The pan-African magazine of choice since 2009
Commentary
In recent weeks, African countries including Ghana and Nigeria have sent aircraft to bring their nationals home from South Africa – an action they deemed necessary due to the hostility and occasional violence that migrants from other African nations have been experiencing there. The anti-immigrant movement among South Africans seems to have forgotten that their …
The African Union has been focusing on improving its effectiveness for the past ten years. It has established a framework that integrates peacekeeping operations with regional economic groups; however, it has faced challenges in intervening to resolve conflicts in areas like the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Sahel, and Sudan. Most interventions in these situations …
Efforts to reunite Libya have been stalled by disputes over whether the country should hold elections and then form a government, or first form an interim unity government that would set the rules for elections. The legislative bodies of both the Tripoli and Tobruk parallel governments are backing the interim plan, but the UN wants …
To have an equal voice in global policies, Africans need more seats at the tables of global power, such as the United Nations and the Group of 20. The G20, a collection of the world’s largest economies, consists of 19 countries and the European Union. But if it includes the EU as a regional representative, …
Kenya has had relatively stable governments in its nearly 60 years of independence, and has been democratically governed for almost 30 years. But underneath that surface is a system where personal deals, patronage, and ethnic bloc voting are often the road to power. With the 2022 elections coming up, citizens should demand more than ethnic …
The 20th-century American conservative Barry Goldwater famously declared that “moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” He might have been wrong, judging by what happened in Cote d’Ivoire after the International Criminal Court arrested former President Laurent Gbagbo in 2011: The country experienced nine years of low-intensity political violence that abated only when Gbagbo …
Ethiopia’s 1994 constitution gave the country’s more than 80 ethnic groups unique rights to self-determination, but it also laid the groundwork for the political explosions – one that erupted last fall with the Tigray region, writer Addisu Lashitew argues. The violent aftermath of the Tigrayan People’s Liberation Front’s loss of power in Addis Ababa, he …
Nigeria was once a leader among African nations, using its size and oil wealth to end civil wars and restore democracy in several countries on the continent. But that status has been washed away by persistent poverty, corruption, and inept governments. Sheriff Folarin writes. The traditional leadership and redeemer posture of Nigeria in Africa has …
The conflict in Cameroon is close to escalating, and possibly further fueling the instability in Central Africa, and unless the African Union becomes more proactive in resolving it, there could be chaos ahead. Gabriel Ngah Kiven and Cheryl Hendricks argue. The violent conflict that erupted in the northwest and southwest regions of Cameroon in 2016 …
It’s been one year since the 2019 general election in Nigeria and the courts are still busy deciding who the winners were in dozens of districts. When one looks at the rate at which the courts, and not the electorate, actually end up deciding the winners of the polls in the country, one must agree …