For the sake of our children and youth: Let us build safer and more harmonious post-COVID-19 societies
Children are under siege in South Africa, and we are exposing our glaring failures to them; in schools, and in the homes where they are supposed to find sanctuary and be the safest, adolescent girls of all ages are victims of unspeakable violence.
Lake Chad Basin and stabilisation in the post-Shekau era
ISWAP, noticing the vacuum created by the death of Shekau, seized the opportunity to move in and present itself as the most prominent violent extremist group in the region, and has deepened its relationship with the Islamic State (IS), thus making itself a global threat and expanding the network and reach of such groups.
COVID-19 and peacebuilding in Africa: Youth, resilience and innovation options
African youths have always been, formally or informally, part of the continent’s response to peace and security challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted yet other positive and inherent characteristics of African youth that challenge the negative stereotype that they are synonymous with social disruption and are harbingers of violence
Civil society and stabilization in the Lake Chad region
The Lake Chad Basin Regional Strategy for Stabilization, Recovery and Resilience (RSS), adopted in August 2018, identified the eight governors as the primary mechanism for cross-border cooperation as well as domesticating the implementation of this Strategy.
Is the women, peace and security (WPS) agenda useful in non-war contexts? The case of Eswatini
Conflict and violence need to be understood in localised contexts and realities; this allows for an understanding of conflict that is unique to a country’s history and socio-political reality. Eswatini does not exhibit the signs of what the WPS agenda considers conflict.
A crowded place with few solutions: old and new players in the geopolitics of the Sahel
From a general perspective it can be said that every actor in the Sahel is walking on a tight rope trying to achieve limited objectives, without remaining stuck in the many complexities of the local political milieu.
Rising food prices could ignite unrest and instability in Africa
FAO economist Josef Schmidhuber has suggested that people in low-income countries tend to spend more than 60% of their earnings on food, leaving them particularly at risk. As hunger rises, so too does the potential for socio-economic disruption aimed at governments.
Africa’s experiences in managing political diversity and competitive electoral politics
If politics is about who gets what, when, and how, then the political economy of managing diversity, especially in the era of competitive electoral politics, is also crucial to reflect upon.
Coups in Africa: No end in sight and where is ECOWAS and the African Union
The alarming rate of coups on the continent are an indicator that firmer measures are required from the AU and respective regional bodies as a deterrent.
Coup resurgence in Africa: The pitfalls of a regional response
Prior to the coups, the continent had already witnessed 7 popular uprisings within the last decade that brought about changes in government. The actions, and inactions, of the military were critical to the outcome of these uprisings.