Politics
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The Salvador Pass: How a Nameless Desert Gap Became a Battleground for Libya’s Warlords
A failed prisoner exchange in Niger has revealed a complex network of Libyan, Nigerien, Chadian, and Russian interests converging on one of the Sahara’s ... -
Who Wins from Ukraine’s Drones in Mali?
On 12 September, CNN reported that around fifteen Ukrainian drone specialists are working with the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) in northern Mali. According to ... -
Türkiye’s Security Export: Why Africa’s New Air Force Costs Less Than a Fighter Jet’s Spare Parts
Drones have become a primary mechanism of warfare on many fronts around the world. Those fronts range from the war between Russia and Ukraine ... -
There’s No Conspiracy in the Sahel — There’s a Gap, and Bamako Knows How to Use It
A familiar claim keeps surfacing in the rhetoric of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger’s ruling juntas, echoed enthusiastically by Russian state media: the West ... -
The Rivalry Between Ethiopia and Eritrea Is Reshaping Tigray
On 1 August 2026, Ethiopian federal and Tigrayan forces clashed in western Tigray, a northern Ethiopian region bordering Eritrea and Sudan. By 3 August, ... -
Nigeria’s Accountability Crisis Is Fueling Every Other Political Crisis
On March 23, 2026, a Federal High Court in Abuja handed down a 72 year sentence, to be served as eight years concurrently, to ... -
The Sanctuary Parliament How Somalia’s Immunity System Protects Those Who Should Face Justice
The first piece documented who disappeared into Somalia’s detention system. The second — “The Journalists Who Disappeared” — documented who was silenced for reporting ... -
The Horn of Africa’s Age of Permanent Conflict
Sudan’s Comprehensive Peace Agreement, signed in 2005, seemed to vindicate a model for how wars might end in the Horn of Africa. Under the ... -
Mineral Beneficiation: A Pipedream of Prosperity in an Unequal Financial Architecture
Since 2023, 14 African countries have introduced export restrictions on unprocessed critical minerals, requiring “local beneficiation” – or in-country processing and manufacturing – prior ... -
Beyond the Fighter Jets: What Algeria’s Deployment to Niger Really Signals
Four Algerian Su-30 fighters touched down in Niamey on 30 August 2026, trailed by an aerial refueling aircraft. A day earlier, mutinous soldiers — ...
