A proper game of football, this one, berween a team that should have wrapped up the title already and another which should have been demoted to League One a long time ago.
Bjørnar Østby
@bjornarostby.bsky.social
Peace research, civil wars and international relations (with a sprinkle of Arsenal). LSE alumnus. Lecturer @OsloNewUC. Son of a preacher man, enjoyer of Stoney Tangawizi. Halvparten av duoen bak podkasten Afrikansk politikk.
Rwanda og DR Kongo signerte nylig en fredsavtale i Washington, D.C. Jeg håper at jeg tar feil, men jeg er foreløpig skeptisk til at avtalen vil bane vei for fred med det første. Jeg drodler litt om dette i en ny tekst på Afrikansk politikk-substacken. open.substack.com/pub/maren930...
Blir det fred mellom Rwanda og Kongo nå?
Sist fredag signerte Rwanda og DR Kongos utenriksministere en lenge ventet fredsavtale i Washington, D.C. Blir det fred mellom Rwanda og Kongo nå? Bjørnar har skriblet ned noen av sine reaksjoner.
open.substack.com
This will be carefully followed in the Sahel
Aron Lund@aronlund.bsky.social · last yr."The United States has given its blessing to a plan by Syria's new leadership to incorporate thousands of foreign jihadist former rebel fighters into the national army, provided that it does so transparently" Timour Azhari & Suleiman al-Khalidi, @reuters.com www.reuters.com/world/middle...
Jeg har begått en liten kommentar om Ibrahim Traoré - Burkina Fasos juntaleder som har blitt den nye politiske superhelten på TikTok. Følg Afrikansk politikk på Substack for å få oppdateringer fra @marensa.bsky.social og meg direkte i innboksen din! maren930.substack.com/p/traore-og-...
Traoré og jihadistene
Burkina Fasos juntaleder har blitt en internasjonal kjendis, men på hjemmebane kjemper han på vikende front mot transnasjonale jihadister.
maren930.substack.com
I går hadde @marensa.bsky.social og jeg en hyggelig prat med utviklingsminister Åsmund Aukrust i podkasten vår Afrikansk politikk. Samtalen svingte innom alt fra amerikanske bistandskutt og et FN-system i pengekrise, til Norges mulige rolle i en turbulent verden. open.spotify.com/episode/7eeY...
I think another way of looking at this is that the court of a corrupt and distracted mad king has always been fertile ground for opportunistic dealmaking by those in attendance. Trump catalyzes this opportunism, but it's unclear who are the beneficiaries of any deals that are actually closed.
Gregg Carlstrom@glcarlstrom.bsky.social · last yr."This is perhaps the most intense bout of White House diplomacy for a generation. So it offers clues as to whether Trump is as skilled a dealmaker as he says. The answer so far is that he is good at catalysing negotiations, but bad at closing them." www.economist.com/leaders/2025...
Jeg har svart Asle Toje i Aftenposten. Han forveksler antiamerikanisme med antitrumpisme. www.aftenposten.no/meninger/deb...
Asle Toje forveksler antiamerikanisme og antitrumpisme
Snoen svarer Toje.
aftenposten.no
More than 200 civilians killed as Sudan’s RSF assaults Darfur refugee camps
More than 200 civilians killed as Sudan’s RSF assaults Darfur refugee camps
Relief International medics among dead as paramilitaries step up violence against region’s displaced people Paramilitaries in Sudan have murdered more than 200 civilians in a wave of attacks in refugee camps and around the city of El Fasher, the last big city still in the hands of the Sudanese army in the Darfur region. The deaths include at least 56 civilians killed by the Rapid Support Forces over two days of attacks in Um Kadadah, a town they seized on the road to El Fasher. Continue reading...
theguardian.com
Demonstrations in Central African Republic against #Wagner and President's bid for a third term: “We’re here to say no to a third term..But more than that, we want to protect our sovereignty, which Touadera and the Wagner have trampled upon,” #Russia #CAR #Africa apnews.com/article/cent...
Thousands rally against Russian Wagner mercenaries in Central African Republic
Thousands have protested plans of Central African Republic's president to run for a third term with the backing of Russian-led mercenaries from the Wagner group.
apnews.com
Historians are going to have better records from the 19th century than the 21st, is my most medievalist futurist prediction.
Torsten Kathke@kathke.com · last yr.We won't just lose the archives they want us to lose but also the ones they couldn't back up properly.
A video obtained by @nytimes.com clearly refutes the Israeli military's narrative on the aid convoy attack: Israeli troops opened fire on clearly marked ambulances that had their emergency lights on. 15 aid workers were killed. www.nytimes.com/2025/04/04/w...
