African Arguments

In early June, a warm evening in Mogadishu was punctuated once again by the staccato of gunfire and mortar shells. Not the result of an ambush by Al-Shabaab or a quarrel over a checkpoint, but rather deadly clashes emanating from a federal government seeking to secure its political grip on the capital. The violence had been coming for several months. Though some have brushed it off as ‘business as usual’ and an expression of the violence that undergirds Somalia’s political settlement, it might well be argued that we are entering a new era– a state without the settlement. With President […]

Author: Alec Soltes

Surer Mohamed Nisar Majid Ahmed Ibrahim Faduma Abukar

Beijing says its trade with Africa comes with "no strings attached." So why was Eswatini, the last African state recognising Taiwan, the only one excluded?

Words matter in conflict, and few carry more consequences than ‘terrorist’. Overused for decades, applied to insurgents, separatists, and state enemies alike, the label has been stretched to the point that it has become analytically meaningless. Yet the problem runs deeper than overuse. State actors may apply the charge of ‘terrorist’ as a justification for excessive force against its enemies. This gives them powerful incentives to keep using the label in pursuit of their own agenda. The UN and US’ designation in 2021 of the Allied Democratic Forces, an armed group operating in north-eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, as an […]

Author: Francis Annagu

Author: Niko Berghmans

South Africa's migration debate fixates on what happens when migrants arrive. The harder question is why so many are leaving home across the region in the first place.

Throughout Sudan’s war, most diplomatic efforts have treated the conflict as a struggle between two actors: the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Discussions about the country’s future continue to revolve around ceasefires, negotiations, and possible power-sharing arrangements between these two military rivals. Yet this framing misses an important reality. Across much of Sudan, governance did not disappear when state institutions collapsed. It moved elsewhere. As discussions about post-war arrangements gradually return, this omission becomes increasingly significant. The central question is no longer only who controls the state. It is also who manages everyday life in […]

Author: Eglal Hamid