The past eight weeks have shown that, given enough time and tenacity, the Sudanese government is amenable to addressing demonstration demands and may point to protesting as a legitimate approach for change for future generations.

Two days before Nigeria’s election postponement was announced, thousands of police officers travelled from their duty stations to field postings across the country to ensure the security of voters and sensitive election materials. A week later, officers remain in the field without stipends for food and accommodation. 

For eight years now, we have been tracking the evolution of political violence in Nigeria with the Nigeria Security Tracker (NST). While Boko Haram has always been a focus, we have collected data pertaining to police and military violence, and sectarian conflict. We have also recorded violent crime and kidnapping. Nevertheless, we are most frequently asked about the conflict in northeastern Nigeria.

Nigeria will hold its sixth national election since the current transition toward democracy began with the end of military rule in 1999. Despite some seventy presidential candidates, the competition for the presidency is really a two-horse race. It pits incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against former Vice President Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). 

In the daily Africa in Transition blog, on February 6, 2019, Ambassador Michelle Gavin, a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations Africa Program, harshly criticized the United States government’s policy toward the December 2018 presidential election in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.