January 8 – Africa
Global Health, coronavirus, or COVID-19
A reported number of Covid-19 cases in Africa amounts to 3.8 million with over 98,000 deaths (40 percent of those are in South Africa).[1] This number (for all 54 African countries) is only slightly higher than the number of deaths in France. The number of Covid cases and deaths is considered underreported because the governments in African countries don’t formally register deaths. In 2017, only 10 percent of deaths were registered in Nigeria, and in other countries the percentage is even lower. There are several reasons, such as stigma, people unable to get tested, the fact that the threshold for reacting to any disease is high, as well as deaths from Covid-19 are being misidentified.[2]
More on Covid-19 situation in Africa
February 17 – Nigeria
Kidnappings
Armed men in military uniforms abduct about 40 students and staff from a boarding school in the town of Kagara in Nigeria’s Niger state. This is the latest in a series of kidnappings by criminal gangs, many of them involving children. Kidnappings for ransom by organized armed criminal gangs has become more sophisticated and are seen as a national security challenge for the Nigerian government. Some of the causes include difficult economic times and overstretched security forces facing threats on several fronts, insurgents and land battles between herders and farmers.[3]
February 26 – Ethiopia / Eritrea
Tigray conflict
In a newly issued report, Amnesty International accuses Eritrean forces of massacring hundreds of unarmed civilians in the city of Axum in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray last November. It also says this could amount to a crime against humanity. Responding to the report the United States calls for Ethiopia and Eritrea to cease fighting in the Tigray region and the withdrawal of their forces from the region.[4]
How a massacre in the sacred city of Aksum unfolded
Amnesty International report: The Massacre in Axum
March 29 – Egypt
One of the world’s largest cargo ships that belongs to the Taiwanese company Evergreen Marine is refloated again, opening the passage through the Suez Canal. The almost quarter-mile-long Ever Given vessel ran aground and became wedged across the waterway, blocking all traffic through the canal for six days causing a disruption in the world trade. Fourteen tugboats were involved in dislodging the ship at high tide, while 450 ships were stuck behind it waiting to pass through the canal. The blockage has cost the Canal about $15 million a day in lost revenue. About 12 percent of global trade, around one million barrels of oil and roughly 8 percent of liquefied natural gas pass through the canal each day. An alternate route around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope adds another eight and a half days of travel.[5]
Pictures, maps and history of Suez Canal
April 20 – Chad
Change in leadership
Idriss Déby, Chad’s president for the last 30 years and just reelected for the sixth term, dies from his wounds sustained in clashes with advancing rebels. An army officer by training, Déby came to power through an armed uprising, and later faced numerous coup plots and rebellions himself. Although an autocrat, he made Chad more stable than its other country-neighbors.[6] Still, despite Chad’s great wealth of oil deposits, the country’s main export commodity, 40 percent of Chad’s population still lives below the poverty line.[7]
Immediately after Idriss Déby’s death, the government and parliament are dissolved, while his son, General Mahamat Déby is named the leader of the Transitional Military Council. The Council will stay in charge for the next 18 months followed by elections. The move is unconstitutional as it is the speaker of parliament that should take over when a sitting president dies in office.[8]
May 24 – Mali / ECOWAS
Coup d’état
Just nine months after Mali’s Colonel Assimi Goïta ousted the government of President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta in a military coup and nominated himself vice-president of an interim government, he stages another coup d’état ousting this time interim President Bah Ndaw and the acting Prime Minister Moctar Ouane. He says they failed to inform the military about plans to reshuffle the cabinet, as well as to resolve the ongoing strikes. This time he declares himself president, but claims that elections will still take place next year as planned. The Economic Community of West African States and the African Union (ECOWAS) suspends Mali’s membership, while France suspends its military operations in the country. French forces have been helping fight militants in the Sahel region.[9]
About the 2020 coup in Mali (video, 02:06 min)
June 20 – Eswatini
Politics: Protests for Change
Widespread protests calling for political reforms in Eswatini, Africa’s last absolute monarchy, intensify and turn violent with the government’s heavy-handed response. Eswatini’s King Mswati III has been the ruler of this small country for the last 35 years who governs by decree. The protests started in May after the demonstrators accused the police of killing a law student. They quickly turned into calls for political changes, an end to the absolute monarchy, political freedoms, and against police brutality. Another key demand is an end to the royal family’s lavish lifestyle, while most Swazis have to look for work abroad and send money home. Also, the country’s infrastructure and basic services are collapsing, including the health service in a country with the world’s highest prevalence rate for HIV/Aids.[10]
July 25 – Tunisia
Politics and Government
Tunisian president Kais Saied suspends the parliament, sacks the prime minister, and assumes power amid violent anti-government protests across the country. The president’s supporters celebrate the move, while his opponents accuse him of staging a coup. Under the Tunisian constitution, the president is only in charge of the military and foreign affairs, but Saied has long been in conflict with the prime minister.
