Suspicion and mutual recriminations persist but a peace treaty is to be signed on 12 December.

It was the best of times and the worst of times. In mainland Tanzania, peaceful, well run elections on 29 October gave a thumping majority to President Benjamin...

Mainland Tanzania came out of the elections glowing. President Ben Mkapa won a convincing 71.7 per cent (compared to 61.8 per cent in 1995) and his Chama cha...

Zanzibar's parliamentary and presidential elections were a grim farce. By 7 November, the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) - which also holds power in mainland Tanzania - had...

Fresh peace initiatives for the Democratic Republic of Congo look pointless, as government, rebels and their respective sponsors gear up for more fighting. The last regional summit on...

As we went to press, Sudanese were still celebrating Khartoum's failure to get elected to the United Nations Security Council on 10 October. This is the same Council...

The National Islamic Front still gets foreign mileage from the much hyped dispute between President Omer el Beshir and chief ideologue Hassan el Turabi. At home, the quarrel...

A verdict is expected in the notorious treason trial before the parliamentary elections due on 29 October. The case, having aroused an international scandal, is now forcing the...

His close friends wouldn't claim that Lieutenant General Daudi Tonje is a popular head of the armed forces but they insist he's a good one. Few in the...

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund wanted to keep secret their breakfast meeting with President Daniel arap Moi on 7 September in New York. It was...

No African government has faced stricter conditions than those approved for Kenya by the International Monetary Fund board in late July, in its Memorandum of Economic and Financial...

A multinational part-owned by the World Bank's International Finance Corporation is making a deal with Sudan Telecom (Sudatel), a majority of whose shares are controlled by the National...

The clearest thing about the accord signed in Arusha on 28 August is its lack of finality and substance. None of the key issues - such as the...

Is there a new president in Somalia? Not quite. But Abdulkassim Salat Hassan, who took the oath of office on August 20, is the nearest thing the country...

Some of the questions we ask may be too personal but our aim is to ensure that you will not become a burden on the British taxpayer'. This...

'We do not wish to be infected by the Zimbabwe virus'. That was how the head of Kenya's civil service, Richard Leakey, reacted to press reports in early...

Due to Transatlantic crossed wires, we said 'the son of TotalFina boss Thierry Desmarest is married to Canadian Premier Jean Chrétien's daughter, provoking discussions in parliament and the...

The National Islamic Front government's bid to get United Nations sanctions lifted and claim a seat at the international table is reaching a climax. It could well succeed....

'We must have a calculated move to remove the sanctions'. This, Foreign Minister Mustafa Osman Ismail told the Sudanese newspaper El Rai el Aam on 8 June, was...

After the third, bloodiest, confrontation between the armies of Uganda and Rwanda on 5-10 June, Kisangani has now officially been demilitarised. The United Nations Special Representative in Congo-Kinshasa,...

The Somali National Peace Conference in Djibouti finished six weeks of initial consultations and moved on last week to phase two (AC Vol 41 No 7). Hundreds of...

The agreement signed on 18 June in Algiers has little to recommend it to Eritrea. Only after a comprehensive peace agreement - still some way off - is...

Ethiopia's war aims have expanded exponentially as its soldiers have advanced. Though still formally committed to no more than forcing Eritrea out of the remaining areas it occupied...

President Daniel arap Moi and his team are jubilant. They have effectively derailed the broad-based constitutional review (AC Vol 41 Nos 2 & 6) which Moi was forced...

Sudan's project to make its presence felt at the United Nations continues, despite UN sanctions against it. After winning a vice-presidency of the UN Human Rights Commission in...

The high drama (and useful diversion) acted out between President Omer Hassan Ahmed el Beshir and National Islamic Front-founder Hassan Abdullah el Turabi is heating up again. It...

The President is crisscrossing the country on a campaign he is bound to win. A referendum on political systems, to be held in two months' time under the...

In June President Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Movement is defending its opposition to multi-party politics in a national referendum. It is set to win the referendum comfortably...

The international reaction to the famine in Ethiopia and the Greater Horn is putting new pressure on Addis Ababa and Asmara to make progress in the next round...

An official of the ruling Front Patriotique Rwandais (FPR) described the resignation of President Pasteur Bizimungu as 'proof of a healthy democratic environment'. Vice-President and Defence Minister Paul...

The systematic killing and burning of more than 700 Ugandans by the leaders of a bogus Christian cult in mid-March generated some sympathy for President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni's...

It's still no war, no peace, along the Ethiopian-Eritrean border, as each side loads onto the other the blame for the lack of progress. Last year, Ethiopia bore...

The All Amhara People's Organisation, which claims to be a national party, cannot campaign without local offices. Nearly two years ago, it formally asked Premier Meles Zenawi for...

More questions face Djibouti's proposed Somalia peace conference: nearly all Somalia's main political organisations have now come out against the gathering, scheduled for 20 April.

The government convinced itself that, by appointing a dream team of reforming technocrats under the captaincy of Richard Leakey, it had ended its credibility problems with the International...

Somalis have high hopes of the peace conference scheduled for 20 April to 5 May. It is very much a Djibouti government initiative: it is to be held...

After months of argument, culminating in President Salmin Amour's threat last month that he was about to 'drop a bombshell', the Zanzibar saga appears to be over, at...

The National Islamic Front government is quietly preparing a second pipeline from the south, with pumps again supplied by Britain's Weir Pumps. The NIF has said it wants...

The National Islamic Front is trying harder than ever to woo foreigners and the opposition, following the noisy quarrel between the NIF founder and leader, Hassan Abdullah el...

Lieutenant General Omer Hassan el Beshir has for the first time named a 'presidential assistant', plus four presidential advisors, 25 ministers, 19 state (junior) ministers and 25 governors...

The United Nations may soon start flying aid to Nuba civilians in areas held by the Sudan People's Liberation Army. A UN-SPLA meeting on 31 January in Nairobi...

The ruling National Resistance Movement says it's not a political party, that political parties are unnecessary, divisive and promote ethnic separatism. It proposes a referendum, to be held...

Five years of promises from President Daniel arap Moi have brought little progress on constitutional reform and he is due to retire after the 2001 election. Until then,...

In their first joint mission, Egypt's and Libya's foreign ministers, Amr Moussa and Omer el Muntasser, were in Sudan on 4 January to boost President Omer el Beshir...