Twenty years after the liberation from Ethiopia, Eritrea, Africa's youngest nation, has emerged as strategically vital to the stability of the region and the wider global agenda. Eritrea is struggling to balance the needs of its people with the perceived threats to the nation.Al Jazeera's Jane Dutton conducts a rare interview with Isaisas Afewerki, the president of Eritrea.Al Jazeera confronted him with the allegations about Eritrea's ties with Iran, Hamas, al Shabab in Somalia and rebel groups in Sudan and Houthis in Yemen."This is a deliberate distortion of facts, where is the evidence, these are fabrications, where is your evidence?", he said."How possibly could one blame Eritrea for sympathising or supporting one group over another in Somalia we have never done that." he said. When asked about Eritrea's relation with Ethiopia today and the border dispute he said: "This border issue war was a senseless conflict instigated by the US."It is a cover up for the failures of the misguided policies of the United States in the horn of Africa for the last 20 years."It is not a problem with Ethiopia we have worked with these people for almost two decades to remove a government in Ethiopia, and we want to see a relationship between Eritrea and Ethiopia based on mutual respect and common interest," he said."There is no presence for Iran in this region, Eritrea is not for sale, not for Iran, Israel, the United States or anybody," he said.

⁣Mengistu Haile Mariam Interview - ⁣MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour [1990]

Thousands of Beta Israel Jews in the Ethiopian city of Gondar are living in limbo while waiting to emigrate to Israel. Their chances of leaving Ethiopia and joining relatives who have already made the move to Israel are being complicated by religious factors: Israel doesn't recognize them as true Jews and won't let them immigrate into the country.

Efrat Yerday, Ph.D. Candidate in Sociology at Tel Aviv University, Israel's Chairperson of the Association of Ethiopian Jews, and the 2020 recipient of the New Israel Fund's “Guardian of Democracy” Gallanter Prize, presents a public talk that was recorded on Feb. 10 on Ethiopian Jews' struggle for naturalization between 1955-1975.The story of Ethiopian Jewish immigration to Israel typically begins after 1975.

But foregrounding the pre-1975 years offers a unique case study for understanding the Israeli-Jewish citizenship regime and immigrants who do not conform to the normative and racialized national character of citizenship.

This talk is part of Protest, Race and Citizenship across African Worlds Winter 2021 Online Lecture Series. Sponsored by the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies and African Studies Program, in partnership with the Center for Global Studies, Comparative History of Ideas, Near Eastern Languages & Civilization, Simpson Center for the Humanities at the University of Washington and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation. This lecture was additionally sponsored by the Stroum Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Washington.

In Part two of this documentary the story of courage and persistence continues. Fatima Adam, one of the chibok girls abductees soldiers on past the trauma she under went at the hands of the boko haram.Bukky Shonibare fights on to have the rest of the chibok girls released. A story of courage and resilience.

In April 2014 close to 250 girls were abducted by the Boko Haram from a secondary school in Maiduguri, Borno State in north eastern Nigeria.Bukky Shonibare a "Bring our girls back home" campaigner shares her hopes on the Chibok girls rescue and return four years after their abduction. Fatima Adam, one of the Chibok abductees narrates how she survived a suicide bomb planted on her by the insurgents.

Somalia has been ravaged by 20 years of civil war. Widely publicised atrocities prompted the US government to step in to restore order, it was a disaster. If the most powerful country of all had failed, who could possibly bring peace to Mogadishu?
AMISOM: an African solution to an African problem.

It’s a city in Brazil where 80 % of its residents are of African descent. African culture has been experiencing a renaissance there as well. Salvador da Bahia is the capital of Brazil’s northeastern state of Bahia. It’s located along the country’s coast. Also known as Salvador, it’s been called the blackest city outside of Africa. The city’s most distinctive characteristic is its deep bond with Africa and its customs. Correspondent Lucrecia Franco reports on the soul of Salvador.

About an hour outside Cartagena, Colombia is a little town with a big history. San Basilio de Palenque has about 3500 inhabitants and was formed by African slaves who escaped Spanish rulers 400 years ago.A hip hop group from the community is preserving that history with their music.Our Urban Voice is Kombilesa Mi.The Palenquero language is influenced by the Kikongo language of Angola and Congo where many of the slaves who settled in this region originated. The language is also mixed with Portuguese which was spoken by the slave traders who first brought Africans to the Americas.

Underrepresented Afro-Mexican communities are working to change the Constitution to earn their basic rights like healthcare and education. CCTV America's Franc Contreras reports.