In a week of upheaval across the continent, more bomb attacks hit Nigeria, an assassination attempt on Guinean president Alpha Conde failed, riots struck Malawi, and the United Nations declared famine in parts of Somalia hit by the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in six decades. Meanwhile, in attempting to gain justice for past events, Kenyans who claimed they were tortured during the Mau Mau Rebellion won the right to sue the British government, while Alassane Ouattara signed a decree to establish a commission of inquiry into crimes committed during the country's post-election power struggle.
As the conflict in Libya drags on with Colonel Gaddafi reportedly unwilling to enter dialogue with rebels but keen to engage America, Think Africa Press published reports from the frontlines in Misrata and the Nomfusa mountains. And alongside the regular Nigeria Weekly column, Think Africa Press published three articles on Nigeria this week: examining the rise of privatisation in Nigeria’s security sector; on the absence of international investors in Nigeria’s high growth economy despite elections seen as free and fair; and a piece analysing the revived debate on the death sentence in the wake of actress Rabi Ismail’s upheld conviction for murder.
Below are a few highlights from the past week: