North Africa coronavirus: 12 March 2020 update
Listen to the audio podcast above By Arezki Daoud: It is not total panic mode yet, but there is a feeling that the situation is bubbling up a bit more every day and could get out of control. Most of the pressure that has been building can be attributed to the hype...
Libya: Despite calls for ceasefire, Haftar continues to attack Tripoli
There is little to no hope that warlord Khalifa Haftar and his supporters will listen to calls for reason and endorse a ceasefire. The UN Security Council called Tuesday on the warring parties in Libya to quickly reach a ceasefire. AFP quotes the security council as...
Algeria: Death of a tyrant and a country facing uncertainty
Opinion by Arezki Daoud | Even Hollywood could not have come up with such a dramatic script. The head of the Algeria military junta is dead after 15 years as Defense Chief of Staff and nearly a year as the country’s undeclared, but real dictator. Over the past...
Algerie: La chute de la diplomatie européenne en plein jour
English version Par Arezki Daoud – 4 December 2019: Ce n’est un secret pour personne que l’une des tâches primordiales d’un l’ambassadeur consiste à connaître les principaux acteurs politiques du pays où ils se trouve. Ainsi, pour l’Allemagne, le...
Algeria: Pitiful diplomacy in full display: when European ambassadors meet a rogue presidential candidate
Version française By Arezki Daoud – Editorial for 4 December 2019: It’s no secret that one of the top jobs of an ambassador is to get to know the key political stakeholders in the country where they are assigned. So for Germany, the UK, Belgium, Holland,...
Algeria: complete political and economic freeze, regime has no creative ideas to get out of the chaos
Opinion by Arezki Daoud | June 4, 2019: The man in charge by default in Algeria, army chief General Gaid Salah, gave an upbeat speech on 28 May, inviting the protest movement to negotiate a way out of the crisis. Days later, the constitutional court canceled the 4...
Algeria: The men tasked to drive the post-Bouteflika transition and why people don’t trust them
By Arezki Daoud – April 3, 2019: There have been loud voices calling for a clean slate in the Algerian system of governance. Donald Trump used to call it “cleaning the swamp.” But by now, he realized it is easier said than done. I completely...
Algeria: Petroleum sector facing uncertainty as political crisis escalates
By Arezki Daoud – 21 March 2019: Echoing the positions of many of the foreign companies operating in Algeria, peaking with Exxon Mobil halting talks with Sonatrach on the American company’s involvement in a gas project, oil analyst Julian Lee wrote in Bloomberg...Opinion: Turbulent times in North Africa and Sahel
By Arezki Daoud: 22 February 2019 – North Africa remains confronted with so many sources of instability, while the Sahel has virtually collapsed. Egypt continuous on its downward spiral of government abuse. Authorities have been hanging people over the past two...
UN conflict resolution technique: more conferences, and another one on the Western Sahara
By Arezki Daoud – 30 January 2019: The UN does a lot of good things, including humanitarian support to people in distress. One area where the institution is ineffective is bringing feuding parties in key conflicts and get them to agree no matter what. One of...
Algeria: A presidential election without one single candidate
The North Africa Journal – By Arezki Daoud – 18 January 2019: This is the kind of stuff you only see in the Guinness Book of World Records. A country that has a presidential election in three months and yet, no single candidate came forward. Not that the...
North Africa & the Sahel: A tough start for the new year
17 January 2019 – By Arezki Daoud – The hope for some stabilization this year in North Africa and the Sahel appears to have faded away with the events in the region that greeted 2019. As the populations confront winter, they also confront one or many...From the Editor
Luxembourg Prime Minister is right: Arab and European leaders believe in “Father Christmas” by The North Africa Journal | Feb 25, 2019 Opinion by Arezki Daoud - 25 February 2019: Leaders and representatives of some 40 Arab and European countries met in...
Libya: No hope for stability anytime soon
The North Africa Journal – February 21, 2018: No one seems to know what to do with Libya these days. French President Emmanuel Macron at least had the courage to say that the military intervention in Libya under President Nicolas Sarkozy, was a “serious...
Libya: The unlikely return of peace with Haftar and Serraj in the driving seat
The North Africa Journal- July 27, 2017: By Arezki Daoud: Two Libyan leaders, UN-backed, Tripoli-based Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and the self-promoted Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the man whose stronghold is in the east of the country, met in Paris this week under the...
China focuses on its military footprint in Africa, setting stage for new rivalry with West
The North Africa Journal – July 13, 2017: While the United States is scaling back its international positions amid a significant reduction in State Department’s budget that will affect international aid, another superpower, China, is working to substantially...