Like in wars between states and other organized groups, civil wars and other protracted domestic conflicts are seldom caused by a single factor. Over time, even those that prove to be the exception to the rule eventually evolve into a much more complex conflict- hence the entity known as Somaliland. A Brief History Only […]
In The Guardian a few days ago Binyavanga Wainaina wryly provided “How not to write about Africa in 2012 – a beginner’s guide” that really is more of a primer on the contemporary culture of the few remaining Africa correspondents for American and European publications. This article serves as something of an addendum to his […]
The news coming out of Africa is almost always negative. Moreover, it almost never touches on the African youth. So for a change of tune, I want to let you know about some phenomenal young people from the continent who are doing extraordinary things. In January 2012, Young People in International Affairs or YPIA, an NGO […]
Posted by contributor Andres Santamaria. Sudan and South Sudan continue to clash, with each side seeking to control lucrative oil fields near their border. However, as the crisis persists, there are many efforts to relieve some of the humanitarian problems that have emerged in South Sudan, according to Action Against Hunger. “Nearly half the population […]
Last week’s print edition of the Economist reports “the best story in development,” which describes huge declines in child mortality across Africa. Too often, good stories about Africa are buried in the back pages of newspapers and magazines. In this case, the headline is sensationalist but true. The trends of child mortality in a majority of African […]
Africa is growing. Sometime two years ago the continent’s population surpassed a billion people. But this is not simply some sort of phenomenon of Malthusian proportions. For as Africa’s population grows, so too does its economy, in ways that most people probably do not realize. Howard French explains: Africa, with a population expected to roughly […]
The US-South Africa bilateral relationship over the past eighteen months has been a diplomatic minefield. Issues include everything from military equipment and nuclear energy/weapons to oil, communication companies and the global north versus the global south. The most recent, and the most serious issue regarding US-SA relations is Iran. According to a press release sent […]
Whether it is lack of political will or capacity, the Nigerian government has failed to address the threat that the Islamist insurgency Boko Haram poses to its country’s security. The past week has been a particularly bloody one for Nigeria. Simultaneous attacks against This Day newspaper offices in Abuja and Kaduna killed nearly a dozen […]
The recent BRICS summit at the end of March 2012 led to a substantial amount of controversy surrounding South Africa’s membership. Various political analysts were seen on television and in newspapers all answering a similar question to this one: Given its economic, military and population numbers, is South Africa really worthy to be part of […]
As the world commemorates the Rwandan Genocide fugitives continue to evade justice. April marks the 18th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide in which 800,000 Rwandans, mostly ethnic Tutsis, were massacred. Eighteen years later and nearly 1,000 fugitives are still at large around the world. At an event in Nairobi, Kenya over the weekend commemorating […]
Hollywood on the Potomac–movie actors deserting Tinseltown to remind the Big Dogs back east that every time an A-list celeb is arrested for picketing a foreign embassy an angel gets his wings.
Actor George Clooney, his father Nick, and four Congressional Democrats were among more than a dozen protesters who descended on the Sudanese Embassy on March 16 for the purpose of crossing, in a disorderly fashion, a police line.
The cast of characters? Along with Clooneys I and II, it included Reps. James Moran (D-VA), Jim McGovern (D-MA), John Olver (D-MA) and Al Green (D-TX). NAACP President Ben Jealous was also arrested, along with Martin Luther King III.
Clooney’s mid-day performance on Mass Ave was the finale to a 3-day tour in DC that included an impassioned plea to a standing-room-only crowd at the Council on Foreign Relations, and dramatic testimony delivered to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee about the miserable state of affairs in the border region of Sudan.
Omar al-Bashir’s military, operating out of Khartoum, is working assiduously to wipe out mostly Christian populations hunkered down on some highly contested, oil-rich real estate to the south.
Clooney, who has frequently taken on the role of the world-weary activist in his films, accuses Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and the ‘same criminals responsible for Darfur’ of conducting a genocidal war against his own people, of starving, maiming, raping, and murdering them.
And he says it as if no one has ever heard it before. . .
It’s been quite a week in West Africa. As mentioned earlier this month, Mali is facing its share of troubles since the fall of Muammar Gaddafi in neighboring Libya. Observers knew that the return of Tuareg fighters from Libya would likely increase tensions in northern Mali and perhaps lead to a new Tuareg rebellion. However […]
Surging tides from the Indian Ocean, linked in part to climate change, have pushed salt water into Tanzania’s Rufiji Delta, home to the world’s largest mangrove forest and where “more than 90% of households…make their living from rice farming” according to a report from Altertnet by Kizito Makoye. Due to the destruction of rice crops by the […]
As policymakers, international affairs experts and enthusiasts, we talk a lot here about Africa. But now, those on the African continent are increasingly using tools to make themselves part of the #conversation. This week, a first-of-its-kind study, “How Africa Tweets” was published by Portland Communications and Tweetminster which examined more than 11.5 million geo-located tweets […]
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 Murles. Unconfirmed reports suggest that over a thousand men, women and children were […]