Background: Tunisia has had nine governments since the 2011 revolution. Issues such as endemic unemployment and crumbling state infrastructure that sparked the uprising have yet to be resolved. The government inept handling of the coronavirus pandemic is adding to anti-government popular unrest. Deaths from Covid-19 reached a record for the country last week and only 7 percent of the population has been vaccinated.[11]
Tunisia, 10 years after the Arab Spring
August 5 – Ethiopia / Eritrea
Ongoing conflict
The Tigrayan TPLF forces take control of Ethiopia’s historic town of Lalibela as the conflict between the Tigrayans and the central government spills beyond the Tigrayan region. Lalibela, a historic town in the region of Amhara, is famous for its 12th-century rock-hewn churches, a UNESCO-designated World Heritage site. The town is also a popular pilgrimage site for Orthodox Christians. Local Amhara forces who are allied with the central government fled the area before the Tigrayan forces enter the town.[12]
More about Rock-Hewn Churches in Lalibela as a World Heritage Site
Background: The Ethiopian army has been engaged in a military conflict with the TPLF since November, after Tigrayan forces attacked government military installations in the Tigray region. Neighboring Eritrea is also militarily involved. This conflict together with the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has impacted Ethiopia’s economy.
More on Ethiopia’s economy battered by Tigray war
August 12 – Zambia
Democratic elections
Businessman Hakainde Hichilema wins a landslide victory in Zambia’s presidential elections defeating incumbent Edgar Lungu by more than a million votes. This was Hichilema’s sixth attempt at winning the presidency. During the campaign, he promised to address corruption and the lack of jobs especially for young people. In his speech, Lungu accepts defeat and promises a smooth transition of power. This is Zambia’s third peaceful transfer of power to an opposition candidate, making it one of Africa’s most democratic country.[13]
Zambia elections: what you need to know
Hakainde Hichilema supporters celebrate victory
A legacy of dignity shapes an African election
September 5 – Guinea
Coup d’état
Guinea’s President Alpha Condé, who is the country’s fourth president but the first freely elected in 2010, is detained by the military in a coup d’état after earlier gunfire in the capital, Conakry. The coup leader, Lt. Col. Mamady Doumbouya, says he led the coup to end the corruption and announces the dissolution of the constitution and government. The international community condemns the coup while many people in Guinea celebrate the removal of Condé from power.[14]
More on the coup in Guinea (video: 05:45 min)
September 8 – Morocco
Parliamentary elections
Moroccan voters elect 395 members of the House of Representatives. The largest party in the parliament so far, the Islamist Justice and Development Party (PJD), which won 125 deputies in the 2016 elections, loses 90 percent of its seats, falling to the eighth place with only 13 seats. The PJD has been in power since the Arab Spring uprisings in 2011. The winner of the election is pro-business and liberal National Rally of Independents (RNI) party, which now has the most seats, 102, a gain of 65 seats. It is led by billionaire businessman Aziz Akhannouch who will be the country’s next prime minister. Two other parties, the progressive and pro-monarchy Authenticity and Modernity Party (PAM) and the conservative and also pro-monarchy Istiqlal Party, take second and third places with 86 and 81 seats respectively. The voter turnout was just above 50 percent.[15] Morocco is a semi-constitutional monarchy; King Mohammed VI approves a prime minister and a cabinet, as well as the government’s policies. Criticism of the monarchy is a criminal offense.[16]
More about the fate of Islamist parties after the 2011 Arab Spring
October 6 – Africa
Malaria vaccine
The World Health Organization (WHO) endorses the first malaria vaccine for use among children in sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high P. falciparum malaria transmission. The recommendation is based on positive results from an ongoing pilot program in three countries, Ghana, Kenya and Malawi that has reached more than 800 000 children since 2019. The program showed significant reduction of 30 percent in deadly severe malaria.
Malaria remains a primary cause of childhood illness and death in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than 260 000 African children under the age of five dying from malaria annually.[17]
More about the malaria vaccine and the history of its development
October 7 – Tanzania
Nobel Prize in Literature
The 2021 Nobel Prize in Literature is awarded to Abdulrazak Gurnah from Tanzania, the first Black writer to receive the prize since Toni Morrison in 1993. In his novels, Gurnah explores the themes of exile, identity and belonging, as well as trauma of colonialism, war and displacement. The Literature Nobel Prize is widely regarded as the most prestigious literary award in the world.[18]
More on Gurnah Nobel Prize and his novels
October 25 – Sudan
Military coup
The Sudanese military launches a coup against the government, placing Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok and members of his government under house arrest and declaring a state of emergency. The coup leader, General Abdel Fattah Burhan, blames political infighting. Large protests erupt calling for the return to the civilian rule.
