Vol 55 No 4 | BURUNDI Nkurunziza nobbles opposition 21st February 2014 The appointment of a new Vice-President failed to relieve the political crisis and the President is now trying to manipulate opposition leaders Burundi is facing its worst political crisis since the end of the civil war in 2000. When President Pierre Nkurunziza dismissed the First Vice-President, Bernard Busokoza, on 1...
Vol 55 No 4 | EGYPTETHIOPIA 'Torpedo the dam' 21st February 2014 Egypt is protesting to the United Nations Security Council and the International Criminal Court about the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. It will also boycott a meeting in Khartoum...
Vol 55 No 4 | SOMALIA Hassan Sheikh loses friends 18th February 2014 Security is worsening, and governance too. The President is increasingly isolated and even his staunchest international friends are losing patience with him The African Union Mission in Somalia has announced plans for a new offensive against Al Haraka al Shabaab al Mujahideen, and troops are being positioned. Yet most Somalis...
Vol 55 No 3 | SOUTH SUDAN Seats for dissidents 7th February 2014 The four oppositionists still detained in Juba – Pa’gan Amum, Oyai Deng, Majak d’Agot, Ezekiel Lol – are unlikely to join the talks due in Addis Ababa on...
Vol 55 No 3 | SOMALIA New blood in old bottles 6th February 2014 There’s a new Premier but many feel that one greedy faction has simply replaced another. Momentum towards a functional state is slowing again The election of Hassan Sheikh Mohamud as President in September 2012 was meant to free politics of issues that had held it hostage for years: arguments between President...
Vol 55 No 3 | SOUTH SUDAN A deal under duress 24th January 2014 The combatants have signed up to a ceasefire more because they ran out of options than because they wanted peace The threat of targeted sanctions against the combatants and the concern of East Africa's leaders that they would lose face at next week's African Union summit were the...
Vol 55 No 2 | TANZANIA Parties jostle ahead of polls 24th January 2014 With national elections due in 2015, the decks are being cleared for action amidst fierce rivalries for the CCM nomination This is President Jakaya Kikwete’s last year in the presidency. It seems a very long time since he came to office in 2005 amid ringing pledges to fight...
Vol 55 No 2 | SOMALIA The statelets of the nation 24th January 2014 Mogadishu will gain little more control and the enclaves will jealously hang on to what they have. Al Shabaab will endure The New Year began with a new Prime Minister, Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed, and a newish cabinet – but no new brooms. Reshuffling the players in cabinet will...
Vol 55 No 2 | RWANDA Murder in the Michelangelo 16th January 2014 The killing of a political opponent to President Kagame in a Sandton hotel has riled Pretoria and could have wider consequences The arrest in Mozambique of three Rwandans this week in connection with the murder in South Africa of Colonel Patrick Karegeya, Rwanda's opposition leader and former spy chief,...
Vol 55 No 1 | KENYA Chickens come home to roost 10th January 2014 The thread that bound President Kenyatta together with his deputy Ruto is fraying. There are growing worries about terrorism Three questions loom over the country in 2014. Will President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice-President William Ruto win their confrontation with the International Criminal Court? Will the government reform...