Dakar to Riyadh: Links for 6/27/2025
News and analysis from the Sahel, North Africa, the Horn, and the Middle East
Last week’s links are here.
Sahel and West Africa
Colleen Goko at Reuters: “Senegal’s Debt Surges amid Fiscal Pressures as Government Struggles to Balance Spending.”
Guinea, under military rule since 2021, is moving towards a constitutional referendum on September 21.
Mauritanian police announced the bust of a criminal organization that was smuggling migrants.
The BBC’s Chiamaka Enendu on the visit by Mali’s military ruler Assimi Goïta to Russia.
Journalists in different parts of Niger have been arrested in recent days, one of them after publishing an article about disappearances of girls in Maradi.
Heavy security deployments and restrictions on commerce and movement are cutting into the turnout of anti-government protests in Togo.
Oluwole Ojewale and Freedom Onuoha at the Institute for Security Studies:
Violence in Nigeria is a manifestation of state failure. The state has proven unable, unwilling and incapable of protecting its citizens. It has failed in five key areas: intelligence, protection, delivery of justice, politics and strategy.
[…]
The third area of state failure is ensuring a judicial system that can process legitimate grievances, punish offenders and compensate victims. Despite repeated presidential directives, victims and the public rarely see perpetrators of this violence being arrested, prosecuted and convicted – so there is little to deter future attacks.
Related: Ebenezer Obadare at the Council on Foreign Relations: “Nigeria’s Never-Ending Security Nightmare.”
The Nigerian Scam podcast interviews Jing Jing Liu on her paper “Decentering the Dollar in Africa–China Trade: How Nigerian Entrepreneurs Navigate Currency Swaps and Digital Currencies in an Era of USD Hegemony and RMB Internationalization.”
North Africa
At TelQuel, Amine Belghazi reports on the search for cybersecurity following a hack that shocked governments institutions.
In Jeune Afrique, Arezki Said chronicles the legal woes that have befallen Algeria’s ex-Justice Minister Tayeb Louh since 2019.
Hellish conditions greet migrants in Tunisia, France24 reports.
UN News: “Aftermath of Tripoli Clashes Puts Libya’s Fragile Stability to the Test.”
Greater Horn of Africa
Andrei Popoviciu and Guy Peterson at The New Humanitarian: “Aid Blocked as ‘Unimaginable Suffering’ Grips Sudan’s Nuba Mountains.”
Over 40 people, including children and health care workers, were killed in an attack on a hospital in Sudan at the weekend, the head of the World Health Organization said on Tuesday.
Saturday's attack on the Al Mujlad Hospital took place in West Kordofan, near the front line between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, who have been fighting each other since the conflict broke out in April 2023.
Girmay Gebru for the BBC: “Joyful Ethiopians and Eritreans Embrace at Rare Border Reopening.”
The Ethiopian authorities should immediately rescind the suspension of a prominent health professionals organization and meaningfully address public healthcare workers’ outstanding grievances, Human Rights Watch said today.
The government suspended the Ethiopian Health Professionals Association (EHPA) in early June 2025, following over a month of strikes by public healthcare workers for better working conditions and adequate pay. During the work stoppages, the authorities arbitrarily detained dozens of public healthcare workers across Ethiopia, either without charge or for peacefully exercising basic liberties. On May 30, the EHPA called for “an immediate stop” to “dismissals from work,” the use of “threats and intimidation,” and vacancy postings aimed at replacing striking professionals.
Evelyne Musambi for the Associated Press: “Anti-Tax Protesters Storm Kenya’s Parliament, Drawing Police Fire as President Vows to Quash Unrest.”
Mohamed Gabobe at Al Jazeera: “Under Trump, US Strikes on Somalia Have Doubled Since Last Year. Why?”
Mashriq
Geoff Brumfiel, Brent Jones, and Alyson Hurt at NPR: “Obliterated? Damaged? Inoperable? What's Known about Iran's Nuclear Facilities.”
Alex MacDonald at Middle East Eye: “How Supporters of 'Woman Life Freedom' in Iran Rejected Israel's Assault.”
Mostafa Al-A’sar in New Lines Magazine: “The Egyptian government may let Laila Soueif die as she protests the treatment of her son Alaa Abd el-Fattah — just to prove that it does not change course.”
Nour ElAssy at The New Humanitarian: “Israel Is Arming Gangs to Fracture Gaza’s Society from the Inside.”
At Carnegie’s Diwan, Michael Young interviews Didier Fassin on his book Moral Abdication: How the World Failed to Stop the Destruction of Gaza.
Ghaith Alsayed and Kareem Chehayeb at the Associated Press: “Syria Says the Islamic State Group Was Behind the Deadly Attack on a Damascus Church.”
Conor Lennon for UN News: “Despite the Fall of Assad, the Illicit Drug Trade in Syria Is Far from Over.”
Riley Mellen at the New York Times: “A U.S. Base in Saudi Arabia Expands to Help Counter Iran.”
Kelsey Warner at Semafor: “UAE Makes Arabic Mandatory for Kindergarteners.”
UN News: “Yemen: Nearly Half the Population Facing Acute Food Insecurity in Some Southern Areas.”