NEWS ANALYSIS

Museveni and the army: Failing to learn from past mistakes? Kampala, Uganda | HAGGAI MATSIKO | If a position is operationally strategic, President Yoweri Museveni will appoint a soldier to it. If a job is critical to his survival in power, Museveni will appoint a soldier to do it. As …

Nairobi, Kenya | AFP |  Uhuru Kenyatta will be sworn in for a second term as Kenya’s president on Tuesday, the final act of an electoral saga that exposed deep and lasting divisions in the country. His inauguration comes ahead after Kenya’s Supreme Court last Monday validated his poll victory, …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Nicknamed “the Crocodile” for his ruthlessness, Emmerson Mnangagwa who will take over as Zimbabwe’s next president, is a hardliner with ties to the military who could prove as authoritarian as his mentor Robert Mugabe. It was his political ambition to take over which set off …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Even before Robert Mugabe’s resignation, many Zimbabweans tempered their yearning for his downfall with the knowledge that his likely successor has a similar reputation for brutality and corruption. Emmerson Mnangagwa, who until recently was one of Mugabe’s longest-serving and closest allies, will be sworn in …

Harare, Zimbabwe | AFP | Zimbabwe’s incoming president Emmerson Mnangagwa told adoring crowds in Harare on Wednesday that they were witnessing “unfolding full democracy” as he returned to take power after Robert Mugabe stepped down after 37 years in power. It was his first public speech since Mugabe fired him …

Berlin’s smart transport: How Europe’s greenest city kicked out cars Berlin, Germany | RONALD MUSOKE | Berlin, Germany’s capital and also largest city, does not have the most efficient public transport system in the country, partly because of the low incomes of residents compared to other cities around the world. In …

Dakar, Senegal | AFP | Regime change in Africa may not guarantee greater democracy but, as Robert Mugabe’s downfall shows, patience for autocrats who overstay their welcome is wearing ever thinner, experts say. After 37 years of outmanoeuvring his political enemies, Mugabe was finally cornered on Tuesday and handed in …

Paris, France | AFP | Robert Mugabe, who resigned as Zimbabwe’s president on Tuesday, was the last living African head of state to have fought for his country’s independence before becoming its leader. Mugabe, 93, had used his aura of liberator from a colonial power to stay in power but had …

   James Courtright | AFRICAN ARGUMENTS | How do you dismantle over two decades of repressive and corrupt governance in order to build a fresh democratic system? That’s the challenge currently facing The Gambia. Since Yahya Jammeh lost the 2016 elections and finally relinquished power under regional pressure in January 2017, …

Luanda, Angola |  NEWS ANALYSIS  |  On 15 November, as most of southern Africa’s attentions turned to the military takeover ensuing in Zimbabwe, Angola’s President João Lourenço took a set of dramatic steps. Acting with lightning speed, he fired the entire board of Angola’s state oil company Sonangol, including its chair Isabel dos Santos. Later that day, …