🎬Truce-s

January 16, 2025

Good morning. The world’s largest gathering of humanity is currently taking place. No, it’s not a ‘power-packed crusade’—it’s the Maha Kumbh Mela, a Hindi festival that occurs once every 12 years and began on Monday. Over the next six weeks, 400 million people (almost double the population of Nigeria) will travel to Prayagraj in northern India to bathe in the confluence of rivers sacred to Hindus. Preparations have been extensive: Authorities have constructed 150,000 tents for a makeshift city, 145,000 restrooms, and 99 parking lots.

We searched for info on the number of bathrooms but couldn’t find any. Makes us wonder if open-air showers are making a comeback.

— Obafemi Ayomide, Chibuike Uzor.

CURRENCIES

Currency exchange rates against the US dollar as of market close. Here’s what these numbers mean

MINERALS
Rwanda’s first foray into oil

HeliRy/Getty Images

The trend (and also slogan) in the 1990s seems to have been reversed: African economies are now looking to diversify into oil. The latest on the list is none other than Rwanda, which announced yesterday that it had identified 13 crude reservoirs within Lake Kivu, a natural border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The discovery caps off yet another milestone for the country which has struggled to diversify its economy beyond agriculture and yes, you’re reading this right, tourism.

Despite all its efforts -like being a sleeve sponsor for Arsenal Football Club- to position itself as a tourist haven, it only broke through the $500mn revenue mark in 2023. Botswana on the other hand, ran through the first nine months of 2024 making nearly $1.6Bn from its diamonds.

It’s been a long time coming. Efforts to discover oil resources began about a decade ago but were halted until methane was discovered in the Lake Kivu Basin. According to Francis Kamazi, Rwanda Mines, Petroleum and Gas Board’s CEO, “Where you find methane, you’re most likely to find oil not too far away.”

He also expressed optimism, suggesting that Lake Kivu might have larger oil reserves than neighboring countries: “Our Lake Kivu is deeper than other lakes in the region, so we might have more oil than our neighbors.”, he said following yesterday’s discovery.

But they’re not home and dry oily yet. Rwanda has also announced that it will pitch for partners harder than singles on Valentine’s Eve due to the insane costs of oil exploration. The cost of drilling one well only can exceed $15 million alongside other costs like lab analysis.

Zooming out…Rwanda will be mindful of celebrating too soon, especially with news this week of Namibia’s touted oil wells being commercially unviable, writing off over $400mn of already incurred costs. -OA.

TRENDING
A truce at last

Owen Gent

Israel and Hamas reportedly agreed in principle to a ceasefire and hostage deal. According to CBS News, both sides agreed to a draft deal that could be finalized by the end of the week. The Israeli government would still need to vote to approve it, though parties have already “begun drafting public statements of success and hopes are high on all sides,” CBS reported. The deal would reportedly initiate a 42-day ceasefire, during which Hamas would release dozens of hostages and Israel would release Palestinians from its prisons. Biden administration officials helped negotiate the deal, though it would be left to the Trump White House to oversee its implementation.

SHOWER THOUGHTS

“The law isn't about what you can or cannot do. Just about the consequences tied to those choices.”

NEWS
Round the continent

Phill Magakoe/AFP

  • Daniel Chapo, was inaugurated as Mozambique’s latest President despite controversial elections yesterday. He succeeds Filipe Nyusi, who served the maximum number of terms.

  • Tanzania, is experiencing a suspected outbreak of the Marburg virus. So far, 9 have been infected and eight have passed according to the WHO.

  • Emmerson Mnangagwa, the Zimbabwean president has tabled a bill to extend the length of his tenure. Interestingly, the opposition has backed the bill.

  • Ethiopia is set to make bank after selling off a 51-megawatt mine to Chinese bitcoin miner BIT Trading for $14 million. It’s earned over $55 million from bitcoin deals in the past 11 months.

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