International non-governmental organisations (INGOs) actively engaged in the humanitarian response in the country urgently call on all parties to the conflict to respect the civilian nature of displacement sites, to protect civilians and to allow for continued lifesaving support to affected populations who remain in dire need of assistance.

It is the third time a displacement site has been indiscriminately bombed in less than six months, killing at least 18 people and injuring 32 more. INGOs strongly condemn the indiscriminate shelling of displacement sites, which contravenes International Humanitarian Law.

Overcrowded displacement camps are no longer safe spaces for the civilian population, especially for women and children. In addition to indiscriminate shelling, the close proximity of heavy artillery with the camps together with the widespread presence of armed elements within the sites have resulted in a rise of security incidents endangering both the affected populations and aid workers. Fighting has also intensified in the neighbouring province of South Kivu, where over 500,000 Internally Displaced Persons hosted in Minova are also exposed to the risk of shelling and insecurity resulting in recurring forced displacements.

After fleeing extreme violence, men, women and children arrive in dire financial, physical and psychological conditions in the sites, only to face further protection risks, including sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), due to the presence of armed elements. Despite humanitarian organisations reporting a rising number of assaults and killings, including a reported weekly average of 50 SGBV incidents in the camps, the situation has significantly worsened. In April alone, over 5,000 people sought psychosocial support in Lushagala camps 1 and 2 with a great number reporting sexual violence in less than 72 hours. Moreover, humanitarian access is hindered by insecurity on a daily basis leaving the population without much needed assistance.

INGOs have continuously advocated for the protection of civilians as the conflict in North and South Kivu intensifies in complete disregard of the Luanda Peace Process. In the first quarter of 2024, the monthly average of artillery fire has resulted in two and a half times as many civilian casualties compared to late 2023.

As indiscriminate attacks on displacement sites are becoming more frequent, the humanitarian toll has reached a breaking point while the delivery of aid becomes more challenging. This is not a time for business as usual. We are calling for the immediate cessation of hostilities and for all parties of the conflict to abide with International Humanitarian Law and protect civilians in conflict. The international community has a responsibility to urgently use all diplomatic means at their disposal to facilitate a political solution to the conflict. Warring parties must protect civilians and civilian settlements and must allow for safe and unhindered humanitarian access to deliver impartial and neutral lifesaving services to the vulnerable population.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Norwegian Refugee Council.

It was around 10 am when 55-year-old Usman Alasan, with his megaphone got to the nomadic settlement of Dongawaki, located at Sule Tankarkar Local Government Area (LGA), in Jigawa State, to announce the arrival of the vaccination team.  

A few minutes later, Ramatu Ali, a mother of five, who had also lost her 12-year-old son Ambali, to meningitis some weeks earlier,  left her chores to gather all the children in her compound to the vaccination post situated opposite her home. 

The children received the new meningitis vaccine (called Men5CV) that protects against five strains of meningitis.

Ramatu says “They must all get vaccinated because I don’t want any of my family or relatives to have such an experience.” 

Recalling the near-death incident of her son, she says “The community had thought he was dead when suddenly opened his eyes and was rushed to the hospital.  He was sick earlier, running temperature and complaining of a headache.

Ambali received free treatment at the General Hospital in Gumel, with support from the Jigawa State Government, Medeccins San Frontieres (MSF) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Although recovered, Ambali still has sores on his body as a result of the ailment. 

In Nigeria, an outbreak of Neisseria meningitidis (meningococcus) serogroup C outbreak led to 1742 suspected meningitis cases, including 101 confirmed cases and 153 deaths in seven of 36 Nigerian states (Adamawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Jigawa, Katsina, Yobe, Zamfara) between 1 October 2023 and 11 March 2024. 

To quell the deadly outbreak, a vaccination campaign was undertaken on 25 – 28 March 2024 to initially reach more than one million people aged 1-29 years.

Ambali and his mother in front of his compound after recovery from meningitis

For the campaign, the government of Nigeria through the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency partnered with the WHO and Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance pioneered the use of Men5CV which offers a powerful shield against five major strains of bacteria (A, C, W, Y and X) in a single shot. 

“Meningitis, a vaccine-preventable disease, is causing unnecessary and preventable deaths in many populations. WHO has prequalified the Men5CV vaccine as safe and effective, capable of preventing future outbreaks and saving lives by protecting against the five bacterium types causing meningitis. WHO urges partners and other stakeholders to join hands with governments in eliminating meningitis by 2030 and assures continued support in maximizing vaccine benefits in Nigeria. says the WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Walter Kazadi Mulombo.

