Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Amanda Sperber

Creator

Amanda Sperber

Correspondent (mostly) covering Somalia + South Sudan @IWMF

ABIY AHMED

Somali troops may have been drawn into Ethiopia’s civil war

The Mail & Guardian spoke to Somalis about their relatives who disappeared after signing up for military training and fear they may have been killed

  • Amanda Sperber
4 min read
Uncertain future: Tabu Raida sits for a portrait in the Imvepi settlement for refugees that have fled from South Sudan to Uganda. (Adriane Ohanesian & Gael Cloarec/Getty Images)
AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

‘Any trigger can lead to suicide’

For South Sudanese refugees, fleeing war and sexual violence is only the beginning of their struggles, writes Amanda Sperber from northern Uganda. This story was produced in…

  • Amanda Sperber
6 min read
(John McCann/M&G)
ABDULAZIZ BILLOW

‘The police shoot at journalists all the time’: Press freedom shrinks in Somalia

Fewer journalists have been killed since President Farmajoo came to power in 2017, but general freedom of expression has been sharply curtailed, as detailed in a new Amnesty…

  • Amanda Sperber
8 min read
Sensitive: Security forces patrol a section of Somalia’s coastline. Critics oppose moves to exploit oil and gas reserves in the south of the country, saying the administration is corrupt (Mohamed Abdiwahab/AFP)
SOMALIA

Is Somalia ready for an oil boom?

There are concerns that the process of how the country’s oil will be extracted is corrupt

  • Amanda Sperber
4 min read
Begoto Miarom has the unenviable job of heading the African Union’s corruption board against fraud in Africa.
AFRICAN UNION

The AU’s powerless corruption-buster

Begoto Miarom leads the continental fight against corruption. But he is under-resourced and not especially well-informed

  • Amanda Sperber
7 min read