“It looks like President Kiir is continuing to escalate. … Some people in Juba worry that Kiir is trying to start an ethnic war,” ~ Alan Boswell, @crisisgroup.org project director for the Horn of Africa. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

📢 NEW policy brief on Gulf players' geoeconomic engagement in Africa is out now.

"In both Ethiopia and South Sudan, conflicts are escalating again. To prevent further regionalisation of the conflict landscape, Europe should support high-level diplomacy", writes Gerrit Kurtz at @swp-berlin.org www.swp-berlin.org/en/publicati...

I’m quoted along with the excellent @simnasr.bsky.social and @menastream.bsky.social on the brutal and escalating tactics and attacks on civilians that mark the Wagner group’s presence in Mali: www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/0...

The number of civilians casualties from #drone strikes in #Ethiopia is rising sharply with the arrival of new Turkish #drones. The lackluster international attitude on drone warfare is sending states on a killing spree. Strong piece by @zekuzelalem.bsky.social ecfr.eu/publication/...

On #Ethiopia’s drone-backed wars... "In just a few years, they have become some of the deadliest conflicts for civilians in the country’s history." ecfr.eu/publication/...

A must read from one of the journalists I respect the most, @zekuzelalem.bsky.social. We heard all about how drones were going to be revolutionizing medicine delivery in Africa and all that. But what is happening? Cheap drones have been extending warfare on the continent. ecfr.eu/publication/...

1/ I want to flag two brilliant new policy briefs from @ecfrafrica.bsky.social fellows. First, the inimitable Jonas Horner wrote about the greatest crisis on earth today: Sudan. How Europeans can navigate the dizzying range of interests, foreign powers to help bring about peace?

Ivan Krastev: “what history teaches us is that the best strategy is not to resist the revolutionaries but to hijack their revolution. In doing this, Europe’s success will mostly depend not on its ability to resist but on displaying a talent to surprise.” on.ft.com/3QE2FPH

A first for me, I wrote a policy brief for the @ecfr.eu, addressing the proliferation of cheap drones across Africa, distributed by the likes of China, Türkiye & the UAE. They cause carnage, the erosion of democracy, but also a political realignment towards Moscow. I used Ethiopia as a study case.

A must read from my old colleagues. The world needs to wake up to what's going on www.telegraph.co.uk/global-healt...

Latest: As Trump rattles sabres against old allies, North Korean troops fight on Europe’s border, and Gaza and Khartoum lie in ruins, the restraints—real or imagined—on expansionist ambitions are collapsing. ecfr.eu/article/pres...

Congo stands on the brink of being at the centre of a devastating new regional war. Europe should act in its own self-interest to avert further humanitarian catastrophe, writes @willbrownecfr.bsky.social 📝 @ecfrafrica.bsky.social

"The role of the ultra-wealthy has morphed from one of shared social responsibility and patronage to the freewheeling celebration of selfish opulence," @brianklaas.bsky.social writes:

More than 100 female prisoners were raped and then burned alive during a jailbreak in the Congolese city of Goma, according to the UN. www.bbc.co.uk/news/videos/...

Well this is absolutely horrying pepfarimpact.vercel.app

#Niger junta expels Red Cross without explanation rfi.my/BO64.X

From BMWs to bazookas, from handbrakes to hand grenades: how German workers downsized in car factories are being courted by defence firms www.ft.com/content/e990...

The past year has seen a dramatic drop in irregular migration from Africa. Mali was the leading country of origin for irregular migration to Europe in 2024. africacenter.org/spo...

In this week's Economist, @olliecarroll & I look at the evolution of electronic warfare (EW) in Ukraine. The cat & mouse game between drones & jammers is driving innovation in software, hardware & tactics. Ukraine seems to be more agile, though AI-guidance poses big problems. 👇

Marco Rubio has accused South Africa of "anti-Americanism", refused to attend a G20 meeting in Johannesburg later this month and again repeated false claims made by Trump that South Africa is expropriating private property

The USG v China on South Africa, which recently became the first African country to hold the rotating G20 presidency

The world’s largest mining project in Guinea’s Simandou mountain range will begin production by the end of the year following decades of delays - with 5% of eventual revenues earmarked to expand the country’s education system /1

So H.I.V. tests that were 500 shillings at some Nairobi hospitals are now going for 10,000.

