Vol 57 No 24 | MALI Sanogo finally on trial 2nd December 2016 The general who seized power in 2012 as Mali's army crumbled before advancing jihadists and Tuareg independence fighters, Amadou Haya Sanogo, goes on trial this week for the...
Vol 57 No 23 | NIGERIA Political schisms hit recovery and reform 18th November 2016 Economic stagnation and rising prices are eroding the regional alliances at the heart of Buhari’s government Arguments over the response to the country's worst recession for 25 years are threatening to split the governing All Progressives' Congress. The APC is a fragile alliance between... READ FOR FREE
Vol 57 No 23 | CABO VERDE Comradely disunity 18th November 2016 The party that once dominated Cape Verdean politics has had a disastrous year and faces a divisive power struggle In a speech delivered in Cuba in 1966, the father of Guinea-Bissau's and Cape Verde's independence movement, Amilcar Cabral, offered delegates an African saying: 'When your house is...
Vol 57 No 22 | GUINEA Rio quits Simandou 4th November 2016 Rio Tinto has finally called time on Simandou, one of the world's largest untapped iron ore deposits, by signing a non-binding agreement with its partner, the Aluminium Corporation...
Vol 57 No 21 | NIGERIA Buhari's kitchen cabinet 21st October 2016 President Muhammadu Buhari stirred a predictable hornets' nest when he dismissed, in a most patriarchal manner, criticisms his wife had made of his presidency. On 14 October Aisha...
Vol 57 No 20 | GAMBIA Jammeh tilts the playing field 7th October 2016 An increasingly isolated and paranoid President has become even more dictatorial in the lead-up to national elections The last time Gambia went to the polls, in November 2011, the incumbent President Yahya Jammeh won 72% of the vote, crushing two below-par opposition coalitions. The Commonwealth...
Vol 57 No 20 | SIERRA LEONE Iron Man 7th October 2016 Facing lacklustre demand in the global market, the country's iron-ore production is only slowly recovering from the disaster of the Ebola epidemic of 2014-2015. The leading company in...
Vol 57 No 19 | NIGERIA No oil, no money, no deal 23rd September 2016 Both sides are edging towards some sort of deal that will get the money flowing again – to the Treasury and to the Delta There is an inexorable logic to the tortuous negotiations between the government and the Niger Delta Avengers, the most determined of the militant groups launching attacks in the... READ FOR FREE
Vol 57 No 19 | MALI Instability goes national 23rd September 2016 A reshuffle has given the government a new strategy in the North but insecurity is spreading southwards As he struggles to cut a deal with armed groups over northern regional councils and faces persistent militant attacks in central areas, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta has...
Vol 57 No 19 | SIERRA LEONE Death of a front-runner 23rd September 2016 The weak opposition is unable to take advantage of deepening rifts in the increasingly unpopular ruling party The sudden death in a London hospital of businessman and politician Gibril Santigie Moseray Fadika on 7 August has cast some light on the intrigues surrounding the battle...