Central and East Africa – A Region in Decay?

No I know, South Sudan is missing from this map

I realized the other day that my blog has been more about quoting Mean Girls than stuff that is happening in Africa, so I figured it was about time to bring out the Political Scientist in me (that is right, I didn’t study chick flicks, though it might seem like it) and write a post about current events. So if you’re not that into war and peace and stuff, you can skip this one (don’t worry, I won’t tell). Here we go…

Full disclosure: I’m by no means any expert on African affairs, I’ve never studied it, and to be quite frank always been a little confused by all the different conflicts, so just bear with my while I assume the role of Miss Smarty Pants.

First of all - ahem – (*clearing throat*), a little clarification is perhaps needed. When I refer to Central and East Africa here, I am thinking of ‘middle Africa’ (why is that not a term?), that is, spanning from Nigeria in the West, to the Central African Republic in the middle, to Somalia in the East, also covering Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, South-Sudan and Kenya (puh).

Now, where to begin? I mean, there is so much happening just in these two regions it could fill TIME’s issues for the next couple of years, probably. A chronological description of the events would probably be easiest to read, but time-consuming for me to write. A ranking of the different crisis might be the most interesting to read, but tempting as it is, seems a bit too grotesque (imagine a BuzzFeed article titled ‘A Definite Ranking of…’). So I’ll just try and keep it tidy instead, and avoid too many digressions or parenthesis (think I can do it?).

Nigeria

Malala, who was shot in the head by the Taliban for going to school, holding up a poster for the #BringBackOurGirls campaign

Why not start with the most recent one, which has gained considerable attention both on social media and in the media in general. While the world was still busy coming up with new conspiracy theories about what happened to the MH370, Boko Haram – an Islamic fundamentalist militant organization which has been terrorizing the Northern parts of Nigeria for more than a decade – broke in to a boarding school with AK47s, setting fire to it and kidnapping more than 200 girls. Why? Because the group, as their name suggests, believe ‘Western education’ (can someone please explain to me exactly what that is, gender-neutral education, secular education?) is a sin, and that girls shouldn’t go to school. Sounds like Pakistan and Afghanistan under the Taliban, except they simply blew up the schools, and didn’t bother kidnapping anyone. Since when did school girls become such a great threat to anyone?

CAR (as in the Central African Republic, not the mode of transport.)

How old do you think this kid can be...?

Last spring there was a coup in the Christian majority country, by an armed predominantly Muslim rebel group. The President fled the country, and fighting and chaos ensued, killing several hundreds and displacing hundreds of thousands. The fighting escalated around Christmas, and the collapsed state found itself on the verge of genocide, with an impending humanitarian crisis. Child soldiers have been used a lot by both sides. France and the AU already have troops deployed, and the UN has pledged to send 12,000 peacekeepers – but not provided a timeline.

The DRC (not to be confused with the Congo, which is a different country, with almost the same name. Just to mess with you.)

 

Anyone remember this campaign by Invisible Children?

Who even knows what’s going on in this conflict-ridden country. Apparently more than 5 million people have died in the war that started in 1998, and supposedly ended in 2007 with the signing of a peace agreement. After the genocide in Rwanda in 1994, Hutu militias fled across the border to the then called Zaire, only to launch an insurgency against the Tutsis residing there, setting up training camps and recruiting more people, with the agenda of at some point overthrow the Tutsi-led government of Rwanda. And ever since it’s been a battle between those two groups more or less, other rebel groups loyal to them, neighboring countries using the different groups as proxys to further their agenda, Kony doing his thing in the North, before it all culminated in the UN’s first offensive ‘peacekeeping’ mission last year, which defeated the M23 group, which was an armed group that broke loose from an opposition group (headache, yeah I know).

Burundi (Give you a dime if you’ve even heard of the capital…)

Race identity cards

I’m not going to say much about this one, except for that while all the African leaders were gathered in Kigali for the 20^th commemoration of the Genocide in Rwanda, busy pledging that they would never allow this to happen again, tensions across the border in Burundi between Hutus and Tutsis were increasing, with the upcoming election in 2015. While most people think the genocide ended in Rwanda in 1994, the killings between Hutus and Tutsis continued in Burundi up to a peace agreement was reached in 2000. Now tensions seem to have resurfaced again, with the Hutu-majority government cracking down on Tutsi-opposition groups. While world leaders were occupied repeating the already worn.out phrase ‘Never Again’, articles here read ‘Burundi, on the Brink of another Genocide?’.

South-Sudan

Salva Kiir (centre-right) and Riek Machar (to his left) during peace talks

Barely two years after it’s secession from Sudan – after decades of civil war – fighting erupted in this new country before Christmas. From what it looks like, the whole conflict seems to be about power politics, centered around two greedy men, the President Salva Kiir, and his former Vice-President Riek Machar (yes, they even come from the same party!). According to Kiir, Machar attempted a coup, and therefore he and the rebels must be stopped. Machar, on the other hand, claims that Kiir was fast becoming an authoritarian leader, especially after firing everyone that could be a potential threat in the 2015 elections (including Machar). So there you have it. 

Oh, and also of course they belong to two different ethnic groups, which only makes matters worse. Now the fighting is as much between the rebels and those loyal to the government, as it is between the Dinka and the Nuer people, with both sides committing equally horrible mass atrocities. The fighting has been centered around the capital Juba, and the oil rich states of Bor, Bentiu and Malakal (wonder why?). The rebels have been widely criticized for their massacres of hundreds of people in a mosque, and attacking UN bases (the latter goes for both of the warring parties). Kiir has fallen out with the UN after accusing them of harboring rebels in their camps, and calling for their departure. Uganda is supporting Kiir, with a few thousand troops deployed, despite calls from the international community to withdraw.  There have been two attempts at peace accords, but both failed.

Kenya/Somalia

A family hiding from al-shabaab during the attack on Westgate

Westgate, ring a bell anyone? While we were all busy either watching or making fun out of the contestants in Eurovision (or both), Al-Shabaab – an extremist group seeking to establish strict sharia law in Somalia and kicking out the AMISOM troops – intensified their terror campaign in Kenya, with several bombs going off in markets and buses injuring and killing dozens. The result has been travel warnings and evacuation of tourists by Western Embassies, who fear the group might strike again. Kenya has responded by launching an enormous deportation campaign of illegal Somali immigrants, while at the same time trying to reassure foreigners it’s safe to stay, in an act to save the tourism...

So, I think that's it for now. There’s no doubt this region has descended into chaos (or has it always been like this, perhaps?). But there is no reason to loose all hope just yet, as progress has been made in many areas. Just look at Uganda, home of Idi Amin and Joseph Kony’s LRA, they seem to fare pretty well in terms of peace and stability now. So it’s not all bad!