Africa Up Close

Commemorative cloth from Yahya Jammeh’s 2006 election campaign. Photo by Tommy Miles, via Flickr. Creative Commons.

Africa and the international community heaved a sigh of relief as Yahya Jammeh, the former President of the Gambia, finally agreed to step down on January 20, 2017. This decision came after months of denying the results of the December 1, 2016 elections in which the coalition opposition candidate, Adama Barrow, a successful property developer, football enthusiast, and longtime resident in the UK, won a plurality of the vote. Jammeh, who had come to power in a military coup and ruled the Gambia with an iron hand for 22 years, brooking no opposition or challenge, had once declared he would be president for “a billion years.” His refusal to accept the election results had been challenged across the board by the newly elected Gambian president, the regional grouping of states called the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the African Union (AU), the United Nations (UN), and key international powers like the United States. His decision to step down brings the immediate crisis to an end, but the Gambia still faces significant challenges in establishing public trust in government and moving forward with development. The success of ECOWAS in forcing Jammeh to step down stands as an example of how Africa can independently handle its security challenges.

Photo Courtesy of Brice Blondel via Flickr.

Testimony before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations

July 22, 2015

Author’s note: Since the July 22 elections, which resulted in at least three deaths in the Bujumbura area, there has been continuing unrest. Tensions remain high, and the African Union  has announced the deployment of a team of human rights observers and military experts aimed at helping to prevent an escalation of violence and facilitating a peaceful resolution of the serious political crisis affecting Burundi.  The Burundi government has granted visas to the team which is expected to arrive shortly.  The UN has called for a all parties to immediately renew an inclusive dialogue to resolve the challenges facing the country.  In the meantime, Burundian government sources have claimed that the recent fighting in Kayanza was supported by Rwanda and it is training forces to invade Burundi. 

The elections cycle got underway in Burundi on June 29, when the election for the parliamentary bodies, the Senate and National Assembly, took place. A second round of elections was held on July 21, despite almost three months of protests and almost universal condemnation of the president and ruling party for going forward with the elections under the current circumstances. The present crisis began on April 28, when President Pierre Nkurunziza announced that he would seek a third term. Burundi erupted into a chaotic scene of street protests and violent police response, followed by an attempted military coup, refugee flows into neighboring countries, and gangs of youth roaming communities at night intimidating, threatening and even killing their fellow citizens. At least 90 persons have died, maybe more, and up to 160,000 refugees have left the country, most going to Tanzania and Rwanda. Many independent radio stations have been closed, even transmission towers destroyed, to limit the flow of news to Burundians, who receive almost all their information by radio or word of mouth.

As Burundi approaches elections this year, there are underlying pressures that leave little room for hope of reform. Violence and political tension plague the nation, depriving citizens of certain basic rights. This article takes an in depth look at political parties, previous elections and prospects for the 2015 elections in Burundi.  It is the second to a two part series. Please find the first part here.

Observers who follow Burundi closely have had a growing fear that the nation is slipping slowly back into the awful years of intercommunal violence, civil war, bad governance, and a failed economy.  Burundi’s 2005 election cycle and ratification of a new constitution had inspired new hopes for advances for democracy, the rule of law, protection for human rights, and reconciliation and inclusion after the successful integration of armed rebel groups into the security and political fabric of the nation.

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President Obama closed the first ever US-Africa Leaders’ Summit on August 7, 2014, by declaring it had been an “extraordinary event” and citing the accomplishments of the summit in terms of trade and investment, security cooperation, including a commitment to peacekeeping, and emphasizing the need to address corruption and bad governance on the continent. There is little doubt that the event was historic, with as many as 45 African Heads of State present, including some royalty. Never before has an American administration engaged such a senior Africa leadership group at such a high level. The question, though, is did the conference really break any new ground and accomplish concrete goals? On the surface, the answer seems to be a disappointing, “sort of.” Let’s examine some of the commitments that were announced, and what did and didn’t happen.

There is uncertainty surrounding the “product” that will emerge from the on-going African Leaders Summit being hosted by President Obama.  Through the planning sessions leading up to the Summit, in which this author took some role, there was broad consultation throughout all executive government agencies, Congress, and a wide range of civil society and business interests.  Many ideas were laid on the table about logistics, format, agenda, substance, invitees (whether or not to exclude certain Heads of State), extracurricular activities, and roles of host officials and the President.  Controversial issues such as whether the President could have one-on-one bi-laterals with select or all heads of state were thoroughly examined and decisions were made.

On May 7, 2014, 17 million South African streamed to the polls to cast their votes for National, Provincial, and Municipal level leaders. Except for a few minor disturbances and one large protest in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra, the day went without incident. The elections are being hailed as an “overwhelming” or “decisive” victory for the African National Congress (ANC). In fact, by almost any democratic standard, the ANC did blow its opposition away, taking 62.15% of the national vote and winning 8 out of 9 provinces, as well as the vast majority of municipalities. One can forgive the street celebrations that burst out in Johannesburg and elsewhere, and the speech the President Zuma made taking his naysayers to task with no small show of swag. The ANC is fully in charge, even though its parliamentary majority has been chipped down a bit, and shows every sign of striding into the next 5-year term with confidence.

On December 15, 2013 fighting broke out in Juba, South Sudan in the Presidential compound among elements of the presidential guard, an elite unit of the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA).  This fighting quickly overlapped into the streets of the capital city with hundreds of civilian casualties.  President Salva Kiir immediately accused a political rival, former Vice President Riek Machar, of fomenting a coup.  Machar was not only Vice President, but had also been a general in the SPLA who had fought during the civil war with northern Sudan that led to independence for South Sudan in July 2011. In July 2013, President Salva Kiir had dismissed most of his cabinet precipitously, including Machar, and later restructured the command of the SPLA.  Many observers thought those actions were an attempt to remove Machar from a position of power, as Machar had already declared he was going to run for president against Kiir in the elections slated for 2015.  At the same time as he accused Machar of a coup attempt, Kiir detained eleven key former ministers of government and senior officials, many who had been key players in the past negotiations for independence.  These individuals remain in detention.

The news out of Africa over the last two weeks has been dominated by the defeat of the rebel group M-23 at Bunagana in the Eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). This had led to subsequent “peace talks” conducted in Kampala, Uganda, between the Government of the DRC and M-23 leaders. Mediated by Uganda, these talks have stalled as of this writing, with the DRC government refusing to sign an agreement, reportedly over the way in which the agreement is labeled.

This month, a unique conference is taking place in Beijing, China.  Its title is:  “Africa: 54 Countries, One Union.”   It is actually the fourth in a series, begun in 2010 in Bologna, Italy, by Romano Prodi, the former Prime Minister of Italy, President of the European Union (EU), and current Special Envoy of the Secretary General of the United Nations on the Sahel.   At that time, Professor Prodi, through his Foundation for World Wide Cooperation (FWWC), brought together a wide range of Africans and Africanists, plus European and Africa Union (AU) officials to discuss security, development, and trade in Africa.   The participants included former South African President Thabo Mbeki and then Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade.  The conference was organized on the Aspen principle, where the numbers of participants were kept fairly small (50-60) and everyone sat in a large square, facing one another, and engaged in a substantive dialogue and discussion, rather than simply listening to a series of formal presentations.