Diary of an IR scholar

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries might have been disappointed at Rwanda’s precedence over the deployment of its forces to the troubled Mozambique, ahead of defense deployment from their countries, but the Rwandan and Mozambican governments have had good bilateral relations strengthened at the signing of several agreements in 2018.  Mozambique, geographically located in the southern part of the African continent, is a regional member of the SADC, while Rwanda belongs to the East African Community (EAC). The Rwandan government had almost a week ahead of SADC’s finalization of its troops deployment to Mozambique, announced that it was in the process of deploying a 1000 person contingent of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) and the Rwanda National Police (RNP) to Mozambique’s province of Cabo Delgado, which had been terrorized by insurgents, at the request of the Mozambique government.  Rwanda had in its statement not shied away that its deploym...

The events in eSwatini took a drastic turn this week when the United States of America (U.S.) embassy divulged information of the shooting of an embassy vehicle, and with the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR) reminding the eSwatini government of its commitment to the international human rights law, amid the ongoing violence and unrest in the country. The U.S. embassy had on Thurday confirmed the shooting of an embassy vehicle on 01 July at the height of the prodemocracy protests and heavy deployment of government armed forces, and what government had described as mercenaries.  The embassy said the eSwatini Ministry of Foreign Affairs was informed of the incident via a diplomatic note; which was a standard form of communication between all diplomatic missions and the eSwatini Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The U.S. had this week also increased its Marine Security Guards following the shooting incident.  In a statement issued by the em...

The Kingdom of eSwatini made international headlines this week as calls for democratic reforms in the country intensified through protests.  ESwatini is an absolute monarchy governed by the Tinkhundla systems.  Pro-democracy civilians had taken to the streets to demand reform of the current governance system. A curfew from 18h00 until 05h00 was imposed as the civil unrest grew, with reports of loss of life and burning of property. During this time, reports of King Mswati III having fled the country emerged via social media platforms, which the government of eSwatini disputed indicating as ‘false media reports’.  South African multinational telecommunications company operating in the country, MTN, had during this time also reported interruption of internet services, which emaSwati and civil society, including Amnesty International, viewed as a direct violation of human rights and aimed at curbing the spread of information pertaining developments in the country....