Written by: Saul Brodkey As anyone can tell you, all human life is predicated on ready access to fresh water. Naturally, droughts, or any shortage of water, can have devastating impacts on local ecosystems, humans and vegetation alike. Case in point, the Nile River and the Nile Delta are home to 95% of the rapidly…
Category: Africa
Revisiting Mad Mike Hoarse and the Legacy of Mercenaries in the Congo
Written by: Cooper Stewart Few places in the 20th century have been as unstable and volatile as the Congo region, or what is today known as the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its troubled history included a period immediately following its independence from Belgium in 1960 to the formation of a dictatorship in 1965 would…
Power Play Along Ethnic Lines: The Tigray Conflict Explained
Written by: Lydia Nyachieo Thursday, November 26 marks the day Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed commenced the “final stage” of the government’s military offensive in the northern Ethiopian province of Tigray against the fighters of the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF). After giving the Tigray fighters an ultimatum to surrender that expired on November 25th,…
The Fight Won’t End with COVID-19
Written by: Dana Craig The COVID-19 pandemic has turned the world upside down. Throughout the past nine months, this new virus has endangered our health, destabilized our economy, and circumvented our freedom to do as we please. For millions of privileged people around the globe, though, COVID-19 is the only disease affecting daily life. Not…
Democratic Drama: Ivory Coast’s President Ouattara wins the 2020 Election amid Opposition and Violence
Written by: Harry Colvin Ivory Coast recently held their presidential election, and it wasn’t without major drama and controversy. President Alassane Ouattara, 78, was elected by the Ivorian people on October 31st, receiving 99% of the vote in some areas of the country and 94% nationally. However, the elected President received major criticism from opposing…
Will There Be a Coup in Guinea-Bissau?
Written by: Cooper Stewart On the Atlantic coast of West Africa, in a country a little larger than Vermont, a constitutional crisis of leadership is occurring. The crisis has left analysts and experts around the globe apprehensive about the possibility of a coup if the current political tensions do not abate. This is the situation…
The Forgotten Crisis of 2020
Written by: Cormac O’Harrow We are almost six months into 2020, and everybody can agree upon the fact that this is, to say the least, a tumultuous time to be alive. The country has already seen a global pandemic, an economic recession, impeachment trial, and an upcoming election. But there’s one area that seems everybody…
Mugabe and the Failure of the Revolutionary Mindset
Written by: Cooper Stewart Oftentimes when one looks back on the period of decolonization in Africa, one tends to focus heavily on the indigenous independence movements that arose from the wave of anti-imperialist fervor that swept the continent. Yet out of all of the new countries that arose in Africa throughout the fifties, sixties, and…
South Africa at Crossroads: Land Reform and Redistribution
Written by: Cooper Stewart Controversy erupted in U.S.-South African relations recently when U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sharply criticized South African President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to enact his plan for distributing land to the country’s black majority. Although Pompeo and Ramaphosa both believe that land redistribution will impact the South African economy, they are…
The Imbonerakure: A Key Roadblock to Burundi’s Political and Civil Liberties
Written by: Lydia Nyachieo On September 23rd, 2019, Jérémie Ntaconimariye, a Burundian farmer in his late 50s and a member of the political opposition party, was asleep in his house in Karusi province when three young men of the ruling party came uninvited. They took him to a small village almost two miles away, then…
The WIRe 