The government is split between Islamist and secular factions as M6 becomes more hands-on as a ruler and in business
Huge real-estate developments continue to employ dozens of cranes all over Morocco's commercial hub, Casablanca, the administrative capital, Rabat, and a revived Tangier. Tangier is receiving an influx...
For a few hours on 12 December and then the following day, there was panic and eager expectation across Libya as the civil war between the internationally-recognised Government...
The gap between Abdelmadjid Tebboune and his rivals in the 12 December presidential election was sufficient to give the 73-year-old a big win, with 58.14% of the vote,...
The US is trying to force a ceasefire in order to stem Russia’s growing influence as Haftar claims to be poised to take Tripoli
The attempt by eastern-based General Khalifa Haftar and his Libyan National Army to seize Tripoli is now into its ninth month but is still unaccomplished. In October, however,...
The Von der Leyen trip to Addis is intended to signal the opening of a new chapter in EU relations with Africa
The consensus in Brussels is that Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission is likely to prioritise EU-Africa relations far more than her predecessors. On 6 December, the new...
Vol 60 No 23 |
- MAURITANIA
Détente is in the air as President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani has surprised many by opening up to the opposition. The head of the state-run Télévision de...
Sisi wants Trump's help to break the impasse with Ethiopia over the Nile dam. They meet in Washington but Addis insists nothing will change
Two negotiating tracks are emerging over the potential flashpoint between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan over the effects of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on the flow of the...
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The military is digging in and it will take more than weekly demos to dislodge the autocrats
The activists of El Hirak ('the movement'), who have been pitting thousands of protestors against the sclerotic ruling class every Friday for nine months, had high hopes of...
Saïed's first challenge as president is forming a government from a parliament split among 21 parties
Parliamentary and presidential run-off elections in October have taken Tunisia into the unknown. Public disillusionment with the post-2011 political establishment resulted in very low turnouts, a president with...
The military stalemate has persuaded US officials to join pressure for negotiations to reunify the country
There is a new drive in Washington's Libya policy. As the military stalemate continues, the new United States ambassador to Libya, Richard Norland, who took up the post...
On the face of it, it is just another lucrative lobbying deal, with Israeli arms dealer turned lobbyist Ari Ben Menashe bagging another US$1 million contract to add...
Polar opposites face each other in the presidential run-off. All they have in common is their disdain for the political establishment
The first round of the presidential polls on 15 September was – as predicted – a slap in the face for the post-revolution political establishment. Two extremes topped...
Corruption allegations by an insider have stoked public anger, spilling onto the streets, prompting an immediate crackdown
Egyptians have been glued to a series of sensational videos which claim to detail high-level corruption by President Abdel Fattah el Sisi and the Egyptian armed forces. The...
The United Arab Emirates Armed Forces' announcement that six of its soldiers died in action in Libya is its first admission that it is fighting on the ground...
Jealous of presidential candidate Nabil Karoui's popularity, the political class manoeuvred to have him arrested
Tunisians go to the polls on 15 September to choose a new president and, three weeks later, a new parliament. The contests lacked strong drama until 23 August,...
No longer posing as an avuncular placeman, Gaïd Salah has emerged as Algeria's key power-broker
It seems a very long time since Algeria-watchers questioned whether a political beast with ambitions to control the military/security establishment and its 'deep state' structures – known in...
Rumours of problems in King Mohammed VI (M6)'s marriage to Princess Lalla Salma (née Bennani) have persisted for years and the couple are now separated after 17 years,...
There's a stalemate on the ground while each side's foreign supporters use high-tech weaponry to try to change the strategic balance
As the campaign of Benghazi-based strongman Khalifa Haftar to take Tripoli slows down, foreign powers are putting more and more resources into the fight, including armed drones and...
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Candidates are lining up for the first round of presidential poll now scheduled for 15 September. The smart money is on Defence Minister Abdelkarim Zbidi to succeed President...
The temporary cancellation of flights to Cairo by major airlines on security grounds this month and the handing over of El Arish port to the military are reminders...
Rabat’s charm offensive on Brussels has been bearing fruit, as the EU offers deals during the Foreign Minister’s red-carpet visit
Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita had plenty of reasons to be cheerful after getting the red-carpet treatment from the European Union during his late-June visit. Morocco's foreign minister has...
