Latest Articles about East Africa
Mozambique’s RENAMO Conducts Low-Level Insurgency While Running for Election
Mozambique has been slowly descending into a political-military crisis since April 2013, as the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO – Mozambique Liberation Front) party has unsuccessfully attempted to persuade the Resistência Nacional Moçambicana (RENAMO – Mozambican National Resistance) to end its low-level insurgency... MORE
Al-Shabaab Exploits Kenyan Crackdown to Recruit Muslim Youth
Kenya, which in recent years has found itself surrounded by countries plagued by chaos and insurgency, is itself becoming another theater for terrorist attacks, with more than 90 such attacks recorded since Kenya’s 2011 military intervention in Somalia. The latest attack on May 22 injured... MORE
Terrorist Campaign Strikes Mombasa as Somali Conflict Spreads South
Kenyan authorities in the coastal city of Mombasa arrested two individuals on March 17 as they drove a vehicle laden with explosives into the city. Authorities believed that the two men were part of a larger cell of 11 who were planning a campaign of... MORE
Learning by Doing: PLAN Operational Innovations in the Gulf of Aden
Chinese planners were seriously concerned about logistical and operational challenges associated with anti-piracy missions near Somali waters long before the first People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) warships were deployed in 2008. In particular, trends in PLAN Far Seas logistical support and surface platform deployment demonstrate... MORE
The Relevant Organs: Institutional Factors behind China’s Gulf of Aden Deployment
Numerous institutional factors have driven and incentivized China’s participation in anti-piracy operations in the Gulf of Aden. Central to executing China’s first instance of protracted Far Seas naval operations has been inter-agency coordination among the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) and other military and civil... MORE
Tribal Champion or Proxy Warrior? A Profile of South Sudan’s David Yau Yau
Introduction In the remote regions of South Sudan’s Jonglei state, a failed politician, former theology student and military neophyte has managed to turn his personal dissatisfaction with the administration of the newly created South Sudan into an insurgency that draws on tribal rivalries, external interference... MORE
China-Uganda Relations: Closer is Not Necessarily Better
The long-delayed, Chinese-funded Entebbe expressway in Uganda once again is running into delays as government funds are insufficient to compensate the citizens who will lose their land to the highway. Although construction began only last month, Entebbe claims it has only sufficient funds to buy... MORE
The Life of an American in Somalia’s Jihad: An In-Depth Portrait of al-Amriki
A U.S. citizen born in 1984 in Alabama, Omar Hammami (a.k.a. Abu Mansoor al-Amriki) is a key recruiter and propaganda specialist for the al-Qaeda affiliated group, al-Shabaab, in Somalia. Al-Amriki, the son of a Syrian Muslim father and an American Southern Baptist mother, was raised... MORE