The coup in Sudan shows that the military members of the transitional government were never truly committed to implementing democracy in the manner sought by protesters who forced Omar al-Bashir from power in 2019. By Michelle Gavin, Guest columnist and blogger Monday’s coup in Sudan represents an attempt by forces who were never interested reform or democracy to derail the country’s transition and protect their own interests at the expense of the rest of the country....

By Michelle Gavin, Guest columnist and blogger The world should not look away from Swazis’ continuing fight for democracy. For a brief moment over the summer, eSwatini was the subject of international headlines when security forces killed pro-democracy demonstrators in one of the world’s last absolute monarchies. The Southern African Development Community dispatched a high-level fact-finding mission to the country, which foundered when Swazi officials resisted regional efforts to consult with voices outside of government and did not...

By Michelle Garvin, Guest Columnist and Blogger Worsening conflict has not led the Ethiopian government to tamp down its inflammatory rhetoric, riling up supporters and putting it at odds with actors hoping to bring relief to affected civilians. The suffering in Ethiopia’s Tigray region is getting worse. The latest reports from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) paint a heartbreaking picture; over 400,000 people are living in famine conditions, 79 percent of pregnant...