The pace of Tunisia’s democratic backsliding under President Kais Saied has accelerated in recent weeks. As part of Saied’s increasing curbs on freedom of expression, three more people who have publicly criticized Saied were arrested in the past week, bringing the total number of critics who have been jailed to 12.
On Saturday, voters in Nigeria will decide who will succeed President Muhammadu Buhari as the leader of Africa’s most populous country and largest economy. While eighteen candidates are running, there are three top contenders, all of whom are wealthy, card-carrying members of the political establishment.
In 2007, the African Union launched the Great Green Wall project, an attempt to combat expanding desertification in the Sahel by planting a barrier of trees 10 miles wide across 4,500 miles by 2030. But the wall has so far produced disappointing results and shows the complexities of implementing a grand continent-wide scheme.
