West Africa Archive

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Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi, left, and his predecessor, Joseph Kabila, during the presidential inauguration ceremony in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Jan. 24, 2019 (AP photo by Jerome Delay).
NewsletterAfrica
Congo’s New Cabinet Raises Fears That Kabila Is Still Really in Charge

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. Eight months after his contested election, the president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Felix Tshisekedi, finally has a Cabinet. But the list of new ministers released Monday has done little to dissuade critics who allege that Tshisekedi only won the election last December thanks to the intervention of his predecessor, Joseph Kabila, who had held onto power for years, subverting the constitution. Of the 65 positions in the new Cabinet, 42 are drawn from Kabila’s coalition, including plum roles running the […]

Fighters from the Ambazonia Defense Forces, an Anglophone militia, at a camp in South West region, Cameroon, June 2018 (Photo by Emmanuel Freudenthal).
NewsletterAfrica
Life Sentences Against Separatist Leaders Will Only Prolong Cameroon’s Crisis

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. The separatist crisis in Cameroon deepened this week after a military tribunal handed down life sentences to the separatist movement’s leader and nine of his followers. As observers warned that the sentences would make it harder to bring the two-year conflict to an end, separatist militias launched reprisal attacks that killed at least two people and forced dozens more to flee their homes. The conflict has its roots in concerns within Cameroon’s minority English-speaking population that they have been historically marginalized by […]

Fighters from Libya’s U.N.-backed Government of National Accord clash with forces of the self-styled Libyan National Army at the Salah al-Din frontline, Tripoli, Libya, July 29, 2019 (Photo by Amru Salahuddien for dpa via AP Images).
NewsletterAfrica
Another Brief Truce Ends in Libya, as Civilians Are Still Trapped in the Middle

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. After a two-day truce to observe the Eid al-Adha holiday, fighting has resumed in Libya. Any hope that the brief pause might signal a path to the resolution of a conflict that erupted in April, when military strongman Khalifa Haftar began his campaign to conquer the capital, Tripoli, quickly evaporated. Since Haftar launched his assault on Tripoli, 1,100 people have been killed and more than 100,000 displaced. Even as the truce was announced, a car bomb exploded in the eastern city of […]

Mozambique’s president, Filipe Nyusi, right, and Renamo leader Ossufo Momade hug each other after signing a peace accord at Gorongosa National Park, Mozambique, Aug, 1, 2019 (AP photo by Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi).
NewsletterAfrica
Can Peace Finally Take Hold With a New Accord in Mozambique?

Editor’s Note: Every Friday, Andrew Green curates the top news and analysis from and about the African continent. With the signing of a peace agreement this week, Mozambique’s decades-long internal struggle might finally be nearing its end. The agreement between the country’s two rival political parties—Frelimo, which has controlled the government since independence in 1975, and the former guerilla movement Renamo—comes just two months before national elections. The anti-communist Renamo rebels launched a 15-year war against Frelimo’s Marxist government shortly after Mozambique achieved its independence from Portugal in 1975. The conflict was notoriously brutal and also spurred a famine, killing […]