Africa: the 15 significant events of the year 2021<

The political year in Africa began on January 14 with the presidential election in Uganda.Outgoing President Yoweri Museveni won it largely with 58.6 % of the vote against 34.8 % in favor of his main opponent, Bobi Wine, who denounced fraud and called Ugandans to reject the results.This artist, his real name Robert Kyagularyi, has filed an appeal to the Supreme Court, claiming to have many evidence of irregularities, but the former candidate finally asked his lawyers to withdraw him, accusing the judges in charge of the fileof "partiality" and "lack of independence".

The elections took place after a particularly violent campaign, marked by harassment and arrests of opposition members, assaults against the media and the death of at least 54 people in riots after yet anotherArrest of Bobi Wine, whose campaign has been widely hampered in the name of anti-Cavid restrictions.Yoweri Museveni has run Uganda since 1986.A power conquered at the head of a rebellious movement.First applauded as a modern leader after the horrors of the diets of Idi Amin Dada and Milton Obote, he gradually turned into an authoritarian president, crushing any opposition.

The former Minister of the Interior and candidate of the ruling party Mohamed Bazoum won the second round of the Nigerian presidential election with 55.75 % of the votes on February 21.He defeated ex-president Mahamane Ousmane and succeeded Mahamadou Issoufou who had arrived at the end of his two legal terms.

Just before the proclamation of official results, the opposition denounced an electoral "heist" and demonstrations had broken out in several cities in the country, including the capital Niamey.Several looting and destruction of public and private goods had been committed.These troubles continued for two days, killing two and several injured.Several hundred people had been arrested.Mohamed Bazoum, 61, has become the tenth head of state of Niger, a very poor arid and ex-colony independent in 1960.Five of these ten presidents are soldiers from a series of coups carried out between 1974 and 2010.

A few hours after the announcement of his victory in the presidential election for a sixth term, Chadian president, Idriss Déby Itno, died on April 20.The one who has run the country with an iron fist for thirty years, succumbed to his injuries inflicted as he commanded his army in battles against rebels in the North.A Military Transitional Council (CMT) of 15 generals, chaired by one of his sons, Mahamat Idriss Déby, himself a general at 37, then took power.

He has multiplied the signs of opening up to armed groups to involve them in a national dialogue supposed to reconcile Chadians before "free and transparent" elections promised within 18 months renewable once.He notably decreed in November a "general amnesty" for the rebels and opponents condemned for "attack on the integrity of the state".This gesture intervenes to allow the participation of armed groups in national dialogue.

The strong man of Malian power, Colonel Assimi Goïta, discharged, on May 25, from their prerogatives the president and the transitional prime minister arrested the day before by the soldiers, by accusing them of attempted "sabotage" of the transition.A few weeks later, in early June, he was sworn in during an inauguration ceremony in Bamako, swapping his usual military trellis against the "transitional president" costume that he was carved out while carrying twoCoups in less than a year.The former chief of a special forces battalion assured that he would be committed to returning orders to civilians after elections scheduled for February 27, 2022.

Despite these promises, it was targeted on July 20 by a knife attack during the celebration of Eid at the Great Mosque of Bamako.Assimi Goïta was not injured and his attacker was arrested before dying in detention a few days later.

In northern Burkina Faso, Solhan, at least 160 civilians were killed on the night of June 4 to 5 in the deadliest attack recorded since the start of jihadist violence in 2015.The attack "first targeted the post" of army supplies, then the houses of residents.A 72 -hour national mourning was decreed by the authorities.

Solhan, a small locality located about fifteen kilometers from Sebba, the place of the province of Yagha located not far from the Malian border, has recorded numerous attacks in recent years.This province is an area of action of the support group for Islam and Muslims (GSIM, affiliated to Al-Qaeda) and the Islamic State organization.Rivals, they fight for control of territories.In August, 80 people were also killed in an attack by alleged jihadists against a military convoy, escorting civilians, in the north of the country.The security forces are struggling to stop the spiral of jihadist violence which has since made more than 1,400 dead and more than a million displaced since 2015.

After being hunted from power in 2011, former President Laurent Gbagbo found, on June 17, Côte d'Ivoire.This return was allowed in the name of "national reconciliation".He returned by a regular flight from Brussels where he had lived since his acquittal by the International Criminal Court (ICC) in January 2019, confirmed on appeal on March 31.Laurent Gbagbo was acclaimed to his plane descent by hundreds of people, those who had been able to have access to the airport, his relatives, the leaders of his party, the Ivorian Popular Front (FPI), and the staff of the'Airport and airlines.

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After meeting his former rival Henri Konan Bédié, he was received, on July 27, by the Ivorian head of state Alassane Ouattara at the presidential palace in a cordial atmosphere.It was their first meeting since their duel in the 2010 election which had led to a deadly crisis.In October, Laurent Gbagbo launched a new political party, the party of the African-Côte d'Ivoire peoples (PPA CI), to "bring the left".If he says he wants to disengage from politics, he does not exclude representing himself to the presidential election planned in 2025 and refuses the proposal to limit the age of presidential candidates at 75 years old.

Loyal forces to the former Tiger dissident authorities entered Mekele on June 29, the capital of this region in northern Ethiopia where the government ordered a ceasefire after almost eight months of combat, marking a turning point inThis conflict.The city was under the control of the federal army since November 28, three weeks after the launch by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, Nobel Peace Prize for 2019, of an offensive to overthrow the authorities from the Liberation FrontPeople of Tiger (TPLF) who finally turned to fiasco.

The conflict killed several thousands, more than two million inappropriates and plunged hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians in conditions close to famine, according to the UN which gave the green light to an international mechanism of survey onThe abuses committed in Ethiopia.The Ethiopian rebels of the Tiger, which had advanced in recent months in the neighboring regions of Amhara and Afar, announced on December 20 that they were falling back to their region in order to "open the door"Humanitarian aid.

The South African Constitutional Court condemned, on June 29, former President Jacob Zuma to 15 months in prison for the courts of justice after his refusal to appear before an anti-corruption commission which investigates accusations of embezzlement under hisPresidency between 2009 and 2018.Jacob Zuma is suspected of having helped the brothers Atur, Ajaty and Rajesh Gupta, three businessmen friends of the former president, to get rich fraudulently at the expense of the state of the state.

A few minutes before the ultimatum fixed at midnight by justice, the ex-president of South Africa was finally prisoner on July 7.In September, he was granted parole after being hospitalized for surgery, but the Constitutional Court finally ordered his reincceration in December.A decision contested by his lawyers who have succeeded in avoiding his immediate reincceration by providing himself before the Supreme Court of Appeal, one of the highest South African judicial bodies, based in Bloemfontein.

The Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ramtane Lamamra, announced, on August 24, the rupture of diplomatic relations with Morocco due to "hostile actions" of the kingdom with regard to the country.This announcement has occurred while relations between the two countries have deteriorated in recent weeks, in particular due to the thorny file of Western Sahara.Diplomatic ties had been broken for the first time between the two countries when, on March 7, 1976, Rabat ended his relations with Algiers, which had recognized the Arab Republic of Democratic Sahrawi (RASD), self -proclaimed by the separatists of the Polisario Front.The normalization of diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel through the Abraham agreements, in return for American recognition of Moroccan "sovereignty" on this territory, recently avoided tensions with Algeria, support of the Palestinian cause.

Week after week, tension went crescendo.Algiers overbidden on September 22, announcing the immediate closure of its airspace to all Moroccan civilian and military planes and all those registered in the Cherifian kingdom.The two great powers of the Maghreb crossed a new stage, on November 3, when the Algerian presidency accused "Moroccan occupation forces in Western Sahara" of having killed three of its nationals while they were making the Nouakchott-Ouargla.

Congolese doctor Denis Mukwege called on September 10, the United Nations to send investigators and to establish an international criminal court for the Democratic Republic of Congo, while Ituri and North Kivu are prey to terrible violenceand persistent despite the state of siege established on May 6 by President Félix Tshisekedi, coupled with the presence of the UN forces of Monusco

The famous doctor, Nobel Peace Prize in 2018 for his fight against sexual violence, has drew up a terrible portrait of this region that has been bruised since the late 1990s by armed violence.Massacres and rapes follow one another in the region in a endemic way, always forcing more inhabitants to flee.

Head of State since January 2019, after 18 years of presidency of Joseph Kabila, Félix Tshisekedi did not find common ground with the armed groups of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, who had nevertheless deposited theWeapons at first.

