Africa Up Close

The 2009 uprising in Madagascar that led to the overthrow of President Marc Ravalomanana and the subsequent intervention of the African Union (AU) and Southern African Development Community (SADC) shook Madagascar to its core. The political crisis, which began with tensions and protests, culminated in violence against the opposition, a Malagasy military intervention, and the ousting of the president. President Ravalomanana’s removal was followed by an AU and SADC intervention to mediate and resolve the conflict.

Two women enter a tent at the Mentao refugee camp in Burkina Faso in 2012, a camp formed from people leaving the conflict in Mali. Many African countries host far more refugees and migrants than Europe, and the fates of refugees and migrants are linked to both European and African policies.
Photo by Pablo Tosco/Oxfam, via Flickr. Creative Commons.

The migrants and refugees streaming into Europe from Africa and the Middle East have presented European leaders and policymakers with their greatest challenge since the Eurozone crisis. The conflict in Syria continues to be the biggest driver of migration, but other factors, including instability and lack of proper governance in Libya, terrorism in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the usual mixed migration patterns from South Asian and African countries, also continue to influence migration patterns to Europe. The European Union’s collective response to this migrant influx and its policy have been ad-hoc, inconsistent, and focused more on national interests and securing the bloc’s borders than on protecting the rights of migrants and refugees.