Algeria Seeks U.N. Action Following ICJ Decision on Gaza

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.

The highlights this week: Russia sends troops to Burkina Faso, Kenya’s High Court blocks a planned police deployment to Haiti, and British museums strike a restitution deal with Ghana.

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Algeria, a nonpermanent member of the U.N. Security Council, has requested a council meeting to enforce an International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling regarding Israel.

The U.N. meeting on Wednesday would discuss how to legally implement—“give a binding effect”—to the court’s emergency measures, Algeria’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement. Algeria has not yet indicated whether it intends to draft a Security Council resolution to enforce the ICJ’s order, but it is likely to call for a cease-fire. If the U.S. government blocks any attempt to enforce the court’s order through the Security Council, South Africa has said it will approach the U.N. General Assembly.

Among other measures, Israel must take steps to prevent genocidal acts, prevent and punish incitement to genocide, immediately enable humanitarian relief in the Gaza Strip, and report back within a month on its actions, according to the historic interim ruling by the ICJ.

The court did not order a cease-fire in Gaza, a key request in South Africa’s application. It also ordered Hamas to hand over all hostages taken in its Oct. 7 attack. However, it rejected Israel’s request to throw out the genocide case and found there is a plausible “imminent risk” that Palestinians require protection. It concluded that Gaza’s population was “extremely vulnerable” and that at least some of the emergency measures sought by South Africa were “aimed at preserving” Palestinian rights. The war has displaced about 1.9 million people of Gaza’s 2.3 million population and killed at least 26,000 people, according to local health authorities.

Egypt’s foreign minister, Sameh Shoukry, said Israel should remove “all impediments” to aid delivery following the ICJ ruling. He also demanded an end to what he called the “unjustified” suspension in funding for United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees by several nations in response to accusations that a dozen U.N. workers were involved in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the ICJ’s decision to proceed with the case was “outrageous” and that Israel would continue to defend itself.

The ruling could be consequential and definitely creates bad optics for U.S. officials, who derided South Africa’s case as “meritless, counterproductive, and completely without any basis in fact whatsoever.”

In bringing the case, South Africa put not only Israel in the dock, but also Western claims of support for a rules-based order that equally protects all human lives. Had the court simply dismissed the case, it would have deepened cynicism that the ICJ and International Criminal Court are tools for Western powers to punish mainly African nations, but not Western allies.

A final decision on whether Israel is committing genocide could take years to reach. The ICJ does not have any power to enforce its decisions, but the emergency ruling puts further pressure on Washington as the only global power with significant leverage over the Israeli government.

Thus, how the U.S. votes on a possible Algerian-led U.N. resolution based on the ICJ ruling will be crucial. Algeria began its two-year term as a nonpermanent member earlier this month and has vowed to “bring the voice of Africa” to the council. The ICJ ruling is an important victory for the continent and for Pretoria, which has continued to argue that on global issues, African nations deserve a seat on the world stage. It follows Gambia’s groundbreaking ICJ case against Myanmar.

The ruling was a defining moment for many South Africans. “South Africa stepped up. It showed what we can be, how groups that have faced oppression and violence can stand up confidently for one another on the world stage,” wrote Sean Jacobs in the New York Times.

“Some have told us we should mind our own business and not get involved in the affairs of other countries, and yet it is very much our place as the people who know too well the pain of dispossession, discrimination, state-sponsored violence,” said South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

South Africa’s ruling African National Congress has projected itself as a moral champion of the global south, but in spotlighting Western double standards, it has not escaped criticism of its own selective morality when it comes to wars in Ukraine and Sudan.

Pretoria ignored an International Criminal Court arrest warrant against then-Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir in 2015 and faced a similar dilemma over its decision to invite Russian President Vladimir Putin to last summer’s BRICS summit, although Putin later chose to stay at home. Earlier this month, Ramaphosa received Sudanese rebel leader Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, known as Hemeti, who heads the nation’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces; he has also been accused by rights organizations of overseeing mass rape and executions both now and two decades ago in Darfur.

Wednesday, Jan. 31: Regional bloc Southern African Development Community (SADC) hosts the 28th Southern Africa Regional Climate Outlook Forum, which began on Monday, in Maputo, Mozambique.

The U.N. Security Council holds a meeting on the situation in the Middle East.

Wednesday, Jan. 31, to Friday, Feb. 2: Ambassador Bonnie Jenkins, the U.S. under secretary of state for arms control and international security, visits Morocco on a trip that began Monday.

Friday, Feb. 2: Nigeria’s men’s national soccer team plays against Angola in first match of the African Cup of Nations quarterfinal.

The Democratic Republic of the Congo’s team takes on Guinea later in the day.

Tuesday, Feb. 6, to Friday, Feb. 9: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida hosts Kenyan President William Ruto for a state visit.

Friday, Feb. 9, to Thursday, Feb. 15: The 13th edition of the Luxor African Film Festival is held in Egypt.

