East Africa Archive

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. As United Nations peacekeeping missions struggle to adapt to sharp budget cuts, one of the factors that could affect future funding levels is the organization’s response to persistent allegations of sexual abuse by U.N. troops. Speaking at the U.N. Security Council earlier this year, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the U.N., warned that the U.S. could withdraw money for missions that fail to combat abuse and hold perpetrators accountable. New evidence of the U.N.’s shortcomings in cracking down […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Despite two years of protests, Tunisian lawmakers this week approved a so-called economic reconciliation law that allows for amnesty for officials accused of corruption under former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, the first head of state to fall during the 2011 Arab uprisings. Predictably, the move was condemned by opposition lawmakers and civil society activists. One MP said the law signified “the return of the dictatorial state,” while another described it as “an advanced stage of counter-revolution.” The […]

For years, Ethiopia has been actively engaged in the civil war in neighboring South Sudan, providing troops and diplomatic support to help stabilize the ravaged country. But Ethiopia’s relations with Sudan, which South Sudan broke away from in 2011, go far deeper and have not always been amicable. In an email interview, Terrence Lyons, associate professor of international relations at George Mason University and research associate at the Brookings Institution, discusses the roots of the relationship, how South Sudan’s independence and subsequent civil war have complicated Ethiopia’s foreign policy, and what other regional issues Ethiopia, Sudan and South Sudan must […]

Tundu Lissu was having a rough year even before he was attacked by multiple gunmen last week, taking bullets in the stomach, leg and arm. The opposition lawmaker, who is also president of the national bar association, gained new prominence last year when he began denouncing President John Magufuli as a “petty dictator.” Since then, he has been arrested repeatedly in retaliation for anti-government statements, including this past July and August. By the AFP’s count, he has been arrested “at least six times” in 2017 alone. Last Thursday, the dangers he faced became starker when assailants shot him outside his […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. On his first overseas trip since becoming administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Mark Green’s most confrontational interaction occurred when he sat down with South Sudanese President Salva Kiir. Giving voice to Washington’s frustration with the country’s four-year-old civil war, particularly the dangers facing humanitarian aid workers and reports of atrocities, Green told Kiir the Trump administration would be conducting “a complete review” of its policy toward the world’s youngest nation. Kiir, however, countered that Green’s view […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Among the observers endorsing Kenya’s election last month were representatives of the European Union, the African Union and the Carter Center, whose delegation was led by former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. Kenya’s Supreme Court, however, has disagreed with their assessment. On Friday, it nullified the results giving incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta a second term and ordered that a new vote take place within 60 days—a ruling that was being described as a first for Africa. As Helen […]