Kenya mourns military chief and officers killed in helicopter crash

Hello and welcome to Iron Africa. I’m Claris Fortune. These are our top stories. Kenya is in mourning and launches an investigation into the helicopter crash that killed military chief and nine other senior officers. From 10s of killers of cocaine found in 2020 to more than a ton seized 2 years later in a Sahel, the UN warns drug trafficking is undermining security and development across the region. Political satire is thriving ahead of elections in South Africa and the return of former President Jacob Zuma has brought this art form back to life. Kenya is now investigating the helicopter crash that killed the country’s military chief. General Francis among the Ogola was among 12 passengers of the military aircraft that went down on Thursday afternoon shortly after take off 2 survivors are being treated in hospital and the country has begun 3 days of mourning. Our correspondent in Nairobi, Olivia Bizzo, has the details. The helicopter crashed shortly after taking off, killing Ogola, Kenya’s military chief, and nine other members of the army. Two people did survive the crash. They’re currently in critical care and undergoing treatment. The officers were in Kenya’s N Rift region, which has been plagued by insecurity for years. They were there reopening a school which had been forced to close following attacks by bandits. Now, ever since the crash took place, lots of misinformation and speculation has been circulating on social media. Many people have been voicing their concern about the amount of crashes that have been taking place in the country. In the past Year, 5 military helicopters have had accidents and in September of last year, eight people were killed when a helicopter crashed along Kenya’s border with Somalia. Shortly after the crash took place this Thursday, Kenya’s President William Ruto organised a an emergency press conference during which he said that the loss of Ogola and the nine members of the army was a huge loss for Kenya. He also said that a team of investigators has been sent to the region to investigate the exact cause of the crash. Beginning today. On Friday, Kenya will be observing a period of national mourning that will last for three days and during this time all national flags will be flown at half mast. Cocaine seizures in the Sahel have skyrocketed, A new report say an average of 13 kilos of cocaine were found across Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad and Niger each year from 2015 to 2020. By 2022, this had risen to 1 tonne and a half. the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime warned that drugs trafficking are undermining security and development across the region. Strambatpis is in Dakar The rise of drug trafficking in the Sahel in recent years has been meteoric, according to a new report from the UN. The paper only contains annual nationwide estimates going up to 2022, but the authors note that in 20232.3 tonnes of cocaine were seized in Mauritania, exceeding the entire regional total from the year before. And just last weekend, more than a ton of cocaine was seized here in Senegal in the biggest inland seizure in the country’s history. The Zahel is increasingly used as a transit zone, notably for traffickers bringing cocaine from South America hoping to eventually shift it onwards towards Europe. And the rise of trafficking across the region has been fuelling instability. You are talking about a multiplicity of factors. We have seen also the connection with armed groups, with non, non state armed groups. And there are different, you know, Security Council reports, panel of experts in Libya, panel of experts in Mali, which talk about that. So there is, there are already more and more evidence of interlinkages between drug trafficking groups, transnational organized crime groups and also non state actors. All these actors are also trying to create a space in the Sahelan in West Africa and this creation of stabilises also the stability and the peace in the region. The UN report notes how the Sahel is now trapped in a kind of vicious cycle where drug trafficking fuels instability and armed conflict, which in turn makes it easier for drug trafficking to continue. The authors hope that the paper will serve as a kind of wake up call encouraging local authorities and the international community to double down with Co ordinated action to dismantle drug trafficking networks across the Sahel. Now to Nigeria where polystyrene and single use plastics are now banned. In Lagos, the authorities hope to put an end to what they describe as an environmental disaster. 