Dakar to Riyadh: Links for 6/13/2025
News and analysis from the Sahel, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and the Middle East
General
At Africa Is a Country, Makena Maganjo reflects on the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which is now effectively dead due to the Trump administration’s tariffs:
The ineligibility mechanism of AGOA draws our attention back to the precarity of the agreement. Put simply, eligibility is dependent on implementing the US’s prescribed political and economic policies. From a political economy perspective, AGOA appears to be structural adjustment programs (SAPs) rebranded and re-deployed to a new sphere—international trade. Conditionality was an integral component of the 1980s International Monetary Fund (IMF) lending program to so-called developing countries. This framework has been heavily criticized, with many studies showing the destructive impact of the SAPs. Yet, and perhaps regardless of these studies, unilateral and nonreciprocal preferential trade arrangements like AGOA continue to include conditions.
Preeti Jha for Semafor: “China offers total tariff relief for Africa.”
Bloomberg: “DHL to Invest €500 Million on Africa, Middle East Expansion.”
Sahel and West Africa
Franklin Nossiter at International Crisis Group: “Mali and Russia Restructure Their Security Partnership – But to What End?”
A new Malian political party forms in exile, as party activities remain banned within the country.
Pius Adeleye in Jeune Afrique: “Recruited By Pro-Ibrahim Traoré Propaganda, They Find Themselves Working in Illegal Gold Mines.”
Jessica Rawnsley in the BBC: “Liberia's Ex-Speaker Charged with Arson over Parliament Fire.”
Cote d’Ivoire looks to become “a digital hub in Africa.”
FT: “From Finance Minister to Fugitive: The Targets of Ghana’s Anti-Corruption Drive.”
Erick Kaglan and Mark Banchereau at the Associated Press: “Togo’s President Faces Calls to Resign after Protests over New Role Allowing Indefinite Rule.”
Eniola Akinkuotu for The Africa Report: “Nigeria 2027: Wike Rebuilds Abuja in His Own Image.”
Al Jazeera hosted a thoughtful discussion about why violence by jihadists is rising in Nigeria.
North Africa
Carien du Plessis at The Africa Report: “[Former South Africa President Jacob] Zuma’s MK Party Sparks ANC Rift with Backing for Morocco.”
Jeune Afrique’s Jassim Ahdani on a cyberattack targeting Morocco’s Ministry of Justice.
The long quest to recover the (literally) lost voices of female revolutionaries from Algeria.
An emotional funeral in Tunisia for Hisham Miraoui, who was killed in a racist attack in France in May.
Abdulkader Assad at the Libya Observer: “Dbeibah Agrees with Misrata Revolutionaries to Enforce Security, Dismantle Armed Groups.”
Horn of Africa
Mohammed Amin in The New Humanitarian: “Khartoum Is Free of the RSF, but Survival Is Still a Struggle.”
Amina Ismail, Nafisa Eltahir and Renee Maltezou for Reuters: “Egypt’s Crackdown Drives Sudanese Refugees on New Route to Libya and Beyond.”
The Committee to Protect Journalists: “Ethiopia Detains Prominent Journalist Despite Court‑Ordered Bail.”
Evelyne Musambi at the Associated Press: “Protesters in Kenya’s Capital Demand Official Answers over a Blogger’s Death in Police Custody.”
Karen Allen at the Institute for Security Studies: “Houthis in Somalia: Friends with Technological Benefits?”
Mashriq
Israel launched an intensive attack on Iran yesterday, June 12. This is a fast-moving story, obviously; the AP and others are issuing live updates.
Bénédicte Jeannerod and Claudio Francavilla of Human Rights Watch:
As France prepares to co-host a UN conference in June on Palestine and the two-state solution, President Emmanuel Macron has signaled a willingness to recognize a Palestinian state. He may have good intentions, but his plan would be hollow in the absence of concrete measures to stop the Israeli government’s atrocities against the Palestinians in Gaza and continued illegal settlement policy in the West Bank.
Mosab Abu Toha in the New Yorker: “What Gaza Needs Now.”
Maayan Lubell for Reuters: “Israel Knesset Rejects Vote on Dissolving Itself.”
Faris Zwirahn in New Lines Magazine: “How Syria’s Shrines Became Front Lines in a Sectarian War.”
Mohammad Salami at World Politics Review: “Iraq’s Cultural Heritage Can Be a Double-Edged Sword.”
Carol Ryan in the Wall Street Journal: “Saudi Arabia Is Grabbing Oil-Market Share, but It Can Open the Tap Only So Far.”
At OrientXXI, Ryan al-Shibani reports on how literary production in Yemen is shifting from poetry to novels.