East Africa Archive

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. As this week’s United Nations Climate Action Summit focused more global attention on the effects of climate change, several African leaders used the event to signal a stronger, continent-wide commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Africa is easily the lowest emitter of greenhouse gases of any continent, and as a whole it produces fewer emissions than the United States. South Africa is the only African country to rank among the top 20 global emitters. Because it is particularly vulnerable to the effects […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Tunisia’s presidential race is headed to a runoff next month between two surprising candidates: a law school professor who barely bothered to campaign and a media mogul who spent Election Day in jail. Analysts are reading the results as a sharp rebuke of the new political establishment that has emerged since the overthrow of autocratic leader Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in 2011. Neither Kais Saied, the professor, nor business tycoon Nabil Karoui has ever held elected office. They drew 18.4 percent and […]

Henry Rotich, Kenya’s finance minister, was arrested on corruption charges in late July—the highest-profile target yet in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s anti-graft drive. Rotich and other senior Kenyan officials have pleaded not guilty to multiple counts of fraud, abuse of their office and other allegations stemming from the misuse of funds in two planned hydroelectric dam projects. Kenyatta came into office in 2013 vowing to prioritize tackling Kenya’s endemic corruption, but critics point out that his efforts have yet to yield any high-profile convictions. The case against Rotich is a potential sign of renewed seriousness, but it could also be complicated […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. President Paul Biya delivered a rare speech this week announcing the launch of a national dialogue process to resolve Cameroon’s separatist crisis. Biya named Prime Minister Joseph Ngute to lead the talks, which are set to begin before the end of the month. But is Biya actually committed to peace? His government has exacerbated the separatist crisis in the past, and during his address this week, Biya appeared to undercut his message of peace when he called on separatists to surrender or […]

Africa’s technology sector jumped into the global spotlight earlier this year when Jumia, an e-commerce platform that started in Nigeria in 2012 and is often referred to as “the Amazon of Africa,” became the first African start-up to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Jumia’s success underlines the increased prominence of start-up culture and technology entrepreneurs across Africa. For this week’s Trend Lines interview, WPR’s Elliot Waldman is joined by Bitange Ndemo, a professor of entrepreneurship at the University of Nairobi and former official in Kenya’s Ministry of Information and Communication, for a discussion on Africa’s digital renaissance. […]

After surrounding the villages at dawn, the militias stormed in, armed with machetes and firearms. As Reuters later reported, the “gunmen left the charred bodies of women and children smoldering in their homes.” The attack on two villages in central Mali in March, in which 170 people were reportedly killed, was shocking enough to generate international headlines. But beyond the grisly details were its seemingly stark ethnic dimensions. The militias were made up of members of the Dogon ethnic group, which is primarily pastoralist. The victims in the two villages were mostly members of the Fulani ethnic group, semi-nomadic herders […]

BUJUMBURA, Burundi—Four years after President Pierre Nkurunziza decided to run for a controversial third term, leading to widespread protests and a government crackdown that killed more than 1,200 people and forced 400,000 to flee, this small East African country is still in the throes of political turmoil. With new elections less than a year away, tensions are rising as the government tightens its grip. In a report released Wednesday, United Nations investigators warned of another wave of possible atrocities ahead of the election amid “a general climate of impunity” in Burundi, where Nkurunziza’s supporters portray him as a “divine” leader. […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. A week of riots in South Africa targeting foreign-owned businesses has left at least 10 people dead and dozens of shops destroyed across Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria. The attacks shut down entire neighborhoods, as South Africans, enraged by the perception that foreigners are taking their jobs, looted shops and set them ablaze. This latest eruption of xenophobia comes amid deepening inequality in Africa’s second-largest economy, where more than a quarter of people are unemployed. South Africa has wrestled with xenophobia since […]

KAMPALA, Uganda—Pastor Joseph Kabuleta was arrested while drinking coffee in a Kampala shopping center, shoved in the back of a car and blindfolded. Held in police detention for several days in July, Kabuleta said he was tortured by officers, who beat him and drenched him in freezing water. His only crime was a Facebook post criticizing a senior military official, Gen. Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of President Yoweri Museveni. Kabuleta’s case is not unique in Uganda, where Museveni has held onto power for decades by almost any means necessary. The pastor’s arrest was another example of how Ugandans are using […]