Latest Updates

The African Union has been taking a larger role of late in addressing questions of peace and security on the continent. Our annual survey identifies eight situations where the organisation’s timely intercession could help resolve, mitigate or ward off conflict.

The African Union is best positioned to send peacekeepers to the continent’s various war zones. But it often lacks the funds available to the UN’s blue helmets. A compromise over co-financing peacekeeping missions would serve the conflict prevention goals of both institutions.

This week on The Horn, Alan Boswell is joined by Murithi Mutiga, Crisis Group’s Project Director for the region to discuss the conflicts and crises dominating East Africa. 

In this Episode of The Horn, Host Alan Boswell and Judd Devermont, Director of the Africa Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, discuss everything from the importance of multilateralism to the incoherence of U.S. policy toward the rising competition between Gulf Arab states in this part of Africa.

China and the West are increasingly at loggerheads in Turtle Bay. So are European capitals and Washington. The handling of African crises is contentious as well. Amid these frictions, it is the job of UN diplomats to keep channels for quiet communication up and running.

 In this Episode of The Horn, Host Alan Boswell and Host Alan Boswell and autor Nanjala Nyabola discuss everything from digital colonialism and the exploitation of technology by state powers to the democratising potential of social media.

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. In this first episode of Crisis Group's new podcast series The Horn, Alan Boswell is joined by Elizabeth Dickinson, Crisis Group's Senior Analyst for the Arabian Peninsula to discuss the risks of Red Sea rivalries and also the opportunities.

In Season 1 of The Horn, host Alan Boswell and guests make sense of events from across the Horn of Africa region, including Sudan’s revolution, Somalia’s fight against Al-Shabaab and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in East Africa. Produced by Maeve Frances.
Episodes from other series of The Horn can be found here: Season 2, Season 3 and Season 4.

Gulf states are competing for influence in the Horn of Africa to control the Red Sea, transposing internal rivalries onto a fragile region. Horn governments should increase their bargaining power with their powerful neighbours, who should recognise the risks their policies pose to regional security.

African heads of state should press Burundi to open the political space, in particular letting opposition politicians campaign freely and safely and allowing in international observers, in order to prevent a reprise of past violence or worse.