Vol 40 No 16 | LIBERIABRITAIN Gerald's jeep 6th August 1999 Britain's 23 July expulsion of senior Liberian diplomat Gerald Cooper is an early blow to President Charles Taylor's efforts to improve relations with the West.
Vol 40 No 15 | MALI Power cuts 23rd July 1999 Ambitious rivals cut the President down to size while Toumani Touré waits in the wings President Alpha Oumar Konaré wants to go down in history. Prime Minister Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta wants to succeed him as President. Both are in danger of being disappointed....
Vol 40 No 15 | CABO VERDE Micro-state struggles 23rd July 1999 As the succession heats up, another head of state seeks to amend the constitution The contest to succeed Prime Minister Carlos Veiga is heating up. The ailing Veiga (he is said to have diabetes and regularly visits his doctors in Portugal) announced...
Vol 40 No 14 | SIERRA LEONE A deal in Lomé 9th July 1999 The RUF negotiates its way into government after eight years of brutal warfare Sierra Leoneans reacted with a mix of relief and scepticism following the signing of the Lomé peace deal on 7 July which brings Corporal Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United...
Vol 40 No 14 | GHANA Privatising politics 9th July 1999 Britain's Department of International Development is at the centre of a political row after cancelling a contract with consultants linked to the opposition Reform Movement. The consultants, United...
Vol 40 No 12 | NIGERIA All hail to the chief 11th June 1999 President Olusegun Obasanjo returns to power amid hopes that the country's decline can be reversed after 15 years of military rule Government business took off at a frenetic pace after the 29 May inauguration of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Launching proceedings, Obasanjo made a powerful attack on corrupt contractors,...
Vol 40 No 12 | NIGERIA Exeunt sojas 11th June 1999 It was a spectacular coda to 16 years of military rule. On 29 May, more than 30 heads of state, ex-heads of state and international dignitaries -...
Vol 40 No 12 | NIGERIA New team, old players 11th June 1999 President Obasanjo mixes old military friends and human rights activists in his new cabinet 'Is this 1999 or 1979?' asked one senator on seeing President Olusegun Obasanjo's list of 42 ministerial nominees. Another opined more diplomatically that the list favoured 'experience over...
Vol 40 No 11 | GHANA Reforming the reformers 28th May 1999 Schisms are growing in the ruling NDC - much to the delight of the opposition Jerry John Rawlings' ruling National Democratic Congress is frenetically purging party ranks and has launched a full-frontal assault on a group of dissident NDC politicians known as...