Ahead of February's election Nigeria's economy is flagging. Usually, governments can rely on help from their supporters for a pre-election boost, but this time it is different. Real...

The Central Bank of Nigeria's monetary policy committee (MPC) faces tough choices as the year-on-year inflation rate has reached 21%. Food price inflation is even higher, at 23.7%....

The country's constitutional system is starting to work again despite President Patrice Talon's authoritarian instincts. Last month the Constitutional Court ordered the Commission Électorale Nationale Autonome (CENA) to...

Concerns over the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) are growing among Ogoni activists and politicians and civil society organisations against pollution, backing the already reported worries of the...

Nigerian officialdom is doing its best to prevent the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) severing its consultancy with the Hydrocarbon Pollution Remediation Project (HYPREP) over chronic fraud and...

Eight years after being transferred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague, and almost two years after his final acquittal for crimes against humanity, Charles Blé...

In the early hours of 25 November, heavy gunfire was heard in the military district in São Tomé when four men, Sãotomean veterans of apartheid South Africa's infamous...

Lower tax revenues due to plummeting recorded crude oil output, coupled with several expansionary budgets, mean that Nigerian government borrowing has been rocketing as the country heads for...

The sacking of Minister of State for Finance Charles Adu Boahen on 14 November briefly moved the spotlight from the substantive Minister of Finance Ken Ofori-Atta who has...

Under growing pressure from within and outside his New Patriotic Party (NPP), President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is trying to mollify critics of the government's economic strategy by...

After accusing France of supporting Islamist militia groups at a UN Security Council meeting on 18 October, Bamako's foreign minister Abdoulaye Diop dialled down the rhetoric five days...

The UN Environment Programme is set for a bitter break with Nigeria over the clean-up of pipeline spills in the Niger delta despite almost 15 years of close...

The markets have turned against President Nana Akufo-Addo's New Patriotic Party (NPP) government, pushing up bond yields and eroding the value of the cedi against the dollar by...

Thirteen years to the day after the Conakry stadium massacre that left 157 people dead, the trial officially opened against those held responsible. Three men the United Nations...

Every week or so a new scandal about a plan to steal the national elections next year hits the headlines and social media. One of the latest claims...

A coalition of civil society groups is protesting the unwillingness of the Auditor-General, Johnson Asiedu, to act on his latest annual audit of government expenditure, published last month,...

Australian-Romanian businessman Frank Timis, a veteran of stock exchange fraud and corruption scandals, is charging into agriculture, snapping up vast landholdings in Senegal and on the desert's edge...

Mali's military junta plans to militarise the police and eliminate the right of police officers to strike and unionise, diplomatic sources have told Africa Confidential. Discussions are under...

The opposition Acção Democrática Independente (ADI) of former Prime Minister Patrice Trovoada has won the general election with 46.8% of the vote. ADI polled 45.5% in 2018. On...

On 3 October, a day after he was confirmed in power in Ouagadougou, new military leader Captain Ibrahim Traoré told a sceptical audience that he understood the urgency...

'A sorry spectacle'. That is how president Macky Sall qualified the scenes of fighting lawmakers at the opening of the Assemblée nationale, Senegal's 165-strong parliament, on 12 September....

Punishing foreign bribery is still a novel idea in Switzerland. There have been just 18 convictions since it became a crime in 2000, before which it was tax-deductible....

Bamako's 10 July detention of 49 Ivorian soldiers who had flown in to change the guard at the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (Minusma) airport...

It was no coincidence that the Front nationale pour la défense de la constitution chose 5 September, the day of the first anniversary of the coup that toppled...

Prosecuting Beny Steinmetz, formerly one of the biggest mining magnates in Africa, has become a test case for Switzerland's efforts to tackle cases of foreign corruption. But it...

The flurry of secret meetings between senior Nigerian politicians in Paris and London this week points to trouble for presidential candidate Atiku Abubakar and his Peoples' Democratic Party...

The spotlight on corruption at the highest levels of government in Monrovia suddenly shone brightly on 15 August when the United States Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control...

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo described the project to build a National Cathedral in Accra as 'an opportunity to redeem a pledge I made to [God] before I...

As Islamist militants launch deadly assaults on the outskirts of Abuja and the country groans under a hydra-headed security crisis, enraged opposition senators have issued an ultimatum to...

