East African Community intervention in DRC raises fears over ‘legitimate and illicit’ interests of Congo’s neighbours to the east
Will the East African Community’s (EAC) gambit to try to bring peace to the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s chronically turbulent east succeed where others have failed? After a false start the week before, last week representatives of some 23 of the eastern DRC’s countless armed rebel groups concluded five...
Doubts persist about Somali MPs’ readiness to elect new government despite picking a presidential election office
Somalia is expected to have a new president on May 15 – ten days after 34 members of the upper and lower houses of Parliament met in the capital Mogadishu to set the date for the process that has been delayed for almost two years. The unorthodox method of choosing...
Muzzling the messenger: Why suppression of freedom of expression persists in Sub-Saharan Africa
Mancho Bibixy was pulled from his hideout in Bamenda, Cameroon, in the dead of night on January 17, 2017. In the years since the elite commandos of the Cameroon army dragged the Abakwa FM anchor away, his fiancée and son have said they lost all hope of seeing him regain...
After decades in the grip of dictatorship, The Gambia is now at the deep end of insecurity and violent crime
After two decades of dictatorship, The Gambia embraced democracy with President Adama Barrow’s 2016 election victory. But as is often the case in transitions from autocracy to democracy, stability remains elusive and economic growth insufficient to alleviate structural problems like high unemployment. Barrow was re-elected in December 2021, and a...
Richard Branson Musings: How can parents help dyslexic children thrive, and schools better support dyslexic students?
It has been nothing short of amazing to see the response from our campaign with Made By Dyslexia and LinkedIn to add ‘Dyslexic Thinking’ as a recognised skill on the platform. For my newsletter this month, I invited people to ask me any questions they have about dyslexia, and to...
While Namibian judiciary protects media, Eritrean president adjudged world’s worst media freedom assaulter
Across Africa, laws and customs respecting the media vary considerably. As the world marked World Press Freedom Day on Tuesday, the occasion offered moments of reflection on the brightest and darkest situations for the continent’s news media. On the positive side is the southwest African nation of Namibia, ranked the...
New ISS report says dramatic surge in criminal activities of unknown gunmen in Nigeria does not occur in a vacuum
Insecurity in Nigeria is growing in scale, spread and sophistication, according to recently published research findings by the International Security Studies (ISS). The report says a total of 1,486 people in the country were victims of insecurity in January 2022, with 915 killed and 571 kidnapped. “While no zone or...
Blurred lines vs complementarity: Professional question the boundary between researchers and support staff
Professionals at research organisations are typically split into two categories: academic staff and support staff. As professionals working in research environments in the Netherlands and Australia, we have straddled the dividing lines between these conventional divisions. We’ve also met many other professionals who have operated across this divide. And we...
China State Council on research institutions focuses on ethics training to deter risky gene-editing scandals
China’s powerful State Council is calling on research institutions to expand and improve their ethics training. The directive, one of several detailed in a comprehensive ethics statement, is intended to address gaps in oversight exposed when Chinese researcher He Jiankui shocked the world by creating the first babies with edited...
Under military’s watch, Sudan’s former ruling clique is re-joining civil service, others freed from jail
Since Sudan’s military staged a coup six months ago many former allies of toppled autocrat Omar al-Bashir have been allowed to re-join the civil service while others have been freed from jail in an apparent push to form a government and reassure donors. The rehabilitation of the Islamist National Congress...
