African Arguments
Thursday, January 8, 2015 - 08:47
Terrorism has been gaining ground in sub-Saharan Africa in the last decade. This does not mean that terrorism was non-existent in the region before this (the Lord’s Resistance Army was formed in Uganda in around 1986), but the formation per se of Sub Saharan organisations and their self-identification as terrorist groups is a relatively recent phenomenon.
Thursday, December 11, 2014 - 05:57
Nigerian piracy is unique for several reasons. It accounts for 71% percent of all incidents in West Africa, and the methods used by Nigerian pirates are highly profitable.
Friday, December 5, 2014 - 06:04
But, once gain, I am sure, little attention will be paid to trying to understand the attacks themselves beyond a lazy assumption that al-Shabaab is ‘evil’ and that they want to incite religious war for the sake of it. Such attitudes will not take Kenya very far. What is al-Shabaab’s strategic goal? And what is Kenya’s strategy to counter it?
Wednesday, December 3, 2014 - 05:36
The state has failed to respond decisively to chronic violent insecurity that has plagued Turkana peoples for decades.
Thursday, October 2, 2014 - 05:53
A month has passed since the US Government killed Ahmed Abdi Godane, former emir of Al-Shabaab, with a targeted air strike. Godane’s replacement, Ahmed Diriye ‘Abu Ubaidah’, has yet to issue a statement about his intentions and vision for the militant group.
Monday, September 22, 2014 - 05:30
A year has passed since Al-Shabaab militants laid siege of the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi. The attack, believed to have been carried out by four gunmen, left 67 dead and laid waste to the luxury complex. President Uhuru Kenyatta promised to form an independent Commission of Inquiry to investigate the attack and the actions by the police, armed forces and other responders.
Friday, September 5, 2014 - 06:06
A loosely interconnected Islamist uprising is spreading from Syria in northern Arabia to Mali in West Africa and threatens to produce terrorism in Europe and the US. That is the clear and immediate danger. But the Western response to it may signal the demise of the American-led global prescription which followed the end of the Cold War in 1989.
Monday, July 21, 2014 - 07:01
“In the North-East, it is almost like it is even worse than the Civil War because in the Civil War, you know if you are here, you know the battle line, either a Biafran or Nigerian. You know where to run to. Right now, you don’t even know where to run to because the enemies are in the Sokoto (trouser) pocket.”
Thursday, June 26, 2014 - 06:43
When European and American donors started moving their money around, first due to the daylight robbery of these funds by civil servants (including the government’s own money), and then after the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, many programs have been affected. When the donors sneeze, it’s the NGO’s that catch a cold.
Monday, June 2, 2014 - 08:12
Following the resignation of CAR President Michel Djotodia in January 2014, there has been an unprecedented violence in the CAR with Christian vigilantes killing mostly Muslim civilians as an act of revenge.