Editor's note

The Ethiopian government rejected earlier demands by the Sidama ethnic group to simply declare a new state. Instead, they were required to follow a constitutional path by voting in a referendum, the outcome of which was overwhelmingly in favour of a separate state. Yonatan Fessha sets out why the constitutional route was the right one to take. He also explains the significance of the vote.

Julius Maina

Regional Editor East Africa

Top Story

The government must encourage demands for the creation of new states to be an outcome of negotiations. Shutterstock

The Sidama have voted for their own state. What follows is far less certain

Yonatan Fessha, University of the Western Cape

In a country where there are more than 80 ethnic groups, the territorial solution isn't a feasible solution.

Health + Medicine

Children and HIV: what we found about vaccine-preventable diseases

Olatunji Adetokunboh, Stellenbosch University

Effective health care interventions are very important for sub-Saharan Africa because the region has a high burden of vaccine-preventable diseases.

What we’ve learnt from building Africa’s biggest genome library

Deepti Gurdasani, Queen Mary University of London; Ayesha Motala, University of KwaZulu-Natal; Pontiano Kaleebu, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine; Segun Fatumo, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Africa is known to be where humans originated. This makes it the most genetically diverse region in the world. Diversity in other populations represents a subset of the diversity within Africa.

Politics + Society

From our international editions

The bizarre and ecologically important hidden lives of mosquitoes

Daniel A.H. Peach, University of British Columbia

Mosquitoes have intricate and essential relationships with plants. Understanding their important work as pollinators would help to understand their role in different ecosystems.

What’s happened to UK migration since the EU referendum – in four graphs

Nik Lomax, University of Leeds

There is substantial difference in what's happening to migration from inside and outside the EU.

En français

À l’ère de la médecine biotech, le corps humain est-il une marchandise comme les autres ?

Véronique Lefebvre des Noettes, Université Paris-Est Créteil Val de Marne (UPEC)

Alors que la médecine est de plus en plus technique, et que la relation entre médecins et patients subit l’influence des demandes sociétales, le corps humain est-il une marchandise ? Que vaut-il ?

Tunisie : quelle place pour le monde associatif ?

Damiano De Facci, Université Paris Diderot

Dans la Tunisie de l’après–Ben Ali, les associations jouent un rôle majeur et complexe.

 
 
 
 

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