There are four elections in Zimbabwe on 29 March and none of them are going according to plan for President Robert Gabriel Mugabe. The old mixture of coercion and patronage used by the enforcers of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front is not working. Above all, Zimbabwe's d...
A faction of the LRA is ready to come to terms with Museveni; the rest will move on to cause mayhem elsewhere
The President wants to go on for ever but recent protests show the people may not let him
Viktor Bout, detained on charges of abetting terrorist groups, was an equal opportunity arms dealer. He sold and transported arms to Angola’s MPLA government and its UNITA opponents; likewise, he supplied arms to Congo’s Mobutu Sese Seko and his Nemesis Laurent- Désiré Kabila. It was his ability to be useful to all sides that accounts for Bout’s ability to escape arrest. A polyglot former KGB agent, Bout armed some of the most appalling organisations: Foday Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Front, Charles Taylor’s army and the Taliban in Afghanistan. It says much for the ambivalent attitude of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council towards Bout that he was able to evade an Interpol arrest warrant for the past five years. Latterly based in Moscow, he was protected by Vladimir Putin’s government and some US officials claim he enjoyed similar immunity with Western intelligence agencies. That perhaps is why officials from the US Drug Enforcement Agency set out to entrap Bout without informing the CIA or FBI. Bout operated with ease in Africa, and companies established in South Africa and Uganda with government compliance. He relocated to Sharjah in 2002, again with local compliance. Africans may celebrate the capture but Bout’s career reveals a harsh reality: that few governments, rich or poor, are interested in shutting down or even limiting the trade that earned Bout his sobriquet – the Merchant of Death.
The road to ruinPresident Paul Biya's 25 years in power have been disastrous for what was once a rather prosperous state. His critics b... Missing the targetThe US bombs Al Qaida targets and misses while the TFG holds secret negotiations with elders and the Islamist opposition Second honeymoon for the money menFollowing the political deal this month, Kenyans are hoping for another deal to restart the economy. Conservative estima... Trans-Century and transcendentalFormed a decade ago, Trans-Century Limited has grown over the past five years to become the biggest private equity firm... |
Life after a game of golfPresident Mwai Kibaki and putative Prime Minister Raila Odinga spent the day together at the Karen Open, Nairobi's mos... Down the minesThe government wants to sort out its mining concessions and the investors are nervous Moses on the mountainParliament is prorogued, politicians are on trial - and bad-tempered elections are due next year Stash the cashAngola's decision to set up its own sovereign wealth fund, as Africa Confidential recently reported (AC Vol 49 No 3), ... |
Viktor Bout, detained on charges of abetting terrorist groups, was an equal opportunity arms dealer. He sold and transported arms to Angola’s MPLA government and its UNITA opponents; likewise, he supplied arms to Congo’s Mobutu Sese Seko and his Nemesis Laurent- Désiré Kabila. It was his ability to be useful to all sides that accounts for Bout’s ability to escape arrest. A polyglot former KGB agent, Bout armed some of the most appalling organisations: Foday Sankoh’s Revolutionary United Fron...
Sonangol intends to list its shares on the New York Stock Exchange by 2010, according to Chief Executive Manuel Vicen...
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