Six months into the court hearings into the purchase of an offshore oil block licence in Nigeria by Royal Dutch Shell and Italy's ENI, Giuseppina Barbara, the presiding...

As political leaders loudly debate the ethics of signing up to a code of conduct and President Muhammadu Buhari throws back, for the fourth time, an electoral reform...

As Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta rose to his feet in Parliament on 15 November to deliver his 2019 budget statement, he faced scepticism about his arithmetic from the...

A long-delayed environmental restoration programme in Ogoni is finally in the works after decades of oil spills and fires left it one of the most polluted places in...

The road to compromise has proved short in Niamey, and now the opposition is mobilising a fresh campaign of protest over the government's attempts to reform electoral law...

President Faure Gnassingbé's ruling party, l'Union pour la république (Unir), promises to sweep the board in the parliamentary election on 20 December – but only because the...

On 3 December, Jorge Bom Jesus, the leader of the Movimento de Libertação de São Tomé e Príncipe/Partido Social Democrata (MLSTP/PSD), was sworn in as the new Prime...

Intelligence analysts believe Malian jihadists suffered a serious setback when French troops of Opération Barkhane killed Amadou Koufa, the militia leader. Koufa, who was among 34 suspected jihadist...

With ninety days to go before national elections in February, formal campaigning started on 18 November with a flurry of extravagant pledges and policies, almost all of them...

The flies are buzzing around Senegal's highly promising offshore fields even though there have been no major announcements of new oil and gas discoveries in 2018. The juniors...

Hopes that parliamentary elections on 18 November would end more than three years of political paralysis caused by the conflict between President José Mário Vaz and the majority...

The victory of Samuel Ofosu-Ampofo in the contest for national chairman at the opposition National Democratic Congress convention in Accra on 18 November could set the stage for...

A criminal investigation by Britain's National Crime Agency, announced on 5 November, into businessman and Brexit campaigner Arron Banks could touch on some of his diamond interests in...

George Weah rode a wave of goodwill at home and abroad into the Liberian presidency as yet another peaceful African political transition was celebrated. But the shine is...

The Chinese government is putting pressure on President Julius Maada Bio to go ahead with a project to link Lungi International Airport, which lies on the other side...

Hell froze over in Nigeria on 11 October. That's when former President Olusegun Obasanjo endorsed his once Vice-President and newly crowned leader of the opposition People's Democratic Party...

The ruling party could only count on mixed results in the just-ended regional and local elections, held on 13 October. President Alassane Dramane Ouattara's Rassemblement des houphouëtistes...

Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada and his ruling Acção Democrática Independente (ADI) emerged from the elections of 7 October as the biggest party, but they lost eight seats and...

The leader of the supposed Igbo independence movement, Nwannekaenyi 'Nnamdi' Kenny Okwu Kanu, seems to have turned up in Israel after going on the run from a trial...

The Port Autonome de Conakry (PAC), Guinea's principal sea port, is a strategic national asset, so the fact that it is now to be run by Turkey's Albayrak...

President George Weah's carefully choreographed image as a champion of the slum poor, which got him elected with an overwhelming majority in December 2017, is unlikely to survive...

Prosecutors in Milan began to set out their case against oil giants Royal Dutch Shell and Italy's ENI in court on 26 September. Both companies are charged with...

Determined to make his mark early, President Julius Maada Bio has promised a revolution in transport, in education and in tackling corruption. As well as promising a US$1.3...

After trashing ex-President Ernest Bai Koroma's plan to build a new US$300 million airport as a 'sham', President Julius Maada Bio has pledged another Chinese-financed project set to...

Having lost his first appeal against conviction for the misuse of municipal funds, Khalifa Sall has been dismissed as mayor of Dakar by President Macky Sall – even...

Plans to modernise the national oil industry have been derailed again by partisan politics and vested interests in a debacle that could cost Nigeria tens of billions of...

The government has foiled a plot to kill Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada and kidnap President Evaristo Carvalho and the National Assembly President José Diogo, it claimed on 7...

The political landscape has been in flux ever since Henri Konan Bédié's Parti démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire (PDCI) left the Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la...

