Her passing forces the world to consider what she stood for as a monarch of the Commonwealth realms. World leaders publicly acknowledging only the positives runs contrary to how others, especially people in African nations, view the Queen’s legacy and is an insult to former British colonies who fought for their right to rule themselves.
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On September 11, Ethiopia’s Tigray rebels announced that they are willing to participate in peace talks headed by the African Union (AU), reports Al Jazeera. This announcement comes after fighting resumed between the Ethiopian Federal Government and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) in August.
Read MoreEthiopian and Tigrayan leaders have agreed to a humanitarian ceasefire to halt the civil conflict that has raged in the country’s northern Tigray region for over a year. The United Nations and other international actors are hopeful that the cessation of fighting will allow for humanitarian aid to the region. Reuters reports that the ceasefire comes at a time when “more than 90 percent of the 5.5 million Tigrayans need food aid,” despite Ethiopian authorities affirming that aid deliveries have never been impeded.
Read MoreSomalia’s federal parliamentary elections have been postponed with no planned makeup date, drawing the ire of Western backers that have condemned the delay.
March 15 was the deadline for each of Somalia’s five states to separately hold elections for the country’s lower house of parliament. By the end of the day, however, the central government failed to announce the completion of the vote nationwide. While voting was completed in the states of South West and Galmudug, the states of Jubaland, Hirshabelle, and Puntland cumulatively still had 40 vacant seats to fill as of the date of the deadline, according to Africanews.
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A deadly bomb attack struck central Somalia on February 16, leaving 13 dead and many injured. Al Jazeera reports that the blast was caused by a suicide bomber targeting a Somali government spokesman, Mohamed Ibrahim Moalimuu, who is being treated at a hospital for his injuries. Several other politicians and government officials were injured.
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According to Reuters, the attempted coup that took place on February 1 in Guinea-Bissau is the latest of more than a dozen coup attempts the West African nation has faced since gaining independence from Portugal in 1974. While President Umaro Sissico Embalo and his entire cabinet survived, Al Jazeera reports the coup resulted in at least 11 fatalities.
Read MoreThe eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano on January 15 created continuous challenges in aiding Tonga, the nation of Pacific islands caught in the disaster. One of the main challenges resulting from the eruption, according to PBS News, was the severing of Tonga’s fiber-optic cable, cutting off communication with the rest of the world.
Read MoreSeveral African nations are pushing back against what they call a discriminatory imposition of travel bans on countries in Southern Africa following the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant. The protests come amidst the fact that despite cases of the new variant being discovered in several countries, including Israel, Hong Kong, The United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and The Czech Republic, travel bans have only been placed against countries in Africa, reports CNN.
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“We will bury this enemy with our blood and bones” is hardly a statement one might anticipate hearing from a Nobel Peace Prize winner, but Abiy Ahmed’s tenure as Prime Minister of Ethiopia has been far from what anyone has anticipated. On October 31, Ahmed sounded the alarm of a near state collapse when he urged citizens to take up arms and brace for a battle over the capital of Africa’s second most populous country, reports The New York Times. Now, with almost every global power keen on remaining influential in Africa, many remain baffled as to why the world has remained largely indifferent towards Africa’s second most populous nation.
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In 2019, Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed received the Nobel Peace Prize for ending a prolonged war against the neighboring nation of Eritrea. Today, however, Ethiopia is in civil strife and Abiy finds himself on the brink of losing his political legitimacy.
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