Kenya’s troop withdrawal could seal the fate of South Sudan’s peace process
In a sharp rebuke to the United Nations, Kenya has started the process of pulling its troops from the U.N. peacekeeping mission in South Sudan. To make matters worse, Kenya is simultaneously disengaging from peace efforts in South Sudan, where a 15-month-old agreement to bring together warring parties was already on the verge of collapse. […]
Darfur’s conflict might be forgotten, but it’s not over
Global interest in the conflict in Darfur has faded, allowing the Sudanese government to effectively seal off the region to outsiders and take control of the narrative. The narrative it presents, though, is not terribly cohesive: In early September, for instance, Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir traveled to Darfur to declare that peace had officially returned, […]
Global health funding faces a shortfall of billions to fight diseases
The international public health community that has watched itsfinancing dwindle, even as scientific advances make it increasingly possible to actually end some of the world’s worst diseases. That includes HIV, officially the deadliest epidemic in history. The decline in global health funding threatens not just to stymie scientific advances against diseases like HIV, but to […]
Protests and clashes likely just the start of political unrest in Kenya
Kenya’s national elections are more than a year away, but political tensions are already rising. Starting in late April, the main political opposition group began organizing a near-weekly protest against the commission charged with organizing the vote. It has accused the commission’s members of being in the pocket of President Uhuru Kenyatta, who is set […]
Machar’s return only the first step in bringing South Sudan back together
South Sudan’s original political odd couple is back together again. In late April, President Salva Kiir watched over the swearing in of his very recent rival, Riek Machar, as first vice president. But it would be dangerous to reduce the fragile peace process to the relationship between the two leaders. Read more.
Kenya tries to stifle any criticism of its fight against al-Shabab
With a devastating attack last month on an army base in southwestern Somalia housing Kenyan soldiers, the militant group al-Shabab once again signaled its strength, despite the years-long regional effort to wipe it out. Dozens of Kenyan soldiers were slaughtered in the assault, which raised questions about Nairobi’s role in the ongoing campaign against the […]
Uganda’s election worries Museveni camp more than it will admit
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is treating his country’s election later this month as a coronation, not a contest, happy to cultivate the impression that the five-year extension to his already 30-year rule is all but a done deal. But the arrest this past weekend of a prominent general turned regime critic is the latest sign […]
South Sudan unexpectedly drives Uganda and Sudan’s détente
When Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni took a surprise mid-September trip to Khartoum to meet his Sudanese counterpart, Omar al-Bashir, it solidified the unexpected rapprochement in what had been one of Africa’s thorniest relationships. Two of the continent’s longest-serving leaders, Museveni and Bashir have spent much of the past two decades sniping at one another publicly […]
Can South Sudan’s leaders get peace right the second time?
When South Sudan’s president, Salva Kiir, inked a new agreement in late August to end his country’s 20-month conflict, he seemed to be following a pattern the two warring sides had set in reaching or recommitting to an earlier deal to cease hostilities: Temporarily stave off international and regional pressure by signing, then allow it […]
Uganda’s Museveni succeeds where others fail in eluding term limits
Burundi’s Pierre Nkurunziza and other presidents trying to subvert term limits could all take a lesson from their neighbor, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. Having disposed of term limits a decade ago, Museveni is set to run for his fifth term next year, in a campaign that seems as much a coronation as a contest. Read […]