The rebels keep advancing. One of their techniques is to announce the capture of a town before they attack it, causing panic and disorder among their enemies, as...

President Mobutu Sese Seko's heralded return home will do little to turn the tide of defeat and demoralisation. While he retains some authority over the government - he...

Events in eastern Zaïre continue to outpace the West's diplomatic response. There is relief in several Western capitals that some 600,000 refugees have returned to Rwanda without the...

Bearing little comfort from his Paris trip, President Ange-Félix Patassé flew home on 25 November to an army mutiny in its eleventh day, with French troops holding a...

France, the only country to have had a coherent policy on Zaïre, has like everyone else been thrown into confusion by the Kivu rebellion (AC Vol 37 No...

Later this month, Paul Biya will stand for nomination as presidential candidate at the congress of the ruling Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camérounais. No one seriously doubts that...

In Zaïre, facts are scarce and often unreliable. The Prime Minister, Léon Lobitsch Kengo wa Dondo, said last month that President Mobutu Sese Seko would come home...

The elections due on 20 October are more politically significant than municipal polls usually manage to be. This is because they are seen as completing the process of...

Desperately thin and recovering uncertainly from his operation for cancer of the prostate on 22 August, President Mobutu Sese Seko is worrying his friends in Paris and Washington....

The President's priorities are clear, for once. He wants to be reelected in June 1997. Soon thereafter, Elf-Aquitaine will start to pump oil from its new wells at...

A French judicial investigation into alleged embezzlement by the former chairman of Elf-Aquitaine, Loïk le Floch Prigent (currently in custody for his own protection) is embarassing Paris...

Paul Biya's glamorous young wife, Francesco Smalto suits and frequent private trips to Europe may suggest a political playboy. Yet the President is a considerable tactician and has...

Zinc mine development at Kipushi, mineral exploration in Shaba, metal processing at Kolwezi; these new ventures in Zaïre show how the world's biggest mining company, the Anglo- American...

Two military uprisings within a month have thoroughly destabilised the government of President Ange-Félix Patassé. On 18 May the leaders of the April mutiny, headed by Adjutant (Sergeant...

President Ange-Félix Patassé in his Sango-language speeches vaunts his nationalism and his refusal to take orders from Paris, as his predecessors did. Yet when angry soldiers broke out...

After 35 years of independence and 30 of civil war, Chad will hold its first pluralist election on 2 June. Once a warlord and now President, Idriss Déby...

Blatant cheating, with no secret ballot, a disputed electoral roll and the refusal to allow opposition candidates to withdraw, gave victory – and another seven-year mandate – to...

A bungled attempt to launch a coup in Cameroon has ended in an Australian court. Between July and November 1994, Geoffrey Vernon Hughes, a businessman, tried to buy...

A figure from the past has popped up again in central Africa. Christian Tavernier, a Belgian ex-colonel, commanded the 14th Commando Battalion of the Congolese National Army when...

One of Africa's most reluctant converts to multi-party politics has pulled a fast one on his critics. Sixteen years after he led a coup against his uncle, President...

As the grip of central government weakens, the province of Eastern Kasaï gains strength. Its new prosperity, putting it ahead of neighbouring Shaba as the nerve-centre of Zaïre’s...