In The News

Africa Faces Worst Drought in Half a Century

Bartholomäus Grill May 13, 2016
Drought is devastating some of Africa’s poorest countries, threatening water supplies, power generation and agriculture. Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Swaziland have declared states of emergency. But some nations, like Ethiopia, are in denial about the impact of the abnormal sea and air patterns known as El Niño and the continent’s inability to handle population growth. Ethiopia’s...

March of Arab Spring on Pause

Hicham Alaoui May 10, 2016
The Arab Spring, a wave of protests sweeping through the Middle East in 2011, inspired hope for more freedoms in the region. Such anticipation was short-lived as authoritarian rulers recalibrated strategies for control by strengthening alliances with constituencies including elites, secular middle classes and workers who are wary of rapid changes that might threaten economic stability, explains...

Everyone Says the Libya Intervention Was a Failure: They’re Wrong

Shadi Hamid April 15, 2016
US President Obama suggested that one of his biggest regrets failure to plan for Libya after the 2011 NATO intervention. Libya is a failed state, but that does not mean intervention was wrong, argues Shadi Hamid, a senior fellow with the Brookings Institution, for Vox. “The goal was to protect civilians and prevent a massacre,” he notes. “In fact, the civil war had already started before the...

Out of Africa

Thomas L. Friedman April 14, 2016
Thousands of migrants travel the deserts of North Africa, fleeing poverty and conflict, determined to reach Libya and eventually Europe. Many Africans with large families can no longer find work as drought and high temperatures devastate the agriculture industry, explains Thomas Friedman for the New York Times. Smugglers collect migrants from Senegal, Nigeria Chad and other countries, cramming...

As Routes to Europe Close, Refugees Consider a Deadly Crossing

Mirren Gidda April 13, 2016
As nations like Macedonia, Turkey, Hungary and Greece block refugees from crossing their borders, a wave of people fleeing conflict, terrorism and retribution in Syria and elsewhere has shifted direction to a more treacherous route. UN refugee officials estimate that the number of refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean from Libya in 2016 has nearly doubled from the same period in 2015....

After Chibok, Another Kidnapping Met With Silence

Aminu Abubakar and Robyn Dixon April 13, 2016
Nigerian authorities and the world may have lost a sense of urgency about Boko Haram’s brazen attacks on small villages and mass kidnappings. A UNICEF report points out that girls are regarded as sex slaves, boys are trained to fight, and both are used as suicide bombers. Inequality and a complacency about authority may encourage bullying of victims by both terrorists and communities, thus aiding...

Africa’s Rising Middle Class – And Why It Matters

Tom Jackson February 25, 2016
There are varying reports on the exact size of Africa’s middle class. Depending on definitions and income levels, the middle class could represent 6 percent or 34 percent of the overall population, reports Tom Jackson for New Africa Magazine. Yet analysts agree that consumer markets, opportunities and technological advances are expanding. The population is young, and the continent’s median age...