En réponse aux coups d’État, aux conflits et aux autres déraillements des processus démocratiques de ces dernières années, les élections africaines de 2022 constituent, en grande partie, un effort pour redresser le navire démocratique sur le continent.
The sixth leaders’ summit between the African Union and European Union will finally take place this week in Brussels, following several postponements due to the coronavirus pandemic. Traditionally occurring every three years, the summit was initially scheduled for 2020.
The AU-EU summit is often touted as the ideal venue for European and African elites to discuss issues of mutual concern. But this one is particularly significant, as it provides the opportunity for both sides to unpack the new EU strategy directed toward Africa, which was launched in 2020.
En Afrique, d’Abidjan à Douala, une poignée d’irréductibles assureurs locaux résiste à l’assaut des poids lourds panafricains et internationaux, dans une période propice aux fusions-acquisitions.
Il aurait fallu barrière plus infranchissable pour que Bertrand Casteres, le directeur général du groupe mauricien d’assurances Mauritius Union Assurance (MUA), rebrousse chemin. Rendez-vous était pris de longue date pour venir négocier, à Paris, les ultimes détails du partenariat censé donner un nouvel élan à son groupe, fondé en 1948. Alors, en ce mois de juillet 2021, même si le vaccin contre le Covid-19 qui lui a été administré à Port-Louis quelques mois auparavant n’est pas reconnu par les autorités européennes, qu’à cela ne tienne : le quadragénaire en fait un deuxième, reconnu celui-là, pour pouvoir prendre l’avion. La conclusion d’une affaire vaut bien une double injection…
Libya’s rekindled power struggle has left Turkey in an ambivalent position and might force it to review its alliances.
Libya’s interim prime minister, a close ally of Turkey, has been rejected by parliament in a rekindled power struggle in the war-torn country. But his replacement is no stranger to Ankara and might help it make peace with eastern Libya.
Algeria is a potentially significant contributor to U.S. efforts to ensure that Europe does not experience a major shortage in natural gas supply as a result of the Ukraine crisis.
Algeria would not, by itself, be able to fully compensate for a shutoff of Russian gas supplies to Europe, though its supply could address some of the potential need.
The Past
The Horn of Africa States was from time immemorial a trading partner of Egypt up and until Mohamed Ali Pasha, which coincides with the opening of the Suez Canal by the renowned French Diplomat, Ferdinand de Lesseps. Mohamed Ali Pasha, the Albanian working for the Ottoman Empire who ruled Egypt on their behalf, was over ambitious and wanted to conquer the region sending expeditions, which finally left the region in 1875 after a short stay in Zeila, Berbera and Harar and the coastal ports of Eritrea today, Assab and Mussawa.
The U.S. government should not repeat the mistake made by the Nigerian government of designating the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as a terrorist group.
In October, an American scholar argued in a Washington Times op-ed that the United States should designate the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), a secessionist group in Nigeria’s South East region, as a terrorist group. To the casual onlooker, this could seem logical: IPOB has long been proscribed as a terrorist group by Nigeria’s government, and it reportedly boasts a 50,000-strong army. But doing so would be a mistake that risks causing a massive human rights crisis in Nigeria and West Africa.
Grupul Wagner, o grupare de mercenari condusă de unul dintre cei mai apropiați aliați ai președintelui Rusiei, Vladimir Putin, transferă zeci de luptători din Africa în Europa de Est, unde forțele ruse amenință Ucraina.
Crisis in Guinea-Bissau, coup in Burkina Faso reflect how ‘stabilization’ policies fall short.
The government of Guinea-Bissau says it survived an attempted coup d’état yesterday, just days after Burkina Faso suffered the fifth coup in nine months around the greater Sahel. These upheavals cement this African region as the most pronounced center of a global crisis: Poor and authoritarian governance is breeding extremism and transnational criminality, igniting violence and undermining efforts to build democracies. Following last year’s military power grabs in Chad, Mali, Guinea and Sudan, the new crises highlight widening risks to security — for the 135 million people of the Sahel region, and ultimately for Europe and the United States. They also point to changes needed in U.S. and international policies.
The contagion of coups d’etat in the Sahel and West Africa shows no signs of slowing, with an attempted coup in perennially fragile Guinea-Bissau the latest installment in what could be a long saga. These alarming developments have rightly sparked soul-searching among supporters of democracy and questions about whether external actors—sometimes myopically focused on security assistance in the face of terrorist threats—have done enough to disincentivize soldiers from seizing control of the state. They call into question the role of the African Union and the United Nations in effectively protecting the principles they espouse.