Dear Friends,

The leaders of the BRICS group of nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) met in Johannesburg this week for their 15th Summit. Every African head of state was invited to attend, many did. BRICS has seen 23 nations wanting to join the bloc. The BRICS account for more than 40% of the world’s population, and in March, they surpassed the G-7 nations in terms of GDP — adjusted for purchasing power parity (Foreign Policy). There was much talk of de-dollarization. Putin did not attend, in his place Sergey Lavrov. Had he, South Africa would have been compelled to arrest him.

A special edition is out tomorrow with a new author for the Africa Brief! The piece will provide you with all you need to know about the BRICS, with some excellent analysis and commentary too. Be sure to tune in then.

For now, please enjoy the shortened format and please share!

• African Union. The African Union (AU) announced that they would suspend Niger from all activities in response to the coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum. In the same statement, the AU said it is considering sending “a standby security force” to the country (Al Jazeera).

• BRICS. A standout quote of the BRICS Summit was that of China's President Xi who said “hegemonism is not in China’s DNA” (China Daily).

• Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In a move to back conservationists, the US Government imposed visa bans on several DRC officials that were found culpable for trafficking endangered wildlife to China (The East African).

• Economic Community of Western Africa States (ECOWAS). A commissioner for the bloc said it would be prepared to use force to restore democracy in Niger “if everything else fails” (Reuters).

• Founders Factory Africa. South African early-stage accelerator and investor completed a capital raise of US$114million thanks to impact capital from the Mastercard Foundation and Johnson & Johnson Impact Ventures to "scale its model to better serve founders across the African tech ecosystem" (TechCrunch).

• Kenya. A petition seeking to ban TikTok in Kenya has been placed before Parliament. Speaker of the National Assembly Moses Wetangula says the platform promotes explicit content (Capital News).

• Niger. Niger's coup leader has promised to return the West African nation to civilian rule within three years. General Abdourahamane Tchiani made the announcement after meeting mediators from the West African regional bloc ECOWAS in the capital, Niamey (BBC).

• Oil & Gas. The South African Department of Mineral Resources & Energy has given the green light to Rhino Oil and Gas to explore gas deposits in the northern Free State and North West.

• Sudan. Save the Children says that since April, around five hundred children in Sudan have died due to hunger and over thirty one thousand children lack access to medical care due to the closure of 57 nutrition centers (France24). For his part, Britain’s Africa Minister, Andrew Mitchell, called attacks on civilians in Sudan a “war crime” (The Economist).

• UNICEF. The aid agency has raised concerns about a distressing surge in child cholera cases in the North Kivu province of the DRC, estimating over eight thousand affected children under five this year (UN News).

• Wagner. Russian state TV reports that the head of the mercenary Wagner Group, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has been killed when his private jet crashed outside of Moscow. He was last seen in the Sahel. What happens next for the Group's Africa divisions? (Al Jazeera).

• Zambia. A South African businessman along with ten others were held up by a gang of 40 persons who entered their private jet. The gang fled with US$10m and gold bullion. Authorities have since arrested twelve people (New York Times). Check out this excellent series by Al Jazeera on the Gold Mafia.

• Zimbabwe. The country held a “democratic election” on Wednesday. The results will likely be doctored with the ruling party, continuing its decades long reign. The elections got off to a bad start with severe delays, the President has announced another day of voting (Reuters).