Institute for Security Studies
Tuesday, January 28, 2014 - 08:58
Piracy falls to a six-year low’ or ‘Dramatic drop in piracy rates’… These kinds of headlines looked great splashed across a web page or newspaper cover, and it’s the kind of good-news story that readers find hard to resist. But are these reports simply too good to be true?
Thursday, January 23, 2014 - 07:22
How much longer will the African Standby Force (ASF) simply continue to ‘stand by’ while France and others deal with Africa’s crises? As African leaders prepare for their 22nd Assembly of Heads of State of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa next week, questions around the implementation of the ASF have become more urgent than ever.
Wednesday, December 11, 2013 - 09:43
African governments are hungry for models. In that sense learning from the Nigerian experience can help other states to nip nascent terror threats in the bud.
Tuesday, December 3, 2013 - 12:19
On 27 October 2013, the Ngok Dinka community in the disputed Abyei region of Sudan held a unilateral vote to determine whether Abyei would remain part of Sudan or join South Sudan.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013 - 12:39
During the 43rd ordinary session of the Authority of Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) on 18 July 2013 in Abuja, Nigeria, the Chairman, President Alassane Ouattara of Côte d’Ivoire, announced that the Nigerian government had requested the withdrawal of its troop battalion deployed in Mali as part of the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping operation. According to Ouattara, the decision was based on the unstable security situation in Nigeria’s north.
Monday, November 18, 2013 - 12:54
There was always a danger that if the international community helped the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) defeat the M23 rebels on the battlefield, it would have to deal with a triumphalist DRC President Joseph Kabila reneging on his other commitments.
Monday, November 18, 2013 - 07:39
What are the best and most morally justifiable ways to deal with the terror threat in Africa? As the continent reels from the horrific attack by the extremist group Al-Shabaab on the Westgate Mall in Kenya on 21 September and the cold-blooded assassination of journalists in Northern Mali on 2 November, this question is as valid today as it was a decade ago.
Tuesday, November 5, 2013 - 08:03
It has been a good few weeks for Congolese President Joseph Kabila, the Congolese army, the UN Stabilisation Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and the recently deployed Force Intervention Brigade (FIB). A series of spectacular military victories against the M23, one of many armed groups that have been destabilising the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) over the past decade, has led Martin Kobler, the head of MONUSCO, to declare the movement ‘dead’. Images last week showed Kobler dancing triumphantly in the streets of Rutshuru, alongside the governor of North Kivu province, Julien Paluku. Rutshuru, an important trading town just north of the provincial capital, Goma, had been occupied by the M23 since it launched its mutiny in early 2012. Reports from the ground indicate that the residents were as happy as Kobler to see them go. Within days, the civilian administration was reinstalled and, in a grand gesture, the provincial authorities announced that no taxes would be collected until next year. ‘The M23 has harassed people so much and made them pay such exorbitant taxes,’ Paluku said.
Monday, November 4, 2013 - 08:21
Ten African countries are expected to continue to remain fragile beyond 2050: Comoros, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Guinea Bissau, Madagascar, Somalia, Sudan, South Sudan, and Togo.
Monday, November 4, 2013 - 08:16
As investigators and forensic scientists sift through the rubble of the Westgate mall in Nairobi, Kenya, in search of answers to the numerous questions that surround the 21 September 2013 attack, even more questions are starting to emerge. The most important of these is how the four gunmen managed to evade Kenya’s intelligence services, had unlimited access to such an important facility and managed to take on the security agencies for four days. There are also questions around the implications of the incident and whether the death of 67 people and the many others that remain missing are a sign of worse things to come, or the last kicks of a weakening Al-Shabaab.