Latest Updates

Eritrea continues to be an enigma few outsiders know well. This week on The Horn, Alan Boswell is joined by author and journalist Martin Plaut, who offers unique insights on the Horn of Africa’s most off-the-radar country and President Isaias’ autocratic state.

In early 2020, Vice News correspondent Julia Steers was the first foreign journalist in five years to set foot in the Jebel Marra mountains, Darfur’s last rebel-held area. This week on The Horn, Julia tells of a region traumatised by war and explains why these rebels stayed out of an August peace deal.

Peacemaking has changed in Africa, with increased militarisation and multipolar approaches to peacekeeping. Looking ahead in this first episode of The Horn’s second season, our Africa Program Director Comfort Ero tells host Alan Boswell what she sees as the continent’s complex drivers of war.

In Season 2 of The Horn, host Alan Boswell and guests cover the main issues during a tumultuous period for the Horn of Africa, with several crucial elections taking place across the region and civil war breaking out in Ethiopia. Produced by Maeve Frances.
Episodes from other series of The Horn can be found here: Season 1, Season 3 and Season 4.

With the Multinational Joint Task Force, the Lake Chad basin states are combining efforts to defeat jihadist elements that endanger them all. It has won some victories but militants have recovered. To keep progressing, and secure more funds, the four armies should deepen their cooperation. 

The direct link between global warming, the scarcity of resources and violence in Central Sahel is considered a given, but a closer examination reveals the connection is not so clear cut.

In the central Sahel, states are mobilising to combat the impact of climate change as way of reducing conflict. But to respond suitably to growing insecurity, it is important to look beyond a simplistic equation linking global warming and resource scarcity to outbreaks of violence.

This week on The Horn, Alan is joined by Kenyan diplomat Ambassador Mahboub Maalim to discuss the implications of COVID-19 on vulnerable populations, the threat to multilateral institutions and the limits of virtual diplomacy.

The Horn of Africa faces myriad crises. Beyond the potentially devastating impact of COVID-19 on politics and the economy, the region is grappling with deeply troubled transitions, cross-border jihadism and remains a playground for great power competition. This week on The Horn, Host Alan Boswell and journalist April Zhu discuss the challenges East Africa faces as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 In this episode of The Horn, Alan Boswell is joined by Harry Verhoeven, a leading academic expert on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam to discuss everything from the politicisation of the dam to environmental sustainability and agricultural productivity in the Nile Basin.