The creation of the Alliance of Sahel States (Alliance des États du Sahel, or AES) in September 2023, following a series of military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, marked an important turning point in African politics. With this step, the three nations broke decisively from the western sphere of influence, and particularly that of their former colonial overlord, France.

On 29 October, thousands of Tanzanians came out across the country to reject intensifying repression and an election without an opposition. With chants of “We do not want CCM”, demonstrators, led by the youth, stormed and burned police stations, polling stations, and the properties of regime cronies. Roads were blocked with burning tyres, and for three days, they clashed with police.

For two months the Islamist group, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), has maintained a fuel blockade around the Malian capital of Bamako. Despite attempts to secure supply routes by the Malian military, Islamist attacks on tankers transporting petroleum from Senegal and Ivory Coast (officially Côte d'Ivoire) have severed much of the supply of fuel to Bamako and other important cities in the south of the country.

Sudan is bleeding to death. Since 2023, at least 150,000 people have been slaughtered and 12 million displaced by a civil war between two counter-revolutionary armies, both committing atrocities, and each backed by various foreign powers eager for their slice of this mineral-rich and strategically important African nation.

Events have developed at lightning speed over the weekend in Madagascar. The mass youth movement, which started on 25 September, has now overthrown the old regime. A section of the army refused to continue carrying out repression against the masses and mutinied. The president had to be airlifted by the French military on Sunday, 12 October.

“Only the fresh enthusiasm and aggressive spirit of the youth can guarantee the preliminary successes in the struggle” – Trotsky, The Transitional Programme

Tuesday 30 September turned out to be a crucial day in the ongoing Madagascar uprising, which started on 25 September, in protest against electricity cut-offs.

What started as a day of peaceful protest called by the Madagascan youth on Thursday 25 September, ended with brutal repression, which left several youth killed by police, clashes and rioting. The government has declared a curfew in all major cities, but protests continue.

One day, it seems that a country is calm and the ruling clique there is firmly ensconced in power. The next day, the revolutionary masses stand in front of the burning parliamentary building. The police are gone, the MPs have fled, and so too has the Prime Minister. The photographs and videos that recently emerged from Nepal were astonishing. They are also astonishingly similar to the scenes that we’ve already seen: in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, ...

We publish here an eyewitness account of the conditions faced by workers at one of the most important copper and cobalt producers in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This account was sent to us by Maurice Odingo, the general secretary of the Comité de Kinshasa. It gives a crystal-clear view of the horrific conditions faced by Congolese miners in general, and the character of China’s involvement in Africa today.

The mass movement to bring down Ruto rose up once more on 25 June. Its sequel was planned for 7 July, with another peaceful day of protest under the hashtag #SabaSabaRevolutionDay. But the day didn’t end with a revolutionary victory.

On 25 June, the youth erupted once more onto Kenya’s streets. One year to the day after the struggle to stop Ruto’s Finance Bill 2024 culminated in spectacular scenes of the youth overrunning the parliament building, Gen Z is on the move again. The movement has picked up where it left off. But this time, the mood is darker and angrier.

The struggle waged by the people of Cameroon against imperialist oppression contains many lessons for revolutionaries throughout Africa and the world. And today, the legacy of the dirty war waged by French imperialism to crush that struggle can still be felt. In this article, Jules Legendre explains how France came to rule Cameroon, and the methods it used to maintain its domination, even after the country’s formal independence in 1960.

Goma, the largest city in eastern Congo, has fallen to the ‘M23’ rebel group. At the time of writing it is unclear exactly how much of the city is under rebel control, but the sound of gunfire that had filled the city has reportedly died down.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Ethiopian Revolution, which began as an uprising against the semi-feudal despotism of Emperor Haile Selassie but would go much further, culminating in the abolition of capitalism in the country. In this article, Ben Curry, gives an account of these dramatic events, and explains the complex processes that shaped the revolution’s course.