The project to reconstruct Central Africa is moving painfully slowly and with very little money, over six months after the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko’s regime spurred hopes...

A brass plaque outside the smart new offices of the Banque de Commerce et de Développementin Kinshasa's main street, Boulevard du 30- Juin, proclaims that they were opened...

Luanda's regional strategy to isolate and encircle Jonas Savimbi and his União Nacional para a Independência Total de Angola forces took further shape with President J José...

There have been rebellious stirrings again, enough to send President Idriss Déby scurrying off to Taiwan in search of a reward for recognising China's rival last June. A...

Fresh from his military defeat of the elected President, Pascal Lissouba, on 15 October, General Denis Sassou Nguesso told Africa Confidential that he would follow a policy of...

It took the government three days to produce partial preliminary results for the presidential election of 12 October. The only surprise was the scale of the victory claimed...

On 23 September, a team from France's Defence Ministry arrived in Bangui to prepare the French troop withdrawal. The team, led by General Serge Sabathe and still in...

The three main parliamentary opposition parties are boycotting the 12 October presidential election because none can agree to work with the others. The parties are John Fru Ndi's...

Should the United States and other potential donors make economic assistance conditional upon whether the new Congo government allows the United Nations' inquiry into refugee massacres to proceed?...

Few Congolese cared much about the funeral of Mobutu Sese Seko, in a Catholic cemetery in Rabat, Morocco, on 13 September. He died of cancer, aged 66, but...

There is anxiety in Libreville and Brussels that events in Congo-Brazzaville might stop guests turning up at the first ever summit of the African-Caribbean-Pacific states, due in Gabon...

In the final months of Pascal Lissouba's presidential term, which officially ended on 31 August, over 6,000 people have died in the war between his supporters and those...

A Malabo court on 18 August sentenced opposition leader Severo Moto Nsa to 101 years in gaol for high treason and plotting to assassinate the head of state....

Opposition politicians seeking an explanation for the continuing grip on power of some of the more authoritarian Francophone leaders may find guidance from the Nu Health Clinic in...

Congo-Kinshasa's neighbours and foreign investors had high hopes of business gains following the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko but the old dictator's legacy of institutional collapse and corruption...

Perhaps it's just a bizarre coincidence but some Cameroonians have noticed that personalities close to the President have died just before multiparty elections. In 1992, the dead included...

Veteran opposition leader Étienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba still has huge support in the capital Kinshasa and his arrest on 26 June was for many Kinois the final stage...

As the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko tottered to its end, his generals were negotiating a rescue package with former South African military men. The President approved the...

None of the protagonists emerge with any credit from the murderous struggle for power in Brazzaville. The fighting precedes the presidential election, which President Pascal Lissouba still insists...

President Paul Biya and his Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais (RDPC) look likely to get away with another flawed election. The RDPC claims to have won 109 of...

After his triumphal debut at the Organisation of African Unity summit (2-4 June) in Harare, Laurent-Désiré Kabila returned to Kinshasa and a sea of problems. Security is the...

Zaïre has a new name, République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), a new strongman, Laurent-Désiré Kabila and a new burst of goodwill from most of the world's capitals with...

The shape of Africa resembles a revolver, wrote Algeria's Franz Fanon, 'and Zaïre is the trigger'. Over 30 years after Fanon's assessment, new fingers are on the trigger...

It is turning out worse than they had feared in Paris. President Omar Bongo's government in Gabon has cut out his old ally, France's Elf Aquitaine, in favour...

However Mobutu Sese Seko is finally chased from the Presidency, Zaïre's new rulers will inherit a formal economy that barely exists. In 1996 gross domestic product was just...

KIVU• Empain-Schneider (France) sold goldmining concession of Société Minière du Kivu to Cluff Minerals (Britain) and Banro (Canada).

Yet another of Africa's military leaders who has swapped khaki for boubou or danshiki, President Idriss Déby Itno has spent the last three months getting domestic politics under...

Several 'companions of the road' have given their support to 59 year-old Laurent-Désiré Kabila's political struggle. They are an odd bunch, from Maoist guerrillas to Wall Street investors...

Burundian rebels may have lost part of their Zaïrean safe-haven but they fight on and have even acquired a navy. On 25 March, the Hutu hardline Forces pour...

Money is sloshing around Brazzaville. The Kinshasa bourgeoisie (new and old) has fled across the river and is making its presence (and its money) felt. So are the...

As they go from victory to victory, Laurent-Désiré Kabila and his forces are having to face some tough political questions: firstly, about the composition of their Alliance des...

The 'government' or Executive Committee of the Alliances des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre, which now administers about a quarter of the country, has ten members:...

Even government officials say it is only a matter of time before Zaïre's third city, Kisangani, and the military headquarters based there fall into rebel hands. Rebels have...

President Mobutu Sese Seko and his government may believe that the negotiations in Cape Town with Alliance des Forces Démocratiques pour la Libération du Congo-Zaïre officials are the...

Prime Minister Kengo wa Dondo's claims of military successes in the Forces Armées Zaïroises' 'massive counter-offensive' against rebels in Kivu Province seem overblown. Less than a week after...

Chad's policy of summarily shooting presumed criminals 'is working', Foreign Affairs Minister Saleh Kebzabo declared on 11 January. Since President Idriss Déby's November order to security forces to...

Reports differ about how many people were killed when French soldiers launched a furious retaliatory attack on rebel positions in Bangui on 5 January but it raises more...

The strategic town of Bunia, on the north-eastern border with Sudan and Uganda, fell to rebel forces on 26 December. This was a stinging blow to President Mobutu...