Politics

What next for Africa’s opposition as former Vice President Boakai unseats incumbent Weah in Liberia

Published

5 months ago

November 18, 2023

An incumbent president has lost an election in Africa, a rare ray of hope for Africa’s struggling opposition.

In Liberia, West Africa, the country’s president, George Weah, has been defeated by an opposition leader, Joseph Boakai, after a tight race for the country’s top job.

The election ends Weah’s era, which has been marred by graft allegations, while also notably helping to ensure a smooth transition of power in the once volatile nation, as the president conceded defeat on Friday.

Weah said on national radio, “I spoke with president-elect Joseph Boakai a few moments ago to congratulate him on his victory.

“I urge you to follow my example and accept the results of the elections.”

Other contenders in the election were Nathaniel Barnes, a former Liberian ambassador to the United States; Clarence Moniba, and Alexander B. Cummings Jr., who finished fifth in the 2017 presidential election, among others.

The Liberian President is elected using a two-round system, while the 73 members of the House of Representatives are elected by first-past-the-post voting in single-member constituencies.

The outcome is a sharp contrast to the 2017 election when Boakai was defeated by global football legend, Weah, who garnered 62% of the vote. Unfortunately, some Liberians have become discouraged by continued poverty, unemployment, food insecurity, and inadequate electricity supply.

Boakai’s win also marks the highpoint in a long career, much of it spent within touching distance of power, including 12 years as vice president under Weah’s predecessor, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. He lost in a run-off vote to Weah in 2017.

The victory of the 78-year-old leader of the Liberia National Union, Boakai, spotlights electoral evolution in the continent, as it is unusual to unseat a president in a continent with the unsavoury tag of having the longest-serving president in the world.

While opposition parties have merged in the bid to defeat ruling parties elsewhere, like in Nigeria in 2013, in Gabon earlier this year, and more recently during the week in the Democratic Republic of the Congo ahead of next month’s presidential election, veteran Boakai has defied the odds to become Liberia’s top man without such mergers. It is yet to be seen if he will sustain popularity or run out of gas like the outgoing Weah.

Close watchers of Africa’s opposition politics will wait to see if Boakai’s victory represents a continent-wide bellwether or just another occasional outlier.

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Politics

Burkina Faso investigating reports of northern killings

Published

10 hours ago

April 28, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A government spokesman has revealed that Burkina Faso is looking into reports that 223 people were killed by the Burkinabe army in two villages in the north in February.

The killing was first reported by the Human Rights Watch (HRW), causing a rift between the junta-led West African state and some foreign media that published the report. The HRW report released on Thursday said that the military had executed residents of Nodin and Soro, including at least 56 children, as part of a campaign against civilians suspected of working with jihadist terrorists. The report was based on interviews with witnesses, members of civil society, and other groups.

Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo, a spokesman for the government, said that HRW’s claims were “peremptory” and that the junta was not unwilling to look into the claimed crimes.

“An investigation has been launched into the killings in Nodin and Soro,” Ouedraogo said in a late-evening statement, quoting a statement from a regional prosecutor on March 1.

Since Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger’s militaries took over in a series of coups from 2020 to 2023, violence in the area has gotten worse. This is because of the ten-year fight with Islamist groups related to Al Qaeda and Islamic State.

Attacks on Burkina Faso got much worse in 2023, with more than 8,000 people killed, according to the U.S.-based crisis-monitoring group ACLED.

Politics

S’Africa lengthens troop deployment in Mozambique, Congo DR

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a speech that South Africa’s military would keep sending troops to Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which are both in the middle of wars.

The extension will leave 1,198 members of the South African National Defense Force (SANDF) in eastern Congo for an unknown amount of time. They are there as part of a United Nations peacekeeping force helping Congo fight rebel groups.

The statement also said that 1,495 members of the SANDF would keep working in Mozambique, where they have been since 2021 helping the government fight dangerous extremism in the north.

After two SANDF troops were killed and three were hurt by a mortar bomb in Congo in February, South Africa’s military operations abroad have been looked at more closely at home this year.

Meanwhile, the major opposition party in South Africa, the Democratic Alliance, said that Ramaphosa sent troops into a war zone without being ready.
Under the supervision of the UN, the SANDF has taken on many dangerous and difficult peacekeeping tasks over the years to help war-torn African countries stay stable and peaceful.

In 2003, South Africa was one of the first countries to send troops to Burundi to help the peace process. During the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) peacekeeping mission in 2000, the SANDF led attempts to stabilize the country’s politics, rebuild and improve infrastructure, and train DRC troops.