Quotes from Alex de Waal

Killing, and being prepared to send one's own followers to their deaths is an index of seriousness in bargaining.

Violence is a means of bargaining and signalling value within the marketplace.

Political bargaining and political entrepreneurship can be seen naked, stripped of the flattering wardrobe of democracy, rule of law and state building.

In 1994, the PFDJ established the Hidri Trust as a corporate umbrella for the Red Sea Trading Corporation – which maintained secret offshore accounts – plus banks, construction companies and manufacturing plants.8 The Red Sea Corporation and other party

For the student of war, the Horn of Africa offers a cornucopia of violence and destruction. It has interstate wars and civil wars; international military interventions and maritime piracy; genocidal massacres and non-violent popular uprisings; conventional wars fought in trenches and irregular wars fought by jihadists and followers of a messianic cult.

Most members of the political elites of north-east Africa have come to resemble gangsters rather than civic political leaders.