EYE ON AFRICA

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00:00 Hello and welcome to Ion Africa. I'm Clarisse Fortuny. Our top stories.

00:07 One week to go before South Africa heads to the polls. We'll go to Cape Town where our

00:11 correspondent will give us the country's mood before the general election.

00:17 Dumping black migrants in the middle of the desert without food and water. A report accuses

00:23 Tunisia, Mauritania and Morocco of serious rights abuses and says it's all thanks to

00:30 EU's money.

00:32 VivaTech opens its doors in Paris, Europe's biggest tech event. An opportunity for African

00:39 start-ups to present their innovative solutions to the continent's challenges.

00:47 One week from now, May 29, nearly 28 million South African registered voters have the chance

00:53 to elect representatives to the national and provincial parliaments. We're going to speak

00:58 to Anne Wenzel, our correspondent in Cape Town, and she's going to give us the mood

01:03 on the ground.

01:04 Anne, thank you for joining us. First, can you please remind us what is at stake for

01:09 South Africa for these elections?

01:12 So for the ordinary South African voter, they're hoping for change, they're hoping for something

01:18 new and a change that they can feel in their daily lives. So a lot of this is with unhappiness

01:24 with the ANC. Some of the old guard is hopeful for the ANC. But tying that in, there's a

01:31 lot at stake for the ANC as well, who for the first time face some really tough challenges

01:37 with the MK strongly coming up and definitely going to draw some votes away from them. And

01:43 then of course, DA is fighting really hard to hang on as well. The only other party that

01:49 has managed to get a province away of the nine provinces from the ANC. But they're being

01:59 faced with a small challenge, maybe not so small, come the vote by the PA, the Patriotic

02:04 Alliance, who are starting to show very strongly in the Western Cape and trying to draw national

02:09 votes.

02:10 So Anne, the one who's going to miss the action is obviously Jacob Zuma, the ex-president,

02:17 and he has been definitely barred from running. So what has been the reaction?

02:24 So while he will not be able to be nominated for the National Assembly, he's still going

02:29 to be very likely, very active in the party, in the MK. The MK themselves have said they're

02:35 disappointed by the ruling, but they're law abiding and they still have Zuma. They are

02:41 still the party of Zuma. And so they still have all that pulling power. And Zuma himself,

02:47 of course, one of his main aims is to destabilize the ANC. And he's doing that very well, because

02:53 the chunk of votes that they're going to pull away is significant. The ANC can't really

02:59 afford to lose between 8 and 10 percent of votes nationally. And then there's talk in,

03:06 people are talking amongst themselves and saying, look, what if they join forces with

03:11 the PA or the EFF? So it's all up in the air. But the MK and the former president, Jacob

03:18 Zuma himself, are still strong forces.

03:22 So as I said, the votes will be happening on the 29th, but already South African leaving

03:26 overseas have already cast their votes. So what can you tell us about it?

03:32 So what we do know is that we have a record breaking number of registered voters, some

03:38 70 plus thousand, and of that number, 24,000 registered in Greater London. And the IEC

03:47 itself is saying it is not about to divulge or announce any of those results quite yet.

03:54 And they want to possibly bring up some of those results closer to the 29th. But some

04:00 reports are saying that in the UK specifically, at least 54 percent of the voters registered

04:07 voted, so that it would be almost 15,000 people. Keeping in mind that in 2019, the total number

04:14 of globally registered voters on foreign soil was only something like 19,000. So that's

04:21 already big numbers. And in the US, they also had to extend voting hours because voters

04:27 really turned out. So that also shows some of the mood on the ground. People want change

04:33 and they are motivated to get up and try and make that change happen.

04:39 Anne Wetzel live from Cape Town, thank you very much. We'll be following obviously the

04:44 story on the elections on May 29.

04:47 Now, the report sent shockwaves throughout the European Union after reports said that

04:52 Tunisia, Morocco and Mauritania were dumping migrants in a desert using the bloc's funds.

04:59 The investigation by Lactaus report says that every year, tens of thousands of people are

05:05 arrested based on their skin colour and dumped in a desert without water or food. The European

05:12 Union admitted on Tuesday to a difficult situation. Sam Batpiss has the story.

05:19 This report is a damning indictment of the so-called migration management agreements

05:23 signed between the European Union and these North African countries. It alleges European

05:29 knowledge and funding of operations where tens of thousands of African migrants have

05:34 been rounded up in the streets and then dumped in the Sahara Desert, often with deadly consequences.

05:40 The European Union has delivered hundreds of millions of euros to these countries to

05:44 help stem migration. Much of the money was spent on funding and training security forces

05:50 involved in the abduction and dumping of migrants. There are even allegations that Spanish security

05:56 forces have been directly involved.

05:59 But the main implication here is that the EU has effectively outsourced or externalised

06:04 human rights abuses to these North African countries, Mauritania, Tunisia and Morocco,

06:09 in a bid to keep its hands clean.

06:13 The European Commission has denied these allegations, insisting that all operations it supports

06:17 in North Africa are aimed at managing migration and fighting back against human traffickers.

06:23 It says that all EU contracts come with human rights conditions attached.

06:29 So you heard it, the report also includes Tunisia, where the government's policy towards

06:34 migrants is drawing international concern, including from the UN. More than 100 migrants

06:40 were detained in different cities last week for illegally crossing the borders. And Tunisian

06:46 authorities say they have sent more than 21,000 migrants back to the borders since the beginning

06:51 of 2024. Lilia Bles and Hamdi Tlili report.

