Crypto News: Next Africa: A corporate reckoning

Welcome to Next Africa, a daily newsletter on where the continent stands now — and where it’s headed. Sign up here to have it delivered to your email. In today’s edition, we look at Sweden’s prosecution of two executives who did business in Sudan. And:

Doctors are piecing together how a rare Ebola virus strain behaves
South Africa’s president warns of a clampdown on xenophobia
Investors flee African oil producers’ bonds as crude prices tumble

Holding Business to Account

Almost a quarter century after one of Sweden’s most prominent billionaire investment groups bet big on oil in what was then central Sudan, two of its most powerful former executives have been charged for complicity in war crimes.

Sudan was split in two by a 2011 referendum that created South Sudan, but the controversy of Lundin Oil’s investment in the Block 5A exploration area has endured.

The defendants are Ian Lundin, the company’s former chairman, and Alexandre Schneiter, its one-time head of exploration. Prosecutors in Stockholm accuse them of indirectly encouraging atrocities by the Sudanese military and allied paramilitary groups within their oil concession between 1999 and 2003.

If found guilty, they face lengthy jail sentences.

A Lundin Oil facility in Sudan in 2001. Photographer: Paul Hansen — A Lundin Oil facility in Sudan in 2001.

Instances of business leaders being prosecuted for war crimes are virtually unheard of. One historical example occurred in the late 1940s, when the US put executives from chemicals firm IG Farben and arms giant Krupp on trial for aiding Nazi Germany.

Lundin began operating in Sudan in the 1990s and requested help from the North African nation’s then-leader Omar al-Bashir to secure drilling sites as longstanding rivalries between the government in Khartoum and rebel groups erupted into violence.

What happened next was a catastrophe.

The national army and allied militias conducted raids, razed homes and dropped bombs in dozens of settlements. Investigators estimate some 12,000 people were killed and 160,000 others were displaced, in many cases permanently.

Prosecutors say the defendants were aware of attacks on civilians but chose to keep doing business with the government anyway.

The two men reject the charges, with their lawyers arguing they were neither involved in — nor even aware of — all the reported raids. They also say the violence was about much more than oil, namely regional rivalries, disputes over territory, and religious and cultural divides.

Whatever the outcome, the case in Sweden — one of a few countries to implement universal jurisdiction which holds that some offenses are so grave any nation can pursue them — is likely to act as a warning for other companies doing business with governments with poor human rights records.

Corporations of all kinds, and especially those in resource industries, routinely operate in conflict zones.

The spotlight may shine brighter now, though, on how they conduct themselves to remain in business. — Simon Marks

Simon Marks reports on the Swedish case on Bloomberg TV.

Watch now — Simon Marks reports on the Swedish case on Bloomberg TV.

What Everyone’s Reading

South Africa’s government may soon need to take control of Johannesburg to avert its financial collapse, new analysis shows. “The City of Johannesburg is essentially bankrupt,” Lael Bethlehem, a partner at Genesis Analytics, said when presenting her findings of a study commissioned by two leading business lobby groups. The economic hub has descended deeper into dysfunction in recent months, leaving the municipality unable to pay its bills.

As more patients recover from the world’s largest recorded Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak, doctors are beginning to piece together how the rare virus behaves. Previous Bundibugyo outbreaks had lower fatality rates than epidemics caused by the more common Zaire and Sudan strains, but doctors say it’s too early to know whether the current epidemic will follow the same pattern.

This month’s Next Africa TV show includes a look at how President Donald Trump’s America First strategy is changing the landscape of healthcare across Africa as the growing Ebola outbreak spreads in Congo and Uganda.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government won’t allow anyone to destabilize the country, following a series of xenophobic attacks. “Those who transgress will meet the full might of the law,” he said. “We want this whole process of immigration to be handled in the parameters of our law and as smoothly as possible.”

Investors are fleeing the dollar bonds of African oil producers, reversing a popular emerging-market trade since the start of the Iran war, as the re-opening of the Strait of Hormuz drives down crude prices. The Republic of Congo’s eurobonds are leading the declines, while securities issued by Angola, Cameroon, Gabon and Nigeria have also seen losses. That’s a turnaround from the first three months of the fighting.

The US has sanctioned Rwanda’s Gasabo Gold Refinery for fueling conflict by processing precious metals stolen from eastern Congo. Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, who have occupied Congo’s two biggest cities in the region for more than a year, have been trafficking gold with the help of Rwanda’s army, the US government says.

An internally displaced person carries water collected from a standpipe to her shelter in the Shabindu camp, where displaced people from Masisi territory take refuge following clashes between M23 rebels and the Congolese army, in North Kivu province, Democratic Republic of Congo, on Tuesday, April 9, 2024. Rwandan meddling is deepening Congo's deadly conflict, which intensified in late 2021 and involves dozens of armed groups, long-running ethnic tensions and at least five national armies, has now reached a peak not seen in at least a decade. Photographer: Arlette Bashizi/Bloomberg — A camp for people displaced by clashes between M23 rebels and Congo’s army in the North Kivu province.

A solar-powered mini-grid in Rukubi, Nigeria installed by Husk Power Systems.

World Bank, AfDB to Boost African Electrification Plan

The World Bank and African Development Bank plan to accelerate their program to bring electricity to hundreds of millions of Africans this year by approving new projects, investing in Eritrea and promoting the development of regional power pools.

Senegal Bonds Rise on Government Plans to Cut Budget Deficit

Senegal’s foreign bonds were among the top performers in emerging markets after the government unveiled plans to narrow its fiscal gap from next year.

Next Africa Quiz — Which African nation’s ruling party secured a landslide win in parliamentary elections, handing its Nobel Peace Prize-winning prime minister another five-year term? Send your answers to gbell16@bloomberg.net.

Next Africa

Iran War Hits $124B Remittance Flow

On this week’s podcast, Jennifer Zabasajja speaks with Bloomberg’s Prinesha Naidoo and Onafriq MD Rachel Balsham about the disruption to remittance flows from the Iran war.

What’s coming up

June 30: Ethiopia interest-rate decision, South Africa money supply, trade & budget balances for May, BER inflation expectations for second quarter, non-farm payrolls for first quarter & central bank quarterly bulletin, Namibia and Morocco money supply data for May, Kenya and Uganda inflation data for June, first-quarter GDP data for Kenya, Senegal, Botswana and Egypt
July 1: Nigeria PMI report, South Africa manufacturing PMI & new vehicle sales data for June, Angola gross reserves for June
July 2: Tanzania interest-rate decision, southern African finance ministers meet in Zimbabwe
July 3: June PMI reports for South Africa, Uganda, Mozambique, Kenya and Zambia

Last Word

On the last Saturday of each month, Rwandans come together for a centuries-old cultural practice to work and listen to political speeches. A mainstay of precolonial Rwanda, the ritual known as Umuganda is now state policy in the East African nation. Every household must provide one worker for public-service initiatives such as tree planting and fixing public buildings. A new documentary showcases the practice.