Mali, a country regarded as one of Africa’s more promising democracies has experienced a coup against its democratically elected government and a series of security and political crises in recent weeks . The conflict between the political and military elites in Bamako, coupled with an armed rebellion in Northern parts of the country, has brought chaos to a relatively stable country. The analysis of Mali examines the ongoing crisis in the light of regional and international intervention aimed at trying to put an end to the conflict in that country.

As many analysts predicted, the post-independence South Sudan is having a tough time in its relations with its northern neighbor. The tensions that have escalated between South Sudan and Sudan during the months since South Sudan’s independence have unfortunately engaged in armed clashes. Apart from on-going conflicts in the border regions of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, and the covert support for rebels in each other’s territories, that have escalated tensions between the two sovereign states, their dispute over oil revenues has erupted into fighting involving forcible seizure of territory and aerial bombings. The analysis of the region and the deteriorating relations between the governments in Juba and Khartoum looks at the recent clashes and their implications for the internal political and economic landscape of the two nations.

Efforts by non governmental actors to internationally publicize atrocities committed by the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) have increased the profile of the group and its leader Joseph Kony. The LRA continues to present a grave threat to the security of civilians in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Republic of South Sudan and the Central African Republic (CAR) as well as the ongoing peace and political processes in these countries. Through the years, the LRA, which has a history of preying on local divisions and conflicts, has demonstrated its ability to mount operations across borders, which has implications for crisis escalation potential within the ambit of the region’s complex conflict dynamic. The analysis of the LRA also examines the effectiveness of an AU-led mission to attempt to eliminate the group.

Report by the Institute for Security Studies