By Rainos Mukanya
While the signing of a deal by regional leaders to bring peace to the eastern DRC brought renewed hope, the death of Mandela in December marked the end of an era. 2013 was indeed an action packed year.
The year started on a familiar note with the escalation of violence in the decades old conflict in Somalia in January, while the Darfur conflict in Sudan claimed the lives of 53 people in February. The month of February would however end on a brighter note with the signing of a peace deal by regional powers to bring to an end conflict in the Eastern DRC between the government and the M23 rebels.
More good news followed in March when DRC war crimes suspect Bosco Ntaganda handed himself over to US Embassy officials in Rwanda requesting to be transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Sad news, however would cloud the rest of March as it emerged that renowned Nigerian author Chinua Achebe had died.
Meanwhile, in the Central African Republic former strongman Francois Bozize had been removed from power in a coup by rebels under the Seleka coalition with he had signed a pact two months earlier.
May saw the appearance in court of Saif al-Islam, son of deposed Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi in Zintan where he was captured.
In June while the continent was sweating over the health of Nelson Mandela who had just been admitted to hospital, Barack Obama was in Senegal calling on African governments to give more rights to homosexuals.
The second half of the year began on a fiery note with news that the Egyptian army had removed from power the democratically elected president Muhammad Morsi and suspended the constitution following days of mass protests in July.
While others were being removed from power, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe was maintaining his grip on power, being sworn in for his 7th term in August.
Perhaps the defining month of the year was September as several events shook the continent with far reaching consequences. First, a new era in Mali as Ibrahim Boubacar Keita was sworn in as new president bringing to an end months of armed conflict which had threatened to tear the country apart. Then terrorism took centre stage.
In Nigeria an attack by the group Boko Haram claimed the lives of more than 80 people in Borno state, a huge blow to the government’s crackdown on members of the Islamist group. Yet the worst terror attack was carried out by the Somali based Al-Qaeda linked Al Shebbab on a busy mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi. The Westgate mall attack claimed more than 60 lives and proved that African governments needed to bolster efforts to combat terrorism on the continent.
October saw The Gambia pulling out of the Commonwealth, while in Malawi President Joyce Banda sacked the entire cabinet following the unearthing of massive corruption. Some good news in November as the US government named the Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organisation which would unlock resources towards destroying the group. The year ended on a sad and hopeful note.
The newly created nation of South Sudan had its first taste of conflict when a group attempted a coup on the government of President of Salvar Kiir.
Former South African President, Nelson Mandela died peacefully in Johannesburg. His death, however sad, saw the world descending on Africa as if to witness the dawn of a new era on the continent which many hope 2014 would bring.
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