| peter dörrie

Sahel food crisis: The situation in Burkina Faso

Mar

2012

This is part of a series of posts, looking at the state of the Sahel food crisis. You can also find a regional overview and a report on the situation in Chad on this blog so far. On Tuesday, I was invited by Oxfam to look at one of their projects addressing the current food ...

Why counter-terrorism failed as a foreign policy objective

Mar

2012

When news of the coup in Mali hit the airwaves last week, much was made of the fact that the apparent coup leader, Capt. Sanogo, received US army training. The captain, who used to be an English teacher before assuming leadership of Africa’s latest junta, proudly sports a US Marines pin on his fatigues and ...

Waging Nonviolence: Why democracy prevails in Senegal but fails in Mali

Mar

2012

People took to the streets in Dakar, Senegal, yesterday, celebrating what many had feared would never happen: opposition leader Mack Sall gained around two thirds of the vote in the second round of the presidential elections, and incumbent Abdoulaye Wade accepted defeat, personally calling Sall to congratulate him. Meanwhile in Bamako, the capital of Senegal’s neighbor Mali, ...

ThinkAfricaPress: Tuareg Rebels Capitalise on Mali’s Coup

Mar

2012

While all eyes are on the coup d’état in Bamako, the situation in the north of Mali remains volatile. Taking advantage of the apparent confusion in the Malian army, Tuareg rebels have captured Anefis, a strategically important military base north of Gao. This has put them into a prime position to move on Kidal, one of the main cities ...

Upcoming articles

Mar

2012

Just to fill the blank space: I’m working on several articles at the moment, which may be of interest to you. First of all, you will shortly find an analysis of the military situation in the North of Mali on ThinkAfricaPress. Mali will also feature in an additional article for Waging Non-Violence, that will focus ...

Some more thoughts on the coup in Mali

Mar

2012

The situation is still very much in flux in Bamako, where a coup dislodged the government of President Touré from power at least temporarily. Here are some thoughts, reflections and questions that I’m stuck with after monitoring this coup for the last few days: This is a really amateurish coup ThinkAfricaPress has analysed this ...

The coup in Mali: possible ramifications

Mar

2012

I originally planned to give you a roundup of what has happened in Mali since yesterday. But then I realized that several other people did this already and probably better than I ever could. Check especially here and here and here if you are looking for something like that. I will instead focus on something ...

Tuareg uprising is now an “Islamist Rebellion”

Mar

2012

The African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council met in Bamako on Tuesday to discuss (among other things) the armed uprising in Mali. Just that it isn’t any armed uprising anymore, its now an “Islamist rebellion”. The ministers cited in the article put great emphasis on the involvement of a group called “Ansar Dine”, which ...

Sahel food crisis: The situation in Chad

Mar

2012

I’m currently writing a series of posts looking at the state of the Sahel food crisis. The first part, a regional overview, was published here. Over the coming days I will look at the other countries that are impacted by the food crisis, so come back if you like to know more! I’m beginning my ...

Sahel food crisis: a roundup

Mar

2012

This will be the first of a series of posts, looking at the current state of the food crisis in the Sahel. In this post, I will provide a short history of the current crisis and a general overview of the situation in the region. In future posts, I will analyze the state of various ...