In the three states (Jigawa, Bauchi, and Yobe) where the campaign took place, the target population were covered at 103%, 101%, and 45% respectively. 

“Most of our children have received the vaccine. We want to prevent sickness and deaths from meningitis across our villages,” said Mukarram Rabilu, the village head of the Fulani nomadic settlement who took his time to stand at the vaccination post to monitor the exercise. 

Meningitis is a serious infection that leads to the inflammation of the membrane surrounding and protecting the brain and spinal cord. Meningitis according to WHO, is transmitted from person to person through droplets of respiratory and throat secretion. 

During the campaign, Mr Hassan Shehu Usman, an official from NPHCDA, said additional vaccination centres had been set up to ensure the effective administration of vaccines to individuals aged one to 29.

He also highlighted the intensification of an awareness campaign to educate people about the importance of immunization.

To implement the campaign, WHO, played a vital role in providing leadership, coordination, and support to the Nigerian government in their request for the new MenFive vaccines from the stockpile of the International Coordinating Group (ICG) on Vaccine Provision.

Additionally, WHO supported the training of health workers on vaccination skills,  surveillance of adverse events following immunization (AEFI) and good practices to ensure the smooth implementation of the campaign.

The campaign was successful, with  1,003,945  individuals vaccinated in high-risk areas as a result of the collaboration with other development partners, including UNICEF, healthcare workers, government officials, and volunteers.  

The conjugate vaccine was developed in partnership between PATH and the Serum Institute of India and funded by the UK government’s Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of World Health Organization (WHO) – Nigeria.

The 3rd Meeting of the Sub-committee on Tax and Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs) will take place in Yaoundé, Cameroon, from 8 to 10 May 2024 under the theme: “Strengthening Africa’s Leadership in the Continental and Global Tax Reforms”. The theme is broad to focus on Africa’s ability to enhance its revenue generation capacity amidst evolving international tax norms and debates. The theme lays a foundation for insightful discussions, especially on how stakeholders could help the African Union and associated pan-African organizations make taxation and the fight against IFFs pivotal for African development through reforms both at the continental and global levels.

The meeting aims to foster discussions and provide actionable recommendations for Africa’s continued proactive engagement in global tax reform discussions, particularly within the United Nations (UN) Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation. It seeks to ensure that these reforms benefit Africa by addressing the continent’s unique challenges in revenue mobilization, thereby supporting its efforts towards achieving the Vision and Aspirations of Agenda 2063 for inclusive growth and sustainable development. The meeting is organized by the Department for Economic Development, Trade, Tourism, Industry and Minerals (ETTIM) of the African Union Commission (AUC).

The STC Sub-Committee on Tax and IFFs is a creation of the Specialized Technical Committee (STC) on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning, and Integration.

The Sub-committee is tasked with spotlighting and providing practical solutions to issues around tax and IFFs and making recommendations for the approval of STC and implementation by the stakeholders. Its focus remains to devise measures to unlock domestic resources for the development of Africa and its people.

THEMATIC FOCUS OF THE 3RD SUB-COMMITTEE ON TAX AND ILLICIT FINANCIAL FLOWS.
Despite its vast economic potential, Africa faces challenges in mobilizing domestic resources to fund development initiatives. Historically, the Continent as the rest of the developing world, hardly participated in making the global tax and financial architectures. This has often disadvantaged Africa, leading to inequitable access to capital, revenue losses, illicit financial flows, Base Erosion and Profit Shifting (BEPS) and hindered economic progress.

Currently, Africa loses around USD 89 billion annually to illicit financial flows (IFFs), equating to 3.7% of its gross domestic product (GDP), while tax incentives contribute to a further $220 billion loss. The loss through IFFs increased from what was reported through the findings of the High-Level Panel on Illicit Financial Flows in 2015, that shows Africa was losing more than US$50 billion annually in IFFs. Addressing these issues requires concerted efforts to promote fiscal transparency, enhance efficiency, and ensure accountability in tax administration.

Nevertheless, Africa’s economic landscape has been evolving rapidly. As the Continent continues to grow and integrate into the global economy, there is a pressing need not just for it to seek to influence tax reforms at home and the global level but also to assume proactive and strategic leadership in those reforms, shaping agendas and crafting policies with specific angles for solving tax issues peculiar to Africa at the global level while looking inwards to address the domestic tax reforms, strengthen tax administration capacities and ensure that legislative loopholes are effectively tackled.

It is only by so doing could it ensure that crucial and peculiar issues like BEPS, IFFs, taxing right allocation to the Continent, are addressed while establishing a fair and equitable international tax system for all. The African Union Commission is leading and coordinating efforts with the technical support of the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), Tax Justice Network-Africa and other Pan-African stakeholders, to ensure that Africa takes its rightful and strategic spot in the Continental and Global tax reform agenda.