The military and civilian transitional authorities have shared power since the 2019 overthrow of President Omar al-Bashir. But the coalition was plagued with divisions and rival political groups.[19]
Are military takeovers on the rise in Africa?
December 12 – Somalia
Continued crisis in Somalia
Al-Shabaab takes responsibility for an attack that killed four Burundian soldiers serving under the African Union peacekeeping mission (AMISOM) in southern Somalia. Al-Shabaab is a Somalia-based Islamist terrorist group, which has been fighting the Somali government and international forces for years. The group is also responsible for deliberately flooding villages in the region to keep the peacekeepers and the Somali soldiers away from their hideouts. The water reserves in this area were built in the 1970s to help the region during the dry season.[20]
Sources:
[1] “COVID-19 situation update worldwide, as of week 6, updated 18 February 2021.” European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. February 18, 2021. Accessed February 22, 21 from
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/geographical-distribution-2019-ncov-cases
[2] Ruth Maclean. “A Continent Where the Dead Are Not Counted.” The New York Times. January 2, 2021. Updated Jan. 4, 2021. Accessed February 22, 21.
[3] “Ruth Maclean and Ismail Alfa. “Gunmen in Nigeria Attack School, Abducting Dozens and Killing a Student.” The New York Times. February 17, 2021. Updated March 2, 2021. Accessed April 3, 21 and “Violent kidnappings for ransom spread across Nigeria.” TRT World. May 18, 2019. Accessed April 3, 21.
[4] “Ethiopia: The Massacre in Axum.” Amnesty International. 26 February 2021. Accessed March 17, 21 and Aaron Pellish and Laura Smith-Spark. “US calls for withdrawal of Eritrean forces in Ethiopia following investigation into massacre.” CNN. February 28, 2021. Accessed March 17, 21.
[5] Mary-Ann Russon. “The cost of the Suez Canal blockage.” BBC News. March 29, 2021. Accessed April 22, 21.
[6] “Chad’s President Idriss Déby dies after clashes with rebels.” BBC News. April 20, 2021. Accessed May 18, 21 and “Idriss Déby obituary: End of Chad’s ‘Great Survivor’.” BBC News. April 20, 2021. Accessed May 18, 21.
[7] Central Intelligence Agency. “Chad.” World Factbook. May 19, 2021. Accessed May 18, 21.
[8] Ibid 6.
[9] “Mali’s coup leader Assimi Goïta seizes power again.” BBC News. May 25, 2021. Accessed June 15, 21 and “Mali’s coup leader Assimi Goïta declares himself president.” BBC News. May 27, 2021. Accessed June 15, 21 and “France suspends military ties with Mali over coup.” BBC News. June 3, 2021. Accessed June 15, 21.
[10] “King Maswati not fled Eswatini’s violent protests – PM.” BBC News. June 29, 2021. Accessed July 21, 2021.
[11] “Tunisia’s PM sacked after violent Covid protests.” BBC News. July 26, 2021. Accessed August 18, 2021.
[12] “Ethiopia: Tigray forces seize UNESCO site Lalibela.” Deutsche Welle (DW). August 5, 2021. Accessed September 27, 21.
[13] “Zambia election: Hakainde Hichilema beats President Edgar Lungu.” BBC News. August 16, 2021. Accessed September 29, 2021.
[14] Chris Benderev. “Guinea’s Military Declared A Coup. What Happens Next Is Uncertain.” NPR. September 6, 2021. Accessed December 14, 2021 from https://www.npr.org/2021/09/06/1034587283/guineas-military-declared-coup-future-uncertain
[15] “Final election results announced in Morocco confirming RNI victory.” MENA Affairs. 10 September 2021. Accessed January 27, 2022 from https://menaaffairs.com/final-election-results-announced-in-morocco-confirming-rni-victory/
[16] “Morocco: Moderate parties rout ruling Islamists in elections.” Deutsche Welle.com. September 9, 2021. Accessed January 6, 22 from https://www.dw.com/en/morocco-moderate-parties-rout-ruling-islamists-in-elections/a-59128306
[17] “WHO recommends groundbreaking malaria vaccine for children at risk.” WHO. News Release. October 6, 2021. Accessed February 3, 2022 from https://www.who.int/news/item/06-10-2021-who-recommends-groundbreaking-malaria-vaccine-for-children-at-risk
[18] Alexandra Alter and Alex Marshall. “Abdulrazak Gurnah Is Awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature.” The New York Times. October 7, 2021.Updated October 11, 2021.
[19] “Sudan coup: Military dissolves civilian government and arrests leaders.” BBC News. 25 October 2021. Accessed February 7, 2022.
[20] Mohammed Dhaysane. “Al-Shabaab kills 4 African Union peacekeepers in Somalia.” All Africa. December 12, 2021. Accessed April 20, 22.