January 15 – Burkina Faso
Islamist militants attack the Splendid Hotel popular with foreign tourists and a café in the heart of Burkina Faso’s capital, Ouagadougou, killing 29 people and injuring 56. The victims are from 18 different countries. The government responds with a counter attack and ends the siege of the hotel the next morning, killing the attackers. Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Mourabitoun takes responsibility for the attack. AQIM is an Islamic terrorist organization, which aims to overthrow the Algerian government and replace it with an Islamic state. By attacking inside Burkina Faso, the group tries to establish itself as an important jihadist group in the region.
January 21 – Tunisia
Hundreds of people march through Tunisia’s capital, Tunis, and other cities protesting the lack of jobs. People complain that since the 2011 revolution, many social issues have not been resolved, but especially unemployment that has hovered above 15 percent. It is much higher among the youth.
February 18 – Uganda
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni wins a fifth term in office in elections that have been described by the opposition as fraudulent. International observers say the election campaign was marked by fear and intimidation. The elections also lacked fairness and transparency. Museveni has been in power since 1986. While he is credited for restoring stability in Uganda, his recent years have been marked by an increasingly authoritarian style.
February 25 – Africa
A study prepared by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) determines that people who survived Ebola infections suffer from long-term health problems that develop about six months after the initial recovery. They include a variety of neurologic abnormalities. such as weakness, memory loss, tremors, depression and muscle pain. They may also include suicidal tendencies and hallucinations. There are about 17,000 survivors of the Ebola virus in West Africa.
March 13 – Morocco
The UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s reference to Western Sahara as “occupied” by Morocco sparks demonstrations of over a million people in Morocco’s capital, Rabat. The Moroccan government threatens to withdraw its soldiers from the United Nations peacekeeping forces. Secretary Ban Ki-moon made this statement while visiting Sahrawis, the main ethnic group from Western Sahara, who live in refugee camps in Algeria. Western Sahara is a territory in northwest Africa claimed by both the Moroccan government and pro-independence rebel forces, the Polisario Front, who created the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) with a government-in-exile in Tindouf, Algeria. Currently both sides maintain ceasefire. Morocco controls two thirds of Western Sahara’s territory with the remainder controlled by the SADR.
March 31 – Libya
Libya’s new unity government that was formed in Tunisia with the help of the United Nations arrives in the capital, Tripoli, to try to take over the authority over the country. This new government is led by the unity Prime Minister Fayez Sarraj who is not part of any groups involved in power struggle. However, hardliners in parliaments in Tobruk and Tripoli refuse to recognize the new government’s authority.
April 30 – Kenya
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta sets fire to a stockpile of more than 100 tons of confiscated ivory amassed in Nairobi National Park to show his country’s determination to save its elephants by discouraging poaching and illegal trading in ivory. It is estimated that there are about half a million elephants in all of Africa, but its population is endangered with 30,000 being killed yearly for their tusks. Demand for ivory comes primarily from affluent countries in Asia. In the four years up to 2014 the wholesale price of raw ivory in China tripled, which encourages poaching.
June 9 – Africa
The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is launching a new program, in partnership with a charitable organization Heifer International, aimed at lifting some people from extreme poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. According to the Pew Research Center, 41 percent of people in sub-Saharan Africa live on less than $1.25 a day, more than twice as high as in any other region. The Foundation plans to donate 100,000 chickens upon calculations that raising just five hens will earn a person one third over the poverty line. This would help 30 percent of rural families. Critics of the program raise questions such as where the chicken farmers would get the feed, and whether the growing number of chickens would lower demand and drive down the price.
