Blue Lines
'We want deals' was the mantra of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa when he touched down in Abuja on 30 November for a seven-day West African tour with a delegation of ministers and business leaders. His visit comes a year after the launch and limit...
Blue Lines
The deadly blasts in central Kampala on 17 November have been claimed, via an identified Telegram account, as the work of Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP), previously known as the Allied Democratic Forces. It points to the growing capacity of...
Blue Lines
Rhetoric is the warmest commodity at the UN's COP26 climate summit in an icy Glasgow. The distant pledges for achieving 'net zero' economies – in 2050, in 2060 or 2070 – concern African countries less than the current realities of extreme weather, the dro...
Blue Lines
The World Meteorological Association's latest report evokes a troubling future. It forecasts that living conditions could become unsustainable in the next decade for over 100 million people in Africa, hit by drought, floods and extreme heat. Africa would ...
Blue Lines
The cost for Africa to counter the damage caused by the coronavirus pandemic, to engineer an economic bounce back and mitigate climate threats is rising, justifying the International Monetary Fund's warning of a two-speed global recovery.The World Bank, w...
Blue Lines
In the high-level conference on Climate, Conflict and Demography in Africa which we co-hosted on 14 September with the International Crisis Group and Royal African Society, over 1,000 attendees heard speakers from Africa, the Americas and Asia, including ...
Blue Lines
Africa's negotiators are heading for the UN's COP26 climate summit starting on 1 November in Glasgow with more at stake than any other region. Africa has contributed less to global warming measured by carbon output than any other continent. Yet it has bee...
Blue Lines
'Ethiopia is on the precipice' according to an open letter to be published this week from a pan-African group of intellectuals calling for a negotiated settlement to the country's nine-month conflict. Their timing is critical. All the signs point to anoth...
Blue Lines
After the directors of the International Monetary Fund voted on 2 August for a record-breaking injection of resources – the creation of US$650 billion reserve assets known as Special Drawing Rights – the central banks of all member states will be credited...
Blue Lines
Although journalism has been facing all manner of economic and political pressures during the pandemic, it is gratifying to see a team of skilled investigators produce revelatory stories about the state of diplomacy and espionage.Foreign affairs specialis...
