On Sept. 2, after a 10-month interregnum, Senegalese diplomat Abdoulaye Bathily was appointed the new special representative of the United Nations secretary general (SRSG) for Libya and the head of the U.N. Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL). But to have any chance of success, the new SRSG will need to change the paradigm that has prevented his seven predecessors from stabilizing the North African country over the past decade.
Italian energy group Eni (ENI.MI) said on Wednesday it had agreed to acquire BP’s (BP.L) business in Algeria, including two major gas fields.
Maintenant que l’armée française s’est complètement retirée du pays, il va être difficile d’imputer à l’ancien colonisateur les revers des soldats de Bamako et l’avancée des groupes jihadistes.
Avec une poignée de mercenaires russes, la junte malienne doit désormais assumer ses responsabilités alors que les Casques bleus sont progressivement mis sur la touche et que la Cedeao est en train d’assouplir son train de sanctions économiques. La récente attaque menée contre le camp de Kati, à moins de 20 km de la capitale, n’est guère rassurante à cet égard.
War rages – again – in northern Ethiopia. The resumption of conflict on 24 August between the federal military, forces from the Amhara region, which borders Tigray, and Eritrean troops, on one side, and Tigray forces, on the other, marks the breach of a roughly nine-month truce that had largely halted some of the world’s deadliest fighting. The return to blows is a setback for a struggling peace process and strenuous efforts to get food to millions of besieged Tigrayans. Although it is unclear exactly why combat restarted or whether either side planned a sustained campaign, both immediately escalated, with a Tigrayan offensive to the south into Amhara and a joint Ethiopian-Eritrean incursion into Tigray from the north. Sustained full-blown hostilities would mean prolongation of a likely unwinnable war, creating more mass suffering. Instead, the Ethiopian parties must renew the truce and overcome the obstacles that have impeded the beginning of formal talks. Concerted high-level pressure by donors, many of whom have been distracted by the Ukraine crisis, will likely be vital to any breakthrough.
On 24 June, around 2 000 sub-Saharan African migrants, who had gathered the night before in north-eastern Morocco, set off at dawn to cross the border and reach the Spanish city of Melilla, about 4 km away.
A diplomatic crisis is brewing in the Maghreb region amid tension between Morocco and Tunisia after President Kais Saied received the leader of the Polisario Front.
Tunisian President Kais Saied’s decision to receive Brahim Ghali — the leader of the Polisario Front, a rebel group fighting for independence in the Western Sahara — late last month has developed into a diplomatic crisis with repercussions spilling into the sports world.
La récente décision de la France de réduire fortement le nombre de visas délivrés dans plusieurs pays du continent a relancé les débats sur les conditions d’obtention de ce précieux sésame. Frais de dossier, taux de refus élevé, non-remboursement… Décryptage en infographies.
Un projet de loi américain vise à contenir certaines activités de la Russie en Afrique. Sur le continent, des voix s’élèvent pour protester contre cette tentative d’ingérence.
C’est au moment où le fossoyeur de la guerre froide Mikhaïl Gorbatchev disparaît que s’esquisse à nouveau une épreuve de force entre les États-Unis et le cœur de l’ancienne Union soviétique. Un bras de fer particulièrement tendu dans la gestion de la crise ukrainienne. De même que certaines nations africaines accédant à l’indépendance ont été ballotées, entre 1960 et 1989, entre les enjeux stratégiques des blocs du Nord, les membres du Conseil de sécurité des Nations unies scrutent et cataloguent, aujourd’hui, les régimes du continent.
Why the Continent Is Caught Between Russia and the West
As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine enters its seventh month, many African countries have yet to show strong support for Kyiv, to the chagrin of Western leaders. In the early days of the conflict, after 17 African countries declined to back a UN resolution condemning Russia, several European diplomats assigned to African capitals made a grand show of browbeating African leaders for not taking a stand against the invasion. South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, in particular, was the target of some strikingly undiplomatic tweets, with Riina Kionka, at the time the EU’s ambassador to Pretoria, writing that “we were puzzled because [South Africa] sees itself and is seen by the world as a country championing human rights.”
Libya
Worst fighting in years broke out in capital Tripoli between forces loyal to rival govts, raising prospect of a return to full-blown war. Fighting 26-27 Aug raged across Tripoli as forces aligned with Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR)-appointed PM Bashagha failed to take control of capital and oust Tripoli-based govt of PM Dabaiba; 32 people reportedly killed and 159 injured. Flare-up followed days of escalating tensions between rival factions.