Africa

Militants in the south of Nigeria – in the area known as the Niger Delta – are blowing up oil pipelines and destroying other essential […] More

Various assumptions have emerged in attempts to explain the resurgence of armed militancy in the Niger Delta since February. Some explanations seek to connect the […] More

At least 97 people were killed and hundreds more injured across the Oromia and Amhara regions of Ethiopia over the weekend, when Ethiopian security forces […] More

As a landlocked country with three of its immediate neighbors ranked in the top four of the most Fragile States Index, it is in Ethiopia’s […] More

Ethiopia faced one of the worst droughts in decades this year due to unusually strong El Niño effects, linked to climate change. The Cipher Brief’s […] More

Around 60,000 people have fled South Sudan in just a few weeks – since renewed violence broke out in the capital Juba on July 7 […] More

At the heart of South Sudan’s descent into chaos is a failed effort at security sector reform. When Sudan’s long civil war ended in 2005, […] More

The devastating clashes that took place in South Sudan’s capital Juba between July 7 and 11 left hundreds dead and forced thousands to flee their […] More

Terrorist groups like al-Shabaab, ethnic violence, petty criminals, and corruption threaten Kenya’s security. The East African country has relied heavily on an unregulated and partially […] More

Kenya’s new Private Security Regulation Act will regulate the private security industry and allow more cooperation between the private sector and the government on national […] More

On May 18, Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta approved the Private Security Regulation Bill, an act which is heralding in a new dawn for the private […] More

The current turmoil within Burundi, a tiny landlocked country in the middle of Africa with a population of nearly 11 million, poses a threat to […] More

When President of the Burundian Senate Révérien Ndikuriyo reportedly said this fall, “on this issue, you have to pulverize, you have to exterminate – these […] More

Some far-away observers have ominously warned that my country, Burundi, is on the brink of a genocidal ethnic conflict like the one that plagued our […] More

Terrorism has emerged as a global threat to security. We might not be able to fully grasp the complexity of the matter until we look […] More

April 2 marked one year since the Somali terrorist group al-Shabaab attacked the Garissa University in Kenya and killed 148 people, galvanizing Kenya to intensify […] More

One year after the April 2015 attack that left 148 people dead at a university in Garissa, Kenya, a combination of forces is strengthening the […] More

The Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) was established on May 22,1964 through the Fort Lamy (now N’Djamena) Convention to ensure equitable and sustainable management of […] More