Egypt plans to withdraw its combat convoy units from the Mission multidimensionnelle intégrée des Nations unies pour la stabilisation au Mali (Minusma) UN peacekeeping force in Mali on...

Final results of elections to the 165-seat national assembly are yet to be confirmed – but the 31 July polls have delivered a major setback to the ruling...

The junta under Lt Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba has run out of ideas as Islamist insurgents step up attacks against towns and villages, as well as mines and...

On 13 July, after six days of talks with the government, the International Monetary Fund referred to Ghana's 'challenging economic and social situation' – code for the multiplicity...

The latest official budget data, for the first quarter, suggests Ghana was already overshooting this year's budget deficit targets before a second quarter when the full impact of...

Millionaire bankers make improbable revolutionaries, especially in Nigeria. But Peter Obi, the geeky former governor of Anambra state, is upending the political establishment's complacency about next year's presidential...

Hardly had it been announced that West African leaders were lifting sanctions against Mali's military regime, when a new crisis flared, as the authorities arrested 49 Ivorian soldiers...

Chinese mining companies are under growing pressure in Africa, as they face fresh demands from governments over payments and infrastructure related to globally strategic operations. Disputes in Guinea...

Looking frail and disoriented, Blaise Compaoré returned to Ouagadougou on 7 July for the first time since a popular revolt eight years ago swept him out of power...

The longest-ever presidential election campaign in Nigerian history is into its next, more intense phase after the three leading candidates – Atiku Abubakar, Peter Obi and Bola Ahmed...

A month after their emergence as presidential candidates, the economic programmes of Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar extolling the virtues of untrammelled market economics face more serious scrutiny...

After several months of provoking and prolonging disputes with numerous partners, Mali's transitional government has found a new entity to pick a fight with – the United Nations...

President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo finally decided to open negotiations with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for balance-of-payments support, after cabinet had debated the issue for weeks. Finance...

This year's Democracy Day celebrations on 12 June were muted, overshadowed by the expensive shenanigans of the national election campaign mixed with a pervasive disenchantment with the political...

Malian military ruler Colonel Assimi Goïta is determined to show that his forces can tackle a growing Islamist onslaught, despite the withdrawal of French and European troops, under...

A decision by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo's government to reclassify a large part of the Achimota Forest reserve in Accra – the only urban forest in the...

Ousmane Sonko, co-leader of the opposition Yewwi Askan Wi electoral alliance, promises major protests on 29 June in protest at the killing of protestors by security forces on...

The ease with which Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar defeated their rivals to win their parties' presidential nominations for next February's elections highlights their similarities – super-rich...

President Nana Akufo-Addo's government is pushing forward with the Agyapa gold plan, under which a state company would register in the British tax haven of Jersey and sell...

'The G5 Sahel is dead.' This was the verdict of Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum on 18 May, three days after the Malian military regime announced its withdrawal from...

Although he has just been released from a decade of service as one of France's most senior ministers by President Emmanuel Macron, Jean-Yves Le Drian is not expected...

The announcement by Guinea's military junta that it would remain in power until mid-2025, and the imposition of a ban on demonstrations, have been denounced by opposition forces,...

One of the few immutable facts about the presidential primary elections in Abuja is that the deadline by which all parties must submit the names of their candidates...

Opponents of President Macky Sall are assembling a broad alliance ahead of the parliamentary elections on 31 July. If they are successful, this will influence Sall's calculations about...

In one executive order the country's presidential contest has been up-ended and a sweeping cabinet reshuffle has been triggered. On 12 May, President Muhammadu Buhari called on political...

UN Secretary-General António Guterres has presented West African governments with hard military choices, by proposing the African Union establish a new force that could replace the United Nations'...

Succession gossip – rarely quiet for long in Abidjan – is simmering after President Alassane Ouattara appointed a new deputy and reshuffled the cabinet and the top ranks...

Billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who has built up monopoly control over some of the biggest container terminals in Africa, is heading back to the French courts with two of...

The next four weeks will be critical as over 30 contenders compete to become the country's next president – the parties have until 3 June to submit all...

President Carlos Vila Nova has been forced into an embarrassing climb over one of his appointees, raising questions about accountability and ethics at the heart of the government....

Few tears have been shed at the news that Kofi Koduah Sarpong has been retired after five years at the helm of the state oil firm, the Ghana...

Nigeria should meet its OPEC quota, due to rise to 1.753 million barrels a day next month, in a matter of weeks after months of struggling to produce...

