Southern Africa Archive

Editor’s Note: Africa Watch will be off for the holidays the next two weeks. It will return Jan. 8. More than 340 Nigerian schoolboys, abducted by armed men in a nighttime raid last week, were freed Thursday and are being reunited with their families. Boko Haram claimed responsibility for kidnapping the boys from their boarding school in northwestern Katsina state, and the celebration of their release was tempered by concerns that the jihadist group may now be expanding beyond its traditional base in the country’s northeast. Government critics are also questioning whether President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration is equipped to contain […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Subscribers can adjust their newsletter settings to receive Africa Watch by email every week. The Democratic Republic of Congo’s uneasy ruling coalition collapsed last Sunday, when President Felix Tshisekedi said in a televised address that his party would end its alliance with former President Joseph Kabila’s grouping. The announcement sparked violent clashes in Parliament this week between members of the two factions, raising fears of a prolonged power struggle in the conflict-wracked country. Tshisekedi moved quickly to take the upper hand, as […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Subscribers can adjust their newsletter settings to receive Africa Watch by email every week. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed declared victory last weekend in the government’s month-long military operation in the northern Tigray region, after federal troops captured Mekelle, the Tigrayan capital. Despite Abiy’s proclamation, aid workers have confirmed fighting around Mekelle is ongoing, with heavily armed Tigrayan forces appearing to have dug into the surrounding mountains. Experts are now warning the conflict could transform into a drawn-out guerrilla war. Tigray has […]

A shock wave rattled South Africa’s political landscape on Nov. 10, when the Directorate for Primary Crime Investigation, a unit known as the Hawks, issued an arrest warrant for Ace Magashule on 21 charges of corruption, theft, fraud and money laundering. Magashule is currently the secretary general of the ruling African National Congress party and a longtime ally of former President Jacob Zuma, who is himself awaiting trial for graft. The charges against Magashule have to do with the awarding of a contract worth 255 million rand ($16.5 million) for work that was ultimately never done, as part of a […]