Central African Republic News Gazette

Senior leaders of the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom walked out of a meeting of the Group of 20 major economies on Wednesday in protest of the G-20’s decision to allow Russian officials, including Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, to participate.

The U.S. and other members of the G-20 had called on Indonesia, which holds the rotating chair of the organization, to bar Russia from the meeting over its invasion of Ukraine. The fact that Russia was allowed to participate highlights the significant fractures within the organization in addressing the war in Ukraine.

Although Ukraine is not a member of the G-20, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Finance Minister Serhiy Marchenko were invited to attend the meeting. In remarks at the beginning of the session, Kuleba vowed that Ukraine would not cede territory to Russia as part of peace negotiations. Both Kuleba and Marchenko joined the walkout.

In his remarks, Siluanov warned against politicizing dialogue among member states, saying that it might harm the global economy.

Major split

While the U.S., U.K., France, Germany, Japan and Canada — some of the largest members of the G-20 — have forcefully condemned Russia’s actions in Ukraine and fully participated in a regime of tough economic sanctions, many others have not. The latter include China, Indonesia, India and South Africa.

On Wednesday morning, Treasury officials told the Reuters news organization that Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had spoken with Indonesian Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati the day before the meeting. In a statement, the department said, “Secretary Yellen firmly condemned Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine, and emphasized there will be no business-as-usual for Russia in the global economy.”

The statement continued: “Secretary Yellen emphasized that the United States will continue to work in solidarity with Indonesia to advance the important business of the G-20, including addressing the negative impacts of Russia’s invasion on the global economy.”

Yellen had signaled her intention to avoid meetings in which Russia participated in comments on April 7, when she reiterated U.S. President Joe Biden’s call to expel Russia from the organization.

On Wednesday, Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland tweeted, “This week’s meetings in Washington are about supporting the world economy — and Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine is a grave threat to the global economy. Russia should not be participating or included in these meetings.”

A plea for cooperation

The G-20 was founded in 1999, but it became a force on the world stage during the global economic crisis of 2008-09, when it served as the coordinating body for a series of policy responses that many economists credit with preventing far greater economic damage.

More recently, the group was central in the development of a plan to impose mandatory minimum taxes on international businesses to prevent a “race to the bottom” as countries competed to attract companies with ever-lower tax rates.

On Wednesday, International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva called on G-20 members to continue cooperating to address major global problems, calling the organization “crucial to sustain the momentum on collective efforts to deliver on global ambitions for the common good.”

She added, “We also recognize how interdependent we are … and it is so obvious that cooperation must and will continue.”

Future effectiveness questioned

Experts, however, are now concerned that the G-20 may struggle to lead on some of the key issues that its members have identified as important, including climate change and global food shortages, because of disagreements about Russia’s continued participation.

“We have a real need for a group like that, to sit down and try to come up with practical solutions,” Matthew Goodman, senior vice president for economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told VOA. “But it’s very difficult to see how that’s going to happen under the current circumstances. There’s a substantial group that doesn’t want to work with Russia right now, and there’s another substantial group that isn’t willing to talk or agree to things without Russia at the table. So, it’s hard to see how you get out of that.”

Goodman, who helped organize G-20 summits during the Obama administration, said it was possible that there might be some “lowest common denominator” issues that the entire G-20 could agree on despite its internal divisions. But he wasn’t holding out much hope.

“It’s just hard to see how this group really delivers on anything,” he said.

Summit in doubt

Unlike the annual G-20 summit, which is normally attended by heads of state, Wednesday’s meeting in Washington involved member states’ finance ministers and central bank governors.

This year’s summit, scheduled for November, will be held in Bali, in recognition of Indonesia’s position as chair. Indonesian President Joko Widodo has indicated that Russian President Vladimir Putin will be welcome in Bali, prompting protests from other group members and suggestions that a boycott might take place.

Last month, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said, “The idea of sitting around a table with Vladimir Putin, who the United States are already in the position of calling out [for] war crimes in Ukraine, for me is a step too far.”

The Biden administration has not made an official statement about the president’s plans for the Bali summit. In a press conference on April 7, press secretary Jen Psaki noted that the meeting was seven months away, “a lifetime.”