06:57 Tunisian authorities recently forcibly evacuated migrants who had been camping out for months

07:01 in front of the IOM headquarters, the UN Agency for Migration. But days later, some have come

07:06 back to demand a voluntary return to their home countries, like Rashid from Central Africa.

07:11 After he was deported to the Algerian border, he walked back to the capital more than 100

07:15 kilometres away. He requested anonymity to speak.

07:21 My experience in Tunisia is that it works. I can work, I can make money, but I'm fed

07:26 up. I'm really fed up. The police chase us every day. I've already lost hope. It's

07:31 best that I go home.

07:33 With the security sweeps targeting migrants in recent weeks, many have nowhere to go,

07:37 like Mohamed, originally from Guinea-Conakry.

07:40 I sleep anywhere. I sleep in the street, anywhere I can. Tunisian authorities forbid Tunisians

07:45 from hosting us or giving us food.

07:47 The IOM says it is working to support voluntary returns. In 2023, the organization helped

07:54 over 2,500 migrants to voluntarily return from Tunisia to their country of origin, an

08:00 increase of 45% compared to 2022.

08:05 The migration issue is proving a political challenge, especially in Sfax, in the east

08:09 of the country. Migrants camping in olive groves for months are no longer welcomed by

08:13 locals who cheer police operations destroying the camps.

08:21 Every night they cut our irrigation pipes. We install them again, and even if the authorities

08:26 chase them away, they come back.

08:33 The camps have been destroyed and rebuilt several times. Most of us says he wants to

08:38 stay in peace.

08:42 We're here for a single purpose, to cross to Italy. That's all we're here for. We don't

08:46 bother them.

08:48 Currently many associations that help migrants are in the crosshairs of the justice system,

08:52 and UN organizations remain unresponsive to this humanitarian situation. Many migrants

08:56 therefore find themselves left on their own.

09:00 Algeria is facing a drug war, with some estimates saying addiction affects millions. Drug use

09:05 among young people is also on the rise. The story by Sophie Lamotte takes you into the

09:11 heart of a rehab center like no other. There, recovering addicts use sport, group discussions

09:17 and psychology to kick the habit.

09:24 Algerians from all walks of life who've fallen into addiction come to this center. Fighting

09:30 drug dependence, one punch at a time.

09:34 I have been going under treatment here for two months. Thank God I found comfort, regained

09:39 my health and saved money. I'm in great shape now. There's caring people who help you get

09:44 out of this addiction here. They give you strength and courage.

09:50 Since it opened in 2019, this rehab center has welcomed close to 8,000 people suffering

09:55 from drug addiction. Located in the heart of the Bouchawi forest in the hills of Algiers,

10:01 it aims to bring a softer touch to help its visitors kick the habit.

10:06 These young people are helpless. That's why we place a strong emphasis on the physical

10:11 aspect, like sport. Then we focus on the psychological aspect, particularly on the direct relationship

10:17 between the recovering addict and those in charge of their treatment.

10:21 According to a 2010 study, the last one published, some 300,000 Algerians suffer from drug addiction.

10:28 According to experts, this figure could be much higher.

10:31 Although it's been recognized as a major public health problem by the authorities in 2017,

10:36 drug addiction remains taboo in the country.

10:41 The drug phenomenon has become an obsession in Algeria. The National Office Against Drugs

10:46 estimates that there are 3 million drug users in Algeria, 3% of whom are women. It's terrible.

10:54 Official estimates show drug consumption has increased by 200% between 2021 and 2022 in

11:00 Algeria. According to medical professionals, this could be linked to the increased precarity

11:05 of youths in a country where a third of under-25s are unemployed.

11:10 Viva Tech 2024 has now begun in Paris. The event gathers world's leading voices in technology

11:17 with their latest innovation. The opportunity for start-ups to share ideas, but also to

11:22 score new funding. Kizito Odiombo is the CEO and founder of an agri-tech company in Kenya.

11:30 And we caught up with him at the event.

11:33 Here at Viva Tech, basically, we want to show that Africa is open for business. We want

11:37 to show that Africa is ready to accept investment, to be able to grow the communities and to

11:42 help make sure that Africa can feed itself. To do that, we need partnerships, partnerships

11:47 with technology service providers across Europe and the world, and also access to finance

11:53 and funding opportunities that can be able to help us crack this problem and be able

11:57 to grow because it's a global problem that needs global partnerships across the board.

12:02 We work with agro-dealers in Kenya, and we help them to supply inputs to smallholder

12:08 farmers. So smallholder farmers are able to access all the products that they require

12:13 for farming, right from soil testing to seeds to fertilizer, and ultimately access to output

12:19 markets through the same agro-dealer in the communities that we call agri-hubs.

12:24 The problem that we are trying to address is actually access to finance for smallholder

12:28 farmers. Less than 5% of smallholder farmers have access to finance in Africa because they

12:34 have limited access to transaction histories, or maybe because they do not have any, because

12:40 of climate change, the risk profile is seen to be too high. So we help these farmers by

12:45 digitizing their transactions with businesses so they can have it easier to access credit

12:51 from financial institutions such as banks.

12:56 Thank you for watching Eye on Africa. You're watching France 24. Stay tuned for more news.

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