Dakar to Riyadh: Links for 5/9/2025
News and analysis from the Sahel, North Africa, the Horn, and the Middle East
You can find last week’s links here.
Sahel and West Africa
Mali has once again suspended the activities of political parties - but the parties and pro-democracy activists are protesting.
Sheriff Bojang, Jr. at The Africa Report: “Ibrahim Traoré: Inside the Digital Cult Glorifying Burkina Faso’s Military Leader.”
The BBC’s Paul Melly on Cote d’Ivoire’s upcoming presidential elections (in October):
What happens in Ivory Coast really matters and is widely noticed, across West Africa and indeed, also right across francophone Africa more generally.
Ouattara is one of the continent's most prominent statesmen, commanding broad respect internationally too.
And yet now the run-up to the country's crucial next presidential election has become ensnared in a return version of the identity politics that so soured the bitter disputes and instability of the 1990s and 2000s.
Thomas Naadi and Natasha Booty at the BBC: “Ghana Protesters Accuse President of Power Grab after Chief Justice's Suspension.”
Reuters: “Niger Security Forces Search Orano Offices and Seize Phones, Sources Say.”
Eromo Egbejule for The Guardian: “Nigerian Film-Makers Pivot to YouTube as Streaming Firms Pull Back.”
Alexander Onukwue at Semafor: “Nigeria Accuses Meta of Pressure Campaign over Threat to Cut Off Apps.”
A Chadian geologist went missing in the desert.
North Africa
Sam Metz and Akram Oubachir for the Associated Press: “Protesters Want Morocco to Sever Ties with Israel, So They’re Targeting Strategic Ports.”
Patricia Cohen for the New York Times: “Why China Is Investing So Much Money in Moroccan Factories.”
Looking ahead to Morocco’s 2026 legislative elections, Jeune Afrique’s Fadwa Islah profiles five women in positions of power.
Reuters: “Morocco to Invest $760 mln in Disaster Response Stockpiling.”
RFI interviews Karima Berger, author of Abd el-Kader, l’Arabe des lumières, which examines the spirituality of the famous nineteenth-century Algerian anti-colonial resistance leader (d. 1883).
Arezki Said at Jeune Afrique: “Why Algeria Is Boycotting the African Lion Military Exercise Organized by the Americans.”
The BBC’s Natasha Booty: “A court in Tunisia has sentenced former Prime Minister Ali Laarayedh to 34 years in prison on a raft of terrorism charges.”
At OrientXXI, Lilia Blaise takes the collapse of a wall at a school in the town of Mezzouma as a symptom of the state’s neglect of many regions.
In Libya, videos have circulated showing Member of Parliament Ibrahim al-Darsi, who was kidnapped a year ago and is allegedly being held in a secret prison controlled by a militia affiliated to Khalifa Haftar; in the video, he calls upon Haftar’s son Saddam to release him.
Greater Horn of Africa
International Crisis Group’s Shewit Woldemichael:
For three consecutive days, from 4-6 May, drone attacks shook Port Sudan. The Red Sea coastal city became Sudan’s de facto administrative capital, army headquarters and international hub after war broke out in Khartoum in April 2023.
The attacks expand the war to Sudan’s far east for the first time, risk sucking in regional powers deeper into the conflict and are guaranteed to deepen the population’s immiseration.
Diego Menjíbar Reynés in The Guardian: “Gleaming Labs Turned to Rubble: Scientists Mourn the Loss of Decades of Medical Progress in Sudan.”
Daniel Berhane at The New Humanitarian:
Over the last few weeks, more than 12,000 Tigrayan ex-combatants have demobilised and transitioned to the next phase of their lives – but they are the lucky ones. Some 250,000 former fighters have been left behind, their futures on hold, despite the war in Ethiopia’s northern region coming to an end more than two years ago.
These delays and setbacks to the demobilisation programme represent a serious security risk. The socio-economic toll of keeping a large, productive force idle has yet to be fully assessed, but disillusionment is reflected in mounting rates of desertion, irregular migration, and involvement in criminal activity.
Andrew Wasike for DW: “Kenya: Thrown Shoe a 'Wake-up Call' for President Ruto.”
At AfriqueXXI, Quentin Müller analyzes al-Shabab’s advance.
Mohamed Okash at Abdikafi Hassan Abdi at The Conversation: “Somalia’s Exports Are Threatened by Climate Change and Conflict: What 30 Years of Data Tell Us.”
Mashriq
Joe Cash for Reuters: “Chinese Fighter Jets Soar over Egypt in First Joint Exercises.”
Ben Ehrenreich reports from the West Bank in Harper’s:
In Umm al-Khair, nonviolent resistance had never been as ritualized as it was in the northern villages along the path of the wall, but it was no less a conscious strategy, and was in many ways more representative of the movement as a whole. The people of the village simply stood fast, as Amira put it, calling on their neighbors, sympathetic Israelis, and foreign activists to stand with them. To this end, Eid had flown to Washington more than once. He had been there the month before my arrival, meeting with State Department officials and congressional staffers. Without these efforts and years of local organizing, Eid knew, the village would already have been wiped from the map. But the constant grind of violence from Israeli soldiers and settlers alike was slowly killing nonviolent resistance, Eid said, and with it Umm al-Khair itself.
The Financial Times’ Editorial Board: “The West’s Shameful Silence on Gaza.”
UN News: “Reporters in Gaza Bear Witness and Suffer Tragic Consequences.”
At Drop Site (video), “Sharif Abdel Kouddous, Murtaza Hussain and Jeremy Scahill discuss Gaza, Palestinian resistance, and Yemen’s defiant stance.”
Aaron Magid at DAWN: “Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood Went from Electoral Success to Political Ban.”
The Project on Middle East Political Science has released a new collection of papers on “State and Regime Violence.”
Ali Hashem for Amwaj:
In a quiet but consequential diplomatic breakthrough, the United States has reached an understanding with Yemen’s Ansarullah movement to halt hostilities in the Red Sea and Bab Al-Mandab Strait—marking the most tangible de-escalation in the maritime crisis for months. Announced by US President Donald Trump ahead of his trip to Saudi Arabia, the deal was mediated by Oman, and according to a regional diplomatic source and an Iranian official, was facilitated by Iran. Speaking to Amwaj.media on condition of anonymity, the Iranian source said the Islamic Republic had played a “positive and constructive role.”
Al Jazeera covers remarks by Ansarullah’s ‘Abd al-Malik al-Houthi to the effect that his movement did not ask U.S. President Donald Trump to halt strikes.
AFP: “A Bitter Return for Iraqis Kicked out of Europe.”
Rayhan Uddin at Middle East Eye: “Persian or Arabian Gulf? A Brief History.”
The Economist: “MAGA Meets MBS.”