Middle East & Africa | National service in Eritrea

Miserable and useless

Thousands flee the country every year to escape the clutches of the army

By C.L. | LONDON

A man stands on an elevated floor in a heavily-damaged building without walls in Rafah

Israel’s radical new course in Gaza

A deeply flawed plan to fight Hamas and feed Gazans

Ivory Coast's main opposition leader Tidjane Thiam in Paris

Ivory Coast is gearing up for an unfair election

The disqualification of another opposition candidate bodes ill for democracy


A fisherman on the Nile River casts his net next to a sunken ferry in Juba, South Sudan

What a wrecked ferry reveals about war in South Sudan

Amid constant conflict, the country’s economy can’t catch a break


Africa’s charcoal economy

Why a dirty fuel remains stubbornly important on the continent

Donald Trump’s Syria policy is still a work in progress

America’s evangelicals may be Ahmed al-Sharaa’s most important allies

Iran’s leader hopes America can save his faltering regime

Ali Khamenei has no choice but to engage with the Great Satan