Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrives at the India Africa Forum Summit, New Delhi, India, Oct. 29, 2015 (photo from the website of the Indian Prime Minister).

This week, India hosted representatives of 54 African countries for the third India-Africa Forum Summit in New Delhi, with security, investment and U.N. reform on the agenda. In an email interview, Elizabeth Sidiropoulos, the chief executive of the South African Institute of International Affairs, discussed India’s Africa outreach. WPR: How has India’s economic engagement in Africa expanded in recent years, and in what sectors and countries has India invested the most? Elizabeth Sidiropulos: Indian companies have been present on the continent for many decades, particularly in East Africa where, historically, there has been a large Indian diaspora. However, the relationship […]

Congolese President Denis Sassou Nguesso and French President Francois Hollande at the Elysee Palace, Paris, France, Dec. 6, 2013 (AP photo by Christophe Ena).

The longtime president of the Republic of Congo, Denis Sassou Nguesso, is now eligible to run for a third consecutive term, after voters overwhelmingly approved amendments to the constitution in a referendum last Sunday, according to the official results announced Tuesday. The opposition, which has protested 72-year-old Sassou’s attempt to retain power since he announced his intentions in May, urged voters to boycott the referendum and called for civil disobedience. The government issued a ban on public gatherings, but protests ensued. Tens of thousands of demonstrators were met with a violent government crackdown. According to government officials, clashes between police […]

A billboard with the face of Guinea’s incumbent president, Alpha Conde, in Conakry, Guinea, Oct. 9, 2015 (AP Photo by Youssouf Bah).

On Oct. 11, Guinea’s president, Alpha Conde, comfortably won re-election in a poll nevertheless marred by deadly clashes between government and opposition supporters ahead of the vote. Official results, announced six days later, showed him taking nearly 58 percent of the vote, with overall turnout at around 66 percent. As in 2010, Conde faced off against Cellou Dalein Diallo, who was Guinea’s prime minister from 2004 to 2006, with another six candidates also participating. Conde’s first-round majority means there will be no second-round run-off ballot. In a year featuring as many as a dozen important elections in Africa, Guinea belongs […]

University of the Witwatersrand students march during a protest, Johannesburg, South Africa, Oct. 21, 2015 (AP photo by Themba Hadebe).

Students have been rallying at South Africa’s universities since Oct. 13 to oppose a planned 11.5 percent tuition hike, with public investment in education declining across the country. Protests came to a head Wednesday, when students in Cape Town marched on Parliament and clashed with police officers wielding stun grenades and tear gas, leading to numerous injuries and arrests. Protests have spread across the country, and classes have been suspended at 15 universities. The wave of protests comes amid a season of discontent among South Africa’s university students, primarily from the University of Cape Town—one of the most prominent academic […]

Guinea-Bissau's president, Jose Mario Vaz, and his wife Celestina arrive at the U.S. Africa Leaders Summit at the White House, Washington, Aug. 5, 2014 (AP photo by Susan Walsh).

Last week, in a bid to end a months-long political crisis, Guinea-Bissau’s president, Jose Mario Vaz, swore in a new government after initial talks collapsed with Prime Minister Carlos Correia over the formation of a Cabinet. Correia is the third prime minister to hold the post since August, as intraparty rivalries have left Guinea-Bissau without a functioning government for months, risking international aid to a country trying to recover from its latest military coup in 2012. But Guinea-Bissau is not in the clear yet, as the underlying institutional differences at the root of this standoff clearly haven’t been solved yet. […]

People protesting against the military's coup attempt among the burnt out remains of tires, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Sept. 17, 2015 (AP photo by Theo Renaut).

Hailed at the time as the start of an “African Spring,” the October 2014 revolution that ousted President Blaise Compaore in Burkina Faso was called into question last month when an elite army unit staged a brief coup. But even before soldiers under the command of Gen. Gilbert Diendere derailed the transition, the process was in many ways already disappointing. Now the coup’s failure has opened another window of opportunity for real democratic progress, but serious questions over the likelihood of true reform remain. Many of Burkina Faso’s contemporary challenges are deep-rooted. Some of the country’s most important political figures […]

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni addresses the Leader’s Summit on Peacekeeping, United Nations, New York, Sept. 28, 2015 (U.N. photo by Rick Bajornas).

When Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni took a surprise mid-September trip to Khartoum to meet his Sudanese counterpart, Omar al-Bashir, it solidified the unexpected rapprochement in what had been one of Africa’s thorniest relationships. Two of the continent’s longest-serving leaders, Museveni and Bashir have spent much of the past two decades sniping at one another publicly as each secretly worked to destabilize the other’s government. What is bringing them together, curiously, is one of the issues most responsible for this enduring animosity: South Sudan. Uganda provided consistent support to the southern Sudanese rebellion, which ended with South Sudan’s official secession in […]

The head of the Tunisian Bar Association and one of the four winners of the 2015 Nobel Peace Prize, Mohamed Fadhel Mafoudh, at his office, Tunis, Tunisia, Oct. 12, 2015 (AP photo by Hassene Dridi).

Tunisia has received more media coverage than usual this week, after the National Dialogue Quartet was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for its decisive contribution to the building of a pluralistic democracy in Tunisia in the wake of the Jasmine Revolution of 2011.” The award confounded observers; bets were on Germany’s Angela Merkel or Pope Francis. That’s because, with the exception of Tunisia’s closest followers, few had actually heard of the Quartet—which comprised a labor union, an employers’ organization,* a human rights group and a lawyers’ association—or understood its role in advancing Tunisia’s democratic transition. The Quartet, which was spearheaded […]

Houcine Abassi, secretary general of the Tunisian General Labour Union (UGTT) and member of the Tunisian National Dialogue Quartet, in his office, Tunis, Tunisia, Oct. 9, 2015 (AP photo).

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Tunisia’s so-called National Dialogue Quartet was deeply moving to those us who are familiar with the country where the Arab uprisings began in late 2010. The Nobel Committee’s selection of the four civil society organizations for their work in facilitating Tunisia’s democratic transition since then was a welcome revalidation of the country’s potential to build a durable democratic state. For long-time watchers of the committee, it was equally striking that the Nobel Peace Prize did not honor an institution or individual committed to nuclear disarmament, as it has at every mid-decade year […]

Burkina Faso's transitional president Michel Kafando attends the official handover ceremony returning him to office, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Sept. 23, 2015 (AP photo).

Exactly a week after he was taken hostage by soldiers from Burkina Faso’s elite presidential guard during a short-lived coup led by Gen. Gilbert Diendere and other loyalists of former President Blaise Compaore, transitional President Michel Kafando officially returned to office on Sept. 23. He thanked international mediators from neighboring West African states, the African Union and the United Nations for helping to isolate the coup with their condemnations and threats of sanctions, and praised the loyalty of the regular armed forces. Kafando also highlighted a key factor that received only limited media attention during the week-long crisis: the “national […]

Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses the general debate of the General Assembly’s seventieth session, New York, Sept. 28 2015 (U.N. photo by Mark Garten).

The United Nations was stuffed to the gills with world leaders last week, but the real action was elsewhere. While presidents and prime ministers addressed the U.N. General Assembly, three crises escalated dramatically. In Syria, Russian warplanes launched their first strikes on rebel positions. In Afghanistan, the Taliban temporarily seized the northern city of Kunduz, the first major urban center to fall under their control since 2001. In the Central African Republic (CAR), U.N. peacekeepers fought with militias in the capital, Bangui, in an outbreak of violence that forced 40,000 civilians to flee. Each of these crises has the potential […]