Conflict | peter dörrie

War is Boring: Africa Round-Up

Aug

2012

Mali There hasn’t been much of a change in the overall situation during the last weeks: the northern half of Mali — an area about the size of France — is occupied by a range of rebel groups. While neighboring states and the international community are deeply concerned over the Islamist policies of some of ...

War is Boring: Africa Round Up

Jun

2012

DR Congo The eastern Congo is about to enter a new cycle of violence. The rebels of the new organisation “M23” only control a limited area so far, but reportedly get stronger by the day. M23 is the result of the mutiny of several army units around Easter. These units were part of a former rebel group, ...

World Politics Review: As Crisis Gathers, Northern Mali Needs More Than Just Military Intervention

Jun

2012

Since April, when two Tuareg rebel groups drove government forces out of northern Mali, the situation in the sparsely populated region has steadily worsened. The lightning advance of the National Movement for the Liberation of the Azawad (MNLA), which seeks independence for the Tuareg homeland, and Ansar Dine, which has an Islamist agenda, triggered a ...

Waging Nonviolence: The Arab Spring you haven’t heard about — in Mauritania

May

2012

You may not have heard of it, but the West African country of Mauritania has what is probably one of the most vibrant and active protest movements in the world today. Protests drawing tens of thousands of people (out of a total population of just three million) take place almost weekly in the capital Nouakchott, with many smaller protests happening ...

War is Boring: Africa Roundup (Congo, Mali, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau)

May

2012

The latest installment of my regular Africa conflict roundup for warisboring.com Congo A large-scale mutiny-come-rebellion rocks the eastern part of the Democratic Replublic of Congo since Easter. Never the most peaceful of places, the situation in the Kivu provinces bordering Rwanda escalated, when army general Bosco “The Terminator” Ntaganda decided to defect from his position. Ntaganda ...

World Politics Review: The Origins and Consequences of Tuareg Nationalism

May

2012

World Politics Review has brought out a new special on “peoples without borders”. They look at Kurdish, Basque and Tuareg minorities in their respective countries, and I am happy to tell you that I contributed a feature article on Tuareg nationalism for the issue: At the beginning of April, after a loose coalition of Tuareg ...

ThinkBrigade: Hunger, rebellion, coup: Mali’s crisis has its history

Apr

2012

I’m part of the new project ThinkBrigade, which brings together reporters and citizen journalists from around the world to experiment with new forms of collaborative and interactive journalism. This is my first piece for the project, but others will follow: Mali is a landlocked country in West Africa, about two times the size of France. It ...

The Stream: The crisis in Mali

Apr

2012

I took part in The Stream yesterday, an interactive show on Al Jazeera English. Originally I was asked to take part in the live discussion via a Goolge+ hangout, but this did not work due to a crappy internet connection on my side. So instead some of my tweeted comments about the show were shown ...

Little hope for a peaceful solution in North Mali

Apr

2012

Since my last post on Mali, a lot of things happened. The coup has officially ended (though it may not be over yet) and the situation in the North has … evolved, to put it mildly. I will concentrate on developments in the North in this post. As Baz Lecocq has pointed out, we actually ...

Tune in to Al Jazeera tonight

Apr

2012

I will be taking part in a discussion on the current situation in Mali on Al Jazeera English tonight. The program is called The Stream and will start at 19:30 GMT. Be sure to tune in! I will be taking part in a discussion on the current situation in Mali on Al Jazeera English tonight. The ...