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Leadership: Bonang Mohale is many things, yet, beyond the impressive titles and achievements lies something far more important: a deep and abiding love for people. Photo: TBCSA / Thabang Radebe

You have to love your people to lead them

Too often, leadership is seduced by power. The allure of authority, prestige and influence can slowly overwhelm the original motivation to serve people. What begins as a…

Diplomacy: Rwandan President Paul Kagame, President Donald Trump and DRC President Felix Tshisekedi. Photo: The White House

Great Lakes strife calls for no bias

US partiality towards one party risks subverting mediator role in Washington Process

The M23 rebels have said they support the withdrawal of the South African National Defence Force from the UN Organisation Stabilisation Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
 Photo: Wikipedia

The fall of Uvira is a turning point in the DRC conflict

The city’s capture by M23 means neighbouring Burundi, an ally of the DRC government, now shares a border with an area controlled by the rebels, escalating the risk of…

Every day, Congolese refugees, mostly women and children, arrive at the Musenyi site. The site has a capacity
of 10,000 people, but by the end of April it was hosting more than 15,000 refugees. Photo: Dorine Niyungeko/
MSF

How to respond to sexual assault survivors

Many women and girls have survived sexual violence perpetrated by armed groups and armed forces in DRC, when fleeing to Burundi, and incidents have also been reported in the…

Kenyan Boniface Mwangi after a street protest in 2020. In 2025, he was driven to an unknown location, stripped naked, beaten by state security officers. Photo: File (2020)

African states silence dissenting voices through enforced disappearances

Governments on the continent are using enforced disappearances to silence political opposition but, as cases rise, only 21 of 55 states have ratified a key convention

Burundians protested when Pierre Nkurunziza decided to seek election for a third term in violation of the Arusha Accords. Photo: Carl de Souza/ AFP)

Bye-bye Arusha Accords as Burundi solidifies one-party rule

Burundi is not the only authoritarian country in the region. Tanzania is restricting the opposition, media and civil society, while Rwanda controls any dissent

In the DRC, around 74% of the population lives in extreme poverty, living on less than $2.15 per day. Photo: Alexis Huguet/AFP

Translating peace into shared prosperity in the Great Lakes region

Economic integration would lead to trade and economic growth and contribute to social stability

Ambassador of Malawi H.E Stella Chiripo Ndau, Ambassador of Burundi and High Commissioner of Botswana H.E Dr Sanji Mmasenono Monageng

Burundi celebrates 63 years of independence

The 63rd independence anniversary celebration in Pretoria successfully combined diplomatic protocol with authentic cultural expression, offering attendees an enriching glimpse…

Indiscriminate: A technician in Madrid with monkeypox samples. Anybody can acquire the virus if they have had close contact with an infected person. Photo: Pedro Blazquez Dominguez/Getty Images

Mpox declaration marks a key shift in power for Africa

The continent asked for more say in global health decisions after Covid. It now has that. The mpox declaration is a test of this new power

This 1997 image was created during an investigation into an outbreak of monkeypox, which took place in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), formerly Zaire, and depicts the palms of a patient with a case of monkeypox in Lodja, a town in the Katako-Kombe health zone. (Photo by: CDC/IMAGE POINT FR/BSIP/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)

New strain of mpox cases surge in DRC and neighbouring countries

The Clade Ib strain has already jumped borders, with cases being reported in Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Kenya in the last two weeks

Forced out: Families are shuttled from Maula Prison to Dzaleka. Photo: Jack McBrams

Families trucked off to prison in Malawi crackdown on expatriates

Refugees ‘hounded like dogs’ by the police and army despite protests by the United Nations Refugee Agency and civil society

Endless: In the 1990s the DRC’s Laurent-Désiré Kabila (left) asked Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe (right) for help.  (Odd Andersen/AFP)

In the DRC, an ugly history of war risks repeating itself

East African leaders are mobilising armies to intervene in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Decades ago, Zimbabwean soldiers came to Kinshasa’s aid and learnt harsh…

Significant opportunity: Kenya’s Uhuru Kenyatta (left) and the DRC’s Felix Tshisekedi (right) with Rwanda’s Paul Kagame (centre) at the ceremony admitting the DRC to the East African Community. Photo: Tony Karumbu/AFP

OPINION | Pros and cons of DRC joining the East Africa bloc

The Democratic Republic of the Congo will bring economic opportunities for the East African Community and the DRC – but it will also bring a number of major security problems

Drought has left
nearly two million Kenyans at risk. (Photo by Noor Khamis/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

Africa in brief: 11-18 September

Your Africa updates: What happened on the continent this past week

Hutu leaders: Évariste Ndayishimiye (centre), became president of Burundi after the sudden death of Pierre Nkurunziza (right) in 2020. The international community did not consider the election free and fair and Ndayishimiye, despite making some overtures of peace , is continuing his exclusionary practices. Photo: AFP

Burundi’s peace hangs by a thread

Burundi has not yet dealt with its violent past, and successive leaders have failed to stop state repression. A political dialogue is urgently needed

Internet shutdowns in Africa threaten democracy

Governments’ interruption of social media is censorship is a way to control the flow of information online and amounts to censorship

Governments across sub-Saharan Africa violently pursue exiles abroad. Democracies must push back. (John McCann/M&G)

The Africans in exile who live in fear of transnational repression

Governments across sub-Saharan Africa violently pursue exiles abroad. Democracies must push back

(Mail & Guardian)

Editorial: Campaigns in the time of Twitter

Just as a “nobody” can spew falsehoods and propaganda on social media, so too can a political leader — only with more dire consequences.

Bicycles are piled up as Burundian refugees crowd gather along the shoreline of the Tanganyika lake in the fishing village of Kagunga. (Photo by Daniel Hayduk/AFP)

Burundian refugees in Tanzania face increasing danger

Human Rights Watch has documented cases of Burundian refugees being tortured and forcibly returned by Tanzanian authorities

Fabien Banciryanino, who challenged state on political murders, detained in notorious prison

Fearless Burundi MP suffers in jail

Fabien Banciryanino, who challenged state on political murders, detained in notorious prison