Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. In October 2016, a 31-year-old Moroccan fishmonger named Mohsen Fikri got into an altercation with police in the northern town of al-Hoceima. The police had confiscated Fikri’s swordfish, and when he tried to retrieve it from the back of a garbage truck, he was crushed to death. The incident sparked a wave of protests known as al-Hirak al-Shaabi, or the Popular Movement, that was intended to draw attention to the lack of development and general marginalization of Morocco’s northern [...]
Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. The embrace lasted for only a few seconds, but each one seemed to be more awkward than the last. South Sudanese President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, the former vice president who is now a rebel leader, met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, this week for the first time in nearly two years. At one point, appearing before the media, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attempted to bring the two men together for a hug. “Peace is coming to our [...]
Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. This week’s vote to determine who would host the World Cup in 2026 was a major letdown for Morocco, made worse by a crushing loss to Iran in its opening match of the tournament Friday. The country had hoped to become just the second in Africa to secure hosting rights, after South Africa in 2010, but instead it lost decisively to the joint bid from the United States, Canada and Mexico. The final vote tally by the members of [...]
