Here are a few stories that have caught my eye of late, with brief commentary as apt:
In an interesting (but probably passing) change of direction, China is putting pressure on Sudan “to seek urgently the release of 29 Chinese workers held by rebels in the border state of …
Last week as I was scanning the paper, I came across the tragic news coming out of Ethiopia, a country I deeply indebted to. In the Afar region, gunmen have killed five foreign tourists for unknown reasons. The Ethiopian government’s quick and inaccurate placement of blame is cause for concern.
It …
If reports coming out of South Sudan are true the United Nations may be facing its biggest embarrassment since its missteps in the Democratic of Congo. The New York Times reports that UN Peacekeepers stood by idly while Nuer tribesman massacred fleeing …
The scenes coming out of Jonglei state of South Sudan are troubling. According to United Nations sources, more than 3,000 people have died and more than 60,000 have fled their home in the two week long ethnic clashes between Murle and Nuer tribes. The scope and …
Ethiopia and Eritrea raely have things in common but this week they now rank 1 and 2 as Africa’s worst jailers of journalists. In a move that many observers have called politically motivated an Ethiopian Court has handed down an 11-year sentence to two free-lance Swedish journalists, Johann Personn (left, …
And you thought your biggest social media worry was being defriended.
Last week, the New York Times published an interesting piece on the use of social media by terrorist groups. They focused on a recent Twitter battle instigated by the Somalia-based, loosely al-Qaeda …
Here are a few stories that I’ve been thinking about in recent days:
A new report from the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS), Africa and the Arab Spring: A New Era of Democratic Expectations, the first volume of the Africa Center’s new Special …
Ali Abdullah’s continuous refusal to step down is costing Yemen and its neighbors. The tenacious leader’s action is exporting the disaster, living conditions, threat to safety, health and livelihood of refugee from East Africa. According to the United Nations and the International Organization for …
It is tragic to see the continuing violence and instability in Somalia. It is not clear to me if the recent development is an opportunity or a start of another cycle of violence and the displacement of millions of Somalis. In fact, what is happening today in Somalia and in …
The Foreign Policy Association has released the results of its National Opinion Ballot in which highly-informed participants in the Great Decisions (GD) program, the centerpiece of the FPA, weigh in on the various issues that GD covers in a given year. Among …
The Mo Ibrahim Foundation has just released its 2011 Index of African Governance. I’d encourage you to follow the link and download to your heart’s content. For most of you the Summary will be more than sufficient. On the whole Ibrahim himself argues, “The …
Reporters Without Borders voiced concern today for the safety of Ethiopia’s journalists after a long-time government critic was arrested along with four opposition party members on 15 September in Addis Ababa, becoming the latest in a series of local and foreign reporters to be held on “terrorism” charges.
Ethiopia’s 2009 “anti-terrorist” …
A joint undercover investigation by BBC Newsnight and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has uncovered evidence that the Ethiopian government is using billions of dollars of development aid as a tool for political oppression.
Posing as tourists the team of journalists travelled to the southern region of …
In Somalia famine spreads and its death toll rises. It is increasingly clear that while the famine’s proximate cause may be drought, in reality like so many famines this one is predominantly a political creation that
Lots of stories have been cavorting around my head, with commentary as I see fit:
The disaster in the Horn of Africa represents what the Mail & Guardian calls “a crisis in slow motion.” The perfect storm of famine and the …
