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Holidays Bring Nothing to Celebrate in Eastern Congo

By Lauren Gelfand 12 Nov 2009 | World Politics Review In eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the annual arrival of the holiday season brings with it the sinking realization that no matter the developments of the preceding 12 months, the end of the year will be accompanied by more violence, more sexual assault and more displacement of the civilian population. This year's tragedy is tinged peacekeeper blue.

In Guinea, China's Africa Policy Still Off-Key

By Lauren Gelfand 23 Oct 2009 | World Politics Review The United States and France have joined a chorus of disapproving African states to condemn recent events in Guinea, which have dimmed hopes that the resource-rich West African nation might finally achieve democratic civilian. One voice that has opted against singing from the international hymn book, however, is arguably Guinea's most important interlocutor: China.

Kenya's 'Window of Opportunity' Closing

By Lauren Gelfand 09 Oct 2009 | World Politics Review NAIROBI, Kenya -- Kenya's "window of opportunity to deliver reform is rapidly closing," former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan warned at the end of his latest visit to Nairobi. Though delivered in his characteristic velvet tones, Annan's message was firm: Accelerate the reform agenda, or risk the potential of an irretrievable decline into crisis, with economic as well as political consequences.

With U.N. Role in Question, D.R. Congo Once Again at Precipice of War

By Lauren Gelfand 15 Nov 2007 | World Politics Review Exclusive LONDON -- From the air, eastern Democratic Republic of Congo looks like paradise on earth. But on the ground, the grim reality of one of the world's most volatile and perennially ignored regions shocks, with its morass of frightened civilians, bellicose and well-armed fighters and an intractable conflict that threatens to boil over again into war. If that occurs, it will boost an already tragically bloody decade's death toll, estimated at more than four million people, vastly higher.

Domestic and Regional Turmoil Color Ethiopia's Millennium Celebration

By Lauren Gelfand 20 Sep 2007 | World Politics Review Exclusive LONDON -- Pomp, pagentry and the hip-hop group Black Eyed Peas accompanied Ethiopia's celebration of its entry into the third millennium, seven years after the rest of the world but in line with the nation's Coptic calendar. But with fiery rhetoric threatening to upset a fragile peace with neighbor Eritrea, new broadsides in the internal conflict raging on the country's border with Somalia, and scant progress toward improved social welfare, Ethiopia has entered the 21st century as it ended the 20th: divided and poor.

Rejection of U.S. Food Aid by NGO Signals Change in Global Hunger Policy

By Lauren Gelfand 29 Aug 2007 | World Politics Review Exclusive LONDON -- Advocates of a global overhaul of food aid policy have received a boost with the decision by CARE, a top U.S. aid organization, to walk away from tens of millions of dollars in annual U.S. financing. In opting out of the mechanism by which donated U.S. food aid is transported overseas and sold in local markets to fund anti-poverty programs -- a decades-old process known as monetization -- CARE joins a growing number of NGOs demanding an end to a policy they say can be harmful to the countries being helped.

Defiant Mugabe's New Restrictions Push Zimbabwe Economy Further Toward Collapse

By Lauren Gelfand 06 Aug 2007 | World Politics Review Exclusive LONDON -- Alighting from his vintage Rolls Royce limousine with a cursory nod to the mounted ceremonial guard that escorted him to the steps of Zimbabwe's parliament July 26, Robert Mugabe was every inch the defiant and bombastic African leader, telling the West to "go hang" after imposing another round of travel restrictions and sanctions on his penurious country. The bills introduced in parliament are the second phase of an exercise begun in June to offset price hikes caused by rampant inflation in the country.

As Sentencing Approaches, Cynicism About Sierra Leone Tribunal Lingers

By Lauren Gelfand 12 Jul 2007 | World Politics Review Exclusive LONDON - Three militia generals found guilty for their roles in Sierra Leone's brutal civil war are expected to be sentenced Monday in the first step towards winding down the four-year, $90 million war crimes tribunal proceedings. But with four of the five most important defendants dead and the fifth, former Liberian president Charles Taylor, in the dock in the Hague over fears he could still destabilize the fragile peace in West Africa, the cynicism and skepticism that greeted the court's opening in 2004 has not lessened with the guilty verdicts.

Sudan Accepts Conditional U.N. Force for Darfur, But Obstacles Remain

By Lauren Gelfand 18 Jun 2007 | World Politics Review Exclusive LONDON -- After months of fruitless shuttle diplomacy, threats of sanctions, broken promises and politicking, Sudan's government has agreed to accept a coalition of United Nations peacekeepers to back up the beleaguered African Union mission in its western Darfur region. The deal, announced June 12 from the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, would bring an additional 17,000 to 19,000 troops and 3,700 police officers into Darfur. But conditions set by Sudan about the nature of the U.N. force has muted international enthusiasm.

Accountability in West Africa: Charles Taylor on Trial at The Hague

By Lauren Gelfand 07 Jun 2007 | World Politics Review Exclusive LONDON -- Charles Ghankay Taylor was swept into office in Liberia in 1997, capping a bloody eight-year campaign that began with the savage ouster of dictator Samuel Doe. But it is for the crimes he is alleged to have perpetrated on Sierra Leone that Taylor, once Africa's most feared and still the continent's most notorious warlord, stands trial in The Hague in a case that began this week at the International Criminal Court. Like everything to do with Taylor, grandstanding drama had the upper hand during Monday's first day.

Toxic Waste Spill in Ivory Coast Exposes 'Dark Underbelly' of Globalization

By Lauren Gelfand 28 Mar 2007 | World Politics Review Exclusive LONDON -- In Ivory Coast, it began with a foul stench emanating from the rank of dump trucks hired to dispose of an unknown shipment that had come aground at the port of Abidjan under cover of darkness. The shipment of highly toxic waste, floated through international waters by the Dutch multinational Trafigura aboard a Panamanian-flagged ship, was the residual product from an offshore cleaning of fuel oil tainted with too much sulphur. Shunted from port to port, it finally landed in Abidjan for the bargain-basement fee of $20,000.

In Run-up to April Polls, It's Politics and Mayhem as Usual in Nigeria

By Lauren Gelfand 15 Feb 2007 | World Politics Review Exclusive Nigeria is preparing for elections in April that it hopes will burnish its reputation as a democratic, diplomatic and economic leader on the continent. But in promoting an obscure northern governor as his successor and using Nigeria's anti-graft commission as a weapon against political rivals, outgoing President Olusegun Obasanjo may be tarnishing both his legacy and the country's progress, underscoring the perception of Nigeria as the world's reigning kleptocracy and risking an explosive reaction by the ethnic militias wreaking havoc in the oil-rich Niger Delta.

Diplomatic Failures Over Darfur Mean AU Snub for Sudan

By Lauren Gelfand 31 Jan 2007 | World Politics Review Exclusive African leaders made plain their disappointment and concern over Sudan's handling of the conflict in its western Darfur region by rejecting the central African country's bid to lead the African Union during an annual summit this week that also saw a first effort at African mediation by new U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. Prosperous and stable Ghana instead assumed the mantle of the 53-member pan-African grouping at the meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa.