Protestors burnt trucks on the main road between the city port Durban in KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa’s industrial heartland.
Photo by Darren Stewart/Gallo Images via Getty Images
The glaring failure by authorities to secure an area notorious for attacks on trucks prompts questions about, at best, utter ineptitude, or at worst, complicity.
Police enter a flooded mall that had been ransacked .
Photo by Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
An uncomfortable reality is that looting is perceived by the looters to be socially acceptable and is often encouraged and endorsed within social and community networks.
Looters grab items from a vandalised mall in South Africa.
Photo by Marco Longari/AFP via Getty Images
South Africa can’t possibly remain the same country in the aftermath of this mayhem. There are just too many storms ahead to simply continue unchanged.
King Mswati III of eSwatini, Africa’s last absolute monarch, is facing growing demands for democracy and rule of law.
EPA-EFE/Yeshiel Panchia
There is more support for democracy among African people than is often recognised. Yet this can be undermined by election rigging and is lower in countries like Lesotho, Mozambique and South Africa.
Catholics in Lagos protest against the incessant killings in Benue state.
Adekunle Ajayi/NurPhoto via Getty Images
At the centre of the persisting violence in the north-central region of Nigeria is bad governance.
People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) supporters at a campaign rally. The party has run the country since independence in 1975.
Photo by Osvaldo Silva / AFP) via Getty Images.
Angola needs a mixed electoral system. This would promote accountability through the direct election of representatives from constituencies.
Supporters of Ethiopian Citizens for Social Justice opposition party rally at Maskel Square in Addis Ababa, on June 16, 2021.
Photo by Yasuyoshi Chiba/AFP via Getty Images
A new government with popular legitimacy will have power to address lingering political, economic and security challenges.
Workers mount a billboard of Ethiopia’s prime minister Abiy Ahmed on the eve of his campaign visit in Jimma.
Photo by Eduardo Soteras/AFP via Getty Images
Ethiopian politicians, both opposition and incumbents, have found it difficult to undo the political culture of winning by elimination.
A queue of eager voters in Hawassa, Ethiopia, during the Sidama referendum in November 2019.
Photo by Michael Tewelde/AFP via Getty Images
Ethiopian history shows that the demands of its young people can’t go unaddressed for long.
A convoy of Malian armed forces escorts the vehicle of the country’s coup leader as he returns from a recent ECOWAS summit where Mali was suspended.
Photo by Michele Cattani/AFP via Getty Images
Mali’s state decay must be halted before it collapses: here are five areas that need attention.
The mortal remains of some of the victims of German atrocities in Namibia that Germany handed over in 2018.
Adam Berry/Getty Images
German’s commitment of €1.1bn for development projects in Namibia over 30 years is too cheap a price to pay for remorse.
French President Emmanuel Macron with French troops during his 2017 visit to France’s Barkhane counter-terrorism operation in Gao, northern Mali.
EFE-EPA/Christopher Petit Tesson/Pool
French policymakers understand that sharing the burdens of military operations with global partners can help boost flagging support at home.
The SWAT team of Ghana’s national security ministry.
Citi Newsroom
Ghanians fear that the country’s security services still bear the hallmarks of bad old practices.
Displaced people arrive in Pemba, Mozambique, after fleeing Palma following a brutal attack by Islamist insurgents in March.
John Wessels/AFF via Getty Images
The Southern African Development Community does not have a remarkable record of military interventions in civil conflicts in the region.
Some of the thousands of people displaced by the killings in the Cabo Delgado province.
EFE-EPA/Joas Relvas
Intervention in Cabo Delgado is a potentially dangerous move with far-reaching consequences for SADC if its efforts fail, or it becomes a protracted intervention.
Jerry Rawlings ruled Ghana for 20 years
Wikimedia Commons
Jerry Rawlings found a unique path to legitimise his military rule in Ghana.
Tanzania’s Mbwana Samatta (right) celebrates scoring his team’s second goal during the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations match with Kenya in Cairo.
Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images
National sports victories increase nationalism and national pride, but can also influence attitudes towards refugees.
General Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, who heads Chad’s transitional military council.
Chadian Presidency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
The struggle among elites has not resulted in efforts to improve the material lives of ordinary people unconnected to the political elite.
Members of the Ossewabrandwag on parade during WWII. The then political opposition collaborated with the Germans.
OB Photo Collection/Records, Archives and Museum Division, North-West University
Following the war, the South African authorities were anxious to charge known war criminals, traitors and collaborators. But nothing came of it.
Image of a polling station sign in Kasama, Northern Province, in 2015.
Nicole Beardsworth
Distrust of the electoral commission runs deep in the opposition, which may well lead to increased tensions ahead of and following the polls.