Our website use cookies to improve and personalize your experience and to display advertisements (if any). Our website may also include cookies from third parties like Google Adsense, Google Analytics, and Youtube. By using the website, you consent to the use of cookies.

Illegal gold mining in the firing line

Illegal gold mining in the firing line

COUNTRIES across the continent are moving to quash illegal gold mining, using a variety of methods including formalising the sector, applying more stringent legal processes and even resorting to military intervention, with a Ghanaian court recently sentencing a Chinese national to prison for illegal gold mining, “The court in the capital, Accra, sentenced Aisha Huang to four and a half years imprisonment and a fine of 48,000 Ghanaian cedis ($4,000) for running an illegal mining operation,” Reuters reported of the sentencing on December 4, which brought an end to a trial that started in 2017. Ghana is the 10th largest…
Read More
African nations to send troops to Mozambique

African nations to send troops to Mozambique

SOUTHERN African nations have approved the deployment of troops to Mozambique to help the country combat an escalating Islamic State-linked insurgency that threatens stability in the relatively peaceful region, the bloc's executive secretary said. The 16-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) has been grappling with how to respond to the conflict, which began in October 2017 and has since killed thousands on all sides. Almost 800,000 people have been displaced and the fighting has bought a $20 billion gas project led by oil giant Total to a grinding halt. SADC has approved the deployment of its standby force, Stergomena Lawrence…
Read More
No military response to Moz insurgency

No military response to Moz insurgency

A bloc of southern African nations has said it will work to shore up Mozambique's security forces as they battle an escalating insurgency linked to Islamic State, but made no mention of proposals for military intervention. Members of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), including neighbouring South Africa, have favoured the idea of regional military action as the violence has worsened and the threat to regional stability has grown. Mozambique's President Filipe Nyusi, however, has said in the past Mozambique should handle certain aspects of the response alone for reasons of sovereignty, and resisted suggestions of foreign boots on the…
Read More
Chad’s ‘covert coup’ and the implications for democratic governance in Africa

Chad’s ‘covert coup’ and the implications for democratic governance in Africa

THE recent spate of military coups in Africa, which were intended to be transitional, might instead be a risk for democracy in the long term. There might be a short term need to maintain security. But the military may not necessarily be a credible partner to build democratic governance. Military intervention could mean that people might continue to be in a state of stagnant democracy. LAURA-STELLA ENONCHONG, Senior Lecturer in Law, De Montfort University Chad is the most recent example of this. Soon after the death of President Idriss Deby, the military swiftly took over power. They immediately installed his…
Read More
Egypt’s Sisi wins parliamentary approval for possible Libya intervention

Egypt’s Sisi wins parliamentary approval for possible Libya intervention

MAHMOUD MOURAD and NADINE AWADALLA EGYPT'S parliament gave President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi the green light for possible military intervention in Libya by approving the deployment of armed forces abroad to fight "terrorist groups" and "militias". A sharp military escalation in Libya, where fighters led by eastern commander Khalifa Haftar have been battling the forces of the internationally recognised government, could risk igniting a direct conflict among the foreign powers that have poured in weapons and fighters in violation of an arms embargo. Khalifa Haftar Sisi warned last week that Egypt would not stand idle if there was a threat to national…
Read More