SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS - The African Mirror

Dec

13

2025

By ALEXANDER M. LASKARIS and OLIVIER WALTHER

Kidnapping for ransom in the Sahel: analysis of 24 years of data shows a new trend

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

KIDNAPPING for ransom has a long history in the West African Sahel. In 1979, a rebel group led by Chad’s future president, Hissène Habré, kidnapped a French archaeologist and a German medical doctor in the north of the country. The kidnappers asked for the release of political prisoners, among other demands. Over the decades, kidnapping became an industry in the Sahel. Governments were willing to pay financial and political ransoms even if they denied it publicly. This industry fuelled the expansion of jihadist groups from Algeria to the Sahel (south of the Sahara) between the early 2000s and mid-2010s. The…

Dec

11

2025

By MARTIN MOURRE

Thiaroye massacre: report on the French killing of Senegalese troops in 1944 exposes a painful history

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE Thiaroye camp near Dakar was a Senegalese army barracks housing African soldiers called “tirailleurs sénégalais” (Senegalese riflemen). It welcomed men returning from the European front of the Second World War, where the riflemen had been held as German prisoners of war while serving on the side of France. They were waiting for their long-overdue back pay and bonuses. But at dawn on 1 December 1944, they were shot by their own French officers. What should have been a time of celebration became a bloodbath. France sought to downplay or deny the massacre for many years. In 2024, ahead of…

Dec

10

2025

By RICHARD FOSU

Africa’s power grabs are rising – the AU’s mixed response is making things worse

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

HARDLY a month goes by without news of another unconstitutional change of government on the African continent. These can take one of three forms. The first is a military coup d’état or violent change of (democratically) elected government. The second is the refusal of an incumbent government to relinquish power after losing an election. And finally, manipulating constitutions to win or extend the term limits of an incumbent government. We study peace and conflict in Africa, as well as African Union law. We set out these three categories in a paper we published in 2023. In it, we analysed unconstitutional…

Dec

09

2025

By ONYEDIKACHI MADUEKE

Nigeria has jailed Biafra separatist leader Nnamdi Kanu: why it risks backfiring

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

THE terrorism conviction and life sentence handed down by the Federal High Court in Abuja on Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra, brings an end to a ten-year legal battle. But it opens up a larger political and security question for Nigeria. Kanu has long championed the secession of Nigeria’s south-east region, a demand the Nigerian constitution forbids. The last major attempt at secession, in 1967, triggered a 30-month civil war that killed over one million people, mostly Igbo civilians. Kanu’s campaign for Biafra as an independent Igbo state is rooted in decades of perceived political marginalisation…

Dec

06

2025

By JOVIAL RANTAO

Peace theatre in Washington: How minerals trump lives in Congo

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

ON Thursday, as President Donald Trump presided over a peace signing ceremony in Washington, the bodies were still being counted in the Democratic Republic of Congo. While cameras captured handshakes beneath a "Delivering Peace" banner at the freshly renamed Donald J. Trump Institute for Peace, Rwanda-backed M23 rebels and Congolese forces were clashing throughout South Kivu province. Children were among the casualties. Villages buried their dead as dignitaries exchanged pens. This dissonance - between diplomatic pageantry and battlefield reality - exposes the fundamental hollowness of what the White House is hailing as a historic breakthrough. The December 4 ceremony was…

Dec

05

2025

By LOVISE AALEN and MAI AZZAM

Sudan’s protesters built networks to fight a tyrant – today they save lives in a war

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

SUDAN has a long history of civilian-led resistance, with young people playing a key role. For example, informal neighbourhood networks established in 2013 to survive repression under three decades of authoritarian rule have since transformed into vibrant support systems. These groups helped mobilise mass protests in 2018. They have provided a lifeline for communities in the ongoing civil war, which started in 2023. During the mass protests, youth-led networks organised political sit-ins and demonstrations against the Islamist regime of Omar al-Bashir. They were ultimately successful in overthrowing a 30-year dictatorship. We are researchers in the fields of anthropology and political…

Dec

04

2025

By MARC WEGERIF

African land policy reforms have been good for women and communities – but review of 18 countries shows major gaps

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

LAND tenure is the relationship, defined in law and customs, that people as individuals or groups have with land. It involves a bundle of rights to land, such as the right to use, sell, or bequeath land. Secure tenure is crucial for people to have secure homes, for food production, and for the economy. For many, it is also central to their identity and culture. While there is broad agreement on the importance of effective governance of secure land tenure, the best way to achieve this is the subject of much debate. The core contestation is between commodifying land through…

Dec

03

2025

By PATRICIA HUON

In DR Congo’s Uvira, pro-government militia actions show abuses aren’t just an M23 problem

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

LIFE for people living under occupation by the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group, which has seized vast swathes of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, has been marked by widespread human rights abuses and economic turmoil. Yet in the lakeside city of Uvira, suffocating daily pressures and abuses come not from the rebels but from the army and, especially, pro-government militias, who claim to protect the city and fight the M23. This story was originally published by The New Humanitarian.By a journalist in Uvira and Patricia Huon “Their bombs are affecting the entire population, when they should be aimed at the…

Dec

02

2025

By OWN CORRESPONDENT

Five arrested in South African mercenary trafficking ring as Zuma’s daughter resigns from parliament

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

FIVE suspects appeared in Kempton Park Magistrates Court on Monday, facing charges of violating South Africa's Foreign Military Assistance Act, marking the first arrests in a widening scandal that has already claimed the political career of former President Jacob Zuma's daughter and exposed a sophisticated human trafficking network recruiting South Africans to fight in the Russia-Ukraine war. The Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (Hawks) announced the arrests of Nonkululeko Mantula (39), Thulani Mazibuko (24), Xolani Ntuli (47), Siphamandla Tshabalala (23), and Sfiso Mabena (21) following a dramatic week that saw siblings turned against each other at the highest levels of…

Nov

29

2025

By MARELIZE ISABEL SCHOEMAN

Thousands of criminals reoffend in South Africa – better data would show where the justice system is failing

SPECIAL FEATURES: ANALYSIS

IN a recent statement, South Africa’s minister of correctional services said more than 18,000 parolees had reoffended in the past three years. They included 209 committing murder and 330 rape during 2024-25. This is one of the country’s most pressing justice problems, yet it remains poorly understood. It’s called recidivism: a situation where an individual who has already served a sentence commits another crime and is arrested, convicted or sentenced again. Academic and media reports suggest that many released prisoners commit another crime and are sentenced. However, South Africa lacks a standard definition for recidivism or a consistent way to…