Ruled by France for 130 years, Algerians from 1954 to 1962 fought against their colonial masters for independence and as a result, the French took the lives of about 1.5 million indigenes.

The Algerian War of Independence started by members of the National Liberation Front (FLN) saw brutality and torture meted out to Algerians by the French. A war crime that has never been acknowledged by the French until Thursday.

French president Emmanuel Macron visited Josette Audin, the widow of communist pro-independence activist, Maurice Audin, who disappeared in 1957 after he was arrested at his home and accused of hiding independence fighters.

Josette Audin said at her apartment in the east Paris suburb of Bagnolet that she “never thought this day would come” when the French will admit that her husband who was 25 when he disappeared was actually tortured repeatedly in a villa in the Algiers neighbourhood of El Biar.

She was told that he had escaped while being transferred between jails and she never knew the truth until in 2014 when former French president Francois Hollande acknowledged after admissions of torture by former generals that her husband had died in detention.

Macron is the only president who had declared that France committed a “crime against humanity” through its colonisation of Algeria. He made the statement during his election campaign which drew a lot of controversies.

It took a lot of demonstrations, mass killings, the collapse of the French government and a UN resolution recognizing the right to independence before the French agreed to a referendum for the independence of Algeria.

Emmanuel Macron has promised to open archives on the subject of disappeared French and Algerian civilians and soldiers during the war that gained Algeria its independence.

The first president Ahmed Ben Bella and nine members of the Revolutionary Committee of Unity and Action established the National Liberation Front (FLN) while in exile in Cairo to organise the armed insurgency against the French.

Attempts were made on Ben Bella’s life but he escaped twice unhurt. On 22 October 1956, however, the French diverted a plane Ben Bella was flying with other members of the FLN to France and he was incarcerated there for five and a half years.

As the battle for Algeria became protracted, the French and Algerian leaders settled on a cease-fire which led to the Evian Accords being signed. Ben Bella returned to his native country to become the premier in 1962 and subsequently the first president.

Last year, the Algerian government demanded the return of skulls of Algerian independence fighters that are on display at a museum in Paris.

After independence in 1962, French authorities took away an unknown number of skulls belonging to some of the Algerian martyrs, many of which were displayed at the French National Museum of National History in Paris.

Algeria has been demanding for an acknowledgement of the war crimes, an apology, recovery of archives, and compensation of victims of the deadly nuclear tests carried out by France after the struggle for independence.

More than five decades after 17 nuclear tests were carried out in the Algerian desert, leaving at least 42,000 people dead and thousands more with chronic illnesses, the French government has refused to admit to those crimes as well.

This article written by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com

Deputy Prime Minister of Italy and Interior Minister, Matteo Salvini has described African migrant workers as “slaves” during a closed-door session of a migration and security conference hosted by Austria.

“I’m paid by citizens to help our young people start having children again the way they did a few years ago, and not to uproot the best of the African youth to replace Europeans who are not having children anymore,” he was quoted by Reuters.

The Italian far-right leader added: “Maybe in Luxembourg there’s this need, in Italy there’s the need to help our kids have kids, not to have new slaves to replace the children we’re not having.”

Salvini, who heads the Italian League party that holds a tough stance against immigration, made the racist remark in response to a public statement implying that Italy needed immigrants because the population was ageing.

The only reaction from the conference was a condemnation by Luxembourg’s foreign and immigration minister Jean Asselborn who interrupted the Italian by saying in French, “In Luxembourg, we had tens of Italian immigrants. They came as migrants, who worked in Luxembourg so that you could in Italy have money to pay for your children.”

Reuters further reports that the conference included some European and African interior ministers as well as EU officials.

Matteo Salvini is a member of Italy’s coalition government that took office after the general election in March. Since the coalition’s assumption of office in June racist attacks especially against African migrant workers have gone up.

In an attack on June 11, two Malian refugees who were living in a migrant centre near Caserta, a city north of Naples, were shot from a vehicle by supporters of Matteo Salvini who had shouted slogans in support of him, they told local media.

In August, 32-year-old Senegalese street vendor Cisse Elhadji Diebel was shot three times in Naples by two strangers on a scooter by the central train station. According to Italian weekly L’Espresso, at least 33 attacks were perpetrated across the country in the past two months.

Italians are quick to dismiss racist attacks against African migrants and the police do not ensure justice despite protests regularly sparked by attacks.

Matteo Salvini is also behind the blocking of a humanitarian rescue boat carrying 60 migrants rescued off Libya in July. He stated clearly that they were not welcome. Italy is one of the biggest recipients of migrants arriving in Europe mainly from Africa.

This article written by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com

The first and only black African United Nations Secretary-General is no more, but his legacies in the continent are burgeoning and will never be forgotten on the face of the earth.

Kofi Atta Annan who was buried in Accra, Ghana, on September 13, 2018, after his death on August 18, 2018, in Switzerland following a short illness, is described as a perfect statesman.

He held on to his African roots and ensured that he lived for Africa even before, during and after his reigns as the chief mediator and peacemaker of the United Nations.

Kenyans can never forget the truce brokered by the Nobel Laureate following the bloody aftermath of the 2007 election which nearly dragged the country into a civil war following the death of over 600 people.

Annan stepped in and stayed in the country for nearly two months in 2008 to calm nerves and find solutions to the post-election tension between former President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga who disagreed with the outcome of the election.

Backed by all international bodies, Kofi Annan finally got the two rivals to shake hands by negotiating for a power-sharing coalition government, constitutional amendment and commissions of inquiry to investigate the electoral problems and post-election violence.

The two Kenyan leaders never forgot Annan’s immense help to the country.

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Kofi Annan is also noted for his humanitarian contributions to Africa including the curtailing of the HIV menace which had become an epidemic with 23.9 million people living with HIV and 3.5 million new HIV infections every year. There was little to no access to life-saving treatments.

The master mediator got world leaders to set aside a global fund and ensure the UN Security Council adopted resolution 1308 in 2000 declaring AIDS a global crisis and a threat to global security.

His efforts also brought forth the first-ever UN General Assembly Special Session on HIV/AIDS in 2001 which later established the Global Fund to mobilise billions of dollars to combat AIDS and treat other infectious diseases that affected Africa especially.

“HIV/AIDS is not only an African problem. It is global and must be recognized as such. But within that international obligation, the fight against AIDS in Africa is an immediate priority, which must be part and parcel of our work for peace and security in that continent,” Annan said at the time.

Today, HIV/AIDS has been nipped in the bud as treatment is not as expensive as it was and over 20 million people are receiving treatment.

Kofi Annan was very influential after his term as the UN Secretary-General by continuing his diplomatic and developmental work as a member of the international non-governmental organisation of public figures formed by Nelson Mandela and known as The Elders.

He also worked with the Mo Ibrahim Foundation to ensure a stronger leadership and governance in Africa and he chaired the Africa Progress Panel made up of influential figures who affect positive change in Africa through both individual capacities and publications.

However, one role Kofi Annan played that kept haunting him was his handling of the Rwandan genocide in 1994 when he was the head of the UN department for peacekeeping.

He was criticized for not reinforcing troops to Rwanda to prevent the genocide that resulted in the killing of 800,000 people. The troops were ordered to withdraw under his command and his reason was that he got no response from world leaders to contribute troops.

“We would have liked to see a larger force in. I had had situations where I called 82 member states together, trying to get troops. I got zilch [nothing],” he told CNN in 2008.

He has apologized on countless occasions including during a visit to Rwanda in 1998 as UN Secretary-General where he said:

“We must and we do acknowledge that the world failed Rwanda at that time of evil. The international community and the United Nations could not muster the political will to confront it. The world must deeply repent this failure.”

Thousands of people from all walks of life filed past the body of the Nobel Laureate which was laid in state for two days in Ghana. The country organised a state funeral to send off its illustrious son who was buried at a Military Cemetary in the capital.

Over a dozen heads of state and government attended the funeral which was graced by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the African Union Chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat.

This article written by Ismail Akwei was first published on face2faceafrica.com