Ugandan pop star Robert Kyagulanyi, better known as Bobi Wine, in Nairobi, Kenya, Oct. 12, 2018 (AP photo by Brian Inganga).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni’s bid to position himself for a new term got a boost earlier this month when the Supreme Court upheld the removal of a constitutional age limit that would otherwise have barred him from staying in office. If all goes according to plan, Museveni, who is 74 and has been president since 1986, would be able to run again in 2021 and, assuming he wins another five-year mandate, see his tenure hit the 40-year mark. Yet […]

A health worker at an Ebola treatment center in Beni, eastern Congo, April 16, 2019 (AP photo by Al-hadji Kudra Maliro).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. It’s been more than eight months since the Democratic Republic of Congo announced the first cases in its current Ebola outbreak, which has become the worst in the country’s history. According to the World Health Organization’s latest situation report, published Tuesday, the outbreak has resulted in more than 1,200 cases and more than 800 deaths. Yet when President Felix Tshisekedi traveled this week to eastern Congo, where the outbreak is unfolding, he bore a message that underscored how not […]

Sudanese demonstrators gather outside the Defense Ministry a day after the military took power and arrested President Omar al-Bashir, Khartoum, Sudan, April 12, 2019 (Photo by Ala Kheir for dpa via AP Images).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. For a few days this week, the fate of Sudan’s protest movement seemed to hang in the balance. As large crowds continued their sit-in Tuesday morning outside the army headquarters in Khartoum, they were fired upon by paramilitary troops loyal to President Omar al-Bashir, who had been in power for three decades. Yet these troops soon clashed with soldiers who appeared to be sympathetic to the protesters, highlighting how, as the movement to oust Bashir gained unprecedented momentum, at […]

Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki, left, is welcomed by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed upon his arrival at Addis Ababa International Airport, Ethiopia, July 14, 2018 (AP photo by Mulugeta Ayene).

Since Abiy Ahmed became prime minister of Ethiopia a year ago, domestic and foreign observers have heavily scrutinized his political reforms and, especially, the peace deal he reached last year with Eritrea. But the changes he’s introduced extend farther afield. On the foreign policy front, Abiy has demonstrated a willingness to engage with wealthy Middle Eastern countries on the other side of the Red Sea, dismissing his predecessors’ wariness of becoming entangled in the region’s politics. Evidence of this engagement was first apparent in the role that Gulf countries, especially Saudi Arabia, played in brokering the Eritrea peace deal. It […]

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ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia—Since protests swept 42-year-old Abiy Ahmed into power as Ethiopia’s prime minister a year ago, the country has undertaken a dramatic series of changes. Abiy has ended Ethiopia’s two-decade conflict with its neighbor Eritrea, introduced ambitious reforms designed to lessen repression, and vowed to organize Ethiopia’s first free and fair elections. Taken together, these developments from Africa’s youngest head of state amount to an attempted revolution from within Ethiopia’s long-ruling coalition. As Ethiopia remakes itself at home under Abiy, it is also forging a new set of ties with wealthy Middle Eastern nations across the Red Sea, breaking […]

Comoros’ president, Azali Assoumani, addresses the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters, New York, Sept. 27, 2018 (AP photo by Frank Franklin II).

Comoros’ Supreme Court has certified President Azali Assoumani as the winner of last month’s presidential election with 59 percent of the vote, despite protests from the opposition and serious flaws in the voting process. At least three people were killed in a failed uprising at a military base several days after the election, prompting the United States to withdraw its personnel from the islands. Meanwhile, the opposition has been decimated by a campaign of arrests and intimidation, says Simon Massey, a senior lecturer in international relations at Coventry University. In an interview with WPR, he discusses the possibility of further […]

Libyan Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, left, and Gen. Khalifa Haftar, commander of the Libyan National Army, at a press conference in La Celle-Saint-Cloud, near Paris, France, July 25, 2017 (Photo by Christian Liewig for Sipa via AP Images).

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Senior Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Less than a week ago, Libyan officials appeared to have achieved a small milestone on the road to restoring civilian rule when the country held local elections. Though voting did not take place everywhere, including in much of restive southern Libya, the United Nations hoped the process would generate momentum for a national conference planned for later this month. That conference was intended to bring together the U.N.-backed government in Tripoli and the breakaway Libyan National Army, which is […]

Kenya’s president, Uhuru Kenyatta, left, and opposition leader Raila Odinga, right, at Harambee House in Nairobi, March 9, 2018 (AP photo by Brian Inganga).

The agreement that helped stave off a political crisis following the 2017 presidential election has also recast politics in Kenya. The future is looking no less fraught than the past. This time last year, Kenya was recovering from a bitter presidential election that descended into a constitutional crisis between two longtime political adversaries. After an initial ballot was annulled by the Supreme Court for irregularities, incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta won a repeat election that opposition leader and perennial presidential candidate Raila Odinga boycotted. Amid rising tensions, Odinga rejected the outcome and subsequently proclaimed himself the “people’s president” in an unofficial […]

An Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 737 Max 8 sits at Bole International Airport in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, March 23, 2019 (AP photo by Mulugeta Ayene).

Ethiopian Airlines is dealing with its biggest challenge in years following the crash last month of Nairobi-bound Flight 302 soon after takeoff in Addis Ababa. All 157 people onboard were killed. The crash raised serious questions about the safety of the Boeing 737 Max jet, which was involved in another fatal accident last year in Indonesia. For all the focus on the crash in Ethiopia, major African carriers and civil aviation entities have made significant strides in improving their safety records in recent years, says Daniel Kwasi Adjekum, an assistant professor of aviation at the University of North Dakota’s John […]