After the ZANU-PF’s Central Committee’s unanimous vote on 19th November 2017, Mugabe is no longer First Secretary of the ZANU-PF party. But, Mugabe is not purged from the ZANU-PF party, and this decision has no bearing on Mugabe’s position as President of the State of Zimbabwe. Mugabe’s party position is only of importance if the 12th December‘s…
A number of recent studies explore the relationship between gender inequality and conflict and generally find that higher gender inequality, or lower rates of inclusion, is associated with higher rates of conflict and violence. However, efforts to increase inclusion ought to be accompanied by institutional and normative changes too if negative violent consequences are to…
Violent activity in Nigeria continues to be active on two major fronts. Military forces have opened a substantial air campaign against Boko Haram in the north-east and Fulani militia violence remains frequent in the country’s middle belt. Boko Haram Though Boko Haram was largely dislodged from their base of operations in Sambisa Forest in late…
Conflict activity in South Sudan reduced by half between May and October, confirming the trends outlined in ACLED’s last update on the conflict (ACLED, June 2017). Violence has resumed to affect all parts of the country and as we approach the end of the rainy season, conflict levels have started to rise again (see Figure 1).…
Mozambique witnessed a dramatic increase in political violence in October 2017. The spike in violence stemmed from an apparent Islamist attack in the Cabo Delgado region, located in the far north of the country. An attack by a group calling itself ‘Al Shabaab’ attacked three police stations in the coastal village Mocimboa da Praia resulting…
Despite the spectre of the 2007 post-election violence looming over Kenya’s elections this year, the level of events and fatalities have proven to be more comparable to the 2013 elections than those of 2007. Although election-related events in the months preceding the general election in August 2017 drove the numbers of both events and fatalities…
On Friday, 4 August, Ethiopian officials lifted the 10-month long State of Emergency that was declared last year during an unprecedented wave of popular mobilization and anti-government protests. Enhanced government powers during the State of Emergency brought mass detentions, politically motivated criminal charges, and numerous restrictions on people’s movement and communication (HRW, 7 August 2017).…
Burundi This month saw Burundi fall to the lowest level of events and second lowest reported fatality count since before the presidential elections in 2015. October 2017 also represents the continuation of a shorter term downward trend in fatalities from a 2017 high of 34 in each of June and July to 13 this month.…