Sub-Saharan Africa

See All Press
Chance for Russia in Africa: France Ends ‘Operation Barkhane’
September 20, 2021 5 min. read

On June 10, 2021, the president of France Emmanuel Macron announced the end of operation Barkhane in the Sahel region. It will be finished by the first quarter of 2022 in order to reconfigure French military engagement in Africa. More details appeared after a virtual video summit with the leaders of the G5 Sahel (Mali, […]

Read more
Somalia and the Houdinis of Corruption
November 8, 2018 6 min. read

In the moral version of human history – expressed in the Quran, Bible, and Torah – corruption is considered the worst reckless impulse that caused men to fall from grace. It was the betrayal of trust and loyalty for purely selfish gains. From that perspective, the root cause of corruption is individual moral shutdown, derailment […]

Read more
Conflict Minerals: A Manifestation of Modern-Day Colonialism
November 7, 2018 5 min. read

                                                                 (Photo from the Enough Project)   The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has historically been the focal point of devastating internal conflict since colonial […]

Read more
African Regimes at a Crossroads
October 16, 2018 7 min. read

New hope is blowing across the African continent against the backdrop of toppled heads of government and state in South Africa and Zimbabwe and a rejuvenated government that is pursuing ambitious reforms in Ethiopia. Other recent examples of transitions from long-sitting governments have also played out in Burkina Faso and The Gambia where the sitting […]

Read more
Transformation Euphoria in the Horn of Africa
September 6, 2018 9 min. read

The political transformation in the Horn of Africa is arguably the most counterintuitive development in the 21st century so far. Ethiopia has steered away from implosion and, for the first time in its history, appointed an Oromo Prime Minister with an Islamic name and heritage, ending the 20-year-long conflict between Ethiopia and Eritrea. Nonetheless, Abiy […]

Read more
Ethiopia Between Risk and Reform
July 13, 2018 5 min. read

On 2 April 2018, Ethiopia’s restless new Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was sworn into power. Since then the Federal Republic of Ethiopia has found itself in a whirlwind of reform. Ethiopia is undergoing its most significant changes since the 1991 birth of the EPRDF ruling coalition under its controversial leader, Meles Zenawi. The last two months […]

Read more
On South Africa
June 28, 2018 4 min. read

I first visited South Africa in 2008, when Thabo Mbeki was being outmaneuvered by Jacob Zuma, who forced out Mbeki and ascended to the presidency in spite of sexual assault and corruption charges. No one then understood how catastrophic Zuma’s eight years in power would be—but a report the other weekend demonstrates how he undermined critical democratic […]

Read more
On Zuma, Ramaphosa, and the State of South African Politics
March 5, 2018 4 min. read

It has been an eventful few weeks in South African politics, as eventful as any since the period from the CODESA negotiations that ended apartheid through the early, heady days of Nelson Mandela’s epochal presidency. The era of Jacob Zuma has finally come to an end, the era of Cyril Ramaphosa, long awaited in some […]

Read more
5 Africa stories to watch in 2018
January 4, 2018 7 min. read

From widely known, to worrying to weird, here are five developing stories to watch in Africa as we kick off 2018. The fall of Mugabe (Grace Mugabe that is) The ageing Robert Mugabe’s departure was only a matter of time. It was accelerated by the very public factionalism and succession squabbling within ZANU-PF – and […]

Read more

Popular from Press