AfricaSource

What the US Embassy Warnings in East Africa Tell Us about al-Shabaab

By Joshua Meservey

On Wednesday, the US embassy in Kampala, Uganda warned US citizens of a possible attack on Westerners in the city by the Somali terrorist organization al-Shabaab. On March 19, the US embassy in Djibouti closed for several days to “review its security posture;” the embassy did not provide further details, but the closure was likely […]

Russia’s Return to Africa: An Update

By J. Peter Pham

One year after the disputed referendum to join Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula to Russia, the Kremlin is increasingly finding in Africa a welcome break from what has otherwise been its continued international diplomatic and economic isolation as a result of its aggression against its Eastern European neighbor.

Guinea Democracy Stillborn?

By J. Peter Pham

While it was the first of France’s African colonies to achieve independence, democracy came rather late to Guinea. The country’s first president, Ahmed Sékou Touré, who ruled with an iron grip from 1958 until his death in 1984, turned out to be a Marxist ideologue who aligned his country with the Soviet Union, ruining the […]

Interview with Chairman of Nigeria’s Electoral Commission

By Africa Center

Transcript of Interview with Professor Attahiru M. Jega, OFR Chairman, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC)Federal Republic of Nigeria   March 19, 2015 J. Peter Pham: For those who do not follow Nigeria closely, could you briefly give us an overview of the sheer scale of what is involved in organizing general elections in the Federal […]

Democratic Congo’s Democracy Deficit

By J. Peter Pham

The incumbent regime ruling the rather ironically-named Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) continues to narrow the political space in the country as it approaches elections which are supposed to be held next year, going so far this past weekend as to arrest a US diplomat who was detained along with other participants at a […]

Assessing al-Shabaab’s Mall Threat

By Joshua Meservey

Al-Shabaab, the terrorist organization that controls stretches of Somalia, made a splash February 21 when it released a video featuring a masked spokesman calling for attacks on malls in England, Canada, and the United States. This is the group that in 2013 attacked the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya with terrible result, giving its threat […]

What Boko Haram’s widening war means for refugees

By Joshua Meservey

Two weeks ago, I wrote about the near- and long-term consequences of the Nigerian refugee crisis as tens of thousands of Nigerians flee across borders from the violence the terrorist group Boko Haram is meting out in the northeastern part of the country. I wrote that the world needs to surge resources into the area […]

Backstory on Kidnapped Minister Underscores Challenges in CAR

By J. Peter Pham

Buried at the bottom of page A8 of Thursday’s New York Times was a brief Associated Press report that Armel Sayo, Minister of Youth and Sports in the transitional regime of the Central African Republic (CAR), who had been abducted more than two weeks earlier, had been freed. According to the account, the exact circumstances […]

Anti-Terror Financing Rules Choke Somali Remittances

On February 6, 2015, one of the last Western banks willing to transfer money to Somalia on behalf of the country’s diaspora—transfers which represent up to 80 percent of all funds sent from the US to Somalia—ceased operations, cutting off one of the diaspora’s last options to support relatives and friends still in Somalia.

Nigeria’s Election Postponement Can Be An Opportunity

By J. Peter Pham

Late Saturday evening local time in Abuja, Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that the country’s presidential and parliamentary elections, originally scheduled for February 14, would be postponed until March 28, while the gubernatorial and state legislative elections scheduled for February 28 would be held April 11. The decision was taken at the urging […]