Africa

Kenya has drawn increasing scrutiny and absorbed U.S. policymakers' attention after the disputed results of the December election set off rounds of violence amongst political factions. During the runup to the elections, European Parliament member and Deputy Chairman of the German Liberal Democrats (FDP), Alexander Graf Lambsdorff, led an EU observer mission. As one of the first and leading voices to express doubts about the election process, he drew international attention to the electoral crisis. Graf Lambsdorff has argued that… more

It was an ordinary soccer pitch: sparse tufts of grass and reddish soil surrounded by cinder-block homes. The two candidates stood on opposite sides of the field as the people of Yelwa, a town of 30,000 in central Nigeria, lined up behind them one May morning in 2002 to vote. Whoever had more supporters would lead the town’s council. And whoever led the council would control the certificates of indigeneship: the papers certifying that Yelwa was their home, and that… more

God's Country: Nigeria's Middle Belt (Public Radio International)

Over a slideshow of photos by Seamus Murphy, Lisa Mullins talks with The Atlantic magazine's Eliza Griswold about reporting in Nigeria's middle belt, and the history of religious tensions in the region.

Eliza Griswold wrote the article "God's Country" appearing in the March 2008 issue of The Atlantic. It is available online along with additional coverage of Nigeria's middle belt.

Last year, Nigeria's newly-elected president set forth a seven-step agenda to achieve the UN Millennium Development Goals and turn Nigeria into a top-20 industrialized nation by 2020. But this will be no easy task. Nigeria's wealth inequality is among the worst in Africa - a situation illustrated by the contrast between the nation's substantial oil wealth and a poverty rate of around 50%. Nigeria's National Poverty Eradication Program (NAPEP) responded to this challenge in December 2007 by launching… more

The Bush administration is dispatching a joint Diplomatic Security-Federal Bureau of Investigation team to Khartoum to investigate the murder of an American diplomat working to promote democracy and changes in the electoral process in Sudan, John Granville. ...

A senior fellow at the New America Foundation, Peter Bergen, said he suspected the hand of Al Qaeda in the killing. "Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahri have often called for attacks in Sudan in past months," Mr. Bergen said. "They see the… more

Clausewitz is the name, and war is my game. You'll forgive a little levity from a dead Prussian, won't you?

I, Carl von Clausewitz, wrote the book on war. Literally. It's called Vom Kriege ("On War"), and I'm proud to say it's been required reading at military academies for two centuries. So when Herr Pinkerton told me he was writing a column about American military strategy in the Middle East -- I told him to take the day off.

Ironically,… more

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have left little room for news coverage or informed discussion of what is going on in the rest of the world and how it relates to U.S. security interests. This goes double for Africa, which was largely ignored in policymaking circles even before Iraq and 9/11 began to dominate the foreign policy agenda.

Thus, few Americans are likely aware that the U.S. relationship with Africa has become increasingly militarized. In the long run, such… more

"Take off your veil!" the Somali soldier shouted at the woman in the mostly empty street. Steadying his assault rifle with his right hand, he ripped away the woman's black niqab with his left. "Why are you coming so close to us? You have explosives?" He leveled the muzzle of his gun against the bridge of her nose. Her mouth, suddenly embarrassed and exposed, broke into a jester's forced grin.

"I just want a juice," she pleaded. Except for a handful… more

Eliza Griswold is a writer who focuses on conflict, human rights, and religion. Her reportage and analyses have appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, Harper’s Magazine, and The New Republic, among other publications. She was a 2007 Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and is the recipient… more

A radical Islamic regime bites the dust: In Somalia, "regime change" works smoothly, without much cost to America. There are some lessons there.

Last summer, the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) took over the Somali capital, Mogadishu, as well as much of the rest of the country. It displaced what had passed for the formal government of that country, which has been wracked by civil war for the past 15 years.

The UIC was the real Taliban-like deal, forcing women into veils,… more