Rethinking Francophone Africa

Recently the Financial Times published an investigation carried out by their data analysis team, which confirmed the findings that have been published on roape.net on poverty in Rwanda over several years. Of all the countries in the world for which there is data, only South Sudan has experienced a faster increase in poverty over the past decade. Rwanda’s official poverty statistics are verifiably false. The government, supported by the World Bank, is involved in a tragic debacle in which the poor are the real victims.

On 13 August 13 2019, the Financial Times published a lengthy investigation carried out by their data analysis team, which confirmed the findings that had been published on roape.net by several academics, regarding poverty in Rwanda. In particular, the Financial Times confirmed that the 7 percentage points decrease in poverty reported by the National Institute of Statistics of Rwanda(NISR) in 2016 , and endorsed by the World Bank in 2018, corresponded to an inflation rate of 4.71% for the period 2011-2014, that is, much lower than the total national CPI inflation for that same period (23%).

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The video message recently released by the al-Furqan media network, showing Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi for the first time since 2014, turned the spotlight on the presence of the Islamic State (IS) in the Sahel – the region of Western Africa south of Sahara. Urging jihadist fighters in Mali and Burkina Faso to intensify their attacks against France and its allies to avenge the aggressions in Syria and Iraq, al-Baghdadi explicitly confirmed the oath of allegiance to the Islamic State made by Adnan Abu al-Walid al-Sahrawi, a former MOJWA (Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa) member and Mokhtar Belmokhtar’s comrade in the Sahel.

Just a few weeks before, IS applauded the jihad fought by mujahedeen against African tawaghit (transgressor of the will of Allah) governments, tribal murtadd (apostate) militias and Western crusader armies in the Sahel. In al-Naba newsletter (N. 175), Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks conducted by assailants loyal to the Caliphate against foreign military forces and pro-government armed groups in Mali, slightingly defined as Sahawat^[1]– particularly, colonel El Hadj ag Gamou’s GATIA militia (Imghad Tuareg Self-Defense Group and Allies) and the coalition of former rebel groups MSA (Movement for the Salvation of Azawad).

Critical perspectives

The Rwandan Debacle: Disguising Poverty as an Economic Miracle

Commentary – Jihad and Instability in Sahel: The Extent of a Crisis