Russian troops in Burkina Faso. A contingent of 100 Russian military personnel flew into Burkina Faso’s capital city of Ouagadougou last week—the first large deployment in the country. The Russian African Corps, which is intended to replace Russian private military group Wagner, wrote on Telegram that the troops would “ensure the safety of the country’s leader Ibrahim Traoré and the Burkinabe people.”

A further 200 personnel would be deployed in the near future, it added. Since seizing power in a counter-coup in September 2022, Traoré had indicated he was willing to work with Moscow—a key demand of his supporters. On Friday, Human Rights Watch accused the junta of “flagrant disregard for civilian life” over three drone strikes that killed more than 60 civilians last year.

On Sunday, Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso announced that they would quit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), citing the regional bloc’s “inhumane” sanctions against them following their military coups in recent years. The three nations formed their own economic confederation and defense pact—the Alliance of Sahel States—modeled on ECOWAS.

Sudanese displacement. Sudan is now the country with the largest number of displaced people and the largest child refugee crisis in the world, according to the International Organization for Migration. The war between Sudan’s rival armies has internally displaced 9 million people. A further 1.7 million people have fled to neighboring countries—mainly Chad, South Sudan, and Egypt.

Kneyan court blocks Ruto’s Haiti plan. Kenya’s High Court has scrapped a U.N.- and U.S.-backed mission to deploy 1,000 Kenyan police officers to tackle gangs in Haiti. The court ruled that the plan was “unconstitutional, illegal and invalid,” since only the Kenyan army, navy, or air force can be deployed overseas. A petition was brought by opposition politician Ekuru Aukot and two civilians who argued that President William Ruto had not sought parliamentary approval before volunteering Kenyan police. The Kenyan government said it would appeal the ruling.

Blinken’s African tour. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and Angola to underscore Washington’s renewed focus on Africa. Chinese trade with Africa is about four times that of the United States, and Chinese state media reveled in geopolitical digs about the trip.

“The irony is that Blinken watched a soccer match between Cote d’Ivoire and Equatorial Guinea in the African Cup of Nations at the 60,000-seat Olympic Stadium built with support from China,” read an editorial in China Daily. That these visits by U.S. officials have become formulaic in pledges of military assistance and aspirational rhetoric about Africa’s youth has not helped. African governments have instead called for investments over aid.

Ghana’s looted treasures return. The British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum will loan treasures stolen by British troops from the Asante royal court to Manhyia Palace Museum in Kumasi, the capital city of the Ashanti region. It is expected that the three-year loan agreement of 32 pieces of Asante gold and silver regalia will be renewed for a further three years. The items will go on display by April 2024 to celebrate the silver jubilee of Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, the current Asante king.

According to Ghanaian sources involved in the negotiations, Tristram Hunt, the director of the Victoria and Albert Museum, initiated a trip to Accra to discuss a path forward and came to them “quite humbled.” “[T]his renewable cultural partnership offers a new paradigm for a broader sharing of contested colonial heritage, while existing laws preventing restitution remain in place,” Hunt wrote on Saturday in the Guardian. The solution appears to bypass a British law that prevents national museums from permanently returning stolen goods without parliamentary approval. The U.K. government has previously said it will not hand back looted African treasures. Hunt insisted the deal was not “restitution by the back door.”

Lagos restaurants go plastic-free. Nigeria’s state government in Lagos has given fast-food chains and street traders three weeks to implement a Jan. 24 ban on Styrofoam boxes and other single-use plastics. According to the Nigerian government, less than 10 percent of plastic waste is recycled in Nigeria, making it the world’s 10th-largest plastics polluter of oceans in 2021. More than 130,000 metric tons of plastic waste end up in Nigerian waters yearly. State officials approved the ban three years ago and have delayed implementing it long enough, Nigeria’s commissioner for environment and water resources, Tokunbo Wahab, told food manufacturers and sellers at a meeting Thursday.

• The Reason China Can’t Stop Its Decline by Howard W. French
• America Is Planning to Withdraw From Syria—and Create a Disaster by Charles Lister
• Iran’s Missile Strikes Reveal Its Weakness by Afshon Ostovar

Promoting terror online. Armed groups carrying out kidnap-for-ransom operations and mass killings have proliferated across Nigeria’s northwest and central regions. In HumAngle, Ibrahim Adeyemi investigates social media accounts on Facebook, TikTok, and X (formerly Twitter) impersonating Bello Turji, the leader of an armed group in northwest Nigeria. The accounts, some linked to TikTok influencers, promoted killing civilians, discussed ransom money for kidnapped Nigerians, and posted images of weapons.

AFCON’s craziest tournament. In the Conversation, Chuka Onwumechili argues that concerns around expansion to 24 teams at the Africa Cup of Nations tournament instead of 16 proved unfounded. Instead of the poor games envisaged from the inclusion of ostensibly weaker teams, it has delivered major upsets, such as Tunisia’s defeat by Namibia, as well as the failure of favorites Algeria, Egypt, and defending champions Senegal to progress to the quarterfinals. No longer can pundits assume that “African teams with star players who play for top clubs in Europe will be victorious over teams without such players,” he writes.