In the wake of the French intervention in Mali, there is much talk of the Sahel region becoming a safe haven for extremist Islamists. Africa’s vast desert territories are perceived as ‘ungoverned spaces’, or ‘black holes’ where a dangerous underworld of terrorists and criminals operate freely and whence they will eventually launch their attacks on a West… Read More
Author Archives: Rita Abrahamsen
The Olympics, and the Rise and Dangers of Private Security
Today, Nick Buckles, the CEO of the world’s biggest private security company, will be questioned by the UK House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee, which is attempting to explain how G4S managed to bungle the Olympic contract quite so badly. As 3500 soldiers prepare to step in where Group4Securicor failed, the UK government is busy assuring the publ… Read More
Tags: Canada, Olympics, policing, private security, Rita Abrahamsen, United Kingdom
Senegal: Warnings From a Model Democracy on the Brink
Senegal, one of Africa’s most celebrated democracies, hovers on the brink of electoral chaos and political violence. At least six people have already been killed, and protests and demonstrations are continuing on a daily basis despite the violent crack-down of the riot police. The most pessimistic observers fear that Senegal might follow in the blood-… Read More
Tags: Africa, democracy, elections, Rita Abrahamsen, Senegal
Africa: No Longer “The Hopeless Continent”
“Africa Rising” declared The Economist’s front page last week. How things change! Eleven years ago, the front page of the same prestigious weekly declared Africa “The Hopeless Continent”. Then a young soldier brandishing an RPG peered menacingly at the respectable reader, emerging from the dark map of the continent as if to suggest its descent into sav… Read More
Tags: Africa, international political economy, Rita Abrahamsen, The Economist
‘Conflict Minerals’, Canada and African Civil Wars
The global campaign against so-called ‘conflict minerals’ is gathering pace, with Canada playing a central role.The campaign is primarily focused on the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), from where reports about ‘rape’ or ‘blood’ cellphones’ have fueled our collective guilt, so much so that the names of previously obscure minerals such as coltan… Read More
Tags: Africa, conflict minerals, Democratic Republic of Congo, Kimberley Process, mining, Rita Abrahamsen, Sierra Leone
