Africa

Whither South Sudan?

By Adrienne Chuck

The Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted a high-level off-the-record briefing and discussion on the challenges facing the Republic of South Sudan, which achieved its independence as Africa’s fifty-fourth sovereign state on July 9, 2011.

From North Korea to South Sudan: The Path of Crisis and the European Response

By Jason Harmala

On September 23, the Atlantic Council’s Transatlantic Relations Program hosted a conversation with Kristalina Georgieva, EU Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response. The Commissioner discussed the EU’s role in disaster response and the current challenges faced by her office. As Commissioner, she has overseen the EU response to humanitarian crises such as […]

A Discussion on Recent Developments in Somalia and Puntland

By Adrienne Chuck

On September 14, the Ansari Africa Center hosted a briefing by Kadir Abdirahman Mohamud, special envoy of the President of Puntland State of Somalia, on recent developments in Somalia in general and the autonomous Puntland region in particular. Kadir Mohamud’s prepared remarks were followed by a discussion with experts from the U.S. government, think tanks, […]

Libya and Africa: The reset

By J. Peter Pham

With most of the Libyan capital now falling under the control of forces aligned with Libya’s Transitional National Council (TNC), greater time and attention can now be devoted to pondering the many questions which have been pushed to one side when the outcome of the conflict was still uncertain. These issues include legitimate concerns about […]

Al-Qaeda’s North African franchise moves south

By J. Peter Pham

British and Italian officials are checking a video received Thursday by Agence France-Presse which, if authenticated, will confirm not only the fate of two Westerners abducted in Nigeria in May, but the worrisome fact that al-Qaeda in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), has now extended its reach into Nigeria.  While the Foreign Office […]

Somalia: Beyond the Famine

By Peter Pham

Today Somalia is not only the world’s most spectacular case of a failed state—it has, after all, been more than twenty years since the benighted land has had anything resembling a central government—but, thanks to the worst drought in six decades, it is what the United Nations refugee agency has described as the “worst humanitarian […]

Africa in the 21st Century and the Next Chapter in U.S.-Africa Relations

On June 6, 2011, the Michael S. Ansari Africa Center hosted H.E. Ali Bongo Ondimba, President of the Gabonese Republic, at the Atlantic Council. President Bongo gave a keynote speech in which he discussed the changing face of Africa in the 21st century, highlighting especially the reforms which have helped make Gabon an emerging country, […]