the Arabian Peninsula, an independent Somaliland would give Israel and the United States a forward base of operations to counter plucky Houthi militants in the Red Sea.

After Israel responded to Hamas’ attack on Oct, 7, 2023 with a vicious military assault on Gaza, the Yemen-based Houthis joined the conflict by launching drones and missiles against Israeli and Western vessels traversing the Red Sea. The world faced the Houthis’ wrath in December 2023 when they announced their blockade of the Bab el-Mandeb Strait. The Bab el-Mandeb Strait is one of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints, where a substantial portion of global maritime cargo passes through.

Somaliland’s strategic location close to the Bab al-Mandab Strait makes it an important choke point on the grand chessboard, thus making it a valuable piece of geopolitical real estate the Israeli-American axis for the use to exploit.

Houthi attacks have bottled up the Red Sea, leading to major disruptions in international trade at a time when the world is still adjusting to supply-chain disruptions brought about during the COVID-19 era.

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