Earlier this spring, the Stanley Foundation and the University of Pretoria jointly sponsored a dialogue on South Africa-United States cooperation. Sixteen participants (including myself) from South Africa, the United States, and Canada attended. While the conversation was governed by Chatham House rules, a summary of the discussion and principal conclusions, signed by the participants, has now been published. Read more »

Asch Harwood contributed to this post.

Further to my post yesterday of continued military control of Mali’s south, Human Rights Watch has released a troubling report on atrocities committed by Tuareg rebels in northern Mali. The catalogue is grim: rape, use of child soldiers, pillaging, summary executions, and amputations. The abuses appear to be centered on Timbuktu, Gao, and Kidal. Read more »

Former coup leader captain Amadou Haya Sanago announced on May 1 that his troops had suppressed a counter-coup by forces allegedly loyal to former president Amadou Toure. Sanago said his troops controlled the airport, the state television and radio stations, and the local army barracks. According to the press, fourteen were killed and forty were wounded. Read more »

This is a guest post by Jim Sanders, a career, now retired, West Africa watcher for various federal agencies. The views expressed below are his personal views and do not reflect those of his former employers.

Just as Richard Drew’s photograph of a man falling from the World Trade Center on 9/11 became an iconic image of what writer Tom Junod has called the “almost vertiginous sensation of the ground giving way beneath our feet, along with just about everything else,” a metaphor for American exceptionalism and entitlement falling back to earth, so, too, have Boko Haram’s seemingly unstoppable attacks appeared to have diminished Nigeria’s sense of exceptionalism and confidence. Yet multinationals, focusing on Nigeria’s large population and robust growth rate, rather than its poverty and internal stresses, see the country as an investment opportunity. Read more »

On Sunday, a group of terrorists attacked Christians at worship services held in a lecture room and a sports complex at Bayero University in Kano. There are varying reports about the number killed and wounded, but victims include some senior faculty and graduate and undergraduate students. Security personnel are estimating that Sunday’s attack involved up to twenty operatives. The press quotes the Nigerian military spokesman as saying that the terrorists used “sophisticated” tactics. Also on Sunday, “gunmen” killed at least five people attending a church service in Maiduguri, and then today a police convoy was bombed in Taraba state. Read more »

This is a guest post by Mohamed Jallow, a former interdepartmental associate at the Council on Foreign Relations, and now a program development specialist at IntraHealth International. Mohamed came to the United States as a refugee from Sierra Leone in 2003. Read more »

Many Africans were proud that the continent fielded a highly qualified candidate for the World Bank presidency, Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. By the time the vote took place, serious African observers recognized that the American candidate would win. But, there was also satisfaction that the three sub-Saharan heavyweights – Nigeria, South Africa, and Angola – had come together to nominate and support her. Read more »

The Tuareg rebels on April 6 declared their independence from Mali and announced the formation of the state of Azawad. That action was condemned or ignored by the international community. Read more »

Despite reports that fighting is ebbing between Sudan and South Sudan, the situation is troubling. Last week, Sudan (Khartoum) president al-Bashir escalated his rhetoric against South Sudan (Juba) in the aftermath of the latter’s forces occupying an oil-rich region, Heglig, inside Sudan’s borders. Al-Bashir has characterized the Juba government as an “insect,” and he appears to be repudiating the independence of South Sudan. The press reports him as saying, “Either we end up occupying Juba or you (South Sudan) end up occupying Khartoum but the boundaries of the old Sudan can longer fit us together, only one of us has to remain standing.” He said that his Sudan Armed Forces will teach South Sudan “a lesson in jihad and patriotism,” according to press reports. Read more »

This past weekend President Jacob Zuma married a fourth wife, Gloria Bongi Ngema. She joins his three other wives, Sizakele, Nompumelelo, and Thobeka. The private ceremony took place at his home in Nkandla, KwaZulu-Natal, and, according to the press, Zuma paid all of the costs himself. Read more »