A group of former United States diplomats – including four retired ambassadors to Zimbabwe – sent Harvard University a letter expressing disapproval over the selection of Zimbabwean First Lady Auxilia Mnangagwa as an “honorary ambassador” for her work on health care and women’s issues. Harvard appears to have since backtracked…
The controversy over Kenyan presidential candidate Raila Odinga’s trip to the United States and high-level meetings with American officials elicited a response Monday from Vanguard Africa, the nonprofit organization that facilitated the meetings. Odinga, the candidate of the National Super Alliance coalition (Nasa) and a former prime minister who is…
On Friday morning, former Gambian diplomat Sidi Sanneh wrote that preparations were underway in Banjul to celebrate coalition presidential candidate Adama Barrow’s historic victory over President Yahya Jammeh. That moment of jubilation is one that many of The Gambia’s 2 million citizens thought they’d never see. It was equally powerful…
It’s been two weeks since Alex Vines, research director at Chatham House and head of its Africa program, delivered his clear-eyed assessment of the December 1 elections in The Gambia: “There is no chance of an upset.” Vines, with years of experience at the top-rated independent foreign policy organization, sees…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times