Category: Africa

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Ngodi Etanislas, enseignant-chercheur, Université Marien Ngouabi

The 2026 presidential election in Congo-Brazzaville (the Republic of the Congo) returned Denis Sassou Nguesso for a fifth consecutive term, with a definitive 94.90% of the vote.

We asked Ngodi Etanislas, a political scientist who focuses on the central African country, to sum up what happened and why it matters, now that the dust has settled.

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What political factors shaped the result?

Denis Sassou Nguesso’s huge victory is not the result of an open electoral race. It is, rather, the culmination of a political system built on decades of power consolidation since the end of the 1997 civil war. It was a “Soviet-style” outcome (overwhelming and predetermined) that can be explained by a few key political factors.

First, there is the political longevity of Nguesso, in power since 1979 (with an interruption from 1992 to 1997). This four-decade dominance gives him total control over the country’s political, institutional, and security apparatus. It makes political change not only difficult but structurally unlikely.

Furthermore, the rigged electoral process – especially through control of the state apparatus and election management bodies – contributed to this victory.

Electoral campaigning was also deeply unequal. Nguesso’s campaign looked like a “national tour”. It was built on a show of strength designed to project the image of a leader close to the people.

Did a divided opposition influence the result?

The fragmentation of the political opposition was arguably the most decisive factor behind the landslide. The opposition entered the election divided. They could not agree on a single candidate, which significantly reduced the chances of a democratic transition.

The election was marked by the absence of certain figures in Congolese politics. Some remain imprisoned (Jean-Marie Michel Mokoko and André Okombi Salissa). Others chose to boycott the poll, believing the conditions for a free and transparent election were not met. This stripped the contest of any real stakes. It helped secure a first-round victory for Nguesso. In 2016, he won 60.4% of the vote against a strong opposition.

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Read more: Africa’s ageing leaders: succession race in Cameroon, Congo and Equatorial Guinea could destabilise the region

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For many observers, the six candidates in the race were largely unknown or lacked any real political base. Some appeared to be using the election to gain some visibility, or better yet, political legitimacy ahead of future contests. They were no match for Nguesso. They lacked the financial resources to campaign nationwide and build local support to defend their platforms.

Finally, the digital blackout – including a countrywide shutdown of phone networks and internet on election day – added another layer of opacity of the process. It created an unprecedented information blackout.

This reduced the opposition’s ability to organise collectively and deploy its delegates. It also aimed to limit the spread, on social media, of rumours about ballot stuffing, vote buying, and other politically sensitive content. The president was clearly worried about low turnout figures leaking out.

What was the mood among voters?

Voting was marked by deep disaffection, fuelled by the opposition’s boycott and a sense among many young people that voting was pointless. It also took place in a climate of fear perpetuated by the repressive environment. This included operations carried out early in the year by the General Directorate of Presidential Security, as well as intimidation and crackdowns targeting activists and political opponents.

The issue of voter turnout lies at the heart of the controversy surrounding this election.

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Read more: Corrupt, brutal and unprofessional? Africa-wide survey of police finds diverging patterns

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Two scenarios can be considered.

The first is turnout orchestrated by the government through political and patronage networks. The goal is to boost participation in order to legitimise the electoral process and bolster the credibility of the results.

The second scenario involves a boycott of the election encouraged by the opposition, aimed at achieving low turnout, which could spark challenges over the election’s legitimacy.

Reports highlight a clear gap between official figures and field observations, suggesting a more complex picture of voter turnout than is apparent. The official turnout rate reportedly jumped by nearly 17% – from about 67.57% in 2016, when there were more opposition figures, to 84.65% in 2026, despite a widespread boycott. Yet polling stations across 6,620 booths in 4,011 centres appeared largely empty.

What challenges lie ahead?

To escape political and social stagnation, several democratic reforms are urgent:

• Restoring electoral credibility and the independence of institutions is one of the most sensitive issues. The election exposed serious shortcomings in electoral governance – lack of transparency, inclusiveness and fairness.

• The reliability of voter rolls, the impartiality of the Independent National Electoral Commission and unequal access to the media pose ongoing problems. All this happened without effective independent oversight. Without sweeping reforms of the electoral system, abstention and disengagement will continue to grow, particularly among young people.

• Building a pluralistic political space and a viable opposition is essential for reshaping the Congolese political landscape. Releasing political prisoners and guaranteeing an effective right to opposition would be essential prerequisites for any national reconciliation.

• Protecting fundamental freedoms and civic space. Human rights violations have been on the rise and there is no political dialogue between the government, the opposition, and civil society.

• Succession and transition. The questions of what comes after Nguessou, whether power remains within the presidential majority, or ensuring continuity for a new term in 2031. This may include scenarios of dynastic succession within the presidential family.

• Turning oil wealth into human development. Nearly half the population lives below the poverty line. The challenge is to convert oil revenues into public services (health, education) and opportunities for young people.

• Reconnecting citizen participation, particularly young people, to politics. Young Congolese and civil society need to be brought back into the political process. Citizen participation remains crucial to the legitimacy of the electoral process.

What implications could the election have on political stability?

Stability rests on fragile foundations. A large part of the population sees the government as lacking legitimacy. Distrust in the electoral system runs deep.

Youth frustration is a particularly worrying indicator. A 2024 survey indicates that young people have little confidence in the political system. Many feel that voting is pointless. Chronic unemployment and lack of economic prospects deepen their frustrations.

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Read more: Weaning African leaders off addiction to power is an ongoing struggle

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The internal struggle within the ruling party over who comes after Sassou Nguessou could become the main source of instability. The risk grows if no clear widely accepted successor emerges. Internal divisions seen during the party’s congress in 2025 show how central succession is. They also show ongoing shifts in power and elite positioning.

The March 2026 presidential election did not resolve any key issues.

– Congo-Brazzaville election: boycotts, blackouts and growing dissent but Denis Sassou Nguesso held on to power
– https://theconversation.com/congo-brazzaville-election-boycotts-blackouts-and-growing-dissent-but-denis-sassou-nguesso-held-on-to-power-279539

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Kawtar Ech-charay, Geologist Faculty of Sciences Dhar El Mahraz of Fez, Université Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah

In the heart of the Middle Atlas Mountains in central Morocco, a global team of palaeontologists and geologists has discovered new remains of a very unusual dinosaur. It belonged to the group called ankylosaurs, plant eaters whose bodies were covered in bony plates.

The fossils reveal a heavily armoured dinosaur. It has distinctive outward-pointing spikes along its body. These fossils are now considered to represent the oldest known ankylosaur remains in the world – it lived about 165 million years ago. As geoscientists who were part of the team that discovered and examined them, we had the unique opportunity to study these remarkable specimens firsthand.

This species, named Spicomellus afer, literally meaning a spiky armoured dinosaur from Africa, was first described in 2021 from a single rib discovered at the same site in Morocco. At the time, the discovery was extraordinary because of the rarity of ankylosaur fossils from the Middle Jurassic, around 165 million years ago.

The rib represented the earliest evidence of this dinosaur group, which is otherwise best known from the Late Jurassic and Cretaceous periods, between about 145 million and 66 million years ago. The original rib of Spicomellus afer is housed at the Natural History Museum in London.

The new fossils come from the same Middle Atlas locality and are curated at Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University in Fez.

These additional bones provide new insights into the anatomy of this remarkable dinosaur. Key parts of the new discovery are spiked ribs nearly one metre long, a cervical (neck) half-ring, and parts of the pelvic bones.

These fossils show that this ankylosaur was covered in spikes. These spikes were not just part of the outer covering; some were fused directly to its skeleton. The findings also show that the tail weapons characteristic of ankylosaurs evolved much earlier than scientists had previously believed. The research also suggests that ankylosaur armour may have served a dual purpose early in the group’s evolutionary history: as a defensive shield and as a means of display.

The tail: defence and display

Spicomellus had a stiffened tail with fused vertebrae. This likely served as a defensive shield against predators. Its body spikes added protection and made it a formidable target.

These features push back the origin of ankylosaur tail weapons by millions of years. This evidence shows that complex defensive adaptations evolved much earlier than previously thought.

The tail and armour may also have functioned in display or social signalling. So, defence and communication may have shaped its evolution.

