If you are in the United States, the odds are at least decent that you are knee-deep in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. If you are not, that first sentence probably made no sense.
Either way, here are some stories that have caught my eye to take you into the weekend:
The Sudanese government has signed another ceasefire in Darfur, this time with the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM — a newly formed umbrella group of 10 movements) to supplement the agreement from a few weeks ago with the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Now only the Sudan Liberation Army represents a significant holdout in signing accords with the government. Of course signing agreements is the easy part. Keeping those agreements is what matters. I would assert that none of the participants are sure bets to maintain the peace, with the government possibly the least likely.
Meanwhile Sudan continues to prepare for its upcoming elections, scheduled for April. Let’s just say that most observers are more than a little concerned about the process.
Moses Ochonu at Pambazuka News has an article lamenting the state of democracy in Nigeria. The violence in Central Nigeria is not likely to help, nor is the ongoing divide embodied in the tenuous interim presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, which will be hard pressed to escape the shadow of Umaru Yar’Adua, whose health situation remains as much a mystery as it has been at any time since Yar-Adua’s disappearance from Nigerian public life in November.
IRIN asks whether African Union imposed sanctions against Madagascar will serve as a “wake-up call” to that island nation, which still has not made serious progress toward a power-sharing agreement a year after Andry Rajoelina, backed by the military, ousted former President Marc Ravalomanana. The answer, as with so many similar queries about the AU is: “Maybe. But probably not.” The problem is not with the AU itself per se, but rather with its capacity, as the organization is currently constituted, to impose its will.
Predictable South African political machinations watch: The ANC countered the Congress of the People’s (COPE) motion of no confidence in Jacob Zuma with its own flexing of political muscles. Keep moving, people. Nothing to see here.
The World Bank is predicting modest economic growth across sub-Saharan Africa in 2010. The 3.8% growth rate qualifies as reasonably good news even if that number won’t exactly set the world abuzz.
