2014: Africa’s year of political leap forward, drama, terror and - TopicsExpress



          

2014: Africa’s year of political leap forward, drama, terror and blood By CIUGU MWAGIRU African Union (AU) Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma during a media briefing after the Extraordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on October 12, 2013. In a year that saw democratic elections held in different African regions, there was also continuing anxiety in the hotspots that have for a long time hardly known peace. All in all, though, there was a spirit of optimism prevailing in Africa, to the extent that African Union Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma could in April wax enthusiastic about her dream of a continent set for rapid transformation within a few decades. There was, however, growing concern about the spread of terrorism in countries such as Nigeria, Kenya and Somalia, even as the Ebola scourge bedevilled many West African nations and eventually became a global issue. Regarding the spread of terror caused by such extremist groupings as Boko Haram in Nigeria and Al-Shabaab in Kenya and Somalia, the AU found it necessary to focus on it, holding major conferences on the issue. At the end of August, for instance, the AU Peace and Security Council held a meeting in Nairobi that focused of continental security matters. Earlier, two major summits held in Pretoria, South Africa, had also focused on runaway insecurity in Africa and discussed means of curtailing it. Insecurity aside, the continent continued to attract the attention of the more developed countries of the world. Clearly, the so-called industrialised world did not want to be left out of the action when Africa’s long-awaited renaissance was expected to finally become a reality. Given the generally bright outlook for the continent, there were numerous conferences organised by the world’s leading economies, all aimed at reaching economic and other partnership agreements with Africa. A case in point was a high-stakes summit held between the European Union and African leaders in Brussels. A similar high-level meet was held in the US, with the clear objective of countering the rapidly growing inroads made by China in Africa. At the same time, the African continent also made its presence felt at the United Nations, particularly during the 69th session of United Nations General Assembly held in September. The major meet in New York was crucial for putting Africa in focus, particularly given that the President of the assembly was Uganda’s Foreign Minister Sam Kutesa. Cash strapped Among the agenda of the meeting were issues relating to the International Criminal Court. Tussles with the Hague-based institution had dominated world headlines for some time. In the meantime, many African countries remained cash-strapped amid endless political chaos. On the brighter side, though, during the year democratic elections were held in many African countries, including Algeria, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Also holding polls were Egypt and Mali— two countries that had been steeped in political chaos for some time. Orderly elections also took place in Mozambique, Guinea Bissau and, more recently, Namibia. As for Botswana, the polls held there in October saw President Khama comfortably retaining power after reasonably orderly polls. As for Lesotho, prospects of orderly elections there were dashed by a political crisis that saw the country’s prime minister taking refuge in South Africa. Towards the end of the year, Burkina Faso was going through dramatic political changes that eventually saw veteran president Blaise Compaoré deposed, with the country’s army seizing power momentarily. Drew to a close The ensuing few weeks were marked by uncertainty as the military angled for greater presence on the political stage. In the meantime, the country’s 17 million people looked on with trepidation, justifiably aware that their long-awaited revolution was nearly being stymied by the ambitious military. As the year drew to a close, there were also elections in Tunisia, the cradle of the Arab Spring revolt that spread like bushfire several years ago, changing the political situations in many Arabic-speaking countries. In Zambia, the country seemed headed for massive succession battles following the death of President Michael Sata in a London hospital on October 8. With the elections just weeks away, on January 15, the drama in that country is expected to reach fever pitch, and the electioneering in that country is now set to overflow into next year. Elsewhere on the continent, stability remained elusive in the two Sudans, which continued to be sources of anxiety as the violence there continued to escalate, triggering massive humanitarian crises that captured world attention. The warring in South Sudan was particularly worrying, almost reaching genocidal proportions in April, just as was happening at the height of the crisis that was ravaging the long-troubled Central African Republic at about the same time. Other hotspots like the DR Congo and Somalia also continue to be unstable, despite recent efforts to resolve the crises there.
Posted on: Sun, 28 Dec 2014 14:21:33 +0000

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