After three decades at the head of one of Africa's worst managed and most corrupt oil economies, President Omar Bongo might well expect some political trouble. Quite the...

Peace deals for both Congo-Kinshasa and Burundi, brokered by South Africa, will be tested early in 2003. The Congo deal, signed in Pretoria on 17 December, proposes a...

As donors trumpet their latest initiatives to bring Africa out of poverty, Central African Republic risks falling through the cracks.

President Joseph Kabila has again outplayed his regional rivals, Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni and Rwanda's General Paul Kagame, in the diplomatic arena.

Under pressure over his human rights record, President Denis Sassou Nguesso on 18 November announced a one-month amnesty for Ninja rebels in the Pool Region to surrender and...

The multi-billion dollar looting of Congo-Kinshasa's resources continues, threatening hopes for peace and economic reconstruction following the withdrawal of Rwandan, Ugandan and Zimbabwean troops. That is the finding...

See this article for a list of individuals who are accused in the United Nations Report of the Panel of Experts on the Illegal Exploitation of Mineral Resources...

British sanctions policy on Zimbabwe is in disarray after the United Nations Report on the Illegal Exploitation of Mineral Resources and Other Forms of Wealth in the Democratic...

Rwanda and Uganda have pulled out their troops (AC Vol 43 No 19) but the proxy war continues in eastern Congo. On 15 August in Luanda, Uganda agreed...

Though Central African Republic has now denied giving Libya a 99-year minerals lease, Colonel Moammar el Gadaffi is certainly getting valuable strategic benefits from providing security for the...

President Paul Biya is now likely to exploit June's electoral triumph by bringing the presidential poll forward a year to late 2003. His Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple...

President Paul Biya has been in power since 1982, and the 1997 constitution allows him two more seven-year terms. He will almost certainly be the presidential candidate...

Digging a trench is easier than establishing accountable institutions. Yet the World Bank is supposed to be financing the Chad-Cameroon pipeline project precisely to set up these kinds...

President Denis Sassou Nguesso chose a significant date to end the long transition that began with his forces' defeat of Pascal Lissouba in October 1997. The Fête Nationale...

President Ange-Félix Patassé has become even more dependent on the protection of Libya and its Bangui garrison, as last month's arrest of Finance Minister Eric Sorongopé-Zoumanji on corruption...

The International Monetary Fund and World Bank's US$1.2 billion package is a massive gesture of political support for President Joseph Kabila. Technically it was made possible by a...

Congo-Brazzaville's hidden conflict and flawed parliamentary elections show how thin a veneer of democracy covers recycled dictator Denis Sassou Nguesso. The official results from the first round of...

Northerners control the army, many are ex-Cobras, President Denis Sassou Nguesso's militia of the mid-1990s civil war. Commanded by the respected General Gilbert Mokoki, the military is still...

Since 52 days of inter-Congolese talks at Sun City ended last month, a new partition is emerging. Some 70 per cent of the territory is covered by the...

The Inter-Congolese Dialogue, which began on 25 February in Sun City, South Africa, has missed its deadline. The government of Joseph Kabila, the rebels, the unarmed opposition and...

The death penalty hangs over the accused but the trial is alternately tedious and entertaining. At Kinshasa's central prison on 15 March, a military court began trying some...

Mass arrests, allegations of torture and public denunciations of dissidents mark President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo's latest purge. For five years, he has told the world that his...

French troops may have withdrawn from Central African Republic but their barracks are now being taken over by Libyan and Sudanese troops. Even more bizarrely, some Paris officials...

Demoralised opposition leaders must now decide whether to bother contesting the forthcoming legislative elections. President Denis Sassou-Nguesso won a crushing, Cold War-like 89.41 per cent in the 10...

Peacemaking in the Congo has been a gamble so it's fitting that the next venue for talks is South Africa's casino capital, Sun City. First, though, the man...

The mile-wide river of lava spewing from Mount Nyiragonga last week devastated the rebel capital of Goma but hasn't changed the combatants' entrenched positions in the war. President...