Of the three military regimes in West Africa under pressure to hand over to civilians, Burkina Faso's junta led by Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba is proving the...

The clamour among senior government officials for Central Bank governor Godwin Emefiele to vie for Nigeria's presidency has its roots in his politically oriented management of the institution...

The demise of the G5 Sahel Joint Force looks imminent, according to authoritative sources. The force always had a slight presence in the anti-jihadist campaign in the Sahel,...

After weeks of consultations with the ruling All Progressives' Congress (APC) and state governors, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo launched his campaign on 11 April to win the party's presidential...

Colonel Assimi Goïta's military regime is responding to mounting allegations of human rights violations by the national army and Russian mercenaries of the Wagner Group by lashing out...

The Commanders of Opération Barkhane and the European Special Forces' Takuba have begun to plan for their withdrawal from Mali. Earlier this month, Barkhane's French commander, General Laurent...

A cloud of anxiety hangs over the leaders of the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali as they navigate a hostile military government, tumultuous developments in the Sahel and...

As AC Milan's top striker in the 1990s, George Weah once ran through the opposing team to score a spectacular goal. As his country's President he plans to...

To some, First Lady Fatima Bio is a strong, astute politician in her own right, but to others a bully who may have overstepped her bounds in the...

Among the leaders in the Sahel, President Mohamed Bazoum faces the widest array of opponents from local activists hostile to France's presence to the jihadist insurgents trying to...

Geography helps explain why President Mohamed Bazoum overcame his initial reluctance to host European and French troops after they were expelled from Mali this month. Bazoum understood how...

When police in Tema charged Oliver Barker-Vormawor, a convener of the #FixTheCountry movement, with treason felony on 11 February, they fuelled a wider civil society campaign against the...

As Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta and his Treasury team rule out any resort to the International Monetary Fund on nationalist grounds, they are taking a different set of...

The President of Guinea Bissau's claims about a failed putsch against him leave many questions unanswered. Around lunchtime on 1 February a group of armed men clad in...

A few days after Africa Confidential reported on the power of financiers in Nigerian politics, a couple of colourful election prospectuses extolling the virtues of African Development Bank...

African and European officials have agreed to move the centre for counter-insurgency operations in the Sahel from Mali to Niger but questions remain about how to manage the...

As the race for next year's presidential elections heats up, two political outsiders have been named as contenders with support by some in the top ranks of President...

The die is not cast for President Macky Sall and his Benno Bokk Yaakar (BBY) coalition, as June's legislative elections loom. But the 23 January local polls show...

The military takeover in Ouagadougou, the third in West Africa in a year, is a challenge to neighbouring governments, especially Niger, and the region's wider security strategy. In...

On 26 February the ruling All Progressives' Congress (APC) will hold its national convention in Abuja to choose its top officials and set a schedule for the primary...

As Russian mercenaries deploy to Mali to combat Islamist insurgents, the country can expect to be forced to pay an escalating bill, on top of seeing the operatives...

Dakar will be the big electoral prize on Sunday, when voters elect municipal and departmental councillors in the first local polls in eight years. Control of the capital...

When Senegal's former economy minister Amadou Hott visited Bissau last October, he sparked a furore by telling journalists about a secret deal to distribute revenues that might accrue...

With presidential and national assembly elections due in February 2023, political campaigns will go into overdrive this year as alliances are made and deals struck. Outgoing President Muhammadu...

Eyeing tougher economic conditions, corruption allegations and growing concerns about regional security, the opposition National Democratic Congress reckons it should be able to wrongfoot President Nana Addo Dankwa...

The charges of impunity, favouritism, corruption and subverting the constitution that President Julius Maada Bio now faces uncomfortably resemble those he flung at his predecessor, President Ernest Bai...

The country is entering unknown territory, with the three major political parties in various stages of disintegration. The stage is set for a era without the three men...

On 27 December, prime minister Mohamed Béavogui presented his government's roadmap back to civilian rule to Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, who has ruled Guinea since a coup last September....

Reversing the spread of jihadist terrorist violence will be the dominant theme for Burkina Faso's government, especially as it has started to affect three of its four southern...

The colonels, in power since August 2020, seem impervious to international pressure, asserting they may need to stay in power for five more years, despite their earlier promise...

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is bracing itself for a series of battles in the new year over election rules, fuel subsidies and spending cuts which could...