June 18 – Egypt
An Egyptian court sentences former President Mohammed Morsi to life in prison in an espionage trial. Although the court has acquitted him of spying for Qatar, it sentences him to life for leading an unlawful organization. Six of his co-defendants receive death penalties, including two journalists from Qatar-based Al-Jazeera channel who are sentenced in absentia. Morsi is also convicted of stealing secret state documents and receives another 15-year jail term. Mohammed Morsi was the first democratically elected head of state in Egyptian history. Qatar was a main backer of Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood movement. He stayed in office only from June 30, 2012 to July 3, 2013 when he was deposed in a military coup led by army chief General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
June 13 – Ethiopia / Eritrea
Deadly clashes erupt on the disputed border between Ethiopia and Eritrea and both sides blame the other for the incident. Eritrea got full independence from Ethiopia in 1993, but the two countries still dispute their border alignment. Between 1998 and 2000 both countries fought a border war and aftermath agreed to an independent boundary commission, which in 2002 ruled on the boundary. However, Ethiopia rejected the commission’s ruling claiming that certain areas, specifically the town of Badme, should be within its territory.
June 21 – Democratic Republic of Congo / Central African Republic
Jean-Pierre Bemba is sentenced to 18 years in prison following a landmark conviction at the International Criminal Court (ICC) for war crimes, crimes against humanity and sexual violence. Bemba was vice president in the transitional government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) between 2003 and 2006 and a leader of the Movement for the Liberation of the Congo (MLC), a rebel group that later turned into a political party. The crimes were committed in Central African Republic (CAR) in 2002 and 2003 by a contingent of the MLC troops during so called CAR Operation. Bemba was a military commander and the leader of the forces that committed the crimes.
July 18 – Morocco / African Union
Moroccan King Mohammed VI says that Morocco will rejoin the African Union (AU), 32 years after it left the organization due to disagreements about Western Sahara. In 1984, the AU recognized the independence of Western Sahara, the region that Morocco considers part of its territory.
August 1 – Libya / United States
The United States carries out targeted air strikes on the Libyan city of Sirte, the stronghold of the Islamic State (IS) in Libya. The air strikes are coordinated with and in support of the Libyan unity government. Although there has been some progress in rooting out the IS fighters from Libya, the efficiency of the fight is questionable as various rival militia factions in Libya are embroiled in hostilities against each other.
August 12 – South Sudan
The United Nations Security Council authorizes a 4,000-strong regional protection force under the auspices of the UN mission to provide security for South Sudan’s capital, Juba. The South Sudanese government opposes the decision. Since July 7, violence between rival forces of President Salva Kiir and First Vice-President Reik Machar has escalated in and around Juba, causing humanitarian crisis. According to the UN, since December 2013, over two million people have fled their homes. About 1.6 million people are displaced within South Sudan and more than 900,000 have fled to neighboring countries.[1] The protection force will join 12,000 UN peacekeeping soldiers already in South Sudan, but unlike the peacekeepers, these African troops will be allowed to protect the civilians actively.
August 12 – Nigeria
Nigeria records two new cases of polio, a major setback right before it was ready to be declared polio-free in 2017. A country has to have no new cases over a three-year period to be considered free of polio. Both cases take place in north-eastern Borno state, where the Boko Haram militias hinder the country’s health efforts.
August 21 – Morocco
King Mohammed VI of Morocco condemns the recent terrorist attacks in Europe by Islamist extremists and calls on Moroccan expatriates to defend the tolerant form of Islam and reject terrorism. He also states that those who kill in the name of Islam do it to justify their crimes and are “not Muslims.”
August 29 – Africa
In coordinated rescue operations, Italian coastguards, humanitarian organizations, such as Proactiva Open Arms and Doctors Without Borders, as well as the European Union’s border agency Frontex save about 6,500 migrants on overcrowded boats floating to Europe about 13 miles north of the Libyan coast town of Sabratah. Most of these migrants are from Eritrea, Somalia and other West African countries. According to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), so far in 2016 more than 297,000 migrants have reached Europe by sea and more than 3.200 have died or are missing while making this trip.[2]
More about Mediterranean migrant arrivals in 2016.
September 23 – Africa
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reports that Africa’s overall elephant population is experiencing the worst decline in 25 years, mainly due to poaching for ivory, but also to the loss of habitat. The decline is estimated at around 111,000 elephants since 2006. The IUCN estimates that there are only about 415,000 elephants left in Africa, with about 70 percent of them in South Africa.[3]
September 29 – Sudan
Amnesty International reports that there is evidence that the Sudanese government has used banned chemical weapons in at least 30 attacks since January 2016 on its own population in the western region of Darfur. The most recent attack took place on September 9. Amnesty International estimates that about 250 people many of whom are children have died horrifying deaths as a result of exposure to the chemical weapons agents.[4] Amnesty is calling for an investigation into the attacks and for countries to put pressure on the Sudanese government.
