Yesterday saw a short-lived coup attempt in Guinea-Bissau, a small West African state that has been wracked by chronic political instability since it obtained its independence from Portugal in 1973.
This video does a good job explaining why kicking the UN peacekeeping mission out of Chad is not in the interest of the refugees and civilians displaced from clashes near the Darfur border.
On Feb. 18, 2010, what has been referred to as a “textbook coup” took place in Niger. President Mamadou Tandja – who had been in power for more than a decade, was widely criticized for his poor management of a chronic food crisis in his country and for his lack of transparency – was ousted by Major Salou Djibo.
In 2008, a tribunal of the South African Development Community (SADC) ruled that the Zimbabwean government's policy of taking over white-owned farms was illegal. Despite the ruling, official harassment of white farm owners and the thousands of workers employed at their farms continued. This 25 minute film, titled "House of Justice," documents the farmers and farm workers struggle against the government of Zimbabwe. It also shows, in stark terms, how top government officials used torture to intimidate farm owners and their workers.
In a Foreign Policy feature, Jeffrey Gettleman describes the kind of roving banditry practiced by the LRA and in Eastern Congo as "Africa's un-Wars."
Courtesy of Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky, millions of Americans have seen how a single United States senator can use procedural chicanery to prevent important legislation from moving forward. By withholding his "consent" from a resolution extending unemployment benefits to out of work Americans last week, Bunning prevented social security checks from reaching many thousands of people in need.
Steve Clemons lands a really great interview with Kenyan Vice President Kalonzo "Steven" Musyoka, who was in Washington, D.C. this week for the National Prayer Breakfast. Anyone interested in Somalia and the politics of East Africa should spend the next 8 minutes watching this video.
Somalia has long been one of the most dangerous places in the world for UN-affiliated aid workers. Beyond the general lawlessness of the place is the fact that one of the main insurgent groups, al Shabaab, has specificily targeted aid workers and UN agencies as enemies.