Africa in Focus with Advocate Sipho Mantula, Researcher: Thabo Mbeki African School of Public & International Affairs: Unisa

1.    UNGA- TOGO
UN General Assembly adopts new world map that shows Africa's true size
The United Nations General Assembly on Friday endorsed a new world map that represents Africa more accurately by showing it at a larger scale, a culmination of a recent campaign led by African countries and advocacy groups.
Friday’s resolution, which was sponsored by Togo and backed by members of the African Union, was passed with 164 member states voting in favour. Only the United States voted against it while six other countries — Serbia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania, Moldova and Ukraine — abstained.
The vote encourages governments and institutions around the world to replace the traditional Mercator map, commonly used since the 16th Century, with the Equal Earth projection that advocates and geographers say shows locations more accurately.
The Mercator projection shows Greenland and Africa as about the same size. In contrast, the Equal Earth projection, which shows continents in their true proportions, shows Africa as 14 times larger than Greenland.
Friday’s resolution does not ban the Mercator projection or impose a replacement but only encourages the use of the Equal Earth projection, the UN said in its report.
“Maps shape our understanding of the world,” the global body quoted Togo’s Foreign Minister Robert Dussey as saying before the vote. “They guide education, nourish the imagination, and influence collective perceptions.”

2.    Niger – France 
France denies inciting failed Niger base 101 mutiny, calls accusation ‘pure fantasy’
Niger’s government has widened its blame to unnamed neighbours a week after the assault on a military base.
France has dismissed as “pure fantasy” Niger’s claim that Paris helped incite a mutiny in which soldiers stormed a military airbase and the presidential palace in the capital, Niamey.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot commented this weekend, a week after the August 29 assault and a day after Niger’s ruling military council met for the first time since the unrest and repeated its accusations against France.

3. Kenya braces for heavy rainfall as UN says El Niño to strengthen
El Niño is forecast to be the strongest since comparable records began four decades ago, the United Nations' climate agency warned Thursday, with the UN chief saying the world was in the "danger zone of extreme weather".
The weather phenomenon is set to become "very strong" in the months ahead and is near certain to persist through to February, the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) said. "If this trajectory continues, it may be stronger than anything since our monitoring began," WMO chief Celeste Saulo told reporters in Geneva. El Niño will peak towards the end of this year — though its knock-on impacts for the climate will continue well into 2027, said the WMO.

4. In our historical archives, it was on this day, 7 September 1992, when the Bisho Massacre occurred. As many as 80,000 protesters gathered outside of Bisho, the capital city of Ciskei. They demanded an end to the military government of Brigadier Joshua Gqozo and the reincorporation of the so-called black homeland into South Africa.