Rwanda og DR Kongo signerte nylig en fredsavtale i Washington, D.C. Jeg håper at jeg tar feil, men jeg er foreløpig skeptisk til at avtalen vil bane vei for fred med det første. Jeg drodler litt om dette i en ny tekst på Afrikansk politikk-substacken. open.substack.com/pub/maren930...

Oh yes. www.theguardian.com/football/pic...

This will be carefully followed in the Sahel

YESSSS!!!

Jeg har begått en liten kommentar om Ibrahim Traoré - Burkina Fasos juntaleder som har blitt den nye politiske superhelten på TikTok. Følg Afrikansk politikk på Substack for å få oppdateringer fra @marensa.bsky.social og meg direkte i innboksen din! maren930.substack.com/p/traore-og-...

I går hadde @marensa.bsky.social og jeg en hyggelig prat med utviklingsminister Åsmund Aukrust i podkasten vår Afrikansk politikk. Samtalen svingte innom alt fra amerikanske bistandskutt og et FN-system i pengekrise, til Norges mulige rolle i en turbulent verden. open.spotify.com/episode/7eeY...

I think another way of looking at this is that the court of a corrupt and distracted mad king has always been fertile ground for opportunistic dealmaking by those in attendance. Trump catalyzes this opportunism, but it's unclear who are the beneficiaries of any deals that are actually closed.

Jeg har svart Asle Toje i Aftenposten. Han forveksler antiamerikanisme med antitrumpisme. www.aftenposten.no/meninger/deb...

More than 200 civilians killed as Sudan’s RSF assaults Darfur refugee camps

Demonstrations in Central African Republic against #Wagner and President's bid for a third term: “We’re here to say no to a third term..But more than that, we want to protect our sovereignty, which Touadera and the Wagner have trampled upon,” #Russia #CAR #Africa apnews.com/article/cent...

Historians are going to have better records from the 19th century than the 21st, is my most medievalist futurist prediction.

A video obtained by @nytimes.com clearly refutes the Israeli military's narrative on the aid convoy attack: Israeli troops opened fire on clearly marked ambulances that had their emergency lights on. 15 aid workers were killed. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/w...

Seriously this Bible exchange goes on even longer than I'm able to clip here.

BREAKING — Nearly all employees at the US Institute of Peace (USIP) received an email tonight informing them they were fired effective immediately, multiple staffers confirmed with me. Just a few HR and IT staffers are being kept on to assist DOGE’s illegal dismantling of the independent nonprofit.

If this were an *actual* war this opportunistic photoshoot would be a violation of the Geneva Convention.

Abu Ghraib as photo op.

Det har gått raskt utfor i Sør-Sudan. Med arrestasjonen av visepresident Riek Machar er fredsvtalen fra 2018, i realiteten revet i stykker

Our analysis on Trump as mediator theglobalobservatory.org/2025/03/maki...

Hate to say I told you so, but...

This is the wildest story I have literally ever read. In any normal circumstances, a half-dozen senior officials would be forced to resign over this—starting with the National Security Advisor. And I doubt anyone will face any accountability at all.

I'd frame this as part of what I've called Trump II's war on words. In this case, they've hollowed the word "terror" out of its accepted meaning and inserted "migrant" in its place.

... That last I take from @nescio13.bsky.social. So segregationist managed democracy at home, and mercantilist monopoly patronage guiding economic and foreign policy. This is an indefensibly awful social and economic system, nothing to endear it unless you are a politically well-connected sycophant.

Lydspor til saken: open.spotify.com/episode/50U8...

Elon Musk hevder USAs bistandsfrys ikke har kostet liv. Det er nok ikke sant i Sør-Sudan. I en leir for internt fordrevne i Unity nord i landet har man sluttet å tømme latriner som følge av kuttene, og det midt i en koleraepidemi. www.panoramanyheter.no/sor-sudan-us...

Absolute insanity

Sør-Sudan og Tigray står på kanten av stupet, og i Sudan er alt i bevegelse. @marensa.bsky.social og jeg har kastet oss rundt med en hasteepisode, og Kjetil Tronvoll svipper innom for å forklare oss hva som skjer på Hornet. open.spotify.com/episode/5Jdy...

The United States is now a fascinating experiment in how quickly rule by imbecile can destroy the foundations of global power status

So this was a campaign promise not an observation.

Høydramatisk i Sør-Sudan, der et FN-helikopter er blitt beskutt i forsøket på å evakuere en såret general. Fredsavtalen fra 2018 er det svært lite igjen av..

Maren og jeg er allerede godt i gang med sesong tre av Afrikansk politikk. Hjelp oss gjerne spre budskapet så vi kan fortsette å levere Afrika-dekningen vi selv savner fra norske medier.

Those soyabean exports look nice... shame if something were to happen to them

check in on your nuclear non-proliferation expert friends because they are not okay

Really impressive how JD is able to memorize all those Russian talking points.

Word of the day is ‘huff-snuff’ (16th century): a hectoring bully or braggart.

Now watching Trump yell at Zelensky. And Vance talk to him like he's a toddler. This is a shameful moment for United States diplomacy. It will be hard to recover from this.

This is an evergreen tweet for this era.

I’m sure there’s room to criticize Zelenskyy, but watching him with Trump and Vance, you see a man with real personal courage standing up to two assholes with no character

Even with the obvious imbalance of power, Zelensky makes Vance look like a preening little teacher’s pet.

Se også Dubois (1306), Sully (1638), Saint-Pierre (1713), Rousseau (1756), Kant (1795) etc etc www.vg.no/nyheter/i/wg...

Found this piece incredibly frustrating 🧵 A) ACLED's president cannot possibly prove that oft-cited fatality estimates in Sudan (or in Tigray, for that matter) are exaggerations. Meanwhile we have every reason to believe that ACLED's numbers are completely off the mark in both cases.

Bureaucracy, famously not important in war

While we’re at it, it would also be nice not to promote an airline from the UAE, given the latter’s support of genocidal actors like the RSF in Sudan. And while the resource dimension of the conflicts in the DRC is often overstated, we know that plundered gold has tended to end up in Dubai…

So, Mexico has agreed to do what it is already doing? www.reuters.com/article/worl...

With @judithverweijen.bsky.social I wrote this comment on why the Congo crisis extends beyonds 'conflict minerals'. (version française en dessous de la version angles) www.egmontinstitute.be/congo-crisis...

Chomsky: Greenland is clearly in US sphere of influence. Denmark should trade land for peace Mearsheimer: Great powers always ruthlessly pursue their own interests. Denmark should be pragmatic Varoufakis: Denmark's aggressive joining of EU provoked Trump. It's their own fault.

Nine South African soldiers killed during fighting in the DRC over the past two days. Many more injured. Rumours of additional troops to be urgently sent to the eastern DRC from SA next week.