With just seven months to go to Senegal's next presidential election, the political mood remains sour as opponents accuse President Macky Sall of manipulating the judicial system to...

The All Progressives' Congress, whose leader President Muhammadu Buhari is taking a holiday in London, has been under political siege for weeks while its senior members contemplated a...

Nigeria's governments come and go but its oil and gas governance legislation keeps rolling on. The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) was conceived during Olusegun Obasanjo's first elected term...

Despite a calamitous first five years in office, President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta (IBK) sailed through the first round of the presidential election with 42% of the vote amid...

The sacking of Energy Minister Boakye Agyarko on 6 August for supposedly mishandling renegotiations with the Dubai-based Ameri group on a power supply contract has triggered a crisis...

With primaries for the 2019 election fast approaching, President Muhammadu Buhari is under pressure to push ahead with his anti-graft campaign. The Fulani herder-farmer killings and splits in...

Both the incumbent President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta and his main challenger in the 29 July presidential election, Soumaïla Cissé, offer the electorate security, improved basic services and infrastructure,...

President Alassane Dramane Ouattara's new cabinet has not changed all that much, considering he purged from it of all Parti démocratique de Côte d'Ivoire members on 4 July...

Royal Dutch Shell and ENI claimed a minor victory on 20 July when the judge in the OPL 245 trial in Milan ruled that the natural resource lobbying...

The latest round of defections and manoeuvrings in Abuja give weight to the opposition People's Democratic Party announcement that it will lead a new Coalition of United Political...

President Julius Maada Bio's cabinet on 6 July approved a wide-ranging probe focusing on 'unexplained wealth' allegedly accumulated by former President Ernest Bai Koroma and his officials. It...

A lack of confidence and cash is holding up deployment of the G5 Sahel joint military force, tasked with tackling jihadist groups and trafficking gangs in the fragile...

The stability of the Ivorian political system has depended on the famed rapport between President Alassane Dramane Ouattara and the long-time leader of the Parti démocratique de Côte...

President Julius Maada Bio is to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry into massive state plunder and fraud during Ernest Bai Koroma's two terms of office after receiving...

When the French billionaire industrialist Vincent Bolloré was placed under formal investigation by Paris prosecutors on suspicion of bribing foreign officials in Africa, commentators wondered whether it was...

Oil industry sources murmur that President Muhammadu Buhari's initiatives to sustain peace in the restive Niger Delta may not prevail as political dirty tricks accelerate in the run-up...

Shortly before she retired in January, former President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf held a ceremony to thank Liberia's international friends for their support through her 12-year rule. She honoured...

One of the few working industrial facilities in São Tomé e Príncipe, the Rosema brewery, is the locus of a vicious political dispute pitting one part of the...

Only four days after UN Secretary General António Guterres left Bamako with the government's promises to promote peace and stability in his pocket, he was sounding his...

Liberian President George Weah was one of only four African heads of state to attend the European Commission's showcase for its overseas development aid programme, 'European Development Days'...

Bola Tinubu's appointment to lead the reconciliation committee of the All Progressives' Congress was meant to signal that the APC hierarchy was ready to salve wounds of aggrieved...

Ibrahima Kassory Fofana is not merely Guinea's new prime minister. His appointment by President Alpha Condé marks a return of the cadre of politicians who came to prominence...

It all looks so good on the surface. After rebounding last year, Ghana's economy is reckoned to be one of Africa's fastest growing, the cedi has stabilised and...

Suddenly, President Muhammadu Buhari's All Progressives Congress (APC) has got a fight on its hands with elections due next March. In fact, it has several fights on its...

After two-and-a-half years of conflict between President José Mário Vaz and the majority of his Partido Africano para a Independência da Guiné e Cabo Verde (PAIGC), led by...

The national coalition that propelled Buhari to power four years ago has lost energy and direction. In its place is a ruling party, the All Progressives' Congress (APC),...

Never one to shy away from flouting convention, President Julius Maada Bio has shown that he will not be constrained by a narrow win in the 31 March...

This year's national budget may have been hailed as 'courageous' by the European Union's top official in Niamey, but it was received with markedly less enthusiasm by most...

