A year after admitting that it was likely that the military had killed civilians at the Lekki toll gate in protest against police brutality in October 2020, the...

The Lagos state government's handling of last October's Lekki Toll Gate shootings has angered many in the commercial capital, especially young voters. That could derail the chances of...

Sentenced to 20 years in jail on terrorism charges, the outspoken ex-minister Reckya Madougou has been formally removed from the Béninois political scene, as has the respected constitutional...

What is holding up publication of a major report into how oil spills have wrecked the ecology of Bayelsa state in the Niger Delta? The Bayelsa State Oil...

Just over a year before he's due to step down, President Muhammadu Buhari is taking some uncharacteristic risks. His government is phasing out politically sensitive subsidies and allowing...

Faced by a powerful opposition party, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta's 2022 budget statement, presented on 17 November to Parliament, was always unlikely to have an easy passage. And...

The row over the shootings at Lekki toll gate in Lagos a year ago is set to spill into the campaign for national elections in 2023. After an...

As protestors take to the streets to demand tougher action by President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré against jihadist attacks, vast areas of the country's northern region have become...

Former central bank governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo stormed to victory in Anambra state's gubernatorial elections on 6 November in a blow to the two biggest parties and militant...

The report by the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Inquiry was damning and contradicted all official accounts, especially those by the army and police, of what happened at...

European Union sanctions on those who impede the transition back to democracy, following those imposed by the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), deepens confrontation with Bamako...

Most of the 27 ministers in Guinea's new cabinet picked by junta leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya are mostly youngish and mostly technocratic. Prime Minister Mohamed Béavogui, 68, is...

Ex-President Laurent Gbagbo's Front populaire ivoirien (FPI) has splintered and its former leader helms a new party; President Alassane Ouattara's Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la...

The visit by Mali's Foreign Minister Abdoulaye Diop to Moscow on 11 November flies in the face of French government complaints about Russia's state-backed mercenaries and their allied...

The Ghanaian Family Values Bill is likely to sail through Parliament if it is voted on in the coming weeks. The main opposition and governing parties are broadly...

An unrelenting campaign of terror by Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) continues to gather steam as it positions itself to succeed Boko Haram, from which it splintered,...

The 16-month legal saga surrounding Alex Nain Saab Morán – accused of laundering hundreds of millions of dollars for Venezuela's government – came to an end on 16...

Fear of the unknown and super-charged ambition are driving record numbers of opposition party governors and other top officials to cross over to the ruling party. Many more...

A bill seeking to criminalise LGBTQ+ sexual relationships is expected to come before Ghana's parliament soon after it reconvenes on 19 October. And although it's being used as...

Russia has delivered four military helicopters to Mali's military regime, just as the country's latest public row with former colonial power France floods the Bamako and Paris media...

One month into the coup that removed President Alpha Condé from power, Guinea's new military leader Colonel Mamady Doumbouya is keeping everyone guessing as to how a new...

A proxy war between the Catholic Church and the Church of England has become one of the main subplots in the governorship election in a commercial hub on...

Nigeria's Supreme Court is set to rule on the right of states to individually collect and spend value-added taxes in their domain in a landmark case that could...

Lukoil, a Russian energy company, has written to Matthew Opoku Prempeh, Ghana's Minister of Energy, to express concern about the government's plans to buy into Deepwater Tano/Cape Three...

Six months on from the decision of Ghana's Supreme Court to uphold the victory of Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in December 2020's presidential elections, controversy is growing over...

The Kremlin was categorical on 15 September when its spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told media that there were no talks ongoing between Russia and Mali about military cooperation or...

The country's latest military junta, led by former French legionnaire Lieutenant-Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, promises it will form a national unity government , without specifying a timetable for elections...

A decade after being sworn into office by judges in vermilion and ermine, President Alpha Condé of Guinea became the prisoner of an elite military unit that stormed...

A federal court ruling on 7 September backing the right of Rivers State to collect Value Added Tax (VAT) on commodities sold within its borders is a critical...

Amid concerns that relations with the United States have cooled during his presidency, resulting in a loss of financial support, President George Weah has hired three US lobbying...

