Africa

Where is Danish foreign policy headed? Everything now revolves around the war in Ukraine and rearmament against Russia, which is quite openly called our enemy, and where sanctions are being extended and trade and contacts are being cut off in all areas. NATO now also talks about China in its new strategy papers. But what about Africa, which has for decades received Danish development aid? What does the government say about Africa, which belongs to the Global South, today a widely used term?

Only Civilian Leaders Can Forge a Path to Peace

Less than five years into its halting journey toward democracy, Sudan is spiraling toward protracted civil war. On April 15, fighting erupted between the country’s two main security organs, the army and a paramilitary group known as the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which have been jockeying for power ever since they jointly overthrew longtime dictator Omar al-Bashir in 2019. The hostilities have been most intense in the capital city, Khartoum, but violence has broken out in at least eight of Sudan’s 13 states. Hundreds of civilians have been killed, and regional powers are lining up behind the main belligerents, promising to replenish their war stocks and enabling them to continue tearing the country apart.

January 30, 2022. Update added April 23, 2023

Like all the nations of the Horn of Africa that abut the Red Sea, the main passageway for the transit of Middle Eastern oil, Sudan has been a prize desired by many imperialist nations. (For a background summary of the region, see this.) For 75 years, there has been a large leftist opposition within the country. Now another military coup has taken place and led to mass protests. We international anti-racists and anti-capitalists should take note, support, and assess what chance there is that these large, valiant rebellions with their great human costs will actually bring about the kind of worker run society we need and strive for everywhere.

Over the past two years, the steady expansion of terrorist and fundamentalist threats in the Sahel has not gotten the attention it deserves given the region’s repeated military coups and political turmoil. Due to the apparent contagion effect of military coups, the political instability in the Sahel has resulted in a regional and international focus on electoral timetables and constitutional rule while overlooking the rise of terrorist groups, which continue to gain ground and menace the very existence of Sahel countries.

Pour couper les revenus annuels d’al Shabaab, estimés à 100 millions de dollars et générés par les extorsions, il faudra rétablir l’intégrité des agences financières, judiciaires et de renseignement compromises de la Somalie.

Since January several flows of emigrants expelled by Algerian authorities have been constantly arriving in the town of Assamaka.

Niger Interior Minister Hamadou Amadou Souley fears the emergence of a humanitarian crisis in Assamaka, a town where 7,172 sub-Saharan migrants expelled by Algeria are stranded.

The conflict in Sudan is multidimensional, and could generate instability that spreads to the broader region.

Since April 15, fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) across Sudan, especially in the capital Khartoum, has left more than 450 people dead and over 4,000 injured. The fighting erupted after months of tensions between the leaders of both forces, the SAF’s General Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan, who is also the head of Sudan’s Transitional Sovereignty Council, and the RSF’s commander, General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo, better known as “Hemedti,” who is the council’s deputy head.

Abstract: The United States is at a critical juncture as it looks to adapt its counterterrorism mission. Nowhere is this more evident than in the Sahel region of Africa, where for the past decade, the United States has relied on France to serve as the counterterrorism lead. Those days are over, at least for now, and the United States is left attempting to balance its counterterrorism efforts in the frame of great power competition. However, too often these two strategic objectives are cast as zero-sum. In reality, U.S. counterterrorism in the Sahel, if appropriately reassessed, designed, and implemented, can generate real wins for the United States as it seeks to counter Russian and Chinese influence in the region. Additionally, and most importantly, it can improve the prospects for stability and security for African states in desperate need of both.