Vol 66 No 21 | MALI Jihadists tighten their stranglehold 24th October 2025 With critical gold mines in the Kayes region already under threat, the militants are now targeting critical commercial axes After assaulting the main western trade corridor to Bamako from Dakar last month, jihadist fighters have now extended their campaign to the key southern artery from Abidjan as...
Vol 66 No 21 | NIGERIA The Tinubu-Shell trade-off behind a $7.5 billion investment 24th October 2025 UN experts warn that international oil companies’ opaque sales to local consortia flout environmental and human rights laws The tortuous bargaining between international oil companies – Shell, TotalEnergies and ExxonMobil – and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s government over new investments has hit a succession of legal...
Vol 66 No 21 | NIGERIA Coup plot or not 24th October 2025 Mobile phones started buzzing on 17 October about a thwarted coup plot, fired up by a story on Sahara Reporters on the arrest of 16 officers ‘over issues...
Vol 66 No 21 | CÔTE D'IVOIRE Repression shrouds Alassane Ouattara’s election procession 22nd October 2025 The president’s strong economic record has been tarnished by corruption claims and a determination to quash dissent from any quarter President Alassane Ouattara looks set to cruise to a fourth term at polls on 25 October with challengers weak or banned and his ruling party flush with cash...
Vol 66 No 19 | CÔTE D'IVOIRE MAGA politics comes to Abidjan 26th September 2025 Veteran Trump-supporting lobbyists have found themselves pitted against one another in Abidjan, in an unlikely subplot to Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential election campaign. Parti Démocratique de Côte d’Ivoire (PDCI)...
Vol 66 No 19 | GAMBIA Barrow fires Auditor, shielding a ballooning family empire 17th September 2025 After being accused of favouring relatives and friends with state-backed rice deals and discounted bank sales, the President has summarily sacked the Auditor-General When police forcibly removed Auditor-General, Modou Ceesay from the National Audit Office on 15 September they triggered youth-led protests in which several demonstrators were arrested as fighting spilled...
Vol 66 No 18 | BENIN Talon to step aside 12th September 2025 Finance minister Romuald Wadagni has been named joint presidential candidate of the governing l’Union progressiste pour le renouveau (UPR) and Bloc Républicain (BR) for April 2026 – confirming...
Vol 66 No 18 | GHANA Constitutional battles to follow Mahama’s removal of Chief Justice 11th September 2025 The President’s dismissal of Gertrude Torkornoo raises more questions about independent institutions and executive power The fight over President John Dramani Mahama’s dismissal of Chief Justice Gertrude Sackey Torkornoo on 1 September has prompted calls for constitutional reform across the political spectrum. Concerns...
Vol 66 No 18 | NIGERIA Tinubu moves to rein in the NNPC, slashing funds for northern states 9th September 2025 The president’s plan would double the central government share of the state oil company’s profits to over 80% As tensions deepen between President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the managing director of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Bashir Bayo Ojulari, the government plans to claw...
Vol 66 No 18 | BURKINA FASOMALINIGERRUSSIA Putin’s gambit in the Sahel as France leaves the stage 3rd September 2025 Moscow courts the three juntas with anti-western rhetoric and promises of gold refineries and nuclear power but is struggling to counter insurgents On 14 August, the defence ministers of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – Generals Sadio Camara, Célestin Simporé and Salifou Modi – were in Moscow for talks with...