Blue Lines
The United States' diplomatic campaign in Africa entered its next phase with Secretary of State Antony Blinken's stopovers in Addis Ababa and Niamey from 14-17 March. Blinken is keeping up the pace of high-level visits, promised at last December's US-Afri...
Blue Lines
The expulsion of UN Human Rights Council officials from Mali and Uganda points to a concerted pushback against the agency and allied institutions. On 26 February, Mali's military government gave Guillaume Ngefa-Atondoko Andali, head of the UN peacekeeping...
Blue Lines
African leaders face a newish challenge as they gather for the African Union's summit from 17-20 February in Addis Ababa. Amid geopolitical rivalries, the continent is in demand, thanks to its reserves of resources needed for the green energy transition a...
Blue Lines
The deaths of prominent local investigative journalists within three days in January in Rwanda and Cameroon – John Williams Ntwali and Martinez Zogo – and in Eswatini of human rights lawyer Thulani Rudolph Maseko, highlight the perils facing activists acr...
Blue Lines
As Qin Gang, China's new foreign minister and former ambassador to Washington DC, winds up his tour of Ethiopia, Gabