maga

What to expect in Eldoret
August Eldoret
Tour
WAYS TO CURE A
NASTY HANGOVER

Contents:
Railway wanderes
Editorial
Chairmans Message
RWFC Sports
August Eldoret Tour
Photos of the month
Lifestyle
Fun Facts
Jokes
Health & Nutrition
Ways to Cure a Nasty Hangover
Keeping Fit
Politics
How to treat a Hangover
Keeping Fit
Finance and Business

Long Live The Railway
Wanderers FC!
his month of February, we have kick the second part of the
season properly. Committee seat and agreed to work
already for the remaining season as Master, Ball, tours etc …
Interesting tour in Dar with Scottish fellow. Kenyua , Iso and
I working round a clock to finalize on the cooperation with Kfeet and
FKF. Some delay due to the issue of private developer taking some
land of FKF. Look this story is behind due to the power of social
Media.
We had also a fantastic Nanyuki tour with some introduction of Red
hot chili pepper.A lot of alcohol and little sleep. O windows behave
nicely and didn’t peep this year. We are now going to the busy end of
season and enjoyable one. Hoping to see maximum members participating
to it. Last the financial situation is better and thanks to
members to have made the effort to clear the situation.Why did I get
divorced? Well, last week was my birthday. My wife didn’t wish me a
happy birthday. My parents forgot and so did my kids.
I went to work and even my colleagues didn’t wish me a happy birthday.As
I entered my office, my secretary said, “Happy birthday, boss!”
I felt so special. She asked me out for lunch. After lunch, she invited
me to her apartment. We went there and she said, “Do you mind if I
go into the bedroom for a minute?” “Okay,” I said. She came out 5
minutes later with a birthday cake, my wife, my parents, my kids, my
friends, & my colleagues all yelling, “SURPRISE!!!” while I was waiting
on the sofa... naked.
~Olivier – Chairman
Chairman@rwfc.or.ke

What to expect in Eldoret
AUGUST ELDORET
TOUR 2016
through the town, but this proved linguistically
challenging for the South African
Voortrekkers and they named it Eldoret
(darn immigrants!)*:D big grin
Story time: There are unverified urban tales
of an unmanned pub in the then Eldore
where revelers would walk in, drink and
leave money at the counter. One day, three
patrons (possibly Olivier, Geordie and
Kenyua) found the pub door locked. They
bashed, charged, Olomide-ed and
unhinged the doors, drunk the beers, left
money on the bar counter and staggered
off. For many years after that, the bar
remained without a door! (SOURCE: MelaniaTrump
and The Business daily).
It is said that Eldoret is a re-known hot bed
of world records and medals, a fast growing
service town straddling the Kenya–Uganda
highway. Well, I do hope the
mighty RWFC gets hot beds, well serviced
and straddled in this premier tour. WEL-
COME!!
Travel advisory: It gets very cold in the
evening and night, temps way below 12°C
(54°F) so ensure you have SOMETHING or
SOMEONE WARM!
WFC tour Eldoret August 19th 20th.
Apparently, this town was built by
South African Boer rogues who had had
enough of Brexit I mean eeeeh British rule
and trekked all the way north to “peacefully”
settle here in 1910 (They must have been
really pissed to walk that far!?). The Maasai
originally called this vast area eldore
meaning stony river with reference to the
stony bed of the Sosiani river that flows
-Dr. Jijo

FOOTBALL
FUN FACTS
1.In 1967, the Nigerian
Civil War
ground to a halt for
two days because
both sides wanted
to watch soccer
player Pele in an
exhibition match.
2. After the whistle
to start the game,
soccer player Lee
Todd said "F*ck me,
that was loud" and
received thefastest
red card in history:
2 seconds.
3.The city of Lusail,
host of the 2022
FIFA World Cup
Final game,does
not exist yet.
4.Famous soccer
player MarioBalotelli
is an Italian, born
to immigrants from
Ghana, raised by a
Jewish mother.
5. A Liverpool fan
killed himself when
his team was 3-0
down in the 2005
Champions League
final's first half. They
came back to win
the game in the
second half.
6. Soccer player
DidierDrogba is
credited with brokering
a cease-fire in
his home country of
Ivory Coast that
brought a five-year
civil war to an end.
7.FIFA has more
member countriesthan
the U.N.

Arrival of Olympic Torch
Met With Protests in Rio
Police tear-gassed crowds
protesting the high cost
of hosting the Games
The Olympic torch arrived in Rio de
Janeiro Wednesday after a three
month tour through cities around
Brazil. Rio’s mayor Eduardo Paes
paraded the torch on its first few laps
around the city center, ahead of the
Olympic opening ceremony on
Friday, the BBC reports.
But police had to intervene as a
crowd of protesters tried to disrupt
the torch relay in the north of the city,
demonstrating against the high cost
of hosting the Games while Brazil
faces a political and economic crisis.

FITNESS
Riot police reportedly used
tear gas to break up the demonstrators
after they refused
to leave a lane open for the
procession.
This is not the first time the
torch relay has been disrupted.
Last week, a crowd protesting
a lack of public transport
and late payment of salaries
reportedly resulted in
the Olympic torch being
extinguished.
Olympic organizers announced
Thursday that they
would give away more than
200,000 tickets to underprivileged
schoolchildren. The
first events of Rio 2016 have
already kicked off but more
than 1 million tickets have yet
to be sold.

Football Travel
Corner
TOP 5 STADIUMS AROUND
THE WORLD BASED ON THEIR
CAPACITY
-Alfie
1. CAMP NOU – 99,786
Long regarded as one of the most iconic club
stadiums in world football today, the fact that
it is also the largest is merely coincidental. The
continued success enjoyed by Barca such as
theTreble during the 2014/2015 season
ensures that the Nou Camp is synonymous
with glory, further cementing it in the minds
of young football fans around the world.
3. FNB STADIUM – 94,736
Constructed for the 2010 World Cup in
South Africa, First National Bank Stadium is
the largest ground in Africa, and was a natural
choice to the host the final. Known as The
Calabash, due to its resemblance to the African
Pot, it is now used on a more regular
basis by Kaizer Chiefs F.C.
5. WESTFALENSTADION – 80,667
Known now as Signal Iduna Park due to
sponsorship reasons, Borussia Dortmund’s
Westfalenstadion is often said to be home to
the finest matchday atmosphere in Europe.
Famous for the Südtribüne which is the largest
single-tiered stand in the World, it alone
is capable of accommodating 24,454 fans
which is larger than most stadiums!

2. ESTADIO AZTECA –
95,500
Recognised as the joint
home of Club América and
the Mexican National Team,
Estadio Azteca is the first
stadium to have hosted two
World Cup finals ahead of
the Maracana. It isperhaps
most famous in England for
providing the backdrop
Maradona’s “Hand of God”
goal in the 1986 World Cup
quarter final. Approx.
4. SANTIAGO BERNABÉU – 85,454
Very similar to Old Trafford in its development,
Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu
dates back to the first half of the 20th century,
and has developed through a series of
expansions over the years. It has hosted no
less than four Champions League finals
including most recently in 2010.

PICTURES OF
THE MONTH
RWFC

Ways to Cure a
Nasty Hangover
You know better than to buy anything labeled
"hangover cure" after a wild night, but there
has to be something out there to ease the
overall sense of feeling like crap—right? Here
are some hangover remedies.
WATER: is a must to cure a hangover. As you
likely know from the frequent trips to the bathroom
during a night of debauchery, alcohol is a
diuretic and can cause dehydration.
COFFEE:Lots of people—hungover or not—use a
cup of joe to wake up and feel alert at work. But
a trip to Starbucks won't give you lasting benefits,
and caffeine can both treat and cause
headaches and migraines, so this one is a personal
preference. If you do down a cup to cure
a hangover, be sure to drink water, too, since
studies suggest caffeine causes dehydration.
GREASY FOOD: What you eat after drinking
doesn't matter—it's what you eat before all
those Jagerbombs that can help lessen the
hangover the next day. Food helps slow the
absorption of alcohol, and the longer it takes
the alcohol to reach your blood stream, the
longer it is until you become intoxicated.
TOAST OR CRACKERS: Remember when your
mom gave you toast as a kid when you
couldn't keep anything down? This is good
advice for adults who've spent the night hugging
the porcelain throne, too. While no food
can halt the roller coaster in your stomach,
carbs can help bring your blood sugar levels
back up the morning after.Normally when
blood sugar levels dip, your liver reacts by producing
more glucose from stored carbs. But if
you've been drinking too much, your liver is
busy metabolizing the alcohol and can't
handle the extra work, so your blood sugar
levels stay down, and you can feel irritable
and tired.
THE BEST CURE: PREVENTION: You're a
grown man, you know to drink responsibly.
But just in case you forgot: Limit your drinks to
about one every hour. Your body metabolizes
each beer (or wine or shot) in about 60 to 75
minutes,Drink faster, and your blood alcohol
level rises faster and you risk a hangover. Eat
before you drink
PAIN MEDICATION: Ease a pounding head
with a pill (or two, depending on the recommended
dosage), but stick to nonsteroidal
anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs, such as
aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen).