The convening of the 3rd Meeting of the Sub-committee on Tax and Illicit Financial Flows underscores the imperative for strengthening Africa’s leadership, recognizing the pivotal role that an effective tax system plays in protecting and expanding the tax base, fostering inclusive growth and sustainable development, reducing inequality, and ensuring fiscal sovereignty.

1. African Leadership on Continental Tax Reforms.

Africa, through the AUC and other Pan-African Organisations working within their mandate and the ambits of the Ministerial directives and the recommendations of the STC on Finance, Monetary Affairs, Economic Planning, and Integration, has

engaged in strings of activities and developed tools supporting reforms that target IFFs and BEPS while increasing the ability of member states to raise more resources for inclusive growth and sustainable development.

For example, the African Union through the work of sub-committee on tax and illicit financial flows (IFFs) of the STC has developed two strategies, on Tax and on IFFs, which were adopted by Policy Organs of the Union. These strategies, continue to guide the work of the AUC and its partners to effectively advance the domestic resource mobilisation and fight against IFFs agendas in Africa. The strategies have focused on alignment of tax policies with administrative practices, expanding the tax base to potentially lower tax rates, and harmonizing tax policies to limit inter-country competition.

The relevant activities carried out by the organizations separately or jointly include, but are not limited to, in-country support and capacitation of members in tax audit, information exchange, research analysis, transfer pricing, digitization, tax and gender, etc. Other activities are the enlightenment of members on the new global rules like the two-pillar approach, production of tools and products like the Suggested Approach to the drafting of Qualified Minimum Top-up Tax (QDMTT), through regional consultation workshops on international tax reforms, policy briefs on carbon taxation, research briefs on tax expenditure, a comprehensive insight on income tax policy for cryptocurrencies, tariff revenue implication of the AfCFTA, the ongoing work on Policy tracker for IFFs; amongst others.

In furtherance of its commitment to deepen African leadership on continental tax reforms, the AUC, in collaboration with ATAF, TJN-A and related organizations, seeks to track and measure the impact of different policies and measures taken against IFFs in different countries, push for inter-agency cooperation to tackle IFFs within member states while aggressively enlightening members, through more regional consultations, on the policy implications and options of the recently concluded global tax policies which bear domestic ramifications for the Continent.

2. African Leadership on Global Tax Reforms.

Several Ministerial meetings of the STC have emphasized the importance of the participation of the Continent in the processes of global standard-setting and the contribution of African policy positions to such bodies. These have given impetus to the engagement of selected African countries and institutions in the activities of organizations such as the OECD-Inclusive Framework (IF) and the United Nations Committee of Experts on International Tax Cooperation (UNTC).

Since 2016, some African countries have joined the OECD-Inclusive Framework. Africa has 27 members in the organization, with four countries participating in its Steering Group. The Inclusive Framework was tasked with developing rules to tackle BEPS, and they have worked to produce BEPS 1.0, comprising the 15 Action plans, and BEPS 2.0, which includes the two-pillar solutions. While it is true that the Continent participated at both IF and UNTC, showing outstanding leadership, having produced co-chairs for both the IF-Steering group and the UNTC, such leadership has translated into rules that partly solve African problems like BEPS and IFFs and a lot more has to be done.

Against the above background, a new impetus for global influence has started mounting on the Continent. This new breeze of global leadership is led by a group of African diplomats at the United Nations namely the “African Group”. Instructively, the African Group seeks to solve the root causes of African tax problems instead of just encouraging a situation where the developed countries invited Africa to sit around with a pre-set agenda with little or no item specifically targeting the issues of peculiar interest to the Continent.

This was specifically seen when resolution A/C.2/78/L.18/Rev.1, tabled by the African Group at the United Nations General Assembly under the title: “Promotion of inclusive and effective international tax cooperation at the United Nations”, was voted by a majority on 22 November 2023 at the UN Headquarters in New York. This marked a historic moment for Africa and the world. The resolution was passed with a 125 vote in favour of a UN Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, with 48 votes against, and 9 Abstentions.

This unprecedented step represented a significant advancement, showcasing the African Group’s collective dedication to global tax reform and paving the way for a more equitable and effective global tax system. The African Group, with the support of AUC and partners, is seeking to birth a new international tax architecture built on fairness, equity and inclusivity at the UN.

