Southern 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. Last week, AFP reported on Nigeria’s search for oil in the country’s northeast, the home base of the Boko Haram insurgency. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation described the effort, which is being aided by Chinese technical expertise, as a priority for the country. But analysts warned of the security implications, noting that any discoveries could create potential new targets for an insurgency that is still very much active. Those warnings are looking prescient today. Bloomberg reported Thursday that Boko […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. More than six months after a series of military mutinies kicked off in the city of Bouake, Cote d’Ivoire still can’t shake the intermittent unrest that has provided a dark counternarrative to what was once widely viewed as a sterling post-conflict success story. Last weekend, three soldiers were killed when shooting erupted at a military camp in the northern city of Korhogo; gunfire was also reported in the Abidjan neighborhood of Abobo. This was followed by further violence on […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, WPR Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. The United Nations peacekeeping mission in Democratic Republic of Congo reported this week that an additional 38 suspected mass graves had been discovered in the central region of Kasai, the latest indicator of the gravity of violence that has claimed more than 3,000 lives since last year. The new findings mean that at least 80 mass graves have been identified in connection with the Kamuina Nsapu insurgency, a main driver of instability in a country that appears to be […]

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Associate Editor Robbie Corey-Boulet curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. This week’s African Union summit—which brought heads of state to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on Monday and Tuesday—featured debate on how best to accomplish one of the main recommendations from its reform commission: curb the body’s reliance on outside donors. Julian Hattem reported for WPR in February that the African Union’s expenses are expected to total $439 million this year, of which just 26 percent will be covered by African nations, undercutting leaders’ claims that it pursues “African solutions to African […]

In December, South Africa’s ruling African National Congress will elect a new party leader to succeed beleaguered President Jacob Zuma and lead the party into national elections in 2019. Within the ANC, the campaign to replace Zuma officially has not started. But, in effect, it has been underway since the beginning of the year, with political maneuvering and jockeying behind the scenes. This is a product of the ANC’s arcane internal procedures, a hangover from its years of exile when members viewed elections for party positions with suspicion and preferred so-called consensus candidates in order to avoid “disunity.” The fiction […]