Tyson's ECOWAS Occasional Journal - Politics in West Africa

Following the hotel attack in Bamako , the peacekeeping mission is being expanded with the addition of 650 German troops , to join the 1500 French troops already in place. Since it's Thanksgiving and I'm with my family, I won't spend a lot of time writing about this now, but here is an earlier pos t that discusses violence by Islamic Extremists in Africa generally.

Burkina Faso was supposed to have a presidential election in October, and then that happened . After the presidential guard gave up power , a new election date was set: Sunday, November 29. Here are some of the more prominent candidates: Fourteen candidates are vying for the presidency. The most prominent are Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, a former prime minister who split from Mr. Compaoré last year, before the uprising; Zéphirin Diabré, a businessman and former official with the United Nations Development Program; Bénéwendé Stanislas Sankara, an acolyte of Thomas Sankara (no relation), the Marxist former soldier who as president, from 1983 to 1987, changed the country’s name from Upper Volta; and a lawyer, Tahirou Barry.  Diabre  says he will propose a new constitution, will prioritize youth and women, and will leave the issue of former president Blaise Compaore to the justice system. Here is some information about the candidates that were running for president i...

I've been behind on blogging here - I'll make a Thanksgiving resolution to get back to posting daily. One reason I'm behind is I've done a few blog posts for the Monkey Cage, and I spend more time on those posts than I do on my own. Here is a post I did on Cote d'Ivoire's October 25 election. 

I've been behind on blogging here - I'll make a Thanksgiving resolution to get back to posting daily. One reason I'm behind is I've done a few blog posts for the Monkey Cage, and I spend more time on those posts than I do on my own. Here is a piece I did on the Guinea's October 11 election.