Swaziland’s name change debate is more about defining the exact limits of the king’s authority.

With elections scheduled in Kenya for August, opposition parties are trying to unify again. Enter the National Super Alliance.

The situation in Burundi is still deteriorating, and could lead to genocide, civil war or regional conflict. So where does Burundi go from here? The options are bleak, writes Simon Allison.

It’s hard to imagine the country without him, but dos Santos’ departure could well set change in motion.

On 11 July at around 3pm – just as a new bout of fighting in Juba was beginning to die down – dozens of government soldiers stormed into the Terrain Hotel. The hotel is popular with expatriates and international aid workers. Over the course of the next four hours, occupants of the hotel were gang-raped, robbed and assaulted, with American citizens especially targeted. Why did the peacekeepers choose not to intervene?

8 August is Heroes’ Day in Zimbabwe. The annual holiday celebrates the men and women who fought on the winning side in Zimbabwe’s brutal war of independence, and is synonymous with parades, pageantry and pro-government propaganda. But this year, the heroes themselves didn’t show up. Despite being among Robert Mugabe’s loudest cheerleaders over the past few decades, Zimbabwe’s surviving war veterans have made a decisive break with the nonagenarian president.

As Zimbabwe teeters on the brink of economic and political crisis, there’s one voice that has been conspicuously silent: China. Despite the mutual professions of admiration and everlasting friendship, it seems that President Robert Mugabe has been abandoned by his Chinese counterpart in his hour of need. It wasn’t meant to be this way, writes Simon Allison.

Even as Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari claims to have ‘technically defeated Boko Haram,’ he’s facing another armed rebellion, from a completely different part of the country – and it may be even more serious.

In early April, King Salman of Saudi Arabia went to Cairo on a high-profile visit. He came laden with treasure – specifically, billions of dollars’ worth of trade deals, low-interest loans and grants – but left with something that the Saudis consider ever more valuable: the Red Sea islands of Sanafir and Tiran.

On 4 April, the International Criminal Court (ICC) suffered the most significant setback in its nearly 14 years of existence. In a majority decision, judges terminated the case against Kenyan Deputy President William Ruto and Nairobi radio executive Joshua arap Sang.