As fighting continues in Sudan, some doctors in the city of El Fasher are conducting vital procedures in shipping containers buried underground www.dropsitenews.com/p/in-sudan-d...

Meanwhile in Niger, authorities are kicking out the ICRC

Top Dem on the House Intel Committee Jim Himes says in a statement that he understands that the White House “insisted” on the CIA transmitting the list in an unclassified email

Jean-Hervé Jezequel, directeur de projet à l’International Crisis Group : « Evincée du Sahel, la France continue de sous-estimer la portée de la rupture souverainiste actuelle »

the UK is taking legal advice over whether it can withdraw $1.15bn of taxpayers’ money from TotalEnergies for a controversial $20bn liquefied natural gas project, according to two people with knowledge of the situation www.ft.com/content/cacd...

If #Angola enters the fray in #Congo-Kinshasa, it could challenge #Rwanda diplomatically and militarily – especially if it coincides with the US, Britain and the EU cutting aid to #Kigali and ending security ties with #Kagame.

DR Congo’s Minister for Foreign Affairs has written to Arsenal, Bayern Munich & Paris Saint-Germain urging the three football clubs to end their partnership with Rwanda.

Question for those more clicked into these things - what sort of economic damage would the UK be looking at if Trump imposed 25% tariffs like those on Canada and Mexico?

French troops have finally left Chad after 70 years’ presence. They left the N'djamena military base they occupied for about seven decades this week.

I had the honour of writing a report on the Rapid Support Forces (#RSF) in #Sudan with Audre Lord for Small Arms Survey. The report is a comprehensive look at the RSF during the Sudanese civil war: from its political economy to its recruitment strategy. www.smallarmssurvey.org/resource/rep...

Five years on, few Britons think Brexit has been good for anything % saying Brexit has had a positive impact on... Control the UK has over its laws: 31% UK's ability to respond to COVID-19: 23% UK's level of international trade: 11% NHS: 6% Full list in chart 👇 yougov.co.uk/politics/art...

UK comes out firing. What a change from when the Conservatives were in and top ministers refused to say there was any link between M23 and Rwanda because they all wanted to ship migrants off to Kigali. www.gov.uk/government/n...

Very cool news from ECFR

🚨 BREAKING: #Rwanda’s Defence Force reports receiving and escorting over 280 #Romanian mercenaries who had been fighting alongside DRC forces in eastern Congo. The mercenaries surrendered to #M23 after the capture of #Goma and were transported to #Kigali.

Excellent @crisisgroup.org analysis on the events in Eastern #DRC, warning for the real risk of a wider regional war, and highlighting #Rwanda's regional ambitions: www.crisisgroup.org/africa/great...

Le retrait du #Burkina Faso, de la République du #Mali et de la République du #Niger de la #CEDEAO prend effet à compter de ce mercredi 29 janvier 2025.

Demonstrations outside US embassy in #Kinshasa as anti western sentiment ratchets up in the wake of the rebel onslaught in the east of the country.

excellent article qui attire l'attention sur la coopération militaire contestée de la France www.mediapart.fr/journal/inte...

don’t mention this to modern Thatcherites but the tax rises at the start of the Thatcher period were bigger - proportionately - than Labour’s October 2024 Budget yes Mrs T cut taxes but only after increasing them massively taxpolicy.org.uk/2022/06/08/u...

Thirty-seven suspected terrorists arrested in East Africa, says Interpol. Among them: - two Islamic State operatives in Kenya, - an IS Mozambique operative in Tanzania - operatives in DR Congo and Somalia - www.reuters.com/world/africa...