Outbreaks of violence between the Lou Nuer and Murle tribes in South Sudan, which began last month and continued into this week, have left hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced in one of the most remote corners of the youngest nation in the world. The intertribal fighting in Jonglei state, near the South Sudanese-Ethiopian border, serves as a reminder that South Sudanese independence does not mean an end to conflicts within its own borders, said Alan Goulty, former U.K. Special Representative for Sudan and Darfur and a senior scholar in the Africa program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center [...]
Although extended periods of one-party dominance may be endorsed by voters in free and fair elections, they can also prove detrimental to the health of democratic government in various ways. Corruption — in particular, the misappropriation of public resources for private gain — is a pronounced feature of dominant-party systems and one of the more obvious means by which those systems can pose a threat to clean, transparent and efficient government. As South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) celebrates its 100th anniversary and enters its 18th year in power, its experience in government is largely serving to confirm this familiar, [...]
The Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), the oldest armed rebel group in Ethiopia, announced earlier this week that it plans to drop its long-held demands for secession and instead work within the political system. The OLF’s move from insurgent activity to electoral competition is both surprising and significant, explains John Harbeson, an African Studies lecturer at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and emeritus professor of political science at the City University of New York. “It is a complete 180 from what at least a faction of the OLF has always wanted to do,” he said, pointing to the [...]