Why Are Staying
Active and Eating
Well So Important?
Because the results are amazing:
A HEALTHY HEART
Regular physical activity and a healthy diet
can lower your blood pressure and cholesterol
levels and can reduce the risk of illnesses
such as type 2 diabetes or heart disease.
STRONG BONES
Exercise, combined with fat-free or low-fat
dairy products and other foods rich in calcium,
is necessary to build strong, healthy
bones and can help slow the bone loss associated
with getting older.
A SENSE OF WELL-BEING
Being in good shape can give you more
energy, reduce anxiety and depression,
improve self-esteem, and help you better
manage stress.
A GOOD SOCIAL LIFE
Staying active is a great way to have fun,
make new friends, and spend quality time
with family.
LOOKING AND FEELING BETTER
You look better when you’re in shape and
eating right. Staying active helps you tone
muscles and improve your posture. Both
moving more and eating healthy are important
to maintaining a healthy weight.

FINANCE
The 2016
SDG
Business
Forum
- A Recap
The High-level Political
Forum on Sustainable Development
held from July 11-20
2016 at United Nations Headquarters
in New York is an
annual platform for reviewing
progress and guiding
global by 2030. During the
first HLPF oriented towards
the SDGs, the global business
community was present in a
very substantial way, organizing
an SDG Business Forum
to share business efforts
already under way during the
first year of SDG implementation
The International
Chamber of Commerce (ICC)
and the UN Global Compact
were the lead organisers of
the SDG Business Forum
along with the United
Nations Department of Economic
and Social Affairs and
the ICC-led Global Business
Alliance for 2030.Business for
2030 helped curate one of
the day’s sessions, which featured
a 17 person ‘rapid fire’
review of 17 different business
people addressing each
SDG. Below are key points
and outcomes from a few of
the SDG Business Forum’s
sessions.High-Level Welcome
Plenary H.E. Mr. Thomas Gass,
Assistant Secretary-General,
Policy Coordination &
Inter-Agency Affairs, UN
Department of Economic &
Social Affairs, stated that “the
2030 Agenda is the product of
a transparent, inclusive, and
participatory process,” that the
spirit of shared ownership
must live on, and that stakeholders
must feel the agenda
is theirs to implement. Additionally,
Mr. Gass noted that
diverse partnerships must be
formed for the implementation
of the SDGs and that
there is a great opportunity to
build partnerships across businesses.
Carolyn Miles, CEO,
Save the Children, highlighted
the work her organization has
completed in collaboration
with the private sector. For
instance, in 2012, Save the
Children worked with UNICEF
on developing a framework for
the rights of children in business
“UNICEF’s Children’s
Rights and Business Principles.”
Ms. Miles noted that the
launch of the SDGs allows
Save The Children to pair
private profits with public
good through partnerships
with, companies such as
GlaxoSmithKline, with whom
it has co-developed a
heat-stable gel for umbilical
chords, which has saved thousands
of lives. Following the
opening of the Forum, John
Danilovich, the ICC Secretary
General and Lise Kingo, the
Executive Director of the UN
Global Compact, signed a
Memorandum of Understanding
that formalized
many of the ways the two
organizations have already
been closely collaborating.
The MOU stressed, among
other things, the need to
enhance UN engagement
with business around the
SDGs and the potential for
further increasing business
and industry engagement in
the implementation of the
2030 Agenda.
Session 1: Business for
Agenda 2030
In a series of rapid fire presentations,
business representatives
highlighted examples
of what they are doing
to implement each SDG and
move Agenda 2030 forward.
Click here for a brief recap of
all 17 presentations. Most of
the initiatives are now also
featured on the Business for
2030 website, created by
USCIB, which now has 160
initiatives by 45 companies
taking place in over 150
countries that relate to 80 of
the 169 SDG targets. Several
USCIB members, including
Baker McKenzie, MasterCard,
Novozymes, and Pfizer provided
case studies during the

panel. The dynamic session
was ably moderated by H.E. Mr.
Ib Petersen, Ambassador to the
UN for Denmark, who kept the
diverse interventions from the
17 business speakers and several
Member States and others from
the floor all within the two-hour
time limit, setting, what Mr.
Petersen said, must have been a
UN-record. Session 2: Private
Sector Investment in the 2030
Agenda: Going from Billions to
Trillions This session analyzed,
from a private and public sector
viewpoint, how business can be
more engaged in defining the
policy reform agenda, particularly
with respect to anti-corruption,
peace and the rule of
law, which ultimately can facilitate
private sector investments
and operations.Jay Collins, Vice
Chairman of Corporate and
Investment Banking of USCIB
member Citigroup Inc., focused
on the importance of measurement
in working towards the
SDGs: more indicators are
needed to help smaller businesses
report their progress. Mr.
Collins also referred to green
bonds as an example of utilizing
markets to achieve the
SDGs. The green bonds market
has blossomed into a $40
billion business, and still has
room for improvement. Moreover,
Mr. Collins underlined the
need for markets to impact
multiple SDGs in order to move
“billions to trillions.” To target
more SDGs, Mr. Collins recommended
creating new metrics
so that markets can be created
around them. Mr. Collins concluded
with the remark that
partnerships have yielded progress
toward multiple SDGs, and
should be continued as a
result.Manuel Sager, Director
General, Swiss Agency for
Development and Cooperation,
discussed improving the investment
climate, beginning
with eliminating corruption.
Secondly, Mr. Sager used the
example of the Swiss Capacity
Building Facility as a way
to reduce costs by providing
grants for financial service
providers in other countries
so as to assist the poorer
population. Thirdly, Mr. Sager
spoke about leveraging
private funds through guarantees,
derisking, and microfinance.
The latter now
amounts to over $1 billion in
investments, but Mr. Sager
warned that one has to be
particularly careful with
microfinance, as it could
cause heavy losses in the job
market. Mr. Sager concluded
by highlighting the importance
of sharing information.
Li Yong, Director General of
the United Nations Industrial
and Development Organization
(UNIDO), spoke about
the past success of Private
Public Partnerships (PPPs),
referring to a repertoire of
government partnerships he
worked on under UNIDO and
in China. Mr. Yong noted
that PPPs are very much a
proven method and should
be continued. In particular,
Mr. Yong cited his experience
at the Asian Development
Bank (ADB), in which the
government’s involvement
tripled Foreign Direct Investment
(FDI) in only one year
from $50 billion to $150
billion. Mr. Yong extended
this approach under UNIDO
through the Programme for
Country Partnership (PCP),
which created jobs and
increased income in many
countries.Session 3: Private
Sector Participation in Partnerships
Florinel Andrei
spoke about the success and
rapid expansion of the International
Arbitration Court for
Transport. The initiative offers
the global sector of transport
a modern resolution instrument
for a variety of travel:
road, rail, maritime, air,
energy, etc... The international
arbitration court for transport
is a multimodal institution—the
court has 25 arbitrators
from 12 countries. The
organization has worked
specifically toward SDGs 8, 9,
and 16 (specifically worked
on by The International Network
of Specialized Arbitration).
The heavy expansion of
this committee—most
recently extending to Spain
and Azerbaijan—shows the
success.
Joy Marini discussed the
involvement of Johnson &
Johnson in working toward
SDGs 5 and 6 (on a commit-

FINANCE
African banks
Trouble is stalking
many of Africa’s banks!!
AFRICA’S financial firms can
claim many innovations, from
M-Pesa, a pioneering Kenyan
mobile-money service, to the
life insurance for people with
HIV offered by All Life, a South
African firm. To these can be
added the first social-media
bank run. Chase Bank Kenya,
the country’s 11th-largest (unrelated
to America’s JPMorgan
Chase), was taken over by regulators
in April after word of its
impending collapse spread on
Twitter and WhatsApp, spurring
panicked withdrawals.
The run highlighted the risks
facing banks in a region that is
seen by many investors as one
of the industry’s final frontiers.
Whereas banks in many rich
countries have produced
disappointing profits since the
financial crisis of 2008, African
ones had until recently been
reporting stellar growth and
juicy returns. Those in Ghana
were expanding their loan
books at a breathtaking pace
of more than 30% a year.
Banks in Mozambique,
Zambia and Malawi were
not too far behind. And
most were making good
money, too.
Moody’s, a rating agency,
reckons that average return
on equity (a standard measure
of profitability) ranged
from 20-25% in many African
countries, making their
banks well over twice as
profitable as American ones
and four or five times more
profitable than Europe’s
limping lenders. Yet in many
parts of sub-Saharan Africa
these mouthwatering profits
are turning into losses as
a result of falling commodity
prices, slowing economies
and, in some cases,
weak regulation.
Nigeria, Africa’s biggest
economy, seems on the
brink of its second banking
crisis in less than a decade.
On July 4th the central
bank dismissed the management
of Skye Bank, the
country’s eighth-biggest
lender by assets, amid concerns
that it had failed to
keep thick enough buffers of
capital to absorb losses on
its bad debts. Its share price
has plunged by about a
quarter since the move. The
shares of other Nigerian
banks are also sinking.
The central bank insists that
“there is… no need for panic
withdrawals from any bank.”
Yet Skye’s managerial maelstrom
harks back ominously
to 2009, when the global
financial crisis caused several
of Nigeria’s bigger banks to
collapse. Back then the
central bank replaced the
bosses of eight institutions.
A state-backed agency
known as Amcon was established
to swallow up bad
loans; the sickliest outfits
were either nationalised or
sold to other banks.
Today’s sticky issue is oil.
During the financial crisis
the price of oil slumped only

iefly before recovering
strongly. Nigerian banks
subsequently lent billions to
local businessmen to help
them buy oil and gas wells.
These loans, about 25% of
the country’s total, seemed
quite safe until the oil price
began dropping in
mid-2014; it is now less than
half what it was then. Militancy
in the oil-pumping
Niger Delta has only made
matters worse.
Afren, an exploration company,
went bust last year.
Oando, a leading local oil
producer, admits “significant
doubt” about its ability to
repay loans. “The interest is
racking up,” says Kola Karim
of Shoreline Energy, another
local producer, which had to
turn off its taps after bandits
bombed a pipeline in February.
And even firms that are
not in the oil business may
struggle to service their
debts thanks to the economy’s
broader malaise: the
IMF reckons it will shrink by
1.8% this year.
First Bank, Nigeria’s second-largest
by assets, says
that 18% of its loans are
non-performing. It may be
suffering more than most,
since more than 40% of its
loans went to oil and gas
producers. The central bank
says that bad debts in the
banking system as a whole
have doubled in the past six
months, to 10%. Emmanuel
Assiak of Africa Capital Alliance,
a private-equity firm,
thinks the figure is really in
the low teens. “A lot of
people are saying this is not
2009. Well it’s worse,” says
Ronak Gadhia of Exotix, an
investment bank. “Back
then, they didn’t have the
exposure to oil.”
Banks are also under pressure
elsewhere in the region,
often for similar reasons. In
Ghana non-performing
loans have jumped to more
than 16% of the total after
slumping commodity prices
and a plunging currency
forced the central bank to
ramp up interest rates. It
raised them by five percentage
points, to 26%, a level at
which almost all borrowers
will struggle. Zimbabwean
banks hold lots of government
bonds that will probably
never be repaid. They
have only staved off runs by
limiting withdrawals.
In Kenya, however, banks
face a different set of stresses.
Weak regulation, exacerbated
by the proliferation of
small banks, is taking a toll.
Three banks have been
placed into receivership in
less than a year by Patrick
Njoroge, the respected
governor of the Central Bank
of Kenya, as a series of ruinous
insider-lending scams
have come to light. Mr
Njoroge alleges that the
managing director of one
bank siphoned off 38 billion
Kenya shillings ($335m) via
20 shell companies over 13
years . The full scale of the
heist was discovered a few
days after his funeral. At
Chase Bank, the victim of
the social-media run, directors
had signed off on some
8 billion shillings in loans to
themselves.
Mr Njoroge seems determined
to clean up Kenya’s
banking system. But elsewhere
in Africa regulators
still seem willing to turn a
blind eye to problems. Forcing
banks to admit to rising
bad debts could lead to
painful collapses and to
strained public finances if
governments have to step in
with bail-outs. But ignoring
them might be even worse
in the long run. As it is, businesses
in Africa struggle to
obtain enough capital to
grow: despite rapid loan
growth, most African countries
still have low banking
penetration. Allowing
zombie banks to limp on,
too weakened by bad loans
to make any new ones,
would only worsen Africa’s
desperate shortage of credit.
-the Economist.

POLITICS
The Diplomatic
Charm
Israel is continuing to make
inroads into Africa, as Chad –
which has suddenly found
itself on the front lines in the
battle against Islamic
extremists – is expected to be
the next majority-Muslim
African state to reestablish
ties with Jerusalem, The
Jerusalem Post has
learned.Guinea and Israel
announced the reestablishment
of ties on Wednesday,
and Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu – who visited four
East African countries earlier
this month – said that another
African country would
soon follow suit. Be the first
to know - Join our Facebook
page.Chad severed ties with
Israel in 1972 after coming
under intense pressure from
its Arab neighbors, Libya and
Sudan. The Post reported
earlier this month that delegations
from Chad and Mali,
both in sub-Saharan Africa,
were in Israel recently. Chad,
like Guinea, is a member of
the 57-member Organization
of Islamic Cooperation. But
while African countries seem
to be warming up to Israel,
Palestinian Authority Foreign
Minister Riyad al-Maliki
announced this week that
the PA and Sudan were
coordinating to “restrain
Israeli movements” in Africa.
“President Mahmoud Abbas
and his Sudanese counterpart,
Omar al-Bashir,
discussed developing a strategy
for the African continent
and coordinating to restrain
Israeli attempts to make a
breakthrough in Africa,” the
PA foreign minister told a
group of journalists in Khartoum.
On Saturday, PA President
Mahmoud Abbas
arrived in Kigali, Rwanda, to
deliver an address to the
27th Summit of the African
Union. He continued on to
Khartoum, where he signed
a number of agreements
with Sudan, one of which
establishes a mechanism for
political consultations
between the PA and Sudanese
governments. Abbas’s
trip to Rwanda came just
two weeks after Netanyahu
visited the country as part of
a tour of Africa, the first by an
Israeli prime minister in
nearly 30 years, and is understood
to be an attempt by
the PA to slow the development
of ties between Israel
and African countries.
Renewal of ties with Chad is
of particular importance for
Israel, since the Lake Chad
basin is “ground zero” in the
fight against radical Islam in
Africa, as Brig.-Gen Donald C.
Bolduc, the commander of
the US military’s special
operations in Africa, called
the country recently in The
New York Times. In April, an
arms shipment believed to
be from Islamic State fighters
in Libya was confiscated near
the Libya-Chad border. It was
headed for the Lake Chad
area, apparently intended for
Boko Haram, raising concerns
that the two terrorist
organizations were now
cooperating closely. Boko
Haram is active in Nigeria,
Cameroon, Niger and Chad.
Diplomatic officials said that
a major impetus for the
surge in African interest in
better ties with Israel has to
do with a desire to tap into
its expertise regarding how
to combat radical Islamist
terrorism. These countries,
many of them facing significant
terrorist threats, are
interested in receiving counter-terrorist
training from
Israel for their elite military
units, as well as access to
Israeli intelligence and technology.
In addition, one
senior official said, Israel’s
close security ties with Egypt

and Jordan – as well as
well-known but undertheradar
contacts with Saudi
Arabia and Persian Gulf
countries – have convinced
many African countries that
they no longer have to be
worried about Arab pressure
against developing ties with
Israel, since the Arab states
themselves have ties with
Israel. Both Kenya’s President
Uhuru Kenyatta and Ethiopia’s
Prime Minister Hailemariam
Desalegn said as
much publicly during press
conferences with Netanyahu
when he visited their countries
earlier this month. It is
obvious, the official said, that
Israel and many of the African
states now share a
common enemy in Islamist
extremism, and the African
states are interested in benefiting
from Israel’s experience
dealing with it. Meanwhile,
Togo’s President Faure
Gnassingbé is scheduled to
arrive for a visit next month,
as Netanyahu is interested in
going to West Africa in the
near future, and holding a
summit with countries there
similar to the one he held
this month in Uganda with
the leaders of seven East
African countries. Gnassingbé
is considered a candidate to
be a driving force behind
putting together such a
summit. Meanwhile, on
Thursday, Abbas was scheduled
to fly to Paris to consult
with President François Hollande
about the French
initiative to advance the
peace process. He is then
supposed to return to Africa
next week for an Arab
League summit in Mauritania.
Ziyad Ayyad, a professor
of political science at
Al-Quds University in Jerusalem,
said that despite
Abbas’s efforts, Sudan on its
own will not be able to slow
the development of ties
between Israel and African
countries. “Non-Arab, Nile
basin countries are closely
connected to Israel in terms
of economics and security,
which makes it difficult for
[Sudan] to influence their
positions vis-a-vis Israel,” he
said.