David Axe - Africa is Boring: June 2008 Archives

It’s hot here. So hot that by 11:00 in the morning it’s getting hard to move. I lie in my cot in my tent, snoozing in brief spurts – and, between naps, pouring bottled water on my head. It’s......more

Fair access to water and firewood are big motivators in rebellions in Chad, Central African Republic and the Darfur region of Sudan, according to Alain Lapierre, a manager with aid group CARE International. Indeed, these two things are never......more

It started with singing. I was in my sweltering hovel – I mean, typical Chadian room – at a guest house in Abeche in eastern Chad on Friday evening when I heard the women’s voice harmonizing. My photographer Anne......more

The French troops at the N’Djamena airport were wearing short shorts (pictured) – the kind you usually associate with cheesy beach movies starring Elvis, only these were in camo pattern. We trudged aboard a Greek C-130 for the quick......more

Contradictory reports. Evidence that doesn't make sense. Rumor getting repeated until it seems true. Military historians call this the "fog of war." What do you call it in a place that's way too dry for fog? The blinding sandstorm of......more

I hit the ground in N'Djamena, the capital of Chad, late on Monday night, sans my photographer, who was due in a day or two. Twelve hours later I was staring down the barrel of a well-used AK-47 near......more

First the news came to me from two different sources. One of my fixers in eastern Chad called yesterday to say that an airplane had been shot down and “my country is dangerous right now.” Around the same time,......more

“USS Russell (DDG 59) responded to a vessel in distress between Bossasso, Somalia and the Yemeni coast in the Gulf of Aden June 8,” the Navy reports. Russell hosts the kickass The Destroyermen blog: A Combined Task Force (CTF)......more

Two years ago an alliance of moderate Islamic Courts ruled Mogadishu and much of Somalia. Then Ethiopia, fearing a stable and prosperous Somalia — and hungry for access to Somalia’s ports — destroyed the Islamic Courts and propped up......more

Chad’s rainy season is coming. With the exception of U.N. and E.U. aircraft, transportation in the barren country will most grind to a halt. That means the U.N. must rush to get newly arrived refugees — from Darfur and......more

“Brutal” and “savage” is how The Guardian describes Somali pirates who have been seizing and ransoming ships at an increasing rate in recent months. On April 5 pirates from the Somali Marines group seized the French luxury yacht Le......more