Police in Uganda cracked down on protesters in the capital city of Kampala over the weekend. At least one was killed, many injured, and untold numbers were arrested when police, at the behest of President Yoweri Museveni, crushed increasingly vehement protests over rising food and petrol prices. More problematically, the police actions smack of political […]
Nigerians go to the polls today in what could prove to be a pivotal moment in the country’s history. While Goodluck Jonathan is expected to win handily the run-up to the oft-delayed polling has been fraught with violence. At Slate Dayo Olopade has one of the better election previews. As always, elections are only part […]
Can the Swazi King withstand the pro-democracy uprising or will he be toppled down? It seems like the Swazi kingdom yesterday spend most of its efforts trying to thwart an Egypt and Tunisia like uprising. Police reportedly rounded up activists, and fired teargas at pro-democracy protestors demanding an end to Mswati’s monarchy in Swaziland’s main […]
When Laurent Gbagbo’s endgame seemed imminent, the U.N. peacekeeping director Alain Le Roy hastily declared that the “war is over” in the western African nation of Côte d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), a headline that was splashed across TV screens, newspapers, news radio stations, and social networks around the world. But it turned out that Laurent Gbagbo, […]
The situation in Cote d’Ivoire qualifies as one in which the best options are the least bad options. Once Laurent Gbagbo decided not to step down peacefully or even with a nudge after refusing to yield after his opponent, Alassane Ouattara, clearly won last November’s presidential election there was bound to be violence that turned […]
Libyan officials aren’t the only ones seeking to defect to neighboring countries these days. Like the Qadaffi clan in Tripoli, the regime of Cote D’Ivoire’s Laurent Gbagbo has come under international pressure as violence between the incumbent and the opposition escalates. Top level officials, including the head of the country’s armed forces, are apparently seeking […]
The UN here says that the “war in Cote D’ivoire is over”, and apparently Gbagbo is hiding in the basement, negotiating his terms of surrender. What this political exist entail remains to be seen. But it is clear that Gbagbo would probably want a political pact that would protect him and his cronies from being […]
It seems like the Southern African Development Committee is finally getting it as the regional body toughens with Zimbabwe’s Mugabe! In an unusual move, the Southern African leaders issued a communiqué late Thursday, scolding the ZANU-PF government for political violence and the failure to adhere to the 2008 Global Political Agreement for power sharing. One […]
Goodluck Jonathan is likely to win this month’s elections in Nigeria. And that outcome is almost certain to be controversial. Already one can anticipate that the opposition will decry the results of the elections as illegitimate. The four main opposition candidates pulled out of last week’s televised presidential debate a week after Jonathan had failed […]
Last Sunday voters in the Central African Republic went to the polls and overwhelmingly gave President Francois Bozize’s party a large majority. Well, some voters did. The problem is that the opposition called for a boycott of the polling to protest the first round of voting in January. According to reports: “The opposition has condemned […]
Morgan Tsvangirai, the leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and his country’s largely powerless prime Minister, has appealed to South African President Jacob Zuma in hopes that South Africa will finally intervene to prevent Robert Mugabe from stepping up violence and other dirty tricks prior to Zim’s upcoming but as-yet unscheduled elections. […]
Many are familiar with the origin of Somalia’s protracted conflict in the fall of Said Barre’s regime in 1991 and the resulting competition for political control among warring clans. Yet the conditions of warfare in Somalia have evolved dramatically since that time as the impact of the conflict upon the local geography, the role of […]
Popular from Press
