confidentially speaking

The Africa Confidential Blog

• MONDAY 8th September 2008

Africa/Football: Heros and villains

By Lion

The traditional summer bargaining season has come to a dramatic end and the football season has got underway in earnest. Among the usual whirlwind of gossip about which player might go where and which player is unhappy here and wants more money there, ...

• MONDAY 4th August 2008

The arms deal that haunts British and South African politics

By Aardvark

The tale of secret payments of $50 million payments by Britain’s BAE Systems to a company in the British Virgin Islands which featured on 1 August on the front pages of Africa Confidential www.africa-confidential.com and the Financial Times www.ft.com is ...

• MONDAY 30th June 2008

ZIMBABWE: A stolen election, a hasty inauguration and then a jet to Sharm el Sheikh

By Aardvark

HARARE: Sunday was a soporific affair on the streets of Harare, except for the government’s Chinese-made Mig jets zig-zagging across the cloudless sky in a show of power. All shops closed; nobody out on a Sunday stroll. Even some of the boisterous evangel...

• SUNDAY 29th June 2008

The election that never was

By Elephant

Africa Confidential’s special correspondent reports from Harare as President Robert Mugabe declares victoryVoting was unenthusiastic and turnout low in yesterday's presidential poll, despite Saturday’s bombastic headline in the state-owned Her...

• THURSDAY 26th June 2008

Lost Voices of Darfur

By Lion

As the international media focuses its attention on the electoral chaos in Zimbabwe, the ethnic cleansing of Darfur by the Sudan

• THURSDAY 19th June 2008

Business as usual?

By Crocodile

Africa Confidential has been busy investigating the effects of international sanctions on President Robert Mugabe’s regime in Zimbabwe...

• THURSDAY 29th May 2008

Big in Japan

By Elephant

Pan Pacifico Conference CentreYokohamaJapanKunichiwa Confidentialers,The strains of Senegal's star musician Youssou N'dour singing

• MONDAY 11th February 2008

Nigeria: Courtroom ballots

By Elephant

Nigeria's post-election crisis has taken a very different turn from Kenya's. Unlike Kenya's thwarted politicians, Nigeria's opposition leaders are contesting the election results through the courts and this time se...

• WEDNESDAY 16th January 2008

Kenya special alert

By Elephant

Wednesday 16 January 2008 The AC OfficeFarringdon Road,London Dear Confidentialers,As you all will have read, the New Year has started badly in Kenya. Breaking with tradition, I am writing this letter ...

• TUESDAY 23rd October 2007

A peek through the war on terror viewfinder

By Elephant

Tuesday 23 October 2007 United Nations SecretariatNew York CityUSA Dear Confidentialers,A whirlwind trip through New York and Washington this week shows that Africa has moved up the diplomatic and economic a...