Strategic Thinking on East Africa

The Strathink team would like to wish all of our readers Eid Mubarak. We join all who are wishing the people of the Islamic faith peace and joy following the hadj. We are saddened by the recent loss of life in Mecca and pray for all the families who have lost their loved ones during […]

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The EU may be saving lives in the Mediterranean but it is turning a blind eye to the political repression in Africa’s worst dictatorship President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea, who ‘rules through fear’. Photograph: Goh Chai Hin/AFP/Getty Images Europe’s response to the migrant crisis in the Mediterranean has rightly – if belatedly – focused on […]

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From The New York Times By JOHNNIE CARSON and MARK BELLAMYJULY 20, 2015 WASHINGTON — This weekend, President Obama begins a visit to two pivotal African nations: Ethiopia, a semi-authoritarian state, and Kenya, a fragile democracy. Both have rapidly growing economies. Both are battling the virulent Shabab terrorist insurgency. The visit to Kenya has special […]

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This month the United Nations Human Rights Council released an exhaustive report on human rights in Eritrea. After a yearlong investigation, the UN inquiry found the Eritrean government responsible for “systematic and gross human rights abuses on a scope and scale seldom witnessed elsewhere.” Let’s pause for a moment. For decades, the Eritrean people struggled […]

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  “Ethiopia is a democracy that is moving forward in an election that we expect to be free, fair and credible.” U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman made this statement following a meeting several weeks ago with Ethiopian Foreign Minister Dr. Tedoros Adhanom last week. As expected, the international human rights […]

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Three weeks of political unrest over a controversial decision by Pierre Nkurunziza to seek a third term in office has taken a direction, arguably, for worse. The situation was predictable as thousands started fleeing Burundi to seek refuge in neighbouring countries as early as late March. More than 25,000 refugees had crossed into Rwanda by […]

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By: ALLAN BRIAN SSENYONGA PUBLISHED: April 19, 2015 A decade ago, The Economist described Africa as a hopeless continent. As expected we spent nearly a decade denouncing the description as unfair and inaccurate. Then a decade later the same magazine declared that Africa was indeed rising. Like the biblical story of Saul turning into Paul, […]

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Have you ever been to “nowhere?” If not, then you haven’t been to Kakuma, Kenya, a town whose name means “nowhere” in Swahili. And how apt a description that is: Kakuma is far-flung, flat, and based in the scorching, arid, and pastoralist Turkanacounty. It sits in northwestern Kenya at the crossroads of Ethiopia, South Sudan and Uganda, and […]

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 March 25, 2015-Awate.com, an Eritrean website, published an insightful article about the recent event against the Nevsun gold mining production facility and a military installation in Eritrea. In the article, awate.com presents a chronology of sources speculating on who was responsible for the event and, indeed, what actually happened in the early morning hours of […]

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Addis Ababa, 14 March 2015 (WIC) - As part of the upcoming election campaign, political parties in contention began officially taking part in debates on pertinent issues here yesterday. The Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), The Ethiopian Federal Democratic Unity Forum (MEDREK), Semayawi Party, New Generation Party (NGP) and Unity for Democracy and Justice Party […]

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