African press review 15 September 2016

The Nigerian opposition wants President Muhammadu Buhari to leave office. South Sudan's Salva Kiir is fighting on several fronts as Washington praises a recent report on corruption in Juba, and Kiir says the United Nations has favoured his political rival, Riek Machar. Plus millions face famine in Burundi.

In Nigeria, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to leave office immediately. And, before he goes, they want him to return the country to the condition it was in when he assumed office in May 2015.

The opposition, according to the daily paper Punch, say they are not happy with the state of affairs in the country, especially the recent statement by the Finance Minister that recession was just a word.

The opposition claims that Nigeria is on the brink of depression, and that several local and international airlines, and some banks had already suspended operations and sent their staff on indefinite leave due to the poor state of the economy.

Washington applauds Clooney's South Sudan performance

The United States government has welcomed this week's report on corruption in South Sudan by actor George Clooney's Sentry group. This is on the front page of today's Sudan Tribune.

South Sudanese leaders, the report claims, have transferred millions of dollars outside the country. Their alleged crimes include the abuse of preferential access to foreign currency as well as the theft of public assets.

The 66-page report specifically mentions President Salva Kiir and some his top associates, including with Riek Machar, the country’s ex-vice president, as having invested millions of dollars in real estate in Kenya, Uganda and Australia.

Yesterday, a spokesman for President Kiir rejected the Sentry report as "absolute rubbish".

Salva Kiir says they're all out to get him

The South Sudanese president is also topping the front page of regional paper the East African.

There, we read that Salva Kiir has accused the United Nations of working with his rivals to orchestrate a regime change.

Kiir was reacting to the latest UN report which states that he and his chief of general staff, Paul Malong Awan, ordered renewed fighting in Juba on 8 July.

The president cited the UN's recent transportation of Riek Machar to the forests of northeastern Congo where he was given medical attention as proof that the organisation and other western countries have been working for regime change in Juba.

Kiir also alleged that Machar returned to Juba in April not to implement the peace agreement but to work with his foreign friends to destabilise the government from within.

The UN has denied siding with rebels, saying the global body transported Machar and 500 armed opposition fighters to the Congo on humanitarian grounds.

Millions facing famine in Burundi

Also in the East African, news that 2.3 million people in Burundi risk facing a severe food shortage this year, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.

The Crop Prospects and Food Situation report released by the FAO indicates that civil insecurity and an economic downturn have combined to disrupt markets and farming activities, leading to the current shortage.

This is in addition to declining humanitarian assistance from western governments who regard the regime of President Pierre Nkurunziza as illegitimate, and Burundi's poor food import capacity.

South African state bodies face credit rating review

The main story in South African financial paper BusinessDay says the credity ratings agency Moody’s has warned that it could cut the investment grades of the national electricity supplier, Eskom, the South African National Roads Agency, the Industrial Development Corporation, the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the Land Bank, after it placed them on immediate review for a downgrade yesterday.

The sudden and dramatic action by Moody’s indicates heightened investor concerns over state-owned companies, several of which have been tainted by governance and corruption concerns over the past few months.

Moody’s primary concern, according to BusinessDay is to assess whether the companies will continue to have access to the debt market in the future and whether they will be able to absorb higher funding costs.

Kenyan terrorist suspect still in custody

In Kenya, the Daily Nation reports that a court in Mandera has allowed the Anti-Terror Police Unit to hold a terror suspect for 14 days before charging him.

In a sworn affidavit, Police Inspector Simon Kariuki told the court that they needed time to investigate the man arrested on 11 September about eight kilometres inside Somalia.

The suspect was arrested by Somali authorities on suspicion that he was heading to join the Al-Shabaab terror group.

The police argued that they need more time to examine the suspect’s telephone contacts to establish who were his accomplices in Somalia and Mandera.