Ethiopia is the first nation to recognize a breakaway region of Somalia called Somaliland since its declaration of independence 33 years ago. Why did Ethiopia recognize it and what does it mean for peace in the region.

Markus Virgil Hoehne is a lecturer at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Leipzig. He is the author of Between Somaliland and Puntland: Marginalization, Militarization and Conflicting Political Visions and is co-editor of Borders and Borderlands as Resources in the Horn of Africa with Dereje Feyissa and Co-Editor of Dynamics of Identification and Conflict: Anthropological Encounters.

Aleksi Ylönen is a researcher at the Center for International Studies, Iscte-Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, a professor at the United States International University-Africa, and an associate fellow at the HORN International Institute for Strategic Studies. He is the author of External power competition in the Horn of Africa: Somaliland’s quest for international recognition and development and Inheriting power: Somaliland’s political institutions and the 2017 presidential election.

Niger's promising democracy was toppled by a military coup last year. We revisit the causes of the coup to remind us of the need for continuing pressure on military governments to return to democracy and the rule of law.

Brett Logan Carter is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Southern California. He is the author of “Can Western Donors Constrain Repressive Governments? Evidence from Debt Relief Negotiations in Africa” , "Propaganda in Autocracies: Institutions, Information, and the Politics of Belief" ( co-authored with Erin Baggott Carter ).

This program is produced by Doug Becker, Ankine Aghassian, Maria Armoudian and Sudd Dongre.