Afrika

Report

Kairouan, or the network behind the Tunisian suspect of the Berlin attack

15 February 2017 -

Anis Amri, chief suspect behind the attack on a Christmas market in Berlin, grew up in Kairouan. Jihadi Salafists proclaimed this ancient Tunisian city the capital of an Islamic state. The shooter who killed 38 hotel guests on a beach in Sousse in 2015 radicalized here as well. In the summer of 2015, Montasser AlDe’emeh and Pieter Stockmans w ...

Report

Tanzania allows Maasai land to be stolen under the guise of development

8 December 2016 -

Tanzania is receiving development assistance to further develop the agricultural sector through public-private cooperation. The projects are being promoted under the premise that fertile land is abundant but, in practice, this land is almost always occupied. This means that large-scale agricultural projects are driving people off their land. An exa ...

Analysis

Tanzanian farmers are facing heavy prison sentences if they continue their traditional seed exchange

7 December 2016 -

In order to receive development assistance, Tanzania has to give Western agribusiness full freedom and give enclosed protection for patented seeds. “Eighty percent of the seeds are being shared and sold in an informal system between neighbors, friends and family. The new law criminalizes the practice in Tanzania,” says Michael Farrelly of TOAM, an ...

Analysis

A Hidden War In DRC, Burundi Crisis And Great Lakes Geopolitics

10 May 2016 -

The Great Lakes region is rattled by yet another armed conflict. The fighting has stayed under the international radar, but could broaden and threathen whatever uneasy arrangements for peace or stability might be in place. Alex Ntung takes us up the High Plateaus in South Kivu and into the deep roots of recent violence there.

Analysis

Will Brexit trigger the Africanisation of Europe?

12 April 2016 -

One reason why the UK might want to leave the EU is that the EU is an ‘untransparent, ineffective juggernaut’. However, the African experience shows that a web of smaller organisations might be even worse. Unfortunately, an African-style web is where Europe might end up after a Brexit.

News

From A No-Go Zone To A Shopping District; It’s Possible!

29 March 2016 -

Politicians are usually adamant when it comes to unreported employment. They consider the ‘informal’ economy a free zone for tax evaders, or worse, criminals. However, that is not necessarily the case. The South African port city of Durban went for a different approach altogether: they decided to give legal security to street traders (a ...

Analysis

Is Kabila on his way out?

12 October 2015 -

President Kabila faces challenges on a number of fronts, from the opposition to the grassroots to members of his own inner circle. How much longer can he hold on?

Analysis

Burundi 2005-2015: Autopsy of an embryonic democracy

15 September 2015 -

Burundi went from a country heading towards peace in democracy to a country heading straight for the abyss. Kris Berwouts traces this unfortunate fall from grace in this well-informed analysis. 'The political crisis leaves Burundi not only on the brink of civil war, but also close to economic collapse.'

Analysis

Italian spyware and the demise of a Moroccan news site

1 April 2015 -

Western companies selling surveillance technology to law enforcement and intelligence services are on the rise. In 2012 the Moroccan news website Mamfakinch, founded to report on the Arab Spring protests, was targeted with spyware developed by an Italian company called Hacking Team. The attack proved to be the fatal blow to the site and its many co ...

Interview

'Nigeria has been falling apart for a while' (Jeremy Weate)

10 December 2014 -

'Nigeria has been falling apart for a while', says Jeremy Weate. Weate is a co-founder of Cassava Republic Press, one of Africa’s leading new publishers.

Interview

Donor darling Mozambique goes to vote with gas bonanza in mind

15 October 2014 -

Today Mozambicans will cast their votes in general multi-party elections, for the fifth time after the ending of its civil war in 1992. Once a donor darling, this lusophone country in the South-East of Africa has recently discovered massive gas and oil fields up North. Still the exit out of poverty is not looming round the corner. An interview with ...

Interview

Mistakes in fighting Ebola repeated all over again, says pioneer

5 August 2014 -

‘Médecins Sans Frontières is repeating the same mistakes from earlier Ebola outbreaks’. Prof. Barry Hewlett, the first anthropologist ever to be invited by the World Health Organization in fighting Ebola, has given an interview to the Belgian MO* Magazine.