Olang Sana of CAVI speaks to reporters in Nairobi, Kenya, at a demonstration against political violence in October 2007, only two months before a disputed election rocked the country.

Africa

The year 2008 began with violence following disputed elections in Kenya and ended with Ghana’s even closer, but peaceful, democratic elections. The rest of the year was likewise marked with various gains and retreats for democracy. Soldiers overthrew the democratically-elected government of Mauritania and seized power in Guinea after the death of Lansana Conté, the country’s long-time dictator.

Legislative elections in Angola were peaceful, but simply consolidated the power of the ruling party. And in the end, two rounds of elections in Zimbabwe only deepened the political, economic, and social crisis overwhelming that nation. The Ethiopian government imposed legislation that will severely restrict the work of nongovernmental organizations; its intervention in Somalia failed while anarchy, famine, and piracy only grew worse.

Fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo flared up, but seemed to subside in Darfur, Sudan, while the Lord’s Resistance Army renewed its depredations in DRC, Sudan, and Uganda. Elections were postponed once again in Cote d’Ivoire, but the peace agreement is holding.

In 2008, NED made 260 grants for programs in more than 30 African countries that contributed to many democratic gains and resisted some of democracy’s reversals. :: MORE