3. Strengthening African Leadership on Tax Reforms
Suffice it to say that for Africa to realize its tax reform potential, the Continent must speak with one voice and seize every opportunity at every platform to push solutions for African tax problems. The Continent must be present wherever global tax policies are formulated, whether at the G20, the OECD Inclusive framework and more importantly at the UN; and make its views heard. African institutions like AUC, ATAF, TJN-A, etc, must also be supported to strengthen their ongoing work.

Continued guidance and support of the STC through its sub-committee and relevant Policy Organs of the Union are key in this endeavour. Countries should also capacitate their tax officials and institutions while engaging in reforms that may be required to effectively fight IFFs and boost domestic resource mobilization. The current push for the reform of the architecture for international tax cooperation therefore should also be supported.

OBJECTIVES AND EXPECTED OUTCOMES OF THE MEETING.

The objectives of the three-day meeting are summarised as follows:

1. Strengthening African Leadership on Tax Reforms: the meeting will highlight the state of play of the African leadership on tax reforms, including the ongoing negotiations at the UN, emphasizing how members will support such leadership. Additionally, the STC Subcommittee will look at the ongoing implementation of the OECD Pillar Two solution, which commenced in January 2024.

2. Enhancing Domestic Resource Mobilization: to discuss and consider establishing a comprehensive tax agenda for Africa to create a more effective,equitable, and harmonized taxation system. This agenda will focus on identifying and addressing key tax-related challenges, such as base erosion, profit shifting, digital economy taxation, and cross-border tax compliance. The goal is to enhance revenue mobilization, foster economic growth, and ensure fair tax practices across the Continent while also considering the unique economic contexts of African nations. This initiative will involve collaboration among African countries to develop and implement tax policies that support sustainable development and regional integration. 

3. Renew Continental commitment in the fight against IFFs. This will include the steps and policy options taken by the AUC and partners to fight IFFs and boost the capacity of African nations to mobilize domestic resources while highlighting what members could do to guarantee the desired outcome.

4. Review progress made in implementation of the STC Recommendations: the meeting will allow members of the committee to be updated on the implementation of their recommendations and to give feedback on the same.

5. Emerging issues: the meeting will enable members to identify more issues requiring further attention from the relevant participating agency or body.

The expected outcomes for the third Sub-Committee on Tax and IFFs are:

1. Updated African position on the ongoing developments on the UN resolution on the United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation.

2. Update on the status of the implementation of the new global tax rules.

3. Focus on Development of tools for African countries to reinforce their efforts in combatting IFFs.

4. Approved Update on the work of the Commission on combatting IFFs from Africa for presentation at the 7th STC.

PARTICIPATION.

The meeting will be attended by experts and senior officials from the ministries of finance, tax administrations, government-specialized agencies, central banks diplomats of the AU Member States, representatives from the regional economic communities (RECs), and African tax experts. Observers and Contributors, including International Organisations, Civil Society Organisations (CSOs), Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Investigative Journalists, and Academia, will be invited to participate.be supported.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of African Union (AU).

Government experts from ECOWAS member states are meeting in Lomé, Togo, from May 6 to 8, 2024 to examine in detail the draft supplementary Act relating to cooperation in suppressing illicit maritime activities in the ECOWAS region.

The aim of the meeting is to present the details of the draft Supplementary Act to government experts from ECOWAS member states, with a view to clarifying its objectives and obtaining feedback and technical input for its more effective implementation.

The event was marked by five high-level keynote speeches.

Mr. BABATE ATATOUM, Chief of Staff of the Togolese Navy, warmly welcomed the participants and highlighted the current security challenges requiring urgent action. He expressed his gratitude to all the partners involved in making the event a success.

Francis Omiunu, Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), reaffirmed UNODC’s commitment to the fight against illicit activities in the maritime domain. He also thanked the European Union for its financial support, and ECOWAS for its efforts in this crucial area for security in West Africa.

Paolo Salvia, Representative of the European Union Delegation in Togo, underlined the importance of this meeting, pointing out that maritime safety concerns all States and requires a shared commitment.

Dr. Dieng Abdourahmane, Head of Division, Regional Security, stressed the importance of this meeting in clarifying the objectives of the draft supplementary Act relating to cooperation in suppressing illicit maritime activities in the ECOWAS region., and obtaining technical feedback for effective implementation of the recommendations made.

His Excellency Stanislas BABA, Minister Counsellor for the Sea, recalled the harmful effects of maritime acts in ECOWAS regional waters, thus underlining the crucial importance of the proper shaping and implementation of this supplementary Act.

This meeting, organized by ECOWAS in collaboration with UNODC via the support of the EU-funded SWAIMS project, is an important step towards enhanced cooperation in the repression of illicit maritime activities in the ECOWAS region, thus contributing to the region’s security and stability.

Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).