The State Department’s Accountability Review Board (ARB), meant to review the circumstances surrounding the Sept. 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, met for the first time at the State Department Thursday.
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The ARB is charged with determining the extent to which the incident was security-related, whether the security systems and procedures at that mission were adequate and were properly implemented, the impact of intelligence and information availability, and any other facts and circumstances that might be relevant to the appropriate security management of the United States missions abroad.
Roving Bandit on the oil deal between Sudan and South Sudan:
Whilst this seems like a good deal for North Sudan in the short run and a good deal for South Sudan in the long run, my main concern is the hold-up problem. What is stopping North Sudan ripping up the agreement in 3 years, demanding a higher cut, and just confiscating oil (again)?
Texas in Africa on child soldiers:
The dilemma in the Congo is this: while everyone agrees that the use of child soldiers is a horrible, inexcusable human rights violation, it is far from clear that disengaging from the Congolese government on military issues will end those abuses.
Loomnie excerpts two reviews of Chinua Achebe’s There Was a Country.
Emeka Okafor on hip hop in Nigeria.
Baobab on the potential impact of debt forgiveness on Guinea, and on cultural differences between Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
Somalia Newsroom: “Al Shabaab, Jubbaland, and the Future of Kismayo.”
At Focus on the Horn, Dr. Samson Bezabeh discusses Djibouti’s politics with reference to Sasha Baron Cohen’s “The Dictator.”
Sahel Blog 
Western analysts tend to simplify Nigeria into a “largely Muslim North and a predominantly Christian South” and the Niger Delta.
Nigeria’s problems go a lot deeper and inter-ethnic tensions are much older. Achebe merely brought another old grievance out to the open.
It almost appears that Nigeria’s heart is being ripped out of its body, and my generation has very little to look forward to, because we neither speak with one voice nor share a common vision of the future.
We will either build a common future with a shared ideology (what could that possibly be? I don’t know) or simply accept that possibly, we weren’t meant to be – and reflect that reality.
i concur @ Chike