A history of expulsions

If Russia were excluded from the G-20 — a prospect that most experts view as unlikely — it would not be the first time the country had been ousted from a prestigious international organization.

Russia’s membership in the G-7 group of some of the world’s largest economies (at the time, the G-8) was suspended in 2014 after it invaded and took over Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula.

Russia formally left that organization in 2017 and expressed no interest in rejoining it, even after then-U.S. President Donald Trump and then-Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte called for its reinstatement in 2018. The G-7’s other members rejected the proposal unanimously.

Source: Voice of America

The Somali government and a U.S. company are locked in a dispute over the validity of an oil exploration agreement reached in February in Istanbul.

Abdirashid Mohamed Ahmed, Somalia’s minister of petroleum and mineral resources, and Richard Anderson, chief executive officer of Coastline Exploration Ltd., signed the agreement. But in separate statements, Somali President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, known as Farmaajo, and Prime Minister Mohamed Hussein Roble rejected the deal, declaring it “null and void.”

Both leaders cited government decrees and directives banning all ministries and government agencies from signing agreements with foreign governments and organizations until ongoing parliamentary elections are finalized. The elections are expected to conclude next month with the election of a new president.

In addition, the government has instructed Attorney General Suleiman Mohamed Mohamud to investigate the contract and take appropriate legal measures.

The government’s position is that the agreement is in contravention of a presidential decree dated August 7, 2021, and a Council of Ministers directive on December 6, 2018. The mandate of the current legislative and executive branches expired more than a year ago. The government said correct procedures have not been followed; therefore, the agreement is “null and void,” according to a February 21 letter sent by the Foreign Affairs Ministry to Coastline Exploration and obtained by VOA.

Anderson disagrees with the letter and disputes the government’s interpretation of the legality of the agreement.

“I won’t go into the legal details of the analysis, but we believe quite firmly that our PSAs (production-sharing agreements) we signed are legally valid and that they’re in full effect,” he said in an interview.

VOA asked Anderson why the company ignored the Somali president’s decree and a letter from a joint parliamentary committee on natural resources that instruct government agencies not to enter agreements during the election period.

“We did not ignore anything,” Anderson said. “Before we signed the PSAs in February, we consulted with the ministry and with the SPA (Somali Petroleum Authority), and we were assured that both the president and PM were aware of the process and they were fine with the signing.”

He admitted Coastline Exploration did not directly communicate with either the president or the prime minister, but said the minister of petroleum and members of the SPA assured them that both leaders were aware of it. Ahmed, the petroleum minister, refused repeated VOA requests for an interview for this report.

In an interview with VOA in February, Ahmed said the president knew about the signing, but the presidential palace denied his claim.

Agreement details

Providing details of the agreement for the first time, Anderson said it was a “fair deal” for Somalia.

“There is a 5% royalty that comes right off the top. Profit is split 50-50. There is a 30% income tax on whatever profits the contractor — i.e., Coastline — makes,” he said. There are various other financial benefits for Somalia in the agreement, he added.

According to Anderson, all the terms of the PSAs, including the profit-sharing percentage, are fixed for its 30-year term and will not change during the life of the contract.

Somali oil experts criticized the agreement. Jamal Kassim Mursal, former permanent secretary of the Somali Petroleum Ministry, said the agreement was “unfair.”

“A fixed oil royalty rate of 5% and a fixed gas royalty rate of 3%, government share becomes 59.8%,” he said. “However, if prices fall to $70 a barrel, government share stands at 50%. Any price below $70, government loses money to the contractor. Sixty dollars a barrel, government share becomes just 42%.”

Mursal said other key terms such as the discount rate, the R-factor (ratio of cumulative revenues to cumulative costs), the cost recovery ceiling, the exploration period and capital gains determine the overall government take.

“So, we cannot say it’s fair,” Mursal said.

“The fact that all was done in secret itself makes it unfair. Current government term has ended, and the two statements from the office of PM and president stated no government official signs a contract up until new government is installed. So they do not have a mandate to sign such a deal.”

Last year, the Somali government was warned of entering oil agreements by the Financial Governance Committee (FGC), a group of experts comprising the Somali Finance Minister, parliamentarians and a member of the World Bank.

