Blue Lines
The first reaction to the opposition Movement for Democratic Change's plans to mount national protests next week against Zimbabwe's economic meltdown might be: what took them so long?
It also follows the last wave of protests in January when the MDC lagg...
Patrick Smith
This week we have another step towards a political transition in Sudan, a surprise presidential contender in Kenya, a storm in Nigeria over the arrest of a protest leader and another in Tanzania over a journalist's detention. Zimbabwe's Finance Minister t...
Patrick Smith
We start in the Hague, where the International Court of Justice is to rule on a key East African maritime border dispute, and then to Washington for the election of a new IMF chief. Then our correspondents take in land reform in South Africa, the new gove...
Blue Lines
Boris Johnson took over as Britain's Prime Minister on 24 July after easily beating former Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt for the leadership of the ruling Conservative party. A Johnson premiership raises the prospects of Britain leaving the European Union ...
Patrick Smith
We start with the dramatic charging of top finance ministry
officials in Nairobi, and then head towards South Africa's
politicised legal dramas pitting two presidents and their proxies
against each other. A new mining deal in Tanzania could boost resource...
Patrick Smith
This week we start with an inquisition in Johannesburg and then fly up to Nairobi where Deputy President William Ruto's political plans are under fire. In Nigeria, the government might change or even drop its fuel subsidy which is coming under growing att...
Blue Lines
Disbelief was ostentatiously suspended when heads of state gathered at the African Union summit in Niamey to proclaim a new era of cooperation with the full launching of the African continental free trade area (ACFTA) on 8 July. After winning over Nigeria...
Patrick Smith
This week we start in Niamey with economic history in the
making and
then to Khartoum where activists are demanding a political
breakthrough. Although the new government is yet to be announced in Nigeria,
state regulators are taking a tougher line and in ...
Patrick Smith
We start in Khartoum where hundreds of thousands of demonstrators braved tear gas and live rounds to press the military to resume talks on the handover to civil rule. In Nigeria, there are concerns about a widening gap in the budget and the need to collec...
Blue Lines
The best construction that can be put on the return of the Zimbabwe dollar and the ban on foreign currencies is that its authors wanted to rein in inflation and crack down on the currency trading rackets that gave politically connected businesses access t...