Fighting erupted in South Sudan on Saturday between rival factions of the SPLM-IO military wing. The SPLM-IO is one of the country’s two major political parties along with the SPLM. The clashes, in which dozens of soldiers have reportedly been killed, broke out after three generals attempted to oust Vice…

As the highly contagious Delta variant drives a global surge of COVID-19 cases, Africa is being hit especially hard. On July 15, the World Health Organization reported that the continent recorded one million new cases in the past month, its fastest increase since the start of the pandemic and part…

When the Washington Post and 16 other media outlets published the findings of their Pegasus Project investigation last week, the results were shocking: thousands of activists, journalists, lawyers and opposition political figures were targeted by authoritarian governments using spyware technology. The software, Pegasus, can be installed covertly on Apple and…

On June 23, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) agreed to deploy troops to Mozambique to combat the growing jihadist insurgency in the country’s northern province of Cabo Delgado. The decision came after months of deliberation and disagreement among the bloc’s 16 members — and four years after the conflict…

On July 9, South Sudan marked ten years of independence but with little to celebrate. After a decade of self-rule, South Sudan faces extreme poverty, corruption, insecurity, a lack of development, and is rated among the world’s unhappiest countries. It did not have to be this way. At independence in…

On 29 June, former President Jacob Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for contempt of court by South Africa’s highest court. Zuma is the first South African leader to receive a prison sentence, and still faces more charges — 16 total, including fraud, graft and racketeering — related…

On June 21, Ethiopia held national elections in what will be a key test of democracy under Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who entered office in 2018 and promised reform. In 2019, he won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in negotiating an end to Ethiopia’s decades-long conflict with neighboring…

On June 15, CNN published a report implicating Russian private military contractors in a wide range of human rights abuses in the Central African Republic. Dozens of victims and witnesses spoke of summary killings, rape and torture, and indiscriminate violence against civilians, including the burning of homes. These testimonies are…

On June 4, Nigeria announced it would indefinitely ban Twitter from operating in the country, with Minister of Information and Culture Lai Mohammed accusing the social media company of being used for activities “capable of undermining Nigeria’s corporate existence.” The decision came two days after Twitter deleted a tweet by…