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☆ Multi-day protests over economic crisis grip Ghana's capital
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-23 | by ( Francis Kokoroko | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/9] Ghanaians gather for the third day of anti-government protests amid police arrests and obstruction in Accra, Ghana, September 23, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko Acquire Licensing RightsACCRA, Sept 23 (Reuters) - Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in the Ghanaian capital Accra on Saturday for a third day of anti-government protests linked to economic hardship that have led to dozens of arrests. The gold-, oil- and cocoa-producing nation has been battling its worst economic crisis in a generation brought on by spiralling public debt. Last year, protests over soaring prices and other economic challenges led to clashes with police. Economic growth is forecast to slow to 1.5% this year from 3.1% in 2022.

Persons: Francis Kokoroko, Romeo, Christian Akorlie, Maxwell, Alessandra Prentice, Andrew Cawthorne Organizations: REUTERS, Rights, Ghanaian, Police, International Monetary Fund, Thomson Locations: Accra, Ghana, Rights ACCRA

☆ Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso sign Sahel security pact
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsBAMAKO, Sept 16 (Reuters) - Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, three West African Sahel nations ruled by military juntas, signed a security pact on Saturday promising to come to the aid of each other in case of any rebellion or external aggression. Mali and Burkina Faso have vowed to come to Niger's aid if it is attacked. "Any attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of one or more contracted parties will be considered an aggression against the other parties," according to the charter of the pact, known as the Alliance of Sahel States. "I have today signed with the Heads of State of Burkina Faso and Niger the Liptako-Gourma charter establishing the Alliance of Sahel States, with the aim of establishing a collective defence and mutual assistance framework," Mali junta leader Assimi Goita said on his X social media account. France has been forced to withdraw its troops from Mali and Burkina Faso, and is in a tense standoff with the junta that seized power in Niger after it asked it to withdraw its troops and its ambassador.

Persons: Assimi Goita, Mahamadou Issoufou, Francis Kokoroko, Mohamed Bazoum, Tiemoko Diallo, Bate Felix, Jason Neely Organizations: Economic, West African States, REUTERS, Rights, Islamic, West, Alliance, Thomson Locations: Accra, Ghana, Rights BAMAKO, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, al Qaeda, Islamic State, West African States, Sahel, State, France, Chad, Mauritania

☆ Algeria proposes transition to resolve Niger crisis
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko/File Photo Acquire Licensing RightsAug 29 (Reuters) - Algeria is proposing an initiative to resolve the political crisis in neighbouring Niger with a six-month transition period led by a civilian, Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf said on Tuesday. Attaf, who recently toured West African states, said "most of the countries we have talked to are against military intervention to end the crisis". Algeria has repeatedly said it was against military intervention, pointing to the chaos that followed NATO action in Libya in 2011 during its uprising against longtime leader Muammar Gaddafi. Algerian officials have spoken three times since the coup to the Niger military leader, who wants a transitional period of up to three years, Attaf said. Last week Algerian state television said President Abdelmadjid Tebboune had denied permission to France for a possible military operation in Niger, but France denied it had sought any such permission.

Persons: Francis Kokoroko, Ahmed Attaf, Attaf, Muammar Gaddafi, Abdelmadjid Tebboune, Lamine Chikhi, Angus McDowall, Andrew Cawthorne, Alex Richardson Organizations: Defense, REUTERS, West, ECOWAS, NATO, United Nations, Thomson Locations: Republic of Niger, Accra, Ghana, Algeria, Niger, West African, Libya, Sahel, Algerian, France

☆ West African bloc holds talks in Niger with junta
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

The ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defense staff brief the press on plans to deploy its standby force to the Republic of Niger, in Accra, Ghana, August 18, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko Acquire Licensing RightsABUJA, Nigeria Aug 19 (Reuters) - A delegation from West Africa's main regional bloc ECOWAS flew to Niger's capital Niamey on Saturday to hold talks with the junta, an ECOWAS source told Reuters, as the bloc pursues diplomatic ways to overturn the July 26 coup. ECOWAS has taken a harder stance on the Niger coup, the wider region's seventh in three years, than it did on previous ones. The credibility of the bloc is at stake because it had said it would tolerate no further such overthrows. Reporting by Felix Onuah Writing by Alessandra Prentice; Editing by Toby ChopraOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Francis Kokoroko, Mohamed Bazoum, Omar Touray, Felix Onuah, Alessandra Prentice, Toby Chopra Organizations: Chiefs, Defense, REUTERS, Rights, ECOWAS, Thomson Locations: Republic of Niger, Accra, Ghana, Rights ABUJA, Nigeria, West Africa's, Niamey, Niger

REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko Acquire Licensing RightsABUJA/NIAMEY, Aug 19 (Reuters) - A delegation from West Africa's main regional bloc ECOWAS met Niger's ousted president Mohamed Bazoum and held talks with junta leader General Abdourahmane Tiani in the capital Niamey on Saturday, a Nigerian presidential spokesperson said. The group that flew in was led by Nigeria's former military leader Abdulsalami Abubakar and included ECOWAS commission president Omar Touray, the source said. "After meeting .... (junta leader) General Abdoulrahmane Tchiani, the ECOWAS delegation in Niger have also visited President Mohamed Bazoum this evening," he wrote on messaging platform X, formerly known as Twitter. There was no immediate comment from the junta, which has held president Mohamed Bazoum since seizing power despite international calls for his release. ECOWAS has taken a harder stance on the Niger coup, the wider region's seventh in three years, than it did on previous ones.

Persons: Francis Kokoroko, Niger's, Mohamed Bazoum, General Abdourahmane Tiani, Abdulsalami Abubakar, Omar Touray, Abdulaziz Abdulaziz, General Abdoulrahmane Tchiani, Tiani, Alessandra Prentice, Toby Chopra, Jane Merriman Organizations: Chiefs, Defense, REUTERS, Rights, ECOWAS, West, Twitter, Islamic, U.S . State Department, Thomson Locations: Republic of Niger, Accra, Ghana, Rights ABUJA, NIAMEY, West Africa's, Niamey, Niger, al Qaeda, Islamic State

☆ West African militaries meet to finalise possible Niger intervention
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/2] Military personnel gesture as the ECOWAS anthem is played during a meeting of the Committee of Chiefs of Defense staff on the deployment of the ECOWAS standby force in the Republic of Niger, in Accra, Ghana. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko Acquire Licensing RightsACCRA/NIAMEY, Aug 18 (Reuters) - West African army chiefs were due to hold a second and final day of talks on Friday in Ghana's capital Accra, where they have been hashing out the details of a possible military intervention in Niger if diplomacy fails to reverse a military coup. Military officers deposed Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have defied calls from the United Nations, the West African bloc ECOWAS and others to reinstate him, prompting regional powers to order a standby force to be assembled. He said most of the bloc's 15 member states were prepared to participate in the standby force excepting those also under military rule - Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea - and tiny Cape Verde. Any escalation would further destabilise West Africa's impoverished Sahel region, which is already battling a decade-old Islamist insurgency.

Persons: Francis Kokoroko, Mohamed Bazoum, Security Abdel, Fatau Musah, Alessandra Prentice, Philippa Fletcher Organizations: ECOWAS, Chiefs, Defense, REUTERS, Rights, United Nations, West African, Political Affairs, Peace, Security, Islamic, Thomson Locations: Republic of Niger, Accra, Ghana, Rights ACCRA, NIAMEY, Ghana's, Niger, West Africa, Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Cape Verde, Sahel, al Qaeda

[1/3] ECOWAS Committee of Chiefs of Defense staff meet on the deployment of its standby force in the Republic of Niger, in Accra, Ghana. Niger military officers deposed President Mohamed Bazoum on July 26 and have defied calls from the United Nations, ECOWAS and Western powers to reinstate him, prompting West African heads of state to order the standby force to be assembled. "Let no one be in doubt that if everything else fails, the valiant forces of West Africa...are ready to answer to the call of duty," ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security Abdel-Fatau Musah said. Musah accused the Niger coup leaders of "playing cat-and-mouse" with ECOWAS by refusing to meet with its envoys and seeking justifications for their takeover of power. He said most of the bloc's 15 member states were prepared to participate in the standby force that could intervene in Niger.

