Security in Sierra Leone has been managed much better than the economy and politics. A British-led international training team has sharply improved the professionalism and dependability of the...

Two days after the 25 February election, President Abdoulaye Wade's supporters were celebrating noisily in Dakar's Place d'Indépendence and claiming victory. By 28 February, with most votes counted...

President Yahya Jammeh is unhappy when foreign journalists betray scepticism about his proclaImed cure for AIDS. Since he cannot reach into the studios of Sky Television, he turned...

The political truce which greeted President Lansana Conté's appointment of Lansana Kouyaté as Prime Minister will be short-lived unless there is a speedy transfer of power. The appointment...

As oil trader Trafigura pledges to pay the Ivorian government CFA 100 billion (US$198 million) in compensation for a deadly toxic spill last August, Africa Confidential has uncovered...

More than 60 deaths during the January general strike failed to soften President Lansana Conté who is embroiled in another - perhaps terminal - round of confrontation with...

Too many Ghanaians suspect that their judges administer the law in favour of the New Patriotic Party government. Their mistrust was increased by the gaoling for ten years...

Irregular war-time army recruits mutinied in five towns in early February in a protest over pay. President Laurent Gbagbo has bought some time, but may not have enough...

Voting was colourful in the city of Thies, 70 km to the east of Dakar and Senegal's second most populous city. Men and women, young and old, turned...

Voters are less worried about the upcoming elections than the would-be candidates, now battling for territory before the campaign proper starts later this month. On 29 January, the...