Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
David L Smith

Creator

David L Smith

Refugee blues: A Nigerian girl who fled Boko Haram violence with her family across the border into Niger. Photo: Giles Clarke/Getty Images

An intelligent look at war

A new book examines the use and abuse of military intelligence gathering in Africa

Still making waves after 100 years

Radio has adapted to the times and, a century in, is going strong and changing lives in South Africa

DRC fans were roaring until it finally hit them that Côte d’Ivoire was leading 3-1 and there were only 15 minutes left in the game.

Depressing end to Afcon for DRC team

A problem getting homegrown people to soccer matches: the locals just don’t seem to be interested in African football.

Equatorial Guinea snores through the Afcon

Despite the sensational action on the pitch, Equatorial Guinea hasn’t quite been able to get excited about the international tournament.

The outcome of the ANC’s long-awaited KwaZulu-Natal conference was a win for the Thuma Mina crowd. (Delwyn Verasamy/M&G)

Bewitching tale casts light on Kinshasa’s street children

‘Child Witch Kinshasa’ is fiction, but barely. It is a book about the Congolese seen through the eyes of a young boy.

Culture of impunity: Somali Abdirahman Ali Mohamud is buried in Philippi

Humanising hate crimes

Xenophobic violence is vividly described in Jonny Steinberg’s story of a Somali man’s search for freedom.

Fighting broke out in a number of towns across the country again in early 2017, following a period of relative calm in 2016. (AFP)

CAR is being robbed of its future

Locals in the Central African Republic have been sidelined, which means that any solution to the fighting in the country is unlikely to succeed.

A crowd cheers interim president Catherine Samba-Panza in February.

Disarmed to the teeth in Bangui

Politics and absconding African Union forces make peace a tough sell in the Central African Republic.

Peacekeeping won’t solve the underlying problems of the conflict in the CAR.

CAR: A fighting chance is not enough

NEWS ANALYSIS: The Central African Republic can only succeed if it is given the opportunity to develop, writes David L Smith.

Central African Republic descends unchecked into hell

"The humanitarian crisis in the Central African Republic (CAR) is worse than it has ever been."

François Bozizé was president of the Central African Republic for a decade until his ousting in 2013. Now he’s plotting a comeback, but he had his chance — and failed

Bozizé out of the frying pan into SA?

Is he or isn’t he in South Africa? Whatever the case, finding a permanent refuge for François Bozizé is complicated.

Devastation: In one of the bloodiest attacks in war-ravaged Mogadishu recently

Somalians wish to forge their own destiny

If it wasn’t for the occasional bomb blast in Mogadishu the country would likely have fallen off the radar for many people.

CAR: Bozizé, Zuma in backroom troops deal

Central African Republic’s outsted president François Bozizé’s request for South African troops in Bangui did not go through proper channels.

CAR’s criminal soldiers ‘out of control’

"Out of control elements" is how locals are referring to those responsible for the acts of violence that are keeping people off the CAR’s streets.

The forgotten: Humanitarian crisis unfolds in CAR

The humanitarian emergency in the Central African Republic worsens daily as security in much of the country remains elusive.

Soldiers run riot in Bangui

Michel Djotodia is going to have to make it clear that he is in charge of CAR — not the president of Chad — writes David L Smith.

An anti-balaka militiaman in the Central African Republic. Late last year, the court arrested two leaders of the anti-balaka militias that were parties to the conflict. (Reuters)

Long road ahead for CAR’s shaky leadership

Without a Nelson Mandela of its own, expectations in the Central African Republic of the new crew in power, under Michel Djotodia, are low.

The bodies of two soldiers are handed over to family members during a ceremony at Air Force Base Waterkloof near Pretoria on March 28.

CAR: Army death toll ‘could be much higher’

South African army casualties in the Central African Republic two weeks ago may have been dramatically higher than the military has been telling us.

Central African leaders likely to go easy on CAR rebel strongman

Seleka rebel head Michel Djotodia will probably be cut some slack given the personal history of some of the leaders gathered in N’Djamena.

Why exactly is Zuma attending Chad summit on CAR?

Jacob Zuma’s objectives at a regional summit on the CAR are unclear, but he will want to reach an understanding with the powers that be in Bangui.