Speaking to reporters after winning Mauritania’s first “free elections,” Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdalahi pledged to “transform” the nation and “build a country that conforms to the norms of justice and economic development.” In implicit reference to the early-’90s violence, in… Read moreMauritania: democratic transition …except for slaves
South African and foreign intelligence agencies have been monitoring an alleged Islamist militant training camp at Greenbushes, Port Elizabeth, according to local press reports. One magazine has even published a report on the alleged training camp. The report—including photographs of… Read moreAl-Qaeda in South Africa?
European Union election observers won’t be sent to Nigeria’s delta region during next month’s landmark elections due to the ongoing attacks and kidnappings which have prompted thousands of foreigners to flee the oil heartland in the past year. “We are… Read moreNigeria: petro-violence bars EU observers
Muslim pupils at a secondary school in northeastern Nigeria’s Gombe state beat a teacher to death March 21 after accusing her of desecrating the Koran, police and witnesses said. Oluwatoyin Olusase, a Christian, was apparently overseeing an “Islamic Religious Knowledge”… Read moreMore sectarian violence in Nigeria
Gunmen kidnapped two Chinese men and a Nigerian man working for a local company in the southeastern state of Anambra March 17. The Chinese were the first foreigners kidnapped outside of the country’s oil heartland in the southern Niger Delta…. Read moreChinese workers kidnapped in Nigeria
It is endless, and it comes (tellingly) from the both the right and the left. The latest entry is from Columbia University scholar Mahmood Mamdani, writing in the March 8 London Review of Books—who probably fancies himself on the left…. Read moreMore denial on Darfur —this time from the “left”
From Reuters, March 8: More than a million Muslim pilgrims packed Senegal’s remote northeastern city of Touba on Thursday as members of the powerful Mouride brotherhood flocked to “Africa’s Mecca” from across the world. Huge crowds moved shoulder to shoulder… Read moreSenegal: million pilgrims honor Sufi saint
In an obvious move to undercut the International Criminal Court, Sudan has announced that it will put three men on trial for atrocities in Darfur—including Ali Mohammed Abd-al-Rahman AKA Ali Kushayb, officially named as a suspect by the ICC. Sudanese… Read moreSudan: Darfur trial opens, guerillas attack AU troops, Qadaffi to mediate?
Increasing violence between guerillas and government forces in Central African Republic (CAR) has displaced an estimated 220,000 people, including 150,000 “internally displaced persons” (IDPs) and 66,000 refugees who have fled to Chad and Cameroon. In December, France sent special forces… Read moreDisplacement crisis, French intervention in Central African Republic
Authorities in Somalia’s autonomous Puntland region arrested four men Feb. 27 in connection with the Feb. 25 hijacking of a ship delivering relief food. But four other hijackers are still holding the ship and 12-member crew. World Food Program (WFP)… Read morePuntland pinches protein pirates
Our February issue featured the story “Presidents in the Dock: An End to Africa’s Reign of Impunity?” by Michael Fleshman, a reprint from the UN publication Africa Journal. Our February Exit Poll was: “Why are Africa’s ex-dictators Charles Taylor (Liberia)… Read moreThe vagaries of international justice: our readers write
As the Darfur genocide enters its fifth year, and nearly two years after UN Security Council Resolution 1593 of March 2005 referred violations of international law in Darfur to the International Criminal Court (ICC), on Feb. 27 ICC prosecutors formally… Read moreUN issues pseudo-indictments in Darfur genocide
