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 [...]
Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. Hong Kong experienced its most widespread antigovernment demonstrations yet Monday, as protests and a citywide strike led to road closures, disruptions to public transit systems and hundreds of flight cancellations. Riot police responded by volleying tear gas at demonstrators and arresting at least 82 people. Amid the chaos, the Chinese government warned “all the criminals to not wrongly judge the situation and take restraint for weakness.” That statement, Beijing’s sharpest denunciation of the protests yet, added to fears that [...]
Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, WPR Newsletter and Engagement Editor Benjamin Wilhelm curates the week’s top news and expert analysis on China. On Tuesday, Chinese officials abruptly announced that most of the Uighur Muslims held in detention camps in the country’s western Xinjiang region had been released. The claim—which was not supported by any evidence and almost immediately challenged by inmates’ relatives, foreign governments and human rights groups—marks another step in China’s efforts to deflect international criticism of its repressive policies in Xinjiang, where at least 1 million Uighurs are believed to be incarcerated. Describing the detention facilities as “education and [...]
