Partly in response to the rising instability, the political stance hardened considerably in 2008 in several countries. In Mali, episodes of harsh reactions to the Touareg rebellion alternated with attempts to push negotiations forward to solve the crisis. In the case of hunger riots, governments generally reacted by increasing the presence of the army and police, and arresting demonstrators.

The rising pressure over state control resulted in government attacks on local and international press. Reporters Sans Frontières expressed worries about the intimidation of journalists, especially in countries of West and North Africa. Episodes of arrests of journalists, withdrawal of licenses and closing of the editorial units of newspapers or magazines occurred in some countries.

North Africa has also been very active in the fight against illegal immigration, as a result of several bilateral agreements signed with European countries, in particular France and Spain. This resulted in the arrest of hundreds of migrants attempting to reach the coasts of Europe illegally on precarious and overcrowded boats. In a desperate attempt to improve their living standards, hundreds of young people die every year.

However, the country that experienced the strongest hardening of the political stance in 2008 was Zimbabwe. Repression of all opposition increased before and after the elections organised in May, which were won, nevertheless, by Morgan Tsvangirai, the opposition party leader. Robert Mugabe, president since Zimbabwe’s independence in 1980, refused to accept the result and further intensified repression, despite the disapproval of AU and SADC leaders. A series of bans on political gatherings, curfews and repression of independent media further restricted political and civil liberties. The country further fell into a deep economic and humanitarian crisis, worsened by a cholera outbreak that killed several thousand people and risked affecting neighbouring countries. In February 2009, Mugabe finally accepted to constitute a national unity government, giving the position of Prime Minister to Tsvangirai. At the time of writing, the situation is far from being stabilised, however.

As in 2007, the political freedom index (PFI) from Freedom House for 2008 shows a trend in Sub-Saharan Africa towards some setbacks. Eleven countries experienced a worsening of either political or civil rights, only six showed improvement. The PFI is based on measures of several components of political freedom such as: free and fair elections; honest tabulation of ballots; the extent to which citizens are free to organise in different political parties or other political groupings of their choice; whether there is a significant vote for the opposition and a realistic possibility of coming to power through elections; self-determination, and freedom from any kind of domination; reasonable self-determination for cultural, ethnic, religious and other minority groups; and the extent to which political power is decentralised.