How Uganda’s despised ‘mini-Musevenis’ are the ‘eyes and ears’ that sustain ruling clique in power
Kampala, Uganda – When Ugandans next head to the polls in 2026, President Yoweri Museveni will have been at the helm for exactly 40 years. In the capital Kampala, renewed talk of a political transition is a now trending. For years, there have even been multiple reports about a succession...
South Sudan crisis: Kiir remains deeply suspicious of his deputy, even refusing to allow him to leave the country
In April, President Salva Kiir Mayardit and Vice President Riek Machar re-committed to the peace deal they signed in 2018 that ended five years of civil war. For that deal to work, efforts must be speeded up to unify the country’s security forces. Unfortunately, the political dynamics that stalled security...
Technology: Double-edged knife that’s depriving workers of rights, pumping pork to others
Rarely has such a robust labour market been so thoroughly scoured for signs of impending doom. Many workers landed their dream situation in the exceptionally tight labour market, which gave them uncommon leverage to gain flexibility, seniority and higher wages. Unemployment remains just above the half-century low reached in early...
Waves of near-daily inter-ethnic killings in South Sudan threaten 2018 truce and planned elections
An explosion of violence in South Sudan is raising fears that the country’s fragile peace agreement will unravel before elections the international community hopes can be held next year. The wave of near-daily killings across this East African country is often blamed on marauding militias whose attacks threaten the 2018...
Kenyan sexist bullies running short of ammo as number of women seeking elective seats soar
Wavinya Ndeti has defied bullying, attempts to discredit her academic achievements and xenophobic slurs over her marriage to emerge as a front-runner for the powerful post of governor of a key county in Kenya’s forthcoming general election. The 54-year old mother of four says she has had to “toughen up”...
Nowhere left to turn: Hit hard by Covid, South American countries no longer welcome Venezuelan migrants
The vast majority of the six million Venezuelans who have escaped poverty, insecurity, and economic collapse in their homeland since 2015 have tried to start new lives in South America. But two years after Covid-19 led governments to close borders and enforce quarantines, many are discovering that the region is...
America will never forsake you, President Biden assures Arab leaders as he ends Middle East tour
President Joe Biden laid out his vision for the United States’ role in the Middle East at a summit in Saudi Arabia with Gulf state leaders on Saturday, the final day of his four-day trip through the region. The vision includes increasing regional food security, addressing the effect of the...
‘We’re joined at the hip’, Kenya and Somalia presidents say as they rejig turbulent diplomatic ties
Somalia’s newly-elected President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud has recommitted to peaceful co-existence with neighbouring Kenya, telling his host, President Uhuru Kenyatta, that the two countries were joined at the hip, hence the need to put behind them recent diplomatic turbulence. During Friday meeting in Nairobi, which may as well be the...
In some parts of Myanmar teachers and students regularly hide in the forest for days to attend school
The Myanmar military has since last May retaliated against rising armed resistance in Karenni state with airstrikes and artillery fire, repeatedly targeting civilians and their homes and at times bombing displacement camps. More than 170,000 people, or half of the state’s population, are now internally displaced, according to civil society...
How Myanmar children are defying bombs to attend schools run by striking civil servants and volunteers
When Biak* walked into a classroom on June 1, the first day of Myanmar’s school year, it bore no resemblance to the one he had last set foot in more than two years prior, when he was in fourth grade. Then, he wore a green-and-white uniform and sat at a...
