East Africa Archive

After almost three years of deadly, sporadic crises, 2018 brought signs of much-needed change to Ethiopia when the government announced in early January that it would release many jailed journalists, politicians and protesters. But instead of opening up, Africa’s second-most populous country has returned to a formal state of emergency following the surprising resignation of Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn on Feb. 15. With an emboldened opposition, and divisions within the ruling party, Ethiopia now faces more uncertainty. The chaotic chain of events underscores the difficulties for the ruling coalition, the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, or EPRDF, in trying to […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. The attack was depressingly familiar, as was the government’s apparent inability to provide a clear explanation of what exactly happened. On Monday evening, militants from the Islamist extremist group Boko Haram stormed a girls’ school in the town of Dapchi, in Nigeria’s northeastern state of Yobe, and kidnapped dozens of students. The exact number of those missing was still unclear Friday, but it could be more than 100. The incident immediately evoked the abduction in 2014 of hundreds of […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. The drama surrounding South Africa’s leadership transition has dragged out long enough to acquire its own snappy name: Zexit. That’s according to the BBC, which noted this week that the early departure of President Jacob Zuma, who has already been replaced as head of the ruling African National Congress by his deputy, Cyril Ramaphosa, is now being discussed as though it’s inevitable. This week, that meant a series of canceled meetings and other engagements as Zuma and Ramaphosa negotiated […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta was sworn in for a second term more than two months ago, but tensions around his re-election are clearly still fresh in Kenya. This week, the decision by opposition leader Raila Odinga to follow through on threats to stage a shadow inauguration brought those tensions to the forefront, and the government’s response raised questions about Kenyatta’s commitment to civil liberties. Thousands of Odinga supporters attended Tuesday’s ceremony, where Odinga, holding a Bible, declared himself “the […]

2017 was a year of political transition in Africa, beginning with the flight into exile of Gambian dictator Yahya Jammeh and ending with a military intervention in Zimbabwe to remove Robert Mugabe from power, which he had held for 37 years. The continent still has numerous heads of state who seem inclined to stay in office for many years to come, if not for life. But several of them are facing new pressures that may make their continued rule untenable. WPR has compiled 10 articles that examine those pressures and look at which of Africa’s strongmen are most vulnerable. Purchase […]