Blue Lines
The synchronicity of two headlines on 27 April – 'Boko Haram two hours from Abuja' and 'Buhari calls on US to move Africa Command HQ to continent' – paints an alarming landscape of the security breakdown in Nigeria and the region. Almost as unsettling is ...
Blue Lines
Foreign aid from governments rose to an all-time high of €161.2 billion (US$192.1bn) in 2020, a 3.5% real terms increase, according to data published this week by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. Aid to Africa as a whole increas...
Blue Lines
After the opening of the International Monetary Fund's spring meetings on 5 April, its leading shareholders look set to fire a big bazooka: a US$650 billion issuance of new 'Special Drawing Rights', the IMF's reserve currency. In quantitative terms, this ...
Blue Lines
The Integrated Review of Britain's Foreign and Defence policy, announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on 16 March, carries mixed messages for Africa. Beyond its tilt towards south-east Asia, Britain wants to boost relations with a narrow band of Africa...
Blue Lines
After a month in which the Gulf monarchies saw the new United States administration in action, with sanctions against top security officials in Saudi Arabia, airstrikes on Iranian-backed militia in Iraq and pressure on United Arab Emirates' expansionism i...
Blue Lines
Clashes between Yoruba and Fulani youths in Ibadan, one of the biggest cities in west Africa, escalated over the weekend of 13-14 February amid local reports that some 20 people had been killed and thousands driven from their homes. Seyi Makinde, governor...
Blue Lines
Do sanctions ever stop grand corruption and human rights abuses? The question is worth asking as Britain slaps asset freezes and travel bans on Zimbabwe's top securocrats – a spy chief and a police chief, and commander of the presidential guard – all of w...
Blue Lines
Alongside the gargantuan domestic policy agenda awaiting United States President Joe Biden and strategic challenges in Russia and China, his arrival at the White House has stirred hopes of a new start in Africa. These include more support for the internat...
Blue Lines
After a year of global health emergency and economic destruction, our correspondents look forward to how governments are reacting to popular demands for reconstruction and a new political order
Although so much reporting over the past year has been on the...
Blue Lines
'Warning lights – for our societies and the planet – are flashing red' thunders the UNDP's latest report, which introduces a new variable – a country's emissions of carbon dioxide and its material footprint – into its Human Development Index.
The big idea...
