The United States is moving towards ending Western isolation of Sudan. US State Department officials met with Sudanese Foreign Minister Al-Dirdiri Mohamed Ahmed in Washington last month to finalise plans to remove the “state sponsor of terrorism” designation that is presently applied to Khartoum.
Sudan was blacklisted in 1993 and has since been unable to attract foreign investors, access multilateral financial aid and otherwise benefit from the global economy. The Barack Obama…
Africa suffers the worst brain drain problem of any developing region with even medium level skilled workers like nurses and technicians among those who leave. In the field of science the loss is even greater. The Global State of Young Africa survey of young African scientists has been trying to identify the barriers that they face to staying in the continent. The survey concluded that “the extreme factors include war and political instability. But the more common ‘pushes’ are a desire for…
Politics in Angola, Africa’s second largest oil exporter, has caught observers by surprise. The new president, João Lourenço, has launched a vigorous anti-corruption crusade that has directly targeted his predecessor’s family, the powerful Dos Santos Clan.
Lourenco, known popularly as J-Lo, was expected to quietly acquiesce to the family’s enormous economic power, accrued during the 38-year rule of President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos. Instead, Lourenco has launched a number…
Congo, one of Africa’s largest but most fractious countries, saw its opposition parties agree in November to a single candidate for the December 23 presidential election, the relatively unknown politician Martin Fayulu. In keeping with Congo’s confused polity, this unity of purpose lasted just a few hours. The country will now face a three-way electoral battle, but one that is still likely to spell the end of Joseph Kabila’s 17-year long rule of the country.
Fayulu was chosen to run…
Just before his country went to the polls on July 30, former Zimbabwean president, Robert Mugabe, announced he would not support his own party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF), in the coming Zimbabwean elections. He said he would prefer the main opposition candidate, Nelson Chamisa.
Mugabe was overthrown in an internal coup by his own defence minister, Emmerson Mnangagwa. While ZANU-PF is expected to win, in part because of its control over the state…
Ethiopia’s diplomatic blitzkrieg also reflects the changing geopolitics of the Horn of Africa and its surroundings. These new alignments are largely being driven by the Persian Gulf struggle of Iran and Qatar versus Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates. That is why the UAE played a backroom role in Prime Minister Abiy’s peace initiatives with Eritrea and Egypt.
The two sets of Gulf rivals had sought allies in the Horn because of the civil war in Yemen. In 2015, Djibouti ended the…
Ethiopia’s new leader, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, has been in office for barely four months but has already achieved the political equivalent of rock star status. Abiy came to power after months of protests against the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) forced the resignation of his predecessor. While Ahmed comes from one of the four constituents of the EPRDF, he is the first to come from the section representing the Oromo – the country’s largest but politically…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi went to South Africa for the annual BRICS Summit in late July. Along the way, he made state visits to Rwanda and Uganda. This was the first such a visit by an Indian leader to Rwanda.
In visiting Rwanda and Uganda, Modi completed an Indian diplomatic outreach to the countries of East Africa. India has focussed prime ministerial and presidential visits to the region as part of a larger attempt to develop stronger ties with littoral Indian Ocean nations.…
Pramit Pal Chaudhuri writes on political, security, and economic issues. He previously wrote for the Statesman and the Telegraph in Calcutta. He served on the National Security Advisory Board of the Indian government from 2011-2015. Among other affiliations, he is a member of the Asia Society Global Council, the Aspen Institute Italia, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, and the Mont Pelerin Society. Pramit is also a senior associate of Rhodium Group, New York City, advisor to the Bower Group Asia in India, a member of the Council on Emerging Markets, Washington, DC, and a delegate for the Confederation of Indian Industry-Aspen Strategy Group Indo-U.S. Strategic Dialogue and the Ananta Aspen Strategic Dialogues with Japan, China and Israel. Born in 1964, he has visited over fifty countries on five continents. Mr. Pal Chaudhuri is a history graduate from Cornell University.
