Africa

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.

Sudan ended over a quarter-century of Islamist-military rule with the 2019 overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir, whose rule was based on Islamism, Arab supremacy, and the ruthless application of military power. A joint civilian-military government was formed to lead the transition to a civilian-led democracy. However, an October 2021 coup led by Sudan’s military and security forces ended all progress toward civilian rule, severing at the same time most of Sudan’s economic and financial ties to the West.

La force régionale EACRF créée en 2022 pour arrêter l’avancée du groupe armé M23 dans l’est de la République démocratique du Congo a récupéré depuis décembre certains des bastions de la rébellion. Mais, sur le terrain, les rebelles sont toujours là.