The man Ivorian Presidents love to hate By Daniel Balint-Kurti Ivory Coast, the one-time poster boy of West Africa, has seen its long-drawn-out crisis deepen since the end of last year. When the incumbent president, Laurent Gbagbo, was defeated in

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What is going on with the African Union? Is its drifting away from the bold values declared in its Constitutive Act, meant to signal a definitive departure from its predecessor, the moribund Organisation of African Unity? Continue reading →

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With the successful conduct of the referendum in January 2011, and the overwhelming vote in favor of separation, South Sudan edged a further step towards independence from a unified Sudan, a country that had been ailing from the woes of

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One reason why Africans worry about Libya is that they see the possibility of a protracted civil war with multiple power centres, which destabilizes the entire Sahelian region. The civil war in Libya, and the military intervention against Colonel Muammar

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Is East Africa slowly democratizing, or about to turn back the clock and slide into political violence again? Continue reading →

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Tunisia and the ousting of Ben Ali came first – beginning in December 2010 and reaching a high-point when the President stepped down in January 2011. Continue reading →

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By Mark Gevisser* – 07/03/2011 This piece was first published in the Mail and Guardian in June 2010 “These boys committed a crime against our culture, our religion and our laws,” said the Malawian president Bingu wa Mutharika over the

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Throughout the last week of February, several important military operations took place in Somalia – Mogadishu, Hiiraan and Gedo – against al-Shabaab. Militia supported by Ethiopia, the army of the Transitional Federal Governement (TFG) and the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) acted for the first time – if not coordinated, at least simultaneously – on different fronts. Continue reading →

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The Qadhafi regime in Libya is tottering and is likely to collapse within days, despite its reputation for brutality and intolerance. Its disappearance is all-the-more surprising because, over the last forty-two years, it has systematically destroyed any pretence at dissidence and has atomised Libyan society to ensure that no organisation – formal or spontaneous – could ever consolidate sufficiently to oppose it. Continue reading →

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Ripples have recently been caused by the a section of the Kenyan government seeking a deferral of the process of the International Criminal Court (ICC) – that has cited 6 Kenyans for alleged crimes against humanity (dating from the 2007/08 post-election violence). Similarly, a statement attributed to President Al Bashir of Sudan to the effect that the ICC arrest warrant against him should be lifted following the referendum in Southern Sudan raises interesting questions. I will briefly consider the law and politics of the deferral process as well as possible outcomes of the process, including the implications for the ICC. Continue reading →

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