Three months into his presidency, George Weah is still riding high among core supporters but already struggling with tough choices to deliver on his promises of new jobs...

The foundations of Vasile 'Frank' Timis's West African resources empire have been shaken further after Burkina Faso announced plans to strip his company of its licence to exploit...

It was smiles all round as the happy band of politicians encircled a giant green and white birthday cake. Centre-stage at this grand party in Lagos on 27...

President José Mário Vaz's conflict with members of his own party and with West African and other international bodies is no nearer resolution, despite fresh attempts to pressure...

Few surprises were produced by Sierra Leone's presidential elections on 7 March, which saw the ruling All People's Congress presidential candidate, Samura Kamara, head to a runoff on...

African Petroleum, the Norwegian-listed oil company founded by controversial resources magnate Vasile 'Frank' Timis, has lodged three separate court cases against the Gambian government after it cancelled licences...

During his inauguration in December 2015, President Alpha Condé was warned by Kéléfa Sall, the head of Guinea's Constitutional Court, to 'not fall for the siren call of...

It was a clear enough announcement on 15 February from the Secretary to the Federal Government, Boss Mustapha, that President Muhammadu Buhari would certainly seek a second term...

The 2 March terrorist attacks in Ouagadougou left the wall outside the French embassy riddled with bullet holes, partly wrecked the building of the État-major général des armées...

President Ernest Bai Koroma officially launched the Mamamah international airport project and associated 'airport city' for Freetown on 2 March, just in time to boost the prospects of...

Grandly billed by anti-graft lobbyists as the biggest corporate bribery trial in history, Italy's attempt to prosecute its national oil company ENI and Royal Dutch Shell for paying...

A string of unusual lawsuits is frustrating law-enforcement agencies' attempts to seize assets belonging to oil traders accused of becoming extraordinarily wealthy because they were cronies of Diezani...

To many, the scandal surrounding the government's misuse of IMF funds to prime the electoral pump for the benefit of the ruling All People's Congress typifies the country's...

By choosing Mopti for his first provincial trip since becoming Prime Minister on 30 December, Soumeylou Boubèye Maïga signalled the urgency of the crisis in the central region....

If aspiring candidates want to know which way the political wind is blowing, they watch Bola Tinubu, the former governor of Lagos State. After several months of froideur...

Do not adjust your almanacs. The succession of statements from retired generals and civil war veterans, most of whom held power in the 1980s, may make it look...

President Donald Trump's decision to unfreeze export approval for weapons for Nigeria, mainly combat aircraft, is under fire. Not only does the Nigerian air force (NAF) have a...

Important organisational and financial matters may remain unresolved, but the G5 Sahel countries' new joint military force is preparing to launch Opération Pagnali regardless. It will be the...

'You can't be in government and in opposition at the same time. You must choose.' Joël N'Guessan, one of the ruling Rassemblement des républicains (RDR) Vice-Presidents, thus...

Sierra Leone's biggest mining company, Tonkolili Iron Ore, has been accused of complicity in rape, assault and the false imprisonment of a protester in a landmark case being...

A confidential despatch by United States diplomats in Freetown has laid bare the cause of strained relations between President Ernest Bai Koroma's government and the International Monetary Fund;...

George Oppong Manneh Weah of the Coalition for Democratic Change won such a resounding victory in Liberia's delayed run-off elections on 26 December that his opponent, Joseph Nyumah...

The trial of the mayor of Dakar, Khalifa Sall, is tearing Senegal's oldest political party apart. On 30 December the Parti socialiste (PS) expelled 65 members for breaching...

Politics and everyday life in Nigeria in 2018 will be dominated by concerns about security, corruption and the still sluggish economy. All three core issues will weigh heavily...

Two events in Bamako in June 2017 point to what 2018 holds in store. The first was the attack on the Kangaba Resort, just outside the capital, which...

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo starts the year well ahead of the governing New Patriotic Party in the popularity stakes after a difficult first year in power. That...

Security minister Simon Compaoré's latest performance was anything but impressive. He was filmed, late one October night, brandishing a Kalashnikov in the house of Ladji Coulibaly, a member...