Vol 55 No 2 | SOMALIA The statelets of the nation 24th January 2014 Mogadishu will gain little more control and the enclaves will jealously hang on to what they have. Al Shabaab will endure The New Year began with a new Prime Minister, Abdiweli Sheikh Ahmed Mohamed, and a newish cabinet – but no new brooms. Reshuffling the players in cabinet will...
Vol 55 No 2 | RWANDA Murder in the Michelangelo 16th January 2014 The killing of a political opponent to President Kagame in a Sandton hotel has riled Pretoria and could have wider consequences The arrest in Mozambique of three Rwandans this week in connection with the murder in South Africa of Colonel Patrick Karegeya, Rwanda's opposition leader and former spy chief,...
Vol 55 No 1 | KENYA Chickens come home to roost 10th January 2014 The thread that bound President Kenyatta together with his deputy Ruto is fraying. There are growing worries about terrorism Three questions loom over the country in 2014. Will President Uhuru Kenyatta and Vice-President William Ruto win their confrontation with the International Criminal Court? Will the government reform...
Vol 55 No 1 | SUDAN Staking it all on survival 10th January 2014 This year will be about political survival for the regime and Omer el Beshir; and physical survival for many Sudanese trapped in war and poverty 2014 is constitutionally designated as President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir’s last full year in power. The year will be devoted to trying to ensure that Field Marshal...
Vol 55 No 1 | SOUTH SUDAN The state cracks 10th January 2014 Big political changes will be needed to relaunch Africa’s newest country and bring it back from the abyss A long road lies ahead before the mediators can secure a ceasefire between South Sudan’s warring factions, let alone embark on serious negotiations to consolidate a new political...
Vol 55 No 1 | SOUTH SUDAN The political stakes on YouTube 10th January 2014 The political issues in dispute are substantial, as can be seen from the leading dissidents who organised a press conference on 6 December in Juba. The conference, which...
Vol 55 No 1 | SOUTH SUDAN From power struggle to uprising 19th December 2013 The clashes between rival factions in the SPLA that started in the capital on 15 December are spreading alarmingly fast The capture of Bor, about 100 kilometres north of Juba, on 18 December by troops loyal to General Peter Gatdet Yaka showed the political and military fragility of...
Vol 54 No 25 | EGYPTETHIOPIASUDANITALY Secrets of the dam builder 12th December 2013 Sudan has now thrown its weight behind the Millennium Dam, at a time when curiosity about the contractor, Salini, was already growing As Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese ministers sat down to discuss the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on 9 December, one item was notably absent from the agenda. The role...
Vol 54 No 25 | ETHIOPIAITALY Salini looks to expand 12th December 2013 Salini has merged with a Milan-based multinational construction competitor. A Salini statement said that a September Extraordinary Shareholders’ Meeting of Impregilo SpA, a 1.9 billion euro (US$2.6 bn.)...
Vol 54 No 25 | EGYPTETHIOPIASUDAN Shoring up regional support 12th December 2013 After a period of defiant independence, Addis Ababa has now, belatedly perhaps, built strong diplomatic support behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Before the joint meeting of the...