Somalia: New President, Same Challenges
Yesterday, Somalia’s newly appointed parliament voted Hassan Sheikh Mohamud into office as the country’s new president. A political amateur and academic from central Somalia, Mohamud… Read More
South African Government Using Mining Industry as a Scapegoat for Shootings
The South African government has responded poorly to the shootings at the Lonmin mines. Instead of considering its own regulatory policies and the burdensome influence… Read More
Conflict Minerals: Another of Dodd–Frank’s Hidden Costs
On Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) adopted a little-known section (and there are many) of the Dodd–Frank financial regulation bill that will end… Read More
State Department Website Morphs into the World According to Obama
The State Department is continuing to edit its website into a more Obama-centric story of the world. As reported by The Heritage Foundation’s Jim Roberts,… Read More
Radical Islamists and Hunger Stalk North Africa
The ongoing crisis in Mali, a poor, landlocked country in northern Africa, continues to sow devastation and displacement. Mali’s current troubles began in earnest following… Read More
Boko Haram Suicide Bomber Attacks Church
The suicide attack against Harvest Field Pentecostal Church in the northern Nigerian on Sunday serves as another reminder of Boko Haram’s enduring violence. As many… Read More
A Dangerous Marriage in Northern Mali
Just as we thought the situation in Mali couldn’t get worse, the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), a Tuareg group that historically… Read More
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Africa’s Sahel Region Spirals into an Extremist Hell
Last year, the fall of the Qadhafi regime spurred a domino-like effect across Africa’s Sahel region. When approximately 2,000 well-armed Tuareg rebels loyal to the… Read More
Boko Haram Attacks Nigerian Newspaper Offices and University
The past week has been a bloody one for Nigeria. Attacks in the capital city of Abuja and across the north have strongly implicated the… Read More
A Year after Osama bin Laden’s Death: Al-Qaeda Alive and Kicking
Nearly a year ago, America did the world a favor and killed Osama bin Laden. Now the Obama Administration is taking credit for al-Qaeda’s defeat…. Read More
A Return to War for Sudan and South Sudan?
Not even a year after South Sudan’s independence from Sudan, the world’s newest country is already on the brink of war with its longtime foe…. Read More
Scribecast: How Kony 2012 Went Viral
Invisible Children brought worldwide attention to Joseph Kony and his Lord’s Resistance Army with a wildly popular documentary called “Kony 2012.” The 30-minute film depicted… Read More
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Our Dangerous Dependence on Foreign Chocolate
America is addicted to chocolate. Foreign chocolate. A majority of us consume chocolate each day. Although the U.S. produces only 6% of the world’s cocoa,… Read More
Comprehensive Strategy Needed to Counter Boko Haram
When Boko Haram, a Nigerian terrorist insurgency, reemerged from its year-long hiatus in 2010, few in Washington took notice. The bombing of the United Nations… Read More
The Bitter Fruit of Libya’s “Arab Spring”
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Libyan Prime Minister Abdurrahim el-Keib yesterday and expressed optimism about Libya’s future. But Libya faces major problems in… Read More
Congressman Donald Payne: A Strong Voice for African Policy Silenced
U.S. policy toward sub-Saharan Africa seldom achieves headline status except in times of most acute crisis. Yet the vast continent of one billion, with all… Read More
The Many Faces of Bahrain’s Opposition Movement
A year after the “Arab Spring” struck Bahrain, the opposition movement has changed significantly from its original supporters. Initiated by a youth movement demanding political… Read More
The 2012 Index of Economic Freedom: Africa Still Rising
Yesterday, Heritage’s 2012 Index of Economic Freedom was released, and Africa features prominently. With an average score gain of 0.2 points, reflecting a net gain… Read More
Libyan Islamists Gaining Strength
Although Libya has rid itself of the Muammar Qadhafi regime, it faces an uncertain future endangered by radical Islamist factions, warring militia commanders, tribal rivalries,… Read More
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Sudan: More Conflict for Khartoum?
Since South Sudan gained independence last January, the world’s newest country has many challenges to face. The government in Juba must quickly and efficiently address… Read More
Congress Addresses Boko Haram Threat, but Will Nigeria’s Government?
A screen grab made on October 21, 2010 in Kano from a video allegedly released by the Nigerian Islamist sect Boko Haram in northern Nigeria… Read More
New Libyan Prime Minister Faces Major Challenges
Libya’s interim government gradually is taking shape. On Monday the Transitional National Council (TNC) announced that it had elected a new Prime Minister, Abdurraheem el-Keib,… Read More
Suicide Blast in Somalia Raising Concerns at Home
Following a devastating suicide blast earlier in the week in Somalia’s capital city of Mogadishu, leaders from the regional terror group al Shabaab issued a… Read More
Tunisian Elections Dominated by the Islamist Al-Nahda Party
The Al-Nahda (“Renaissance”) Party, a long-banned Islamist movement that was legalized after the ouster of Tunisia’s autocratic President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali in January, is… Read More
Russia’s African Expansion Boosted by New BRICS Stock Market
Russia is bemoaning the passing of Libyan dictator Muammar Qadhafi, an old friend and client of the Soviet Union and a reliable customer for Russian… Read More
Lessons of Libya
That indigenous forces backed by Western military power could overthrow an odious unpopular regime backed by a second-rate military ought to come as no surprise…. Read More
Tunisia’s Hizb Al-Nahda: A Nightmare for Some and a Blessing for Others
Next month, Tunisians will go to the polls for the first time since former president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali fled the country last January…. Read More
Qadhafi’s Friends in Africa: A Challenge for the TNC
While the Libyan rebels continue their search for deposed dictator Muammar Qadhafi, rumors abound as to where the former despot could be hiding. Some believe… Read More
Obama’s Top Ten Errors on Libya
When in November 1942 the British Army broke and routed Rommel, and sent him fleeing through Libya, Winston Churchill recognized that it was not the… Read More
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Boko Haram Broadens Attacks, Strikes U.N. Headquarters
On Friday, a suicide bomber launched an attack against the U.N. headquarters in Nigeria’s capital city of Abuja. The Islamist sect Boko Haram (translated: “education… Read More
