Zimbabwe’s Sanctions Standoff

Crisis Group's Horn of Africa analyst Abdullahi Boru Halakhe speaks to inhabitants of an Internally Displaced Persons camp near Eldoret, western Kenya, 2 February 2012. Photo: Crisis Group / Andrew Stroehlein

9 February 2012: Two weeks after the International Criminal Court (ICC) confirmed that four prominent Kenyan figures, including two presidential candidates, are to stand trial over crimes against humanity, political emotions in the country are running high. Andrew Stroehlein, Communications Director for the International Crisis Group, and Abdullahi Boru Halakhe, Crisis Group Kenya Analyst, discuss the situation in Eldoret which is the scene of post-election violence 4 years ago, and talk about the local feelings in the run up to the next elections due in 2012.

Children show burnt election ballots outside a polling station at Matete district in Kinshasa November 29, 2011. Photo: REUTERS

9 February 2012: Several weeks behind schedule, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has published the results of the legislative elections held on 28 November 2011. They are the outcome of a process that witnessed many violations of the electoral code, disregarded several million votes and experienced vote-counting operations too opaque to make verification possible. Yet the INEC president, Daniel Ngoy Mulunda, rejected all the international community’s offers to help with vote counting. The results, which will determine the complexion of the new National Assembly, therefore lack credibility.

A car burns at the scene of a bomb explosion at St. Theresa Catholic Church at Madalla, Suleja, just outside Nigeria's capital Abuja, 25 December 2011. Photo: REUTERS

2 February 2012: Global Observatory interviewed Comfort Ero, our Program Director Africa, to discuss Boko Haram, the radical Islamist group responsible for violent acts intended to destabilize Nigeria and ultimately create an Islamist state governed by Sharia law. Their recent attack on January 20th killed 178 people. Comfort Ero says she sees clear signs "the group has become ever more dangerous," though she believes that the evidence remains sketchy about the extent of Boko Haram’s networks with other terror groups.