October 9 – Ethiopia
The Ethiopian government declares a six-month state of emergency in response to months of anti-government protests. The unrest started after possibly hundreds of people died in a stampede on October 2 during the popular Irreecha harvest festival in the Oromia region.[5] The panic was triggered by teargas and shots fired by the government security forces. The government has been trying to end unrest in Oromia for months that grew out of grievances of being excluded from the country’s political process and the economic development, such as the development around the capital, Addis Ababa (situated in the Amhara region). Protests have also spread to the Amhara region. The Oromo and Amhara people, who constitute the country’s largest ethnic groups, complain about being marginalized, while the minority Tigray people dominate Ethiopia’s military and politics.
October 24 – Somalia
The last 26 hostages held by the Somali pirates since 2012 are released after a ransom was paid. The hostages are sailors from China, Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Taiwan who were on board of ship FV Naham 3 when it was captured south of the Seychelles. Piracy off the coast of Somalia has been dramatically reduced in recent years from total attacks of 176 in 2011 to 0 in 2015.[6] This is thanks to an international cooperation that resulted in creating counter-piracy task forces with numerous national vessels that deter and disrupt piracy and armed robbery at sea off the Horn of Africa and in the Western Indian Ocean.
Facts and figures about the Somali pirates activities since 2008.
November 1 – Morocco
Massive anti-government protests erupt across Morocco after fish seller, Mouhcine Fikri, was crushed to death by a compactor in a garbage truck. The incident happened when police confiscated about 1,100 pounds of his swordfish, saying swordfish was not allowed to be fished at this time of the year. Fikri, who invested lots of money in the product, jumped into the truck to retrieve the fish. Protesters say Fikri’s case demonstrates the abuse of power of Moroccan authorities, as well as brings to light economic problems such as high unemployment and poverty. Fikri was part of the informal economy, which in Morocco employs about 30 percent of the country’s workforce.[7]
November 30 – South Africa
South Africa begins testing a new vaccine against HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. HIV virus was identified in 1983 and previous attempts to develop a vaccine against it proved unsuccessful. Testing will last four years. There are 37 million people living with HIV worldwide, and in 2015 there were still about 2.1 million new cases. Sub-Saharan Africa bears the heaviest burden, with 6.8 million people with HIV living in South Africa. In comparison, for the United States this number is 1.2 million.[8]
December 1 – The Gambia
Gambia’s opposition candidate Adama Barrow defeats President Yahya Jammeh in the presidential election, winning 43.3 percent of the vote. Jammeh receives 39.6 percent and a third party candidate 17 percent of the vote. After initially accepting his defeat, Jammeh then rejects the results and launches a legal action in the country’s Supreme Court to annul the election.[9] Yahya Jammeh came to power in a military coup and has ruled The Gambia, a tiny country in West Africa completely surrounded by Senegal, as an authoritarian president for 22 years, muzzling the press and jailing or exiling opposition. One of the main reasons for Jammeh’s defeat was the participation in the election of young people who voted for change, especially improving the economy. Unemployment among the young adults in The Gambia amounts to 38 percent.[10] West African leaders, led by Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari, are getting involved in an effort to resolve standoff.
Why is it The Gambia, not Gambia? (Video 1:47 min)
December 19 – South Sudan
During a briefing to the UN Security Council, United States Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power warns about growing ethnic violence in South Sudan that is leading the country to the brink of genocide. She gives graphic examples of ethnic killings and accuses the Council of not doing enough to prevent it.[11] According to the UN Refugee Agency, 1.6 million people have been displaced inside South Sudan, while over 640,000 South Sudanese have sought refuge in neighboring countries. Based on these trends, the number of South Sudanese refugees is expected to exceed 938,000 by the end of 2016.[12] South Sudan collapsed into civil war just two years after becoming a nation.