Africa should be celebrating as Nigeria, the continent’s most populous country with 227 million people, toasted its Democracy Day on June 12. The day has been recognized since 1999 when, after 39 years of military coups, parliamentary democracy was restored to the oil-rich nation.
Unfortunately, as the west African powerhouse marks its achievement, the light of plurality and democracy is dimming across east and central Africa. Over the past six months, opposition leaders have been arrested on flimsy grounds; journalists have been attacked and jailed; and pro-democracy activists have been abducted, detained, tortured, disappeared and have died in police custody. All eight members of the East African Community (Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo) are at war or experiencing serious democratic backsliding characterized by heightened state repression and violence.
www.bloomberg.com
#East #Central #Africa #Light #Democracy #Dimming #Fast
