The parties to Yemen’s messy civil war each have their own agenda, making the conflict hard to resolve. Here are some of these groups and what they want. The Houthis  In the late 1990s, the Houthi family in far north Yemen set up a religious revival movement involving the Zaydi sect of Shi’ite Islam, which…

The commercial war between the USA and the rest of the world has only just begun and some voices point out that the current escalation of tariffs can last up to 20 years. Since Trump came to power he has not stopped sending signals that pointed to his disenchantment with the economic agreements of his…

Millions of hectares of tropical forest disappear every year and many other rainforest areas are degraded through human activity. Agriculture and the timber trade are responsible for much of this environmental loss. And the EU is one of the biggest importers from Africa of them both. Forests are cleared for agriculture like monoculture of palm…

Syria has defeated the bulk of Jihadists and rendered ineffective US plans to domesticate it. Now it needs reforms and justice, also for the Kurds. The Syria of 2011 no longer exists. The Syrian crisis, begun seven years ago, no longer makes the headlines. Nevertheless, Syria continues to be in a difficult situation due to…

Saudi Arabian interests have an anti-Iran role in the war in Yemen;   “peace” between Ethiopia and Eritrea and the flourishing Jihadist militias on the African continent. Saudi Arabia is spreading its dangerous geo-political web also over Ethiopia and Eritrea. These two countries, after twenty years of conflict, reached an agreement on 9 July described as…

As the International Criminal Court (ICC) has marked the 20th anniversary of its foundation, the member countries are called upon to step up efforts to support the Court in the face of increasing challenges to delivering justice. But some African countries are currently threatening to leave the ICC. The Court’s founding treaty, the Rome Statute,…

At the White House it is not advisable to insist too much. The Turkish leader guarantees the USA and NATO important strategic interests in the Middle East. He could look to Russia, China or Iran. There is no easing off in the diplomatic war between the USA and Turkey; indeed, it seems to be intensifying.…

There are all sorts of reasons for celebrating Nelson Mandela in this centenary year of his birth. We recall the way he worked incessantly to overcome racial domination and achieve freedom for both the oppressed and their oppressors. We marvelled at how he could emerge from 27 years in prison without rancour or bitterness, even…

Continual growth in commercial exchange between the Asian giant and many African countries. Closeness of ties that can be seen also in the diplomatic field with the opening of eighteen new Indian embassies on the continent. Back in 2002, on 26 May, the Indian minister for Commerce and Industry, Murasoli Maran, launched the programme “Focus…

The Cotonou Agreement is the overarching framework for European Union (EU) relations with countries of Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific (ACP) and is based on three pillars: development cooperation, economic-trade cooperation, and the political dimension. The negotiation will start this month of September. This agreement will be valid until 2020. The European Commission has…

The resource curse, also known as the paradox of abundance, is the theory that countries with an abundance of natural resources, such as oil and minerals, achieve less economic growth than countries that are not endowed with natural resources. However, there are some exceptions, and  Botswana is one of them. The case of this southern…

Bogus accusations against Iran as a manufacturer of nuclear arms. The Israeli government fears Iran may change the balance of power in the Middle East, compelling it to respect the rights of Palestinians. The Iranian nuclear question is again dominating the international political scene. It has obscured the deep crises in Syrian, Yemen and Libya,…