Dakar to Riyadh: Links for 8/29/2025
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
The IMF:
A staff team from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), led by Mr. Edward Gemayel, visited Senegal from August 19-26, 2025, to discuss corrective measures following the Court of Auditors' report published on February 12, 2025. The mission engaged with the authorities on actions needed to address the misreporting case before consideration by the IMF Executive Board, reviewed the current debt situation, and exchanged views on the contours of a potential new IMF-supported program.
On Tuesday, a Malian high court suspended enforcement of a government decree dissolving political parties.
Jules Larrieu for TV5 Monde on recent jihadist attacks in Farabougou and Kassela, Mali.
Solomon Ekanem at Business Insider Africa: “Burkina Faso Secures Bigger Slice of Gold Profits with New Mining Code.”
Paul Melly at the BBC: “Russia Outsmarts France with Nuclear Power Move in Niger.”
Ope Adetayo for the Associated Press: “Pregnancy Has Become a Nightmare for Many Women in Nigeria’s Conflict-Hit North.”
Reuters: “Gunmen in Nigeria's Zamfara Abduct over 100 in Deadly Attack.”
North Africa
Le Monde is publishing a six-part series on the life and reign of Moroccan King Mohammed VI. Part one is here.
Algeria’s President Abdelmadjid Tebboune dismissed Nadir Larbaoui as prime minister and appointed Industry Minister Sifi Ghrieb as interim prime minister.
Nawaat reports on protests by Tunisian teachers - amid broader tensions between the authorities and organized labor.
Lebanese authorities should immediately release the son of Libya’s former leader Muammar Gaddafi, Hannibal Gaddafi, whom they have wrongly imprisoned for nearly a decade, Human Rights Watch said today. The authorities should provide Gaddafi with appropriate compensation for holding him arbitrarily and investigate and hold to account those responsible for his ordeal.
Hannibal Gaddafi remains in long-term, arbitrary, pretrial detention since his arrest by Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces in December 2015 on apparently unsubstantiated allegations that he was withholding information about the disappearance of Lebanese cleric Moussa al-Sadr, who was disappeared in Libya in 1978 along with two companions. Al-Sadr’s fate remains a sensitive political issue in Lebanon. Judicial authorities have not taken any steps to bring Gaddafi to trial or provided a legal justification for his continued detention.
Greater Horn of Africa
Sudanese Prime Minister Kamel Idris and his government met this week in the capital Khartoum for the first time since the civil war broke out in 2023.
Vittorio Bruni and Olivier Sterck in The New Humanitarian: “Cut to the Bone: The Cost of Ration Cuts and Delivery Delays in Kenya's Refugee Camps.”
Maëlle Duhamel at Le Monde on the boom in infrastructure mega-projects in Ethiopia.
Tadesse Simie Metekia at the Institute for Security Studies:
Many agree that Ethiopia’s ongoing National Dialogue is a much-needed initiative, if not long overdue. Launched in 2022 to tackle core national questions, the process has, however, stalled. Insecurity, conflict and distrust have hampered participation, leading major armed and opposition parties to withdraw.
On 18 February 2025, Parliament extended the National Dialogue Commission’s (NDC) mandate to January 2026. With roughly four months left, the Commission must either conclude its work or seek another extension.
Gayatri Sahgal in the Journal of Modern African Studies: “The State-Capital Nexus in Fragile Contexts: A Case Study of Tax Relations in Somalia.”
Mohamed Eid O. Sheikh at Geeska:
On 18 August 2025, we mark three years since the passing of Mohamed Ibrahim Warsame, “Hadraawi,” the poet whose voice became inseparable from the modern Somali experience. Hadraawi was not just a poet but a living archive of Somali thought, stitching together memory, exile, and resistance in lines that outlived the occasions that first gave rise to them.
To grasp the weight of Hadraawi’s legacy, one must turn to his poems. Among them, Dabahuwan (“Cloaked End”) stands out for its disarming simplicity and sharpness. Borrowing from a children’s singsong game in which two girls exchange verses—one voicing a wish, the other replying with an obstacle, and both sealing each line with the refrain Dabahuwan—Hadraawi transforms play into metaphor.
Mashriq
At Carnegie’s Diwan, Yezid Sayigh interviews Adam Hanieh about the oil industry:
YS: You describe the deep and mutual embedding of Chinese and Gulf capital in each other’s economies and trade. This is a fundamental transformation, but is it limited by the fact that China cannot so far offer the Gulf what the United States has offered since the 1970s: massive arms sales and strategic protection?
AH: The scale of Chinese-Gulf economic interdependence today is unprecedented. China is now the largest importer of Gulf hydrocarbons, while Gulf NOCs have invested deeply in Chinese refining, petrochemicals, and oil logistics. Beyond the oil sector, China is also leading investments in renewable energy, Artificial Intelligence, and telecommunications in the Gulf. China also sees the Gulf as the regional headquarters of the BRI; by some estimates, 60 percent of all of China’s exports to Europe and Africa passes through the United Arab Emirates.
But yes, you are right—China cannot offer the Gulf monarchies the same strategic protection as the United States. Here I think it’s important to recognize that the U.S.-Gulf relationship was never simply about securing flows of crude oil. From the 1970s onward, the recirculation of Gulf financial surpluses into U.S. markets has been a critical part of the global financial architecture—whether through Gulf purchases of Treasury bonds, or investments in U.S. equities. And these connections are actually deepening, not weakening. The Gulf’s investments in U.S. stock markets, for instance, have nearly tripled since 2017, and now account for around 5 percent of all foreign investments in American companies.
At France24, Anaelle Johah reports on the secret Israeli military unit that works to depict Palestinian journalists as Hamas agents. Also relevant - Stefan Tarnowski in the London Review of Books: “Beyond the infrequent outrage at the frequent killing of Palestinian journalists, Israel has relied on the hierarchies of credibility – the institutional biases – that undergird coverage by Western media.”
Michelle Nichols for Reuters: “UN Security Council Renews Lebanon Peacekeeping Mission 'For a Final Time'.”
Spyros Sofos at LSE’s Middle East Blog: “Syria as a Battleground: How Israel and Turkey Are Shaping a Fragmented Middle East.”
Amwaj: “Shock Raid Highlights Factional Feuding in Iraqi Kurdistan.”
Cathrin Schaer at DW: “Iran or the US? How a New Law Is Testing Iraq's Independence.”
Ahmed Al Omran at FT: “Saudi Arabia’s Financial Hub Finally Takes Shape.”
Omar El Chmouri for Bloomberg: “Saudi’s Humain Launches Chatbot with ‘Islamic’ Values.”
Christopher Vourlias in Variety: “Oscar-Nominated Yemeni Scottish Director Sara Ishaq’s ‘The Station’ Follows Women in War-Torn Country Fueled by Sisterhood, Survival.”