Two frontrunners dominate the election campaign which started on 16 June: ex-Finance Minister and former United Nations Development Programme Africa Director Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf and ex-warlord Charles Taylor. Taylor...

Major Johnny Paul Koroma's 25 May coup d'état (the third change of regime by force in five years) was the most bloody and destructive in Sierra Leone's history....

Most members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council are little known, being drawn from young, ill-educated and poorly trained junior officers and other ranks. All have benefited from...

Soldiers from Togo proved useless when sent to fight for Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko (who was a guest of the Presidency in Lomé after his fall). Perhaps mindful...

Two conflicts persist in Sierra Leone, weakening the authority of President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah (elected in March 1996) and undermining the United Nations' appeal for funds for national...

The fighting between Ijaws and Itsekiris in Warri, the oil city of Delta State in South-Western Nigeria, threatens to halt oil production in Nigeria's most lucrative fields. The...

After three months of indecision and wrangling, President Jerry Rawlings has still not produced a full cabinet list. Since his inauguration on 7 January for a second elected...

Instead of confirming Mali's status as a multiparty democracy, the first round of legislative elections on 13 April, produced chaos at polling stations, an opposition boycott of the...

It is always difficult to satisfy both international donors and home-grown politicians. President Ibrahim Baré Maïnassara (known as IBM), a military man with lukewarm support, is finding out...

Confusion abounds about General Sani Abacha's political intentions. Following an interview with the Washington Times in which Abacha said his possible candidacy in the 1998 presidential elections would...