As expected, on 5 September, Carlos Vila Nova, candidate of the opposition Acção Democrática Independente (ADI) won the presidential run-off with (57.5%), according to the provisional results of...

Even before the ink was dry, officials and their sponsors had already begun to lobby for top jobs in the new oil sector management structures created by the...

Energy companies, trades unions and politicians are beginning to get to grips with the prospect of wide-ranging reform of the oil and gas industry, the foundation of the...

For years the National Assembly in Abuja is lambasted as hosting among the best paid but least productive legislators. Then within the same month they steer through two...

Government plans to borrow US$1.6 billion to buy back stakes in two offshore licences not yet in development have triggered anger and incredulity from oil industry officials and...

Just three months after taking office, President Mohamed Bazoum has emerged as a central figure in the struggle to restore security to the Sahel.

The junta in Bamako may have been hoping for a boost with reports on 5 July that a court in the capital had issued an international warrant for...

Former Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada may be in self-imposed exile in Portugal but his political influence is undimmed. Carlos Vila Nova, the Acção Democrática Independente (ADI) candidate and...

Security sources in Burkina Faso are proud of their retaliation against the jihadist forces that carried out the massacre in the village of Solhan in the country's east...

The Department of State Services (DSS) emerged from the shadows at the end of last month with all guns blazing, literally. Its targets were two hyper-populists from the...

Reaction to the passage of the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) 2020 through the Senate and House of Representatives on 30 June veered from relief in government, quiet excitement...

The governments of France and Mali's regional neighbours are getting used to the colonels on whose approval the Bamako transitional government depends. On 2 July, setting the official...

The seaside resort of Jacqueville is now home to the Académie internationale de lutte contre le terrorisme (AILCT), a concept first mooted in 2017 at a meeting of...

The opposition National Democratic Congress is back on the streets with a 'march for justice' after months of treading water following its presidential election defeat in December. Although...

While the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) say Nigeria's growing debt is sustainable, worries are growing over the cost of debt servicing relative to revenues.

President Alassane Ouattara faces the most delicate of strategic choices following the triumphal return home last week of his career-long political foe Laurent Gbagbo after his final acquittal...

Civic activists and opposition politicians are pressing President Nana Dankwa Akufo-Addo's government on its response to the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly the lack of accountability around procurement. The government...

'Backfire' doesn't quite cover the effects of the government's national ban on the Twitter micro-blogging site announced on 5 June, the day after the platform deleted a tweet...

John Githongo, a former permanent secretary for governance and ethics in Kenya, used to say 'anti-corruption politics is good politics'. And so it was, until Githongo's investigative zeal...

Instead of heading a new transitional government, two of Mali's top three caretaker heavyweights, President Bah N'Daw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane found themselves held in military headquarters...

Echoes of the horrific civil wars of Sierra Leone and Liberia on the cusp of the 21st century still sound through the world, even as far as the...

Another day, another round of crisis meetings to tackle insurgents, armed criminal gangs and communal clashes. As the National Security Council of service and intelligence chiefs met in...

Until recently, governors in the northern states were chary of criticising President Muhammadu Buhari's government on security policy. That is changing as the crisis intensifies and elections loom.

Known for starting meetings with prayers and peppering them with Biblical quotations, Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta took time off from the Christian Sabbath on 9 May to invite...

As President Roch Kaboré's government argues about the treatment of exiled former president Blaise Compaoré, the military courts seem determined to throw the book at him. On 13...

At the centre of a sanctions battle between Washington and Venezuela, Colombian-born businessman Alex Nain Saab Morán is working with his lawyers on a final appeal of Cabo...

A string of mysterious deaths of officials with links to the centre of power has caused deep consternation among the political elite, and confusion about the true character...

Leaks of apparent last-minute concessions on fiscal terms and overseas 'retreats' for lawmakers are the most tangible indicators in years that Nigeria may finally be at the point...

The Ghana Ports and Harbours Authority chairman Peter Mac Manu, a former national chairman of the ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP), insists he worked relentlessly to improve the...

After governors of the south-eastern states met in the city of Owerri on 11 April to mull a response to a wave of deadly attacks against farmers and...

