The Sub-Saharan Africa Section of IR Insider publishes breaking news reports and analysis from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa and other Sub-Saharan African nations. Topics covered by the Sub-Saharan Africa Section may range from economic policy in Namibia to elections in Cameroon and beyond. Our section editor is Zuzanna Skolimowska.
On Thursday, Oct. 17, 2024, the move to impeach Kenyan deputy president Rigathi Gachugua passed in the nation’s Senate, making Gachagua the first Kenyan president/deputy president impeached since the adoption of the new constitution in 2010.
Mozambique held its national election Wednesday, Oct. 9, and is on course to be one of the most influential elections since the country gained independence in 1975.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Russian ship fleets have turned to countries outside of the Western economic world to dodge increasing sanctions and oil caps.
Tuesday, October 1st, 2024, a migrant boat departing from Yemen carrying 310 people sank off the coast of Djibouti; 45 are confirmed dead, with many more still missing. This tragedy brings the ongoing migrant crisis across the Red Sea between the eastern horn of Africa and the Middle-Eastern Gulf States to the foreground. In April 2024, at least 38 people died crossing the sea, and in June, 49 more.
On Monday, Sept. 23, a partnership was signed between Russia and the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a military cooperation including Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.
On Sept. 19, 2024, the Ghanaian government signed into effect a bill that hopes to promote increased gender equality in Ghana. Entitled the “Affirmative Action (Gender Equality) Bill, 2024”, the new law puts a 30% - 50% quota of women representatives in various spheres of life from governmental committees to trade union memberships, which will be in effect by 2030.
The Kenyan government evicted 700 indigenous people of the Ogiek tribe, from the Mau Forest Complex on Nov. 2. This move is a violation of the 2017 court ruling that was supposed to secure the Ogiek peoples’ right to live on the land.
The Sudanese Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary faction of the country’s divided military, are nearing capturing Darfur, a province in eastern Sudan, as of Nov. 8.
Deo Akiiki, Ugandan deputy military spokesman, announced on Thursday that the Ugandan government had captured the mononymous Njovu, the commander of the militant group ADF, in a raid on Tuesday. Njovu was the only survivor of the raid in which six members of his squad were killed.
On Oct. 24, a Kenyan soldier was killed in the Democratic Republic of the Congo during fighting between the pro-government East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) and the rebel group M23.
South Africa criticized Israel's actions in the Palestinian territories, and many civil society organizations in South Africa have shown support for the Palestinian cause, based on the comparisons made between the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and South Africa's own experience with apartheid.
Grocery stores in South Africa are experiencing a severe shortage of eggs, due to the loss of 20 to 30 percent of the country’s chicken stock to an outbreak of Avian Influenza that has been around since April of this year.
Ibrahim Traore, leader of Burkina Faso’s military junta, signed a deal with Rosatom, Russian state nuclear corporation, to construct a nuclear power plant on Friday. The construction of the plant is Burkina Faso’s latest effort to increase access to electricity for the 79 percent of their citizens currently living without power.
The UN Human Rights Council discussed the alleged human rights violations by the Russian Wagner Group.
President Vladimir Putin plans to attend the BRICS annual summit in South Africa despite an ICC arrest warrant.
Kenyan police arrested Ezekiel Odero, a pastor involved in starvation cult practices and responsible for 103 deaths.
The Sudanese military and a paramilitary group, Rapid Support Forces (RSF), fight over military and governing power.
Raila Odinga, Kenyan opposition leader, agreed to meet for negotiation talks with President William Ruto after weeks of violent protests.
A Nigerian senator, his wife and a doctor were found guilty by the UK court on Thursday for trafficking a market trader to harvest his kidney.
The Ugandan Parliament passed anti-LGTBQ+ bills that would make gay relationships punishable by life in prison and in some cases, the death penalty.
President Macron of France embarked on a tour in West Africa last week to strengthen economic ties and de-escalate French military operations in the region.
On Wednesday, all 18 presidential candidates came together to sign the second peace pact for Nigeria’s upcoming election to succeed the incumbent president, Muhammadu Buhari.
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had their 62nd summit last Sunday for West African leaders in Abuja.
An African nation has participated in every occurrence of soccer’s FIFA World Cup finals since 1970, and this year is no different.
The Congolese army deployed two Sukhoi-25 fighter jets against the March 23 Movement (M23) rebel group on Tuesday morning. The bombs were released in the hills near the Ugandan border in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Ethiopian Federal Government and Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) agreed to peace terms yesterday morning, ending the Tigray War, African Union officials report.
At least 120 people were confirmed dead and over 300 people injured in a bombing, blamed on al-Shabaab militants, in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu, that occurred last Saturday.
The annual Climate Change and Development in Africa Conference began Monday in Windhoek, Namibia, an organisation spokesperson announced.
The war-torn part of the country has been affected by a civil war since November 2020. The latest surge in violence began in August after a five-month humanitarian truce. Ethiopia’s government declared a state of emergency in the northern region after accusing the opposing local government of attacking the federal troops.
OPEC, the Organization of Oil Exporting Countries, will be cutting their oil exports by over two million barrels a day, a spokesman representing the organisation announced last Wednesday. OPEC is a coalition of fifteen nations that pools their oil resources in order to influence global prices, primarily by setting production quotas and export limits.
