Africa Archive

Earlier this year, a significant fact went largely unnoticed in the media: Crude oil imports from sub-Saharan Africa (excluding the Arab North African producers of Algeria and Libya) to the United States surpassed those from the Middle East. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), the United States imported 1.736 million barrels per day (b/d) from Sub-Saharan Africa in February 2007 — the bulk from Nigeria and Angola but also from Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. This amount was slightly greater than imports from the Middle East — Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Kuwait, and a small […]

Editor’s Note: In March, Kurt Pelda, Africa Bureau Chief of the Swiss daily the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), traveled to eastern Chad on the border with the Sudanese crisis region of Darfur: a trip that was documented in a diary published in English on World Politics Review and that would see him eventually turning back from the border due to inadequate security conditions. In late October, Pelda returned to the region and crossed the border into Darfur, where he accompanied a Darfur rebel group. The diary of his trip was published on the NZZ Online in German, and World Politics […]

Editor’s Note: In March, Kurt Pelda, Africa Bureau Chief of the Swiss daily the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), traveled to eastern Chad on the border with the Sudanese crisis region of Darfur: a trip that was documented in a diary published in English on World Politics Review and that would see him eventually turning back from the border due to inadequate security conditions. In late October, Pelda returned to the region and crossed the border into Darfur, where he accompanied a Darfur rebel group. The diary of his trip was published on the NZZ Online in German, and World Politics […]

In March, Kurt Pelda, Africa Bureau Chief of the Swiss daily the Neue Zürcher Zeitung (NZZ), traveled to eastern Chad on the border with the Sudanese crisis region of Darfur: a trip that was documented in a diary published in English on World Politics Review and that would see him eventually turning back from the border due to inadequate security conditions. Last week, Pelda returned to the region and crossed the border into Darfur, where he is now accompanying a Darfur rebel group. His daily dispatches on his journey are being published in German on the NZZ Online here. Starting […]

CONGOLESE WARLORD IN THE DOCK — Democratic Republic of Congo general and former militia leader Germain Katanga made his first appearance in front of the International Criminal Court at The Hague Oct. 22, where he will face nine counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Katanga, also known as Simba, stands accused of — among other things — organizing the massacre of 200 civilians, conscripting children for use as soldiers and sexually enslaving survivors of the brutal attack on the village of Bogoro in February 2003. “The victims of these crimes deserve to see justice for their suffering,” Param-Preet […]

Sudan may be preparing to host the largest peacekeeping force in the world, but that hasn’t deterred the country from fueling more conflict in its war-weary western region, Darfur, and reigniting tension in its southern swath, which was wracked by war for more than two decades. Sudan’s proclivity for conflict continues to frustrate all international efforts to pacify war-torn Darfur, where besieged displaced people are dying daily as the war gets uglier by the hour. Relief organizations say malnutrition levels are climbing in the hundreds of refugee camps that dot the region and access for aid workers has worsened due […]

Editor’s Note: Rights & Wrongs is a weekly column covering the world’s major human rights-related happenings. It is written by regular WPR contributor Juliette Terzieff. ARAB ONLINE MEDIA COVERAGE LACKING — Arab online media is not doing a thorough job of covering human rights and the issues that surround them, according to a new study by the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. The report, “Electronic Media and Human Rights,” studied a year’s worth of content on eight of the largest Arabic Web sites including aljazeera.net, alarabiya.net, naseej.com and islamonline.net. An estimated 29 million people in the Arab world regularly […]

Editor’s Note: Rights & Wrongs is a weekly column covering the world’s major human rights-related happenings. It is written by regular WPR contributor Juliette Terzieff. EGYPTIAN BACKLASH AGAINST CRACKDOWN — Egyptian authorities found themselves contending with an avalanche of public anger Sunday over widespread allegations of police brutality and an ongoing crackdown against the media, political opponents and labor rights activists. Private newspapers across the country staged a blackout day, withholding their products from store shelves in protest over the September convictions of seven prominent journalists and an ongoing government assault on press freedom. Local clashes between Bedouin tribes in […]

Editor’s Note: Rights & Wrongs is a weekly column covering the world’s major human rights-related happenings. It is written by regular WPR contributor Juliette Terzieff. U.N. FINDS MASSIVE ANGOLA ABUSES — A United Nations special investigative team has found widespread human rights abuses in Angola’s legal system, including incidences of torture and detention without effective legal redress. “The right to access to a lawyer and a corresponding legal aid system as guaranteed by the [Angolan] constitution, exists only in theory. Legal assistance is only available during the trial stage and sometimes the accused do not enjoy the benefit of a […]