Geological context

The fossils were found in the Jurassic red beds of the Middle Atlas Mountains in Morocco. Red beds are sedimentary rocks, mainly sandstones and mudstones, coloured reddish by iron oxides. They typically form in continental environments such as rivers and floodplains under semi-arid to arid climates.

The Middle Atlas is characterised by high plateaus, forested mountains and many lakes, making it an important ecological region. Geologically, it preserves extensive Jurassic sedimentary successions, including the red beds that record the tectonic and climatic history of the Atlas system.

In this region, a sauropod dinosaur (Cetiosaurus moghrebiensis) was first reported in 1955. More recently, in 2019, our team, led by dinosaur researcher Susannah Maidment, described a stegosaur (Adratiklit boulahfa). We also identified teeth belonging to the oldest known turiasaur and reported remains of the earliest known cerapodan dinosaur.

The sites lie about 150km south of Fez, near Boulemane, at nearly 1,900 metres above sea level. Beyond the town, rough mountain tracks lead to the red sandstone outcrops, and the final approach often requires hiking across steep and rugged slopes. Harsh sun, strong winds and winter snow make fieldwork challenging. So each fossil recovered reflects both its scientific importance and the considerable effort required to reach these remote locations.

The region was once a marginal marine environment, with rivers, floodplains and possibly coastal settings under a warm climate. These conditions shaped both the habitat of the dinosaurs and the preservation of their remains.

Global collaboration

This discovery and its interpretation result from close international collaboration between palaeontologists and geologists from the UK, Morocco and the US.

The fossils were prepared, curated and studied at the Department of Geology in the Faculty of Sciences Dhar El Mahraz in Fez, using equipment provided through the University of Birmingham’s Research England International Strategy and Partnership Fund. Additional support was provided by the British Institute of Libyan and Northern African Studies, the Natural History Museum’s Science Investment Fund, and the University of Birmingham’s International Science Partnerships Fund.

Future work will focus on detailed anatomical (body structure) and histological (tissue) analyses of the material, alongside continued field exploration to identify additional specimens.

These efforts aim to refine our understanding of the early evolution, functional morphology and palaeoecology of armoured dinosaurs in north Africa. We hope to explain why they looked the way they did and how they lived in their ancient environment.

– Moroccan dinosaur’s fearsome tail spikes evolved much earlier than we thought – new discovery
– https://theconversation.com/moroccan-dinosaurs-fearsome-tail-spikes-evolved-much-earlier-than-we-thought-new-discovery-264394

Source: The Conversation – Africa – By Charles Helm, Research Associate, African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience, Nelson Mandela University

The south coast of South Africa’s Western Cape province is a rich source of fossil tracks and traces – clues suggesting what this environment may have been like many thousands of years ago.

We’re a research group from the African Centre for Coastal Palaeoscience who have been finding and documenting these tracks since 2007. So far we have identified more than 400 tracksites left by vertebrates, including pangolins, giraffe, snakes, rock hyraxes, crocodiles and elephants. They include a variety of marks, from footprints to butt-drag impressions and even traces of sound vibrations. Some of these animals have never been found in the vicinity through the body fossil record, only from their tracks.

Most have been dated to the Pleistocene era, between 130,000 and 90,000 years in age, using a technique that measures how long ago grains of sand were exposed to light. Some of the fossil tracks and traces are the first of their kind ever found anywhere.

Our research has recently yielded two more world firsts in the fossil record:

• the only known giant tortoise tracks, and tramline tortoise trackways

• the only known tracks of a bird called the hamerkop (“hammerhead”).

These sites are in danger of being destroyed in rockfalls, but our work ensures that the traces they preserve are not lost and we can continue to build a picture of the environment back when this area – now a coastline – was a giant plain full of creatures, like today’s Serengeti.

First known fossil tracks of the hamerkop bird

The bird trackway we’ve recently found was definitely made by a hamerkop (family Scopidae). These are the first fossil tracks of this bird found anywhere in the world.

The foot of a hamerkop track is roughly similar to that of a heron or egret, except that it has substantial webbing between the toes. Members of the heron family (Ardeidae) have three forward-pointing toes, and one backward-pointing toe that is slightly offset to the side. No or minimal webbing is evident. A well-preserved hamerkop track, however, will show a similar orientation of digits, but will also have webbing.

That is exactly what we found at a tracksite on the ceiling of an overhang on a remote stretch of coastline.

We don’t know why hamerkops have webbing. Perhaps more ancient members of the lineage needed it to aid in swimming.

A couple of bones of a Pliocene hamerkop, probably about 4-5 million years old, have been identified at the South African west coast fossil site of Langebaanweg, and have been assigned to the species Scopus xenopus.

While we cannot determine if the tracks we have identified were made by the extant hamerkop (Scopus umbretta) or the extinct Scopus xenopus, a hamerkop origin is clear.

It is unusual to be able to identify a trackmaker to genus level based on just a few tracks, but a hamerkop provides a welcome exception to the rule.

The hamerkop track adds to 48 other fossil bird tracksites identified on the Cape coastline, including tracks of ostriches, storks, cranes, egrets, flamingos, guineafowl, spurfowl, oystercatchers and other shorebirds, terns, doves, and possibly cormorants, ducks and pelicans.

Bird body fossils are not common in southern Africa from this time period (from 194,000 to 57,000 years ago), but of those that have been found, most were in this coastal area.

A recurring theme in our work has been the identification of larger-than-expected bird tracks, hinting at the possibility either of extinct species or larger Pleistocene versions of extant trackmakers.

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Read more: Fossil tracks reveal which birds once roamed South Africa’s Cape south coast

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Tramlines and giant tortoise tracks

Our team found the world’s first fossilised giant tortoise trackway in 2022 on a rugged, remote stretch of the same coast. From the size of the tracks and trackway, we estimated that its maker was 106cm long, making it 50% longer than the largest tortoise that currently inhabits South Africa, the leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis).

Tragically, within a couple of months of being found, the loose rock slab bearing the trackway of the giant tortoise had slumped down the sandy slope and disappeared into the ocean.

So we were excited to find a second set of giant tortoise tracks.

In the Walker Bay Nature Reserve we found typical “toe-tip traces” of a tortoise, and were able to estimate that the trackmaker was 98cm in length. This is, therefore, the second set of trace-fossil evidence of giant tortoises found in the world.

But first, we found three tortoise trackways showing the typical tramline pattern of smaller versions of these reptiles, with a wide “straddle” and closely spaced tracks in each line of the tramline. These fossilised tramline trackways are the first of their kind to be found in the world, and fill a notable gap in the fossil record.

One is located in the De Hoop Nature Reserve, and was probably made by a leopard tortoise. It is only rarely exposed, usually being covered by a thick layer of beach sand.

The other two are located in the Walker Bay Nature Reserve, and were probably made by the angulate tortoise, Chersina angulata.

Significance of these finds

There aren’t any body fossils of giant tortoises in southern Africa from the Pleistocene, but here we have track fossils.

Why the mismatch?

The answer may lie in the fact that the Pleistocene body fossils (of various animals) that have been uncovered in the region are mainly from caves our human ancestors inhabited. If our ancestors ate giant tortoises, it might have made more sense to butcher, cook and eat them on the spot, rather than carry a creature weighing 100kg all the way back to “home base”, which might have been as much as 10km away.

This is therefore an example of the trace fossil record delivering unanticipated findings and evidence that could not have been suspected from the traditional body fossil record.

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Read more: Fossil treasure chest: how to preserve the geoheritage of South Africa’s Cape coast

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The hamerkop site is now threatened. An enormous rockfall from the cliffs above has obliterated a couple of tracksites just a few metres to the east, rendering the entire band of cliffs unstable and dangerous.

Our photogrammetry work (making three-dimensional models from two-dimensional images) at all the sites, however, will digitally preserve the tracks and trackways. It will also allow for the production of exact replicas which can be exhibited.

Given that these are the only known fossilised hamerkop tracks and the only remaining fossil tracks of a giant tortoise and of tramline tortoise trackways, it is reassuring to know that they will not be lost forever.

– Bird and tortoise fossil tracks on South Africa’s coast – latest findings are world firsts
– https://theconversation.com/bird-and-tortoise-fossil-tracks-on-south-africas-coast-latest-findings-are-world-firsts-278123