Eswatini - November 2022

A spate of violent attacks carried out in November by the underground pro-democracy group, the Swaziland International Solidarity Forces (SISF), mark a further escalation in Eswatini’s increasingly violent political crisis, which has pitted the country’s repressive absolute monarch, King Mswati III, against a coalition of political and civil society activists seeking an end to his 35-year reign and reform of the Tinkhundla system of government (a form of local government through 55 constituencies) he oversees. According to local media, the SISF, which operates as the quasi-military wing of this coalition, claimed responsibility for the execution of a traditional chief (thought to be a relative of the King), the killing of a police officer and an unspecified number of soldiers, and an attack on the home of a pro-Tinkhundla member of parliament. These incidents appear to be a part of a new wave of attacks that began in October 2022.

Sources: Institute for Security Studies, Africa Confidential, Democracy in Africa, Crisis Watch, Crisis 24, Swaziland News (1), Swaziland News (2), Swaziland News (3), Times of Swaziland (1)  Times of Swaziland (2)