30 April 2023
Ethiopia/Egypt/Sudan: As the Great Ethiopian Renaissance Dam will from June onward experience its fourth annual filling (during the three previous ones, Egypt had been able to keep its Aswan High Dam mostly full), with its construction 90% completed, “it’s surely time for Ethiopia, Egypt and Sudan to turn from threats, bluster and high-handed nationalism towards cooperating to help make this huge reservoir work for the greater good of all”. It had always been unlikely that Cairo would come true at its threat of military action to stop completion of the dam – it has now become highly unlikely.
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/gerd-is-a-fait-accompli-so-its-time-to-get-real
29 April 2023
Dealing with trauma to prevent terrorism: Poverty, terrorism and counter-terrorism have created trauma for lots of people. The article suggests that MHPSS (mental health and psychosocial support) needs to address this in order to prevent violent extremism. MHPSS can be defined as “multi-layered support to address psychological-nature problems (e.g. grief, severe mental disorder, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder) and social-nature problems (e.g. extreme poverty, political oppression, family separation, community destruction).” It goes very far beyond the military-only approach that – see Barkhane – has proven uncapable of changing anything about terrorism.
https://issafrica.org/iss-today/time-to-re-assess-terrorism-prevention-in-africa