The president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, center, during the United Nations Climate Action Summit, at U.N. headquarters, Sept. 23, 2019 (AP photo by Craig Ruttle).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. As this week’s United Nations Climate Action Summit focused more global attention on the effects of climate change, several African leaders used the event to signal a stronger, continent-wide commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Africa is easily the lowest emitter of greenhouse gases of any continent, and as a whole it produces fewer emissions than the United States. South Africa is the only African country to rank among the top 20 global emitters. Because it is particularly vulnerable to the effects […]

A man reads the Al-Shorouk daily newspaper showing candidates Kais Saied, right, and Nabil Karoui on its front page, a day after the first round of presidential elections, in Tunis, Tunisia, Sept. 16, 2019 (AP photo by Mosa’ab Elshamy).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Tunisia’s presidential race is headed to a runoff next month between two surprising candidates: a law school professor who barely bothered to campaign and a media mogul who spent Election Day in jail. Analysts are reading the results as a sharp rebuke of the new political establishment that has emerged since the overthrow of autocratic leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Neither Kais Saied, the professor, nor business tycoon Nabil Karoui has ever held elected office. They drew 18.4 percent and […]

Pedestrians walk past an election campaign billboard of Cameroon’s president, Paul Biya, at Mokolo Market in Yaounde, Cameroon, Oct. 11, 2018 (AP photo by Sunday Alamba).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. President Paul Biya delivered a rare speech this week announcing the launch of a national dialogue process to resolve Cameroon’s separatist crisis. Biya named Prime Minister Joseph Ngute to lead the talks, which are set to begin before the end of the month. But is Biya actually committed to peace? His government has exacerbated the separatist crisis in the past, and during his address this week, Biya appeared to undercut his message of peace when he called on separatists to surrender or […]

A street on the outskirts of Johannesburg after riots targeted foreign-owned shops and businesses, Sept. 2, 2019 (AP photo).

When I landed in Johannesburg early last week, the newspapers that greeted me all carried alarming, front-page spreads about a fresh spree of violence against foreigners in South Africa’s biggest cities. There were shocking photos of foreign-owned shops that had been looted, and accounts of how non-South Africans were accosted and beaten. To capture it all, the bold headline of one tabloid simply screamed, “Anarchy.” News like this, of course, can never be welcome, but the timing of this wave of xenophobic violence seemed particularly awful for a country that is badly struggling both economically and politically. This was all […]

A man runs away from tear gas after making off with goods from a store in Germiston, east of Johannesburg, South Africa, Sept. 3, 2019 (AP photo by Themba Hadebe).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. A week of riots in South Africa targeting foreign-owned businesses has left at least 10 people dead and dozens of shops destroyed across Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria. The attacks shut down entire neighborhoods, as South Africans, enraged by the perception that foreigners are taking their jobs, looted shops and set them ablaze. This latest eruption of xenophobia comes amid deepening inequality in Africa’s second-largest economy, where more than a quarter of people are unemployed. South Africa has wrestled with xenophobia since […]