Author: M Barbu

Ten security trends in Africa in 2025 in charts

Africa’s complex security landscape has been shaken by the combined effects of the growing regionalization of conflicts, offensives by militant Islamist groups, military coups and rivalries between outside actors.

A return to images in the year 2025 reveals an African security landscape reshaped by increasing external interventions, armies emboldened to seize power and consolidate it, and the proliferation of drones that extends the reach and lethality of armed fighters. The convergence of urbanization, demographic pressure and the increasing regionalization of conflicts is straining Africa’s already fragile security environment. Despite these challenges, many African countries have made significant progress over the past year in the development of their communication, road, rail and space infrastructure to increase economic productivity and opportunities for the continent’s 1.5 billion citizens, mostly young.

A Report on the Twelfth Day of Nationwide Protests in Iran: Widespread Strikes, Internet Shutdown, and Surge in Arrests

HRANA – Nationwide protests in Iran continued on their twelfth day, Thursday, January 8, 2026, according to reports collected by HRANA. Demonstrations and protest actions were recorded in at least 46 cities across 21 provinces. At the same time, a wave of strikes and market closures was reported, particularly in Kurdish regions, with dozens of cities in Kurdistan, West Azerbaijan, Kermanshah, and Ilam provinces joining the strikes.

The Islamic Republic’s Power Centers

Who calls the shots in Iran on economic policy, security, and domestic calls for reform? A look at the government’s organization chart indicates how complicated the answer is.

Iran’s system of government is not quite a democracy, nor a theocracy. Founding Supreme Leader Ruhollah Khomeini developed its animating doctrine, known as guardianship of the jurist, in the years before the Islamic Republic’s establishment in 1979. Khomeini posited that a just government was possible if religious scholars sat atop it to ensure consistency with Islamic law. This system was put into place with a constitutional referendum after the 1979 Islamic Revolution. The organs of a modern republic—a unicameral legislature (the majlis), executive led by the president, and judiciary—were enveloped by a clerical system. (Most of Iran’s clerical hierarchy, however, remains outside this official structure, based in Qom rather than the capital, Tehran.)

Iran supreme leader signals upcoming crackdown on protesters ‘ruining their own streets’ for Trump

Protests in Iran raged Friday night in the Islamic Republic, online videos purported to show, despite a threat from the country’s theocracy to crack down on demonstrators after shutting down the internet and cutting telephone lines off to the world.

At least 65 people have been killed in the protests that began in late December over Iran’s ailing economy and have morphed into the most significant challenge to the government in years.

Le poids grandissant du sionisme chrétien dans les pays du Sud et le cas de l’Afrique du Sud

Le sionisme chrétien est devenu un vecteur clé de l’influence israélienne dans les pays du Sud, et l’Afrique du Sud est apparue comme le champ de bataille central.

Autrefois ancré dans la théologie impériale du XIXe siècle, le sionisme chrétien fonctionne aujourd’hui comme un projet politique qui cherche à légitimer le colonialisme israélien à travers des récits religieux. En Afrique du Sud, longtemps bastion de la solidarité entre les Noirs et les Palestiniens, sa propagation rapide et son soutien au lobbying pro-israélien menacent d’éroder le soutien public à la libération de la Palestine.

RSF transfers dozens of West Kordofan detainees to Nyala

Volunteers said on Thursday that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have transferred dozens of detainees from West Kordofan to Nyala, the capital of South Darfur.

The RSF is holding more than 19,000 people, including 5,000 civilians, in detention centres in Nyala, which it has designated as the headquarters for its parallel government. Reports indicate several deaths within these facilities due to hunger, torture, and medical neglect.

Hamas document casts shadow over former EU envoy’s role in Gaza

An internal Hamas assessment suggests the EU’s former top diplomat in the Palestinian territories pursued a personal approach to Gaza that crossed Brussels’ red lines

An internal Hamas document seen by Euractiv suggests that the EU’s former envoy to the Palestinian territories, Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff, pursued positions that diverged from official EU policy and were viewed favourably by Hamas leaders in Gaza.

Pax Israelica and Its Discontents

The U.S. is trying to force Lebanon and Syria to normalize with Israel, but neither country sees an advantage in this.

On January 6, the Israeli journalist Barak Ravid published an article at Axios, reporting that the United States had presented Syria and Israel “with a new proposal for a security pact between them that includes establishing a joint economic zone on both sides of the border …” This followed several hours of talks between the sides in Paris the same day, during which the Americans also proposed the establishment of a joint U.S.-Israeli-Syrian “fusion cell” in Amman “to oversee the security situation in Southern Syria and host further talks on demilitarization and the withdrawal of Israeli forces.”