Africa Archive

The tragic highway accident last Friday that killed Susan Tsvangirai and injured her husband, Zimbabwean Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, is under investigation by officials from Tsvangirai’s party, the Movement for Democratic Change. Early indications, however, are that the accident was the result of bad luck and worse timing for all involved, not foul play. The bitter irony, as reported in the New York Times, is that the truck that swerved head on into the Tsvangirai’s SUV to aovid a pot hole was delivering anti-retroviral drugs for AIDS treatment — the kind of mission that Tsvangarai has consistently encouraged. Accidents of […]

In 2007, author David Reiff wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times in which he said, in reference to the situation in Darfur, that at some point the interests of humanitarians and human rights advocates will diverge. In Khartoum yesterday, that is exactly what happened. While organizations like Save Darfur content and Amnesty International were trumpeting their victory, baseline humanitarian organizations like Oxfam and MSF International scrambled to distance themselves from the ICC indictment. The simple reason is that the man under indictment, President al-Bashir, had just ordered the expulsion of almost all foreign NGOs. Reiff argued that in […]

ADVOCATES CHEER AL-BASHIR WARRANT — Human rights groups from around the world cheered the issue of an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir by the Intenational Criminal Court to face charges of crimes against humanity. “The ICC represents the best hope for justice for the victims of Darfur,” Dismas Nkunda of the International Refugee Rights Initiative said in a statement released by the Justice for Darfur coalition. “The international community must ensure that Sudan complies with its obligation to cooperate with the ICC, including by handing over anyone subject to an arrest warrant.” Bashir has long been a […]

The International Criminal Court indicted Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir on five counts of crimes against humanity and two counts of war crimes yesterday, but not on the more dramatic charge of genocide. The indictment did not meet with universal approval among Africa’s leaders, nor, strangely enough, with the son of the Rev. Billy Graham. According to a quick survey conducted by the French newspaper Le Monde, there were serious misgivings about the indictment coming from all corners of the continent. According to the article, Jean Ping, chairman of the African Union Commission, called the indictment a “threat to peace in […]

Two reports from the Eastern Congo illustrate the difficulty of covering events in that part of the world, or perhaps just the difficulty of doing some fact checking before going into print. In the New York Times, Jeffrey Gettleman, who either has a death wish or is vying for the crown of how many ‘worst’ places he can visit in the shortest amount of time, reports that in the wake of the Rwandan incursion over the last few months peace has finally returned. Over at the BBC, however, U.N. spokespersons are claiming that Hutu rebel groups have been moving back […]

In late January, Ethiopia withdrew its last soldiers from Somalia after more than two years of bloody occupation and insurgency. Their departure immediately catalyzed a dramatic chain of events. The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) that had been backed by Ethiopia, the U.S. and the U.N. fled to Djibouti and, in apparent desperation, signed a peace deal with an alliance of moderate Islamists. As part of the deal, the TFG welcomed hundreds of alliance representatives into a newly-expanded parliament. The African Union declared the peace deal a “paradigm shift that gives Somalis a chance for lasting peace and reconciliation.” The enlarged […]

The African Union wants to be taken seriously. Its leaders seek the same respect accorded to its Western counterparts, particularly the European Union. And how better to earn that respect than to show that Africa can take care of its own? Hence the ASFAP doctrine — African Solutions for African Problems. As expressions of political egos go, the doctrine is a macho response to the bullies of the West. More broadly, it is meant to show the world that Africa is mature enough to unite and rally together. The Government of National Unity cobbled together in Kenya after the deadly […]

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Zimbabwe’s national unity government got off to a bad start last month, raising doubts about its ability to usher in political stability and economic revival in the country. Most worrying is the infighting within President Robert Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, where hardliners led by the country’s joint chiefs of staff appear to be opposed to the deal brokered by the regional Southern African Development Community (SADC) last year. The military and security chiefs had previously declared that they would not salute Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of the mainstream formation of the splintered opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC). […]

Ever since men first put to sea, conflicts have swirled around narrow maritime passages known as choke points. A subset of the broader category of Sea Lines of Communication (SLOCs), maritime choke points act as funnels drawing in shipping from surrounding seas. As critical pressure points in naval struggles for “command of the sea,” every navy seeks to secure them while denying their use to the enemy. Homer’s “Iliad” already detailed the epic struggle between Troy — situated on the Dardanelles, the ancient world’s leading choke point — and a coalition of Greek city states whose armies arrived by sea […]