He recalls the popular challenge now underway against Omar al-Bashir’s rule in Sudan; the deaths of Kofi Annan, the first African secretary General of UN, and Winnie Mandela, a flawed leader of the South African liberation movement; the highly positive emergence of the reform-minded Abiy Ahmed, the Ethiopian prime minister; and the international attention to Congolese surgeon Denis Mukwege, who won a Nobel Peace prize for his work with rape victims.

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Nigeria’s close-run presidential election was not about religion, until it was.

While the Nairobi agreement offers hope for a resolution to Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict, uncertainties remain, and the damage done will reshape U.S.-Ethiopia relations.