The writing that Ivory Coast is headed for catastrophe is clearly on the wall! According to the International Red Cross, approximately 800″ people were massacred in one city alone in earlier this week. The West African regional block Economic Community of West African States’ (ECOWAS) has made u-turn with regard to their bluff to use […]
As African Union peacekeepers continue to come under attack in Somalia, the mission there, known as AMISOM, received two pieces of good news this week. First off, Uganda and Burundi, offered to send 4,000 more troops to the mission. The two countries account for a majority of what will now be a 12,000-strong force aimed […]
I’m afraid I do not get the rationale behind the University of Johannesburg’s recent decision to sever ties with Israel’s Ben Gurion University of the Negev. Of all of the boycotts to conduct, deciding to target the very institutions where some of the most vibrant dissent against Israeli policy is likely to occur seems counterproductive. […]
Despite past disagreements with the Libyan leader over the pace of African integration and the awkward fact that Qaddafi provided support for Uganda’s murderous former leader, Idi Amin, Ugandan President Yoweri Musevini is highly critical of the Western intervention in Libya in an article printed by Foreign Policy magazine. While Musevini acknowledges some of the […]
An ad-hoc panel of leaders from African Union countries is set to meet with European Union and Arab League officials tomorrow to discuss the way forward in Libya. The panel, which includes heads of state from South Africa, Uganda, Mali, Mauritania and Congo, along with AU Commission President Jean Ping and current AU Chairman Teodore […]
My latest piece, “Zimbabwe: New Verse, Same as the First,” has been posted for ISN Insights. Here is the abstract: The renewed crackdown against the political opposition in Zimbabwe sparked by fears of an Arab-style uprising illustrates how the illusion of a power-sharing government has merely served as plaster over a gushing wound. I hope […]
Is one of the unintended consequences of the work of western-based non-governmental organizations (NGO’s) that their influence means that the media gives too much attention to bad news out of Africa? That is the brunt of Karen Rothmyer’s article, “Hiding the Real Africa” in the latest Columbia Journalism Review. (By the way — when will […]
So far so good for the Proteas in the ICC Cricket World Cup. They topped Group B, winning 5 of their 6 matches, and have looked dangerous in doing so. They have every reason for optimism as they approach the knockout stages with the Quarterfinals, which start this week. As for the other African entries, […]
The UN Security Council has imposed a no-fly zone over Libya, and has authorized “all necessary measures” to protect civilians. The Arab league, United States, France, and some European nations have been hard at work, putting together contingency plans to intervene if Gaddafi continues to massacre his own people. Missing in action is the African […]
On Monday Namibia turns 21 years old. A lot has changed since this Southern African country gained its independence from apartheid South Africa in 1990. Yet, the country faces a high rate of unemployment rate, corruption is on the rise, and the gap between the rich and the poor remains unchallenged. Why? Although the Namibian […]
If in fact the United Nations is prepared to impose a no-fly, no-drive zone on Libya, Andrew Sullivan asks a lot of pointed questions about what he calls an “imminent war.” The ones I am most interested in seeing answered: If we are prepared to do this in Libya, why not in Congo, where the […]
The world continues to focus on events in the Maghreb and beyond. And while I don’t want to get into any unnecessary hierarchy-of-suffering debates, I will maintain that what is going on in Cote d’Ivoire is every bit as important and more potentially destabilizing than what is going on in Libya. Violence continues to spread […]
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