Patrick Smith
This week we start with the fighting in South Sudan
and then look at the prospects for more anti-government protests in Zimbabwe.
In Zambia, tensions are rising ahead of what many
expect to be a very close election next month while Ghana
is channelling th...
Blue Lines
A new protest movement known as #ThisFlag is gaining momentum in Zimbabwe after one of the biggest
stayaways in cities for a decade on 6 July. At the head of #ThisFlag is
Evan Mawarire, a 39-year-old
pastor who launched a social media
campaign in April to...
Patrick Smith
A Brexit-dominated blog this week as Africa's economies count the
cost of the turmoil in Europe. In Zambia,
President Edgar Lungu's
government cracks down on the independent media and Mozambique's finance troubles
escalate after the secret loan scandal. F...
Blue Lines
From the start of the year, it's been clear that South Africa's local
elections on 3 August would be a critical test of President Jacob
Zuma's survival skills. There have been contradictory signs: it
looked increasingly likely that Zuma would be pushed to...
Patrick Smith
Over the weekend there were disturbing reports of fresh fighting in the border war between Eritrea and Ethiopia which ended with a peace treaty some 16 years ago. Ugandan security officials say they have been busy in the last few days roundi...
Blue Lines
If he's looking for evocative literature as well as a break from
Nigerian politics during his
ten-day visit to London, President
Muhammadu Buhari should read 'The
General in His Labyrinth' by Gabriel
Garcia Márquez. One of the late Colombian
writer's most...
Patrick Smith
This week, the political developments start in Kenya, with mounting protests for
electoral reform, then to the story of why some senior Nigerians are spending the week in
London and the private reactions to the appointment of the president's
daughter to h...
Blue Lines
Taking over the presidency of the African Development Bank from
Rwanda's Donald Kaberuka, whose combination
of political savvy and
straight talking on economics put the Bank back on the global map, was
always going to be tough. The tenure of new President...
Patrick Smith
This week starts with talks on Libya's crisis in Vienna and
negotiations in Nigeria over
the fuel price increase. Kenya's
government makes further moves to close down the world's biggest
refugee camp and Uganda's most
prominent opposition leader is held o...
Blue Lines
The big problem with the Anti-Corruption Summit organised by British Prime Minister David Cameron on 12 May was that no one could agree on
what it was for. It invited Nigeria's
Muhammadu Buhari, Colombia's Juan
Manuel Santos Calderón and Afghanistan's
Ash...
