Hundreds of migrants protested for the 10th straight day Monday outside a United Nations facility in Libya’s capital of Tripoli demanding evacuation from the North African nation. The gathering outside the U.N. refugee agency’s facility began after Libyan authorities launched a massive crackdown on migrants earlier this month in the …
Read More »Ransomed and beaten: Migrants face abuse in Libyan detention
Osman Touré was crying from the pain of repeated beatings and torture as he dialed his brother’s cellphone number. “I’m in prison in Libya,” Touré said in that August 2017 call. “They will kill me if you don’t pay 2,500 dinars in 24 hours.” Within days, Touré’s family transferred the …
Read More »Qatar expresses support for ‘free and fair elections’ in Libya
Some Libyan politicians are concerned that the country’s historic elections scheduled for Dec. 24 could be delayed. The Qatari government reiterated its support Thursday for Libya’s transitional government and the upcoming elections. The State of Qatar “expressed hope that free and fair elections would be held to achieve the aspirations …
Read More »Tunisia’s Ennahda party shaken by resignations, political crisis
The Islamic Ennahda movement is facing a wave of resignations that are depriving it of its historical leadership and popular base after being the country’s ruling party since 2011. TUNIS — During the Oct. 3 protests in support of Tunisian President Kais Saied in the coastal Monastir province in northeastern …
Read More »In Africa, Mercenaries Are Part of the Problem, Not the Solution
In 1997, after his longtime Western backers, Belgium and the United States, had abandoned him, Mobutu Sese Seko, the ruler of the country then known as Zaire, turned to mercenaries from Serbia and Ukraine in a desperate bid to beat back an accelerating insurgency. In the middle of that war, …
Read More »Are Brotherhood members forming terror cells in Sudan?
Sudanese security services have arrested members of an Islamic State-affiliated terrorist cell led by an Egyptian national, while Cairo wants to extradite them as part of a broader effort to extradite members of the Muslim Brotherhood who fled to Khartoum in 2013. Sudanese security services have recently arrested members of …
Read More »Oil or Nothing: Dealing with South Sudan’s Bleeding Finances
What’s new? South Sudan’s rulers keep a tight grip on its oil wealth, blocking outside scrutiny and obstructing reforms urgently needed to ease both popular hardships and political tensions. Along with International Monetary Fund support, a peace deal has kickstarted new efforts to fix the country’s broken finances. Why does it …
Read More »Getting Boko Haram Fighters to Defect
Around the world, states locked in conflict with jihadists are trying to devise policies to reintegrate disillusioned militants into society. In Nigeria, a program targeting defectors from the violent extremist group Boko Haram offers a window into the promise and pitfalls of such efforts. For the past 12 years, Nigeria …
Read More »Fixating on the ISIS Connection in Eastern Congo Will Make Things Worse
In early May, in a televised address, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s president, Felix Tshisekedi, declared martial law in North Kivu and Ituri, two provinces on the country’s eastern border with Uganda and Rwanda, and placed them under military rule. In justifying this draconian measure, Tshisekedi invoked the regular mass …
Read More »Why Sudan’s Democratic Transition Depends on Stability in Darfur
The transitional government in Sudan announced last month that it will extradite former dictator Omar al-Bashir to the International Criminal Court in The Hague, where he is wanted on charges of genocide and crimes against humanity committed in Sudan’s Darfur region. The move was a sign that the new government …
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