Bombings in support of Haftar's army not only killed detained African would-be migrants but increased the prospects of ever-greater foreign involvement
When Libya's eastern military strongman, General Khalifa Haftar, launched his offensive to capture Tripoli on 4 April, he hoped for a blitzkrieg. What he got was a battle...
Vol 60 No 13 |
- MAURITANIA
Ex-President Abdel Aziz has smoothly slipped his placeman into his old job while a reinvigorated opposition failed and the world turned away
Opposition leaders were left with much to ponder after the 22 June presidential election handed Mohamed Ould Cheikh el Ghazouani outright victory on the first ballot with 52%...
The establishment has taken fright at popular new politicians, and is trying to kill off genuine challenges to the president and ruling party
A political class absorbed by the painfully long run-up to parliamentary elections on 6 October and the presidential poll on 17 November has suddenly found itself with a...
Once, four-time premier Ahmed Ouyahia was seen as a possible successor to President Abdelaziz Bouteflika. Likewise, Boutef's campaign manager and ex-premier Abdelmalek Sellal. With the trust of the...
Vol 60 No 12 |
- MAURITANIA
Mohamed Ould Cheikh el Ghazouani has reason to be confident as he approaches presidential elections on 22 June. An ally of retiring President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz, the...
Horst Köhler's appointment as the UN Secretary-General António Guterres's Personal Envoy for Western Sahara in July 2017 was welcomed by Morocco, for whom the former German President...
Deputy Defence Minister and Chief of Staff Lt Gen Ahmed Gaïd Salah is continuing a purge of Algeria's elite to try to persuade demonstrators, who have been filling...
LNA forces have attacked Tripoli, sounding the death knell to planned peace talks and opening what could be a bitter and bloody battle
Four years of efforts by the UN to end the crisis in Libya have been rendered almost futile by eastern-based strongman, General Khalifa Haftar. On 4 April, two...
It has been a week of two halves for Egypt's President Abdel Fattah el Sisi. It ended with a celebration at the Heliopolis Presidential Palace of the vote...
Popular anger has finally unravelled the Bouteflika power network. Cronies are under arrest and there are doubts the deep state can survive
Over the 20 years before President Abdelaziz Bouteflika resigned on 2 April, Algeria-watchers took to comparing the political outlook to making mayonnaise. Resistance to poor services, graft, maladministration...
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The president may be on his way out, but who will replace him is far from clear as the protest movement ploughs on
The Arab Spring has finally reached Algeria. People power on a scale not seen in 30 years forced elderly and infirm President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to agree not to...
The Serraj camp claims all the legitimacy but General Haftar's forces now control the south – and have all the clout
The Sharara oilfield is appropriately named: the Arabic word means 'spark'. It was the catalyst for a dramatic change in the strategic balance between General Khalifa Haftar's Libyan...
Encouraged by a powerful Moroccan lobbying effort, the European Parliament decided on 12 February to endorse the new EU-Morocco Sustainable Fisheries Partnership Agreement in apparent defiance of the...
As established parties gear up for elections later this year, Premier Chahed's new party hopes to offer a credible alternative
Two distinct narratives dominate the political landscape eight years after President Zine el Abidine Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia as the Arab Spring erupted. One relates to...
Abdel Aziz looks ready to stand down, but he is keeping a tight rein on power and may yet decide to return
The announcement that Defence Minister Mohamed Ould Cheikh el Ghazouani is to be the ruling Union pour la République (UPR) candidate in this year's presidential elections has ended...
The king’s new development strategy will seek to answer chronic problems that threaten the monarchy’s long-term stability
There will be more glitzy openings of high-profile infrastructure like Africa's first high-speed train, coupled with headline-grabbing sackings of officials following 'colères royales' (royal angers) over lack of...
Bouteflika looks certain to stand again. Sick, isolated and out of ideas, he is a cipher for a political system that is out of time
President Abdelaziz Bouteflika's quiet mid-January visit to his cardiologist in Grenoble reminded Algerians that for all the country's economic and social problems, politics remains dominated by one issue:...
Gas finds, steady oil prices and the recovery of tourism help a strengthening economy while rights take a back seat
The Egyptian economy is primed to show impressive results in 2019 on the basis of core indicators such as real GDP growth, the current account and foreign direct...