Election posters featuring opposition presidential candidate Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, right, and President Denis Sassou N'Guesso, left, in Brazzaville, Congo, Friday March 12, 2021.

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. Extending a presidency that has lasted more than 36 years, Denis Sassou Nguesso won reelection in the Republic of Congo with nearly 90 percent of the vote, according to provisional results from Sunday’s ballot. His victory was overshadowed by the death of his main opposition opponent, Guy Brice Parfait Kolelas, who died on Election Day from COVID-19. Sassou Nguesso’s resounding victory underscores the near-absolute control he maintains over […]

A man reads a copy of the Daily Nation morning newspaper reporting the death of neighboring Tanzania’s president, John Magufuli, on a street in Nairobi, Kenya, March 18, 2021 (AP photo by Khalil Senosi).

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. John Magufuli, the populist president of Tanzania who oversaw a crackdown on political dissent and recently emerged as a prominent coronavirus denier, has died at the age of 61. Vice President Samia Suluhu Hassan was sworn in Friday to complete his five-year term, becoming the first woman to lead the East African country. Hassan announced Magufuli’s passing in a televised address Wednesday, more than two weeks after he […]

A displaced mother and her children prepare for the night inside a church in Pemba city, Cabo Delgado province, Mozambique, April 19, 2019 (AP photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi).

Last year was a turning point for the shadowy, Islamic State-linked jihadist group that is operating in the Cabo Delgado province of northern Mozambique. First, the operational tempo of Ahlu-Sunnah Wa-Jama, or ASWJ—locally known as al-Shabab, though it has no known connection with the Somalia-based extremist group—took off dramatically. According to data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED, the group launched 437 attacks in 2020, compared to 256 between 2017 and 2019. Second, ASWJ managed to assert control over major transportation routes. Its presence has impeded safe travel on the primary north-south road connecting the […]

A demonstrator holds a Senegalese flag during protests against the arrest of opposition leader and former presidential candidate Ousmane Sonko, in Dakar, Senegal, March 8, 2021 (AP photo by Leo Correa).

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. After days of violent protests that have left at least five people dead, the political situation in Senegal, long one of West Africa’s most stable democracies, remains precarious. The unrest was triggered by the arrest last week of prominent opposition leader Ousmane Sonko, following a rape allegation against him. But the demonstrators were also driven by mounting frustration over corruption scandals involving President Macky Sall’s administration, and with […]

Refugees from Tigray at the Umm Rakouba refugee camp in Qadarif, eastern Sudan, Dec. 11, 2020 (AP photo by Nariman El-Mofty).

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. Despite mounting pressure from the international community, the Ethiopian government is blocking independent investigations into allegations of atrocities and human rights abuses committed by federal troops and their allies in the war-torn Tigray region. Instead, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office confirmed this week that the government will conduct its own probes. The statement from Abiy’s office acknowledged that the allegations are “credible,” a reversal from the government’s earlier […]