Video Shows Aid Workers Killed in Gaza Under Gunfire Barrage, With Ambulance Lights On (Gift Article)
The U.N. has said Israel killed the workers. The video appears to contradict Israel’s version of events, which said the vehicles were “advancing suspiciously” without headlights or emergency signals.
nytimes.com
Seriously this Bible exchange goes on even longer than I'm able to clip here.
Jack Jenkins@jackjenkins.me · last yr.Okay now Sens. Cory Booker and Chris Coons (a Yale Divinity School grad) are literally just having a lengthy discussion of scripture and the Bible on the Senate floor right now. Religious left: still a thing.
BREAKING — Nearly all employees at the US Institute of Peace (USIP) received an email tonight informing them they were fired effective immediately, multiple staffers confirmed with me. Just a few HR and IT staffers are being kept on to assist DOGE’s illegal dismantling of the independent nonprofit.
If this were an *actual* war this opportunistic photoshoot would be a violation of the Geneva Convention.
Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · 2y agoHomeland Security secretary Kristi Noem making content in front of the imprisoned men of El Salvador's notorious Terrorism Confinement Center mega-prison www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Det har gått raskt utfor i Sør-Sudan. Med arrestasjonen av visepresident Riek Machar er fredsvtalen fra 2018, i realiteten revet i stykker
Our analysis on Trump as mediator theglobalobservatory.org/2025/03/maki...
Making Peace Great Again? The Challenges and Potentials of Trump’s Approach to Peace Diplomacy - IPI Global Observatory
How should we assess Trump’s peace diplomacy? And what can Europe and Ukraine do to position themselves strategically in the diplomatic battle over Ukraine’s and Europe’s future?
theglobalobservatory.org
Hate to say I told you so, but...
Alexander Clarkson@aphclarkson.bsky.social · 2y agoFriendly reminder that Opsec is so terrible around the Trump team that the details of any discussions between him and Moscow will probably already be in the hands of intelligence agencies in Kyiv, Paris, Rome, Warsaw and Beijing
This is the wildest story I have literally ever read. In any normal circumstances, a half-dozen senior officials would be forced to resign over this—starting with the National Security Advisor. And I doubt anyone will face any accountability at all.
Shane Harris@shaneharris.bsky.social · 2y agoIn 25 years of covering national security, I’ve never seen a story like this: Senior Trump officials discussed planning for the U.S. attack on Yemen in a Signal group--and inadvertently added the editor-in-chief of The Atlantic. www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
I'd frame this as part of what I've called Trump II's war on words. In this case, they've hollowed the word "terror" out of its accepted meaning and inserted "migrant" in its place.
Brian Finucane@bcfinucane.bsky.social · 2y agoThe Trump administration has re-invented the war on terror as a war on migrants (e.g. GTMO, Alien Enemies Act) and drug cartels (e.g. FTO designations, US drones over Mexico, and even possible future US direct action).
... That last I take from @nescio13.bsky.social. So segregationist managed democracy at home, and mercantilist monopoly patronage guiding economic and foreign policy. This is an indefensibly awful social and economic system, nothing to endear it unless you are a politically well-connected sycophant.
Elon Musk hevder USAs bistandsfrys ikke har kostet liv. Det er nok ikke sant i Sør-Sudan. I en leir for internt fordrevne i Unity nord i landet har man sluttet å tømme latriner som følge av kuttene, og det midt i en koleraepidemi. www.panoramanyheter.no/sor-sudan-us...
– Usikkerheten er det verste
Innsatsen mot en koleraepidemi nord i Sør-Sudan er rammet av USAs bistandsfrys. I en leir for internt fordrevne i Bentiu med rundt 100 000 innbyggere, blir ikke lenger latrinene tømt.
panoramanyheter.no
Absolute insanity
Martin Konečný@martinkonecny.bsky.social · 2y agoUS and Israel have asked Sudan, Somalia and Somaliland if they'd accept mass transfer of Palestinians from Gaza to their territory. They even approached Sudan, in the middle of brutal war, "with offers of military assistance against the RSF". apnews.com/article/isra...
Sør-Sudan og Tigray står på kanten av stupet, og i Sudan er alt i bevegelse. @marensa.bsky.social og jeg har kastet oss rundt med en hasteepisode, og Kjetil Tronvoll svipper innom for å forklare oss hva som skjer på Hornet. open.spotify.com/episode/5Jdy...
EKSTRA: Alt rakner
Afrikansk politikk · Episode
open.spotify.com