President Muhammadu Buhari and Nigeria's economy policymakers will certainly welcome the modest improvement in the country's economic outlook. According to the Yemi Kale-led National Bureau of Statistics (NBS),...

Mick 'the miner' Davis, one of the latest players to enter the scramble for Guinea's iron ore riches, is facing opposition from both local communities and the mining...

After excluding all credible opposition candidates, President Patrice Talon won another five years in office with 86% of the vote, according to provisional results released as Africa Confidential...

More than a million people have been driven from their homes by the insurgency of Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin and Islamic State in the Greater Sahara...

Calls from transport and logistics experts are growing for a renegotiation of the terms of business between Meridian Port Services and the government in the wake of Africa...

The French ports-to-media conglomerate, Bolloré Africa Logistics, partnered by the Danish shipping giant Maersk's ports arm, APM Terminals, opened a hugely profitable, state-of-the-art container terminal at Ghana's Tema...

Four prominent onlookers, dressed in black, oversaw the arrival on 14 March of the remains of Hamed Bakayoko, the former Ivorian Prime Minister and Defence Minister seen by...

After two weeks of protest and the most violent clashes between demonstrators and the security forces seen in decades, leaving at least 10 dead and 600 injured, the...

Blaise Compaoré, ousted by mass protests in 2014 after he sought a fifth term as president, celebrated his 70th birthday on 3 February in his palatial villa in...

Béninois voters can have any president they like – so long as it is Patrice Talon. They will go to the polls on 11 April to decide whether...

Royal Dutch Shell and Italy's Eni and 13 individuals were acquitted by a Milan court in one of the world's biggest corruption cases on 17 March. After three...

Highly polarised politics and an abundance of lawsuits are complicating government in the wake of the 7 December elections which delivered a hung parliament and a contested presidential...

The first new Ebola case was a 51-year-old nurse from Gouécké, in the far south of Guinea, who fell ill on 18 January and died 10 days later....

Post-election violence left two dead and almost 470 arrested in Niamey after provisional results awarded the government candidate Mohamed Bazoum 55.75% in the 21 February presidential run-off.

Kenya's trade agreement with the United Kingdom finalised in November was sold as a diplomatic triumph in Nairobi but met with consternation in East Africa's other capitals. The...

Shell is retreating from onshore oilfields in the Niger Delta under a cloud, facing lawsuits, recriminations and so far failing to deal with some of the most serious...

Senegal's media eagerly showed footage of soldiers walking through rebel camps which the Senegalese army overran in the first week of February. Deserted kitchens, mostly old weaponry and...

Sacking the four service chiefs was one of the few things on which Nigeria's Senate, its leading civil society groups and Western ambassadors were unanimously agreed. Insiders at...

The five-year jail sentence handed down to Beny Steinmetz by Geneva's Tribunal Correctionnel on 22 January will embolden former partners pursuing his sprawling business empire for over US$2...

A Geneva court sentenced mining magnate Beny Steinmetz to five years in prison on 22 January for bribery and money-laundering. The bribes were paid to obtain rights to...

It was dubbed the 'deal of the century' – an operation to obtain rights to the world's biggest iron ore deposit – but became a quagmire, sucking its...

French President Emmanuel Macron's announcement on 19 January that he would be reviewing the deployment of soldiers to Opération Barkhane in the Sahel due to 'good results' in...

John Mahama, presidential candidate for the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC), is taking a leaf from the book of his opponent President Nana Akufo-Addo with his attempt to...

On 20 June last year, a private plane made a refuelling stop at the international airport on the Cape Verde island of Sal. On board was the 49-year-old...

In May, President Muhammadu Buhari will reach the halfway point of his second and final four-year term. It is that point in Nigeria's political calendar, when the main...

At a time of deep polarisation, the new government emerging after the official results of the 7 December elections will demand some political cohabitation between the two main...

The hit from the Covid-19 pandemic means that President Alassane Ouattara will find it much harder to mask political and ethnic tensions and stark inequality with stellar economic...

The death from Covid-19 of opposition leader Soumaïla Cissé on 25 December, has robbed Mali of the clear favourite for the presidential election due to take place by...