In an advisory, the FGC said it identified two main concerns in the government’s approach to oil and gas contracts: incomplete compliance with the government’s legal framework, and inadequate protection of the state’s financial interests.

“Incomplete compliance significantly raises the risk of future legal and/or compensation claims against FGS (Federal Government of Somalia), while inadequate protection of FGS’s financial interests risks poor value for money over the lifetime of awards that may last for 40 years or more,” said the advisory obtained by VOA. The signed agreement was for 30 years.

The FGC also said no PSAs should be signed until an extractives industries income tax is enacted. No such law has been enacted in Somalia.

Coastline Exploration, founded in 2018, has contractual possession of Soma Oil & Gas, a company that collected seismic data off Somalia’s shore.

Soma Oil & Gas was previously investigated by the United Kingdom’s Serious Fraud Office but was later cleared of wrongdoing because of “insufficient evidence.” Some of the board members of Soma Oil & Gas, including Anderson and Alexander Djaparidze, a Russian billionaire, are board members of Coastline Exploration.

“I want to tell everybody upfront that we are not corrupt. We don’t need to be corrupt,” Anderson said. “No Somali government official has ever asked me to make any kind of illegal payment. It has never happened. I would also like to stress that no Somali politician is a shareholder of Coastline. We are independent of the government.”

He confirmed that Coastline paid for the flights to Istanbul and hotels for members of the Somali delegation, who flew to Turkey to sign the agreement.

“I want to make very clear before we do anything and pay anything that has anything to do with anybody in the government of Somalia, it’s always reviewed by our anti-bribery and corruption council before we make any such payments or any such commitments,” Anderson said.

“This was reviewed by them, and they determined that it was, you know, that it was fine under U.S. law and under Somali law, again out of convenience.”

Anderson said he was confident that the investigation by the Somali attorney general would find that Coastline had complied with Somali law, and that Coastline would be cleared to start work.

Source: Voice of America

Philadelphia, Apr. 19 (BNA): Joel Embiid took a stiff arm moments after tipoff and the 7-footer pushed back. Trying to keep his composure, Embiid absorbed a few more deliberate blows from a Raptors defense clearly trying to bully the big guy.

Coach Doc Rivers gave Embiid a quick message: “No, Jo, you be the dominant guy.”

The NBA MVP finalist quit deferring and started dominating, AP reports.

Embiid took his lumps and powered his way to 31 points and 11 rebounds, Tyrese Maxey showed he was no one-game postseason wonder and the Philadelphia 76ers beat the Toronto Raptors 112-97 on Monday night for a 2-0 lead in the first-round series.

“They put me on the floor a few times and to me, this is where it gets interesting,” Embiid said. “I’m like, cool. I’m going to come back with more power and make you foul me.”

Embiid took foul after foul – he rubbed parts of his shoulders and elbows and shook off at least one foot injury — and made 12 of 14 free throws. He made 9 of 16 shots from the floor for the game.

“That’s what we need from the Big Fella,” Maxey said.

Maxey had 23 points, nine rebounds and eight assists. Tobias Harris had 20 points and 10 rebounds. James Harden scored 14.

Game 3 in the Eastern Conference series is Wednesday in Toronto.

The Raptors trailed by 27 points but showed some life in the fourth cutting it to 11 until Maxey, the Game 1 star, buried a 3 that got the Sixers rolling again.

OG Anunoby led the Raptors with 26 points. Pascal Siakam and Fred VanVleet each had 20.

The Raptors came ready to rumble after coach Nick Nurse accused the officials of letting the Sixers get away with hard fouls in Game 1. Not even 2 minutes into the game, Anunoby shoved Embiid, Embiid shoved back and both teams had to be separated as the crowd erupted. Anunoby and Embiid were both whistled for technical fouls.

“I didn’t really want them to set that tone,” Embiid said. “I wanted myself and us to set that tone. That’s why I picked up that early technical foul.”

The Raptors raced to an 11-2 lead and had the first six fouls to none for the 76ers.

“They wanted to muck the game up and play physical, Rivers said. ”I just told our guys to just play through it.”

