Patrick Smith
The shootings and bombings in Nigeria's northern commercial capital of Kano on 20 January are reckoned to have taken over 170 lives. They followed the established pattern of attacks in northern Nigeria over the past month: a surprise attack on police stat...
Gill Lusk
Never has there been so much criticism of the Arab League by the international Arab media. Yet the League’s emergency meeting in Cairo on Sunday only boosted the numbers in its mission to monitor abuses in Syria, refusing to accept United Nations obse...
Patrick Smith
This week, popular opposition to political and commercial fraud in Congo-Kinshasa could precipitate a new national crisis following disputed national elections on 28 November (AC Vol 52 No 23). Increasingly credible claims of widespread vote rigging again...
Stars Foundation
Wangari Maathai was the first African woman to receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Born in the Central Highlands of Kenya in 1940, it was Maathai’s academic prowess that initially gained her recognition. During a period in which the majority of Kenyan girls ha...
Guest Blogger
D Deng Gach Pal, MPA Postgraduate student (Chevening Scholar), University of Exeter
I’m writing to usher in the independence of South Sudan on 9 July 2011, when it will formally be declared a nation-state. This follows a referendum on 9 January 2011, in ...
Patrick Smith
Lisbon, 13 June
Much of the chatter at the annual meeting of the African Development Bank in Lisbon last week focussed on the African role in another financial institution: the troubled International Monetary Fund. Specifically, whether there would be an...
Our Southern Africa Correspondent
Loyalists in the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front party, especially its chief spin doctor and strategist Professor Jonathan Moyo, are looking desperate after aseries of political disasters in April. It's clear that many of the leader...
Guest Blogger
Ahead of Nigeria’s Presidential elections from 9 April, militants are auditioning for money from the government amnesty programme. President Jonathan has bought a short-term calm before the national vote. The long-term cost may be greater insecurity in W...
A Reader
Troubles in Libya, Tunisia, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and who knows where next. The wave of unrest and civil uprisings sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East is a clear message from the mass populace that it is time for change. In North Africa, in...
Patrick Smith
Côte d’Ivoire/South Africa/Nigeria: Zuma's warship in the Gulf of Guinea The South African government has been making reassuring noises about the presence of its warship, the SAS Drakensberg, in the Gulf of Guinea. According to the Nigerian government, ho...