500 years to decompose and is mainly used as milk containers in hundreds of thousands of St. restaurants. And habits take time to change Report by Chinua Osundu and Maurice Gomez Lagos State organises the clean up of Lagos Lagoon, an exercise that has to be done several times a day, each leading to the collection of dozens of kilos of polystyrene and plastics. Human activity in the mega police generates 13,000 tonnes of waste every day. It’s challenging because the landfills that we have right now are filling up, so one of our major challenges is how to divert waste away from the landfill, which means recycling more, reducing the amount of waste we generate in the 1st place. Refuse trucks operate 24 hours a day in this neighbourhood. Almost 900,000 people live across 17 kilometres square. Some residents place the plastic waste on the main roads to make collection easier, but the majority trade indiscriminately into the public spaces. Polystyrene, byproduct of petroleum, is a particular problem. It’s flammable and not about degradable. We can’t expose ourselves to so much danger as caused by Styrofoam. Styrofoam is poison. Is that sending me? You can keep poison for a longer time because you have been emotional about it and we can’t afford to do that to our people. From Kechi Anya, the ban of the use of polystyrene and single use plastic in Lagos is a good decision. However, she is losing 10s of thousands of euro in sales. This wholesaler used to supply polystyrene parks to hundreds of St. restaurants. The timing of the ban surprised her. In her view, it will be necessary to raise awareness to the millions of customers of these St. restaurants. It’s not just telling us to stop using this. Teaching our people how to dispose their wastes is very, very important. If not light lawn, bottles, everything, we still go back into your drainage system. Offering residents more recycling solutions is one of the challenges faced by Lagos State. Only 8% of the city’s waste is recycled. Meanwhile, climate activists came out on Fridays, Friday to protest against fossil fuel industries in Kisumu in Kenya. The protesters called for changes to stop global warming affecting the water near them. And the ecosystems are those bodies of water. Let’s hear some of them with the lake, like Victoria Bridge again. We note that over the past 50 years, fish populations and genic fish populations in the lake have depleted by more than 66%. The ecosystem is being destroyed due to global warming, plastic pollution, and fossil fuel emissions into the lake. As of now, the lake is choking. The situation is not the same. We know that water hyacinth is still increasing and this is because of the actions that man has taken, because of the decisions that have also not been made. So we are demanding that we need the lake to be the lifeline that it once was, to be free of plastic, to be free of oil. Now to the not to be missed event in the art world. The 60th International Art Exhibition is about to start this weekend in Venice. This year’s theme Foreigners everywhere with a focus on art that migration indigenous and queer art. Few countries are represented for the first time Senegal, Benin and Ethiopia artist testify Rugesa from Addis Ababa was asked about what it meant for these countries to be there. It’s a great thing, but it’s still it’s the beginning. You know, Africa’s there 54 countries and only like about 12 more countries are represent were having their own pavilion in in in Venice. Still a small amount, but it’s a great beginning and but we have to work towards, you know, the increment of, you know, other African countries so that you know, the the Venice panel would be truly international exhibition. South Africa’s general elections will take place on May 29th, which allows political satire to thrive with famous cartoonists like Natin Roubani and Zapiro enough material to find inspiration, especially with their favorite subject, former President Jacob Zuma. Sorry By Sophie Lamott For the South African cartoonist, the upcoming election brought an unexpected gift, the surprise comeback of his favorite character, former President Jacob Zuma. He’ll be contesting in the elections as the MK party. And that I and I’m positively sure that that didn’t go too well with the AMC. So I’m actually basically drawing Zuma spear stabbing the bum of the president to show that I’ll be contesting and I’ll see you. After decades of censorship under the apartheid regime, political satire is now part of the social fabric. I have every right as a South Africa limit, as a South African living in a democracy to criticize anyone that is on the wrongdoing for start of office under cloud of corruption In 2018, Jacob Zuma has returned with a bang as the head of a new opposition party or MK. The move has shaken up South African politics with polls showing MK could win more than 10% of the votes in the May 29th election. Almost 1500 kilometres away in the legislative capital, Cape Town, South Africa’s most famous cartoonist, Zapiro has been using his arts as a form of resistance for decades. The next five years is going to be unbelievably scary. I mean, because we can sink so far that, you know, you wait like 6 years for the next lot to happen. You look at the indices, the corruption watch and, and, and all these indices at the moment are we’re sinking. The main legislative elections could be a game changer for Nelson Mandela’s ANC party expected to achieve its worst results in three decades and potentially lose its parliamentary majority. And before we leave you these images from New York, let’s support Nigerian Nigerian chess champion. He’s attempting to break the global record for the longest chess marathon. Today, Onakoya is trying to play chess non-stop for 58 hours, and he’s hoping to raise $1 million for children’s education across Africa. And the current chess marathon record is 56 hours, 9 minutes and 37 seconds achieved in 2018. Good luck. Well, thank you for watching this edition of Eye ON Africa. Stay with us for more news.