Wagner in Africa: Its fighters can be deployed quickly, have sophisticated arms and are ruthless
Overall, Wagner has done nearly nothing to make life better for Africans: its activities have served to entrench dictators and undermine democracies; to extend and deepen civil conflicts; to murder innocent civilians; to exploit natural resources for Russia’s gain; and to vilify the only alternative that Africans have to China for investment.
Weak Russian President Putin blasts weekend insurrection organisers and Wagner ‘traitors’
Abbas Gallyamov, a former Kremlin speechwriter turned political analyst, called the address weak. In a Facebook post, he said it was a sign that Putin is “acutely dissatisfied with how he looked in this whole story and is trying to correct the situation.”
Uganda’s greatest threat to environmental democracy will be state’s vow to arresting sterile money culture
Renewability of the environment is not inbuilt in the programmes and projects. Those supervising or implementing them are environmentally illiterate. We have seen in our lifetime the political power that be undemocratically deciding to erase whole ecosystem and habitats to replace them with extensive plantations of oil palm and sugarcane grasses.
Uganda: Once the Pearl of Africa, it’s now the altar on which politics smothers environmental democracy
Unfortunately, over most of Africa, what I have so far written is obtaining. Some rulers stick to power and rule from abroad, but when elections are held, they win by over 90 per cent of the vote even when they do not interact with the citizens. A good example is President Paul Biya of Cameroon, one of the longest ruling leaders in modern Africa.
Russian President Putin flees Moscow as Wagner mercenaries advance to capital, reservists join insurrection
In Moscow, there was an increased security presence on the streets. Red Square was blocked off by metal barriers. In a series of hectic messages overnight, Prigozhin demanded that Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu and the chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov should come to see him in Rostov.
Wagner mercenary lord claims Russian Southern Military District capture as Putin vows to crush ‘mutiny’
In Russia’s first armed insurrection since the Chechen wars 20 years ago, heavily armed fighters from Prigozhin’s Wagner militia were in control of the streets of Rostov-on-Don, a city of more than a million people close to the border with Ukraine.
Russian Wagner mercenary chief warns President Putin: This is not a military coup, but a march of justice
Yeveny Prigozhin posted a video of himself in Rostov-on-Don at the Russian military headquarters that oversees the fighting in Ukraine. He claimed that his forces had military facilities in the city under their control, including the airfield. Other videos posted on social media showed military vehicles, including tanks, on the streets outside.
African peace mission: One step forward in geopolitics, one step back in laying bare its underbelly?
The presence of the outgoing and current African Union chairs, Macky Sall (Senegal) and Azali Assoumani (Comoros), added political weight and legitimacy. And while the regional spread of the African states involved is commendable, why was a broader constellation of African interests not pursued?
Bigmanity: How consumptive politics feed sterile love for money, stokes violence in Uganda and Africa
Often, where there is Bigmanity, money is pursued as a culture over and above traditional cultures. It is a sterile culture of money. The culture of money in Big Man-run countries is always dirty. Money is dirty when it is sterile. Money is sterile when it is unfairly appropriated. This could be during budgeting when excessively huge monies are appropriated in ways that end up satisfying the big man’s wishes and choices that may have little to do with the country and its people. This explains why big men tend to become stinkingly rich after they have stayed in power for a very long time.
Why Republicans are pushing to impeach US President Biden for ‘high crimes and misdemeanours’
During Thursday’s debate, Republicans were admonished multiple times by the presiding officer to tone down their remarks. Democrats argued that the case against Biden made a mockery of the seriousness of impeachment and was merely an attempt to distract from the twice-impeached Trump, the former Republican president now indicted for hording classified documents under the Espionage Act.