Embiid, the NBA scoring champion who had only 19 points in Game 1, was fouled hard by Siakam and made a free throw — one of the 11 he made in the quarter on 12 attempts. He matched his Game 1 total with 19 points in the quarter.

Embiid told Nurse in the waning moments of the game that he was going to keep making all the free throws if Toronto continued to foul him.

Nurse’s retort? “You might have to.”

Embiid laughed and said he told Nurse, “respectfully, to stop b——ing about calls.”

VanVleet scored 17 points in the half and tried to keep the Raptors in the game. Maxey, who had 38 points in Game 1, didn’t score until he hit a floater in the lane with 8:03 left in the second. He followed with an acrobatic layup for a 50-42 lead and suddenly the Sixers had some juice. Harden hit a 3 for an 11-point lead.

The half ended with a tense moment.

Harden tried to split two defenders on a drive down the lane in the final seconds of the half and his knee crashed into Embiid’s left knee. Embiid’s left ankle seemed to buckle and both players went down in a heap. Both stars were sprawled on the backs for several moments: Harden rubbed his neck and head. Embiid limped down the court on the next possession.

Sixers fans held their breath at the half.

Philly’s first bucket of the third quarter? How about Harden-to-Embiid on an alley-oop that settled nerves and rattled the rim.

Embiid scored nine more points in the third and Maxey had seven for a 95-73 lead at the end of the third. Embiid had 28 points and 11 rebounds before he picked up his first foul midway through the fourth

Embiid played every bit like the All-Star who carried the Sixers this season.

“He’s the most dominant player in the league,” Rivers said.

TIP-INS

Raptors: Gary Trent Jr. was a game-time decision with an illness. He did not score and had four fouls in the first half. He did not return in the second.

76ers: Philly native and two-time South Carolina national championship coach Dawn Staley rang the ceremonial bell.

TRAINER’S ROOM

Raptors forward Scottie Barnes sat out with a sprained left ankle suffered in Game 1. Barnes did not reveal a timetable for his return but said he was “getting better each and every day.”

CRYING FOUL

“There was another open-handed slap to the face. Again, I don’t understand why will not call them. Other than that, at least there wasn’t as many elbows thrown to the face tonight that we had to endure.” — Nurse, on the officiating.

Source: Bahrain News Agency

The World Food Program warns an estimated 20 million people in drought-affected parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia could face catastrophic levels of hunger if the region is hit with a fourth consecutive year of drought.

The rains have failed to come to the Horn of Africa nearly a month into the current rainy season, which lasts through May. The past three years of drought have taken a heavy toll. The World Food Program reports crop failure in Ethiopia has plunged 7.2 million people into acute hunger and killed more than a million livestock.

The situation is no better in Kenya, where escalating drought has left more than three million people short of food, including half a million who are facing emergency levels of hunger. In Somalia, the WFP says six million people, or 40 percent of the population, are food insecure, with more than 80,000 on the brink of famine.

Speaking from the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the WFP regional director for East Africa, Michael Dunford, says the number of hungry people could spiral from an estimated 14 million to 20 million, if the rains fail to come yet again.

“The situation is bad. It continues to deteriorate. We are desperate for these rains to succeed,” he said. “But even if they do … these populations are exhausted. The water sources are exhausted. The livestock are dying. The crops are failing. And we are heading to a very severe situation unless we are able to pull it back from the precipice.”

Dunford says there is anecdotal evidence that children already are dying from malnutrition-related causes because they are not able to get the nutritional feeding that could save their lives.

He says the WFP is severely underfunded. It has received 13 percent of a required $370 million. Since that appeal was launched in January, he says the number of people needing help has increased, as have the costs. The WFP now requires $473 million to scale up its operations over the next six months.

“Funding gap means that WFP is having to prioritize in such a way that the prevention of malnutrition, we are now going to have to focus primarily on the treatment,” Dunford said. “And at some point, even these programs will not have sufficient funding if the current trends continue. And we will have to focus exclusively on humanitarian feeding programs.”

Dunford says the fallout from the conflict in Ukraine is compounding the problems in the Horn of Africa, with food and fuel prices soaring to unprecedented highs.

Source: Voice of America