Najla Bouden Romdhane was appointed, on September 29 at the head of the Tunisian government by President Kaïs Saïed, two months after the dismissal of the previous cabinet.Born in 1958 and scientist by training, Najla Bouden was unknown to the general public.Before her surprise appointment, Najla Bouden was director general of a higher education reform project.Previously, this doctor in geology had been responsible for mission, then director general at the Ministry of Higher Education.

For the first time in the history of the country, the formation of the government was entrusted to a woman, even if the powers granted to this role were considerably reduced by the "exceptional measures" adopted by the Tunisian president on September 22, whichsuspend the application of key chapters of the Constitution.In a speech during her swearing..

France returned, on November 9, in Benin, 26 works of the royal treasures of Abomey looted in the 19th century by colonial troops and hitherto kept at the Quai Branly museum.On this occasion, President Emmanuel Macron received his Beninese counterpart, Patrice Talon, with whom he formally validated ownership of the works that joined Benin, after nearly 130 years of absence of absence,.

Among these objects of art are totem statues of the ancient kingdom of Abomey as well as the throne of King Béhanzin, looted during the bag of the palace of Abomey by the colonial troops in 1892.This solemn ceremony marked the last stage of an unprecedented process, started with the promise made in 2017, by Emmanuel Macron, to carry out restitutions of the African heritage in France.The next day, hundreds of Beninese made the trip between the presidency and Cotonou airport to applaud the return of these works.

After weeks of tensions between civil authorities and the army, Sudanese soldiers proceeded, on October 25, to the arrest of Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok, his wife, many of his ministers and all civil members of the council ofsovereignty.

Sudanese general, Abdel Fattah al-Burhane, then dissolved the authorities of the transitional government, decreasing the state of emergency.This coup, denounced by the international community, put a stop to the democratic transition and led to massive demonstrations.The repression of these rallies left 43 people dead and hundreds of wounded according to a union of pro -democracy doctors.

On November 21, General Burhane restored Civil Prime Minister Abdallah Hamdok and announced elections for July 2023, but the country has still not found civil government.Braving the violence of the Sudanese security forces and on the occasion of the third anniversary of the Revolution having ousted Omar El-Béchir, hundreds of thousands of military anti-capacity demonstrators gathered, on December 19, near the presidential palace in Khartoum forprotest against the junta at the helm of the country.

Eight years after his arrival in Mali, the French army left, on December 14, the city of Timbuktu.French general Etienne du Peyroux, head of Operation Barkhane in the country, exchanged a frank handshake with the new Malian commander of the camp.He symbolically offered him a large wooden key.Their departure from Timbuktu, after Kidal and Tessalit, marks a strong symbolic turning point.It is indeed in this city that President François Hollande had formalized, on February 2, 2013, the beginning of the French intervention, acclaimed by a joy crowd, after the release of this holy city of Islam registered in heritageUNESCO World Cup, placed for eight months under the yoke of jihadist groups.

But almost nine years later, the latter extended their influence in Sahelian brushs while Paris, which faces growing hostility in the region, announced the reduction of its commitment to the Sahel by 2022.Operation Barkhane is now based on three bases along the three borders area, epicenter of the fights, Gao, Ménaka and Gossi.From 5,100 soldiers, the force will increase to 4,800 in January, 4,000 men in the summer of 2022, then 3,000 in the summer of 2023.

Congolese rumba was officially listed, on December 14, for the intangible cultural heritage of UNESCO humanity.She joins the Cuban rumba, inscribed in 2016 and, for Central Africa, the Pygmée Polyphonies of Central African Republic (2003) or the drums of Burundi (2014).In Kinshasa and Brazzaville, the specialists locate the origins of Rumba in the ancient Kongo kingdom, where we practiced a dance called Nkumba, which means "navel", because she was dancing man and woman navel.Rumba in its modern version has a hundred years.It was made famous by artists like Papa Wemba, Grand Kallé, Wendo, Tabu Ley Rochereau, Franklin Boukaka and other Pamelo Mounka.

UNESCO also inscribed the Thiéboudien (rice with fish in Wolof), a very popular dish in Senegal, with the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.The dish met the required criteria in that it is "a living thing, which breathes, transmitted from generation to generation" and which has "a meaning in people's lives".Composed of rice, fish and a variety of vegetables, prepared with or without tomatoes, it is served as a lunch dish in most families and in restaurants in Senegal.

Africa will also be represented now in this list with Kabary Malagasy, a form of public speaking in Madagascar, and Moutya, traditional dance of Seychelles.