Spring, it seems, is late in London. And it is a violent and horrifying one. Unlike the Arab spring in Egypt, Libya and Syria, it has not united citizens in anger against oppression and corruption but divided Britain and is suggestive of more division, violence and bitterness to come rather than a hoped for flowering [...]
On Saturday 9 July 2011, the Republic of South Sudan became the 193rd sovereign state. With the establishment of any new country there are ultimately legal consequences that need to be addressed. Last January 98.83 per cent of the people of Southern Sudan voted for independence from the North in a national referendum. This resulted [...]
The worst drought in two decades has left about 11 million East Africans in acute need of food and water. Western NGOs are urging people to donate money while images of malnourished children appear on the world’s TV screens. Is Africa still the helpless and weak continent the media portrayed it to be twenty years [...]
A report by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) has suggested that the Democratic Republic of Congo might be on the verge of collapse, as widespread disaffection for President Joseph Kabila grows. Endemic corruption and the failure to bring broad and sustained economic growth have led to the grave possibility, the report predicts, of violence [...]
As many former British colonies around the world continue to celebrate 50 years or more of independence, a group of Commonwealth academics gathered at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in London recently to debate the merits and faults of the so called “Westminster Model”, the basis at the time of the newly emerging countries’ constitutions [...]
For the second time, South Africa’s president Jacob Zuma went Libya to seek peace accord. In the first visit as part of an African Union delegation, Zuma headed to the strife-torn northern country in order to push for a deal which would bring fighting between Libyan government troops and the opposition to an end. The [...]
The country’s latest local elections ‘went well’, according to Pansy Tlakula, the Chief Electoral Officer of the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). She spoke with pride at seeing a higher turnout than in previous years during what was a remarkably smooth process that has left most party leaders satisfied. The campaign itself was a lively one, [...]
Politicians and Royals often share the common characteristic of a love of pomp and ceremony. An apparent 2 billion people tuned into Britain’s Royal Wedding Celebrations on Friday 29th April, watching Prince William and Kate Middleton tie the knot in what was said to be an ‘understated’ and yet elegant and glamorous affair. While it [...]
Twenty years ago in May two remarkable events took place in the Horn of Africa. Somaliland re-established the old colonial boundary and declared itself independent from the rest of Somalia and in Ethiopia the Mengistu regime collapsed and was replaced by Meles Zenawi’s Tigrayan rule. The main city of Somaliland, Hargeis, had been utterly destroyed [...]
The fight against malaria in Africa is bearing fruit with 11 countries reporting a 50 per cent drop in mortality. But in the process certain policies by aid donors are thwarting development in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new report. Last month, on World Malaria Day, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Malaria, Ray Chambers, [...]
