China’s long-term strategy around bases in Africa is unclear, but countries hosting them must also make political calculations. For over three decades, every Chinese foreign minister’s first overseas trip of the year has been to Africa. This year continued the tradition with China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, visiting Egypt, Tunisia, Togo and Côte d’Ivoire. Notably, […]
Tag: Arms and Military Affairs
Debating Ideas aims to reflect the values and editorial ethos of the African Arguments book series, publishing engaged, often radical, scholarship, original and activist writing from within the African continent and beyond. It offers debates and engagements, contexts and controversies, and reviews and responses flowing from the African Arguments books. The de facto state of […]
Monrovia — The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) has completed pre-deployment training for soldiers expected to be deployed on Peacekeeping Missions in Mali, Sudan, and South Sudan. In a statement posted on the Ministry of Defense’s official Facebook page, the Ministry said the pre-deployment training lasted for six weeks with 93 soldiers participating in the […]
Kismayo — As the African Union Transition in Somalia force, known as ATMIS, reduces troop numbers, a Somali official is warning the plan is ill-conceived and raises the risk of al-Shabab militants retaking areas they lost. The deputy president of Jubaland, a region where Kenyan and Ethiopian troops operate, told VOA Somali that it will […]
Abuja, Kaduna — President Bola Tinubu, last night, met with governors of five Nigerian states sharing boundary with Niger Republic at State House, Abuja, to consider options in the bid to restore democratic governance in the troubled republic. The meeting, held at the expiration of the one week ultimatum handed the Nigerien coup plotters by […]
President Bola Tinubu will be indulging in a grand delusion of routing these non-state actors if he adopts the previous Buhari regime’s double standards. In a maniacal display of their capacity for evil against Nigeria, terrorists ambushed and killed soldiers in Niger State last month. And adding insult to injury, they shot down a military […]
Unlike the other coups in Francophone Africa, the August coup in Libreville appears to have been a change of guard rather than a revolt. The coup’s real targets With the arrest, on money laundering and corruption-related charges of the former first son, Noureddin Bongo Valentin in September, and the more recent conviction and jailing of […]
Wad Madani — Battles between the Sudanese army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) near Wad Madani, capital of El Gezira, have forced nearly 15.000 people to flee the besieged city. Clashes have also been reported from Rufaa. The governor of El Gezira has ordered the detention of alleged supporters of the RSF. Many young […]
The eruption of violence that Rwanda experienced beginning on the evening of April 6, 1994, continues to haunt the central African nation 30 years on – it has also changed the country’s gender dynamics. The genocide resulted in hundreds of thousands of men being killed, with many more fleeing the country or being incarcerated. It […]
Nairobi — Collective Punishment Over Forced Conscription Campaign The Eritrean government has in recent months punished relatives of thousands of alleged draft evaders as part of an intensive forced conscription campaign, Human Rights Watch said today. Eritrean security forces have been heavily involved in operations in support of the Ethiopian government since the outbreak of […]
Analysts Sunday took AL Jazeera’s Gold Mafia documentary producer over hot coals for misinterpreting the country’s mining value chain among other inconsistencies with the Qatar based news network insisting the script is well above board and promising more to come. The documentary which premiered its first episode last week alleges the existence of illicit gold […]
Countering violent extremist organizations, using best practices in Nigeria and West Africa, includes military leaders’ collaboration. At the recently concluded Africa Land Forces Summit (ALFS) 2023, Christopher Musa, a major general and Infantry Corps commander, Nigerian Armed Forces, summarized the significance of why it is important for Nigeria and African military leaders to come together […]
The U.S. Pentagon began an official six-day visit to Djibouti, Kenya, and Angola. United States Secretary of Defence, Lloyd Austin III, aims to “discuss ongoing military cooperation, regional security challenges, and opportunities for further collaboration,” according to the U.S. Department of Defense. As the 78th UN General Assembly high-level week scheduled for 19 to 23 […]
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, northern governors and other prominent Nigerians have called for the probe of the drone attack on a Kaduna village on Sunday. President Tinubu, who sympathised with the families of victims, the people and government of Kaduna State over the “mistaken” bombing of worshippers in Tundun Biri in Igabi local government area,has […]