Persons: Francis Kokoroko, Mohamed Bazoum, Security Abdel, Fatau Musah, Russia's Wagner, I'm, Omar Yaye, Musah, Bazoum, Anait Miridzhanian, Edward McAllister, Estelle Shirbon, Angus MacSwan Organizations: Chiefs, Defense, REUTERS, West, ECOWAS, United Nations, Political Affairs, Peace, Security, European Union, Media, Thomson Locations: Republic of Niger, Accra, Ghana, Niger, Niamey, ACCRA, NIAMEY, West Africa, Gambia, Liberia, Sahel, Mali, Niger's, France, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Cape Verde

These areas, which we've dubbed " jump zones ," span the globe, covering 6% of Earth's land mass. That's 57% more people living in jump zones than two decades earlier, increasing the odds that a deadly bat virus could spill over. The world's jump zones have lost 21% percent of their tree cover in almost two decades' time, double the worldwide rate. Almost one-third of that expansion would be in existing jump zones, where spillover risk is already high. Though those countries require mining companies to assess potential environmental harms that new concessions might cause, none require companies to evaluate spillover risk.

☆ Kamala Harris wraps up Ghana visit, heads to Tanzania
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris meets with women entrepreneurs during her week-long trip to Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, in Accra, Ghana March 29, 2023. REUTERS/Francis KokorokoACCRA, March 29 (Reuters) - U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris will meet Ghanaian women entrepreneurs on Wednesday to discuss economic empowerment and leadership, her last engagement in Accra before heading to Tanzania to continue her week-long African tour. She is scheduled to leave Ghana after her roundtable with women entrepreneurs and fly to the Tanzanian commercial capital Dar es Salaam, where she will meet President Samia Suluhu Hassan on Thursday and fulfil other engagements. On Friday, she will fly to Zambia, where she will meet President Hakainde Hichilema and participate in other events. Reporting by Francis Kokoroko; Writing by Estelle Shirbon; Editing by William MacleanOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Kamala Harris starts Africa tour in Ghana, announces security aid
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-27 | by ( Francis Kokoroko | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Akufo-Addo reiterated that he was concerned about Wagner's presence in West Africa. Several countries across West Africa and the Sahel region have been struggling to quell Islamist insurgencies that have caused humanitarian disasters and fuelled discontent -- contributing factors to military coups in Mali and Burkina Faso. "We appreciate your leadership in response to recent democratic back-sliding in West Africa," Harris told Akufo-Addo. [1/5] U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Ghana's President Nana Akufo-Addo during her week-long trip to Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, in Accra, Ghana March 27, 2023. REUTERS/Francis Kokoroko 1 2 3 4 5After Ghana, Harris will head to Tanzania and Zambia.

☆ US Vice President Harris promises greater investment for Africa
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-26 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/7] U.S. Vice President, Kamala Harris, arrives at the Kotoka International Airport as she begins her trip to Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, in Accra, Ghana, March 26, 2023. The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has sought to strengthen ties with Africa, in part to offer an alternative to rival powers. Biden is yet to visit Africa as president. On this trip, Harris will also discuss China's engagement in technology and economic issues in Africa that concern the United States, as well as China's involvement in debt restructuring, senior U.S. officials said last week. Harris will meet Ghana President Nana Akufo-Addo this week and will visit a former slave castle from which slaves were sent to America during the slave trade era.

☆ Female-owned farms and companies are growing Ghana's taste for coffee
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

As the women worked, Tamakloe walked among them with a device to test the coffee beans' moisture content. Today, Bean Masters coffee is mostly sold in bulk to high-end restaurants and hotels. But Tamakloe aims to expand her production of retail-sized bags this year to make Bean Masters available to all kinds of consumers. At Kozo, an Afro-Asian fusion restaurant in Accra, Tamakloe and the staff sipped espressos made with Bean Masters coffee. The owner visited Pagniw's farm with Tamakloe in 2021, and has exclusively stocked Bean Masters ever since.

☆ Body of Ghana soccer player Atsu arrives home in Accra
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] The body of late Ghanaian soccer player, Christian Atsu Twasam, 31, who died in the earthquake in Turkey, arrives at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra, Ghana. REUTERS/Francis KokorokoACCRA, Feb 20 (Reuters) - The body of Ghana winger Christian Atsu was flown home to Accra on Sunday evening, the day after he was found dead under a collapsed building in southern Turkey. Atsu had been missing since the Feb. 6 earthquake following the collapse of an apartment building in Hatay. "We hoped against hope, every day that passed, we prayed and prayed. "We would like to express our deepest condolences to his wife and children, the family, loved ones and the football community," the Ghana Football Association said on Saturday.

REUTERS/Francis KokorokoLONDON/ACCRA, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Ghana requested on Tuesday to restructure its bilateral debt under the common framework platform supported by the Group of 20 major economies, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters. Ghana's debt restructuring under the common framework aims to include non-Paris club members, such as China in debt relief talks. Reuters reported first on Thursday that Ghana was seeking debt treatment under the G20 programme. Some bondholders said Ghana opting to go down the common framework route put the prospect of a swift resolution further out of reach. "With the common framework and the poor track record on the timeline for that, it just makes things more uncertain," said Anders Faergemann, portfolio managers at PineBridge Investments.

The Vintage Gala, as 23-year old founders Prince Quist and James Edem Doe Dartey dubbed it, brought together a movement of young vintage enthusiasts pushing back against the global fast fashion industry by encouraging their peers to shop secondhand. "The idea is just to inspire everybody to thrift vintage, because secondhand goods aren't second class stuff," Dartey added. Ghana receives around 15 million items of used clothing each week from Western countries and China, offloaded in bulk, often at negligible prices and questionable quality. Much of it passes through Accra's Kantamanto, one of the largest garment markets on the continent, where bales of used clothes are sold based on the expected quality of the garments wrapped up inside. "Remove the whole notion that you only wear vintage when you are poor, or you only wear thrifted stuff when you don't have money," said creative Myra Davis outside the Vintage Gala event.

☆ Ghana again extends domestic debt exchange registration deadline
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-25 | by ( Cooper Inveen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Francis KokorokoACCRA, Dec 24 (Reuters) - Ghana has further extended the deadline to register for its domestic debt exchange to Jan. 16 in order to "secure internal approvals" from the financial sector, the Finance Ministry said in a statement late on Saturday. The ministry also announced a change to the debt exchange, with eight additional instruments to be created. Ghana announced a domestic debt exchange program earlier this month and said that external restructuring was being negotiated with creditors. The ministry had previously extended the registration deadline for the domestic debt exchange to Dec. 30, from Dec. 19 originally. The Finance Ministry said on Saturday that it expects to reach a domestic debt restructuring settlement no later than Jan. 31.

ACCRA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - As a pair of motor-cyclists from Ghanaian startup Swoove zipped along Accra's back streets with deliveries last week, a team of software engineers tracked their progress on screens. "Businesses who can survive within this particular time frame will do even better when times get better," Kwaku Tabiri said of Swoove, which makes more than 5,000 deliveries per week. All five finalists will receive coaching from MEST throughout the life of the companies. Although Swoove did not win, Tabiri took comfort in the outlook for African innovation. Reporting by Cooper Inveen and Fracis Kokoroko; Editing by Alexander SmithOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Ghana traders close shops to protest worsening economy
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ACCRA, Oct 19 (Reuters) - Streets were quiet in the normally bustling heart of Accra's central business district on Wednesday as traders in the Ghanaian capital closed their shops to protest worsening economic conditions. Because of the worsening exchange rate, he can't afford to buy books and paper from his suppliers, he said. 1/5 People walk in front of closed shops as traders lock up their stores in protest of Ghana's worsening economic conditions in Accra, Ghana October 19, 2022. In one usually crowded street market downtown, about half to two-thirds of shops were closed, while some activity carried on. "If we close our shops until Monday, the government isn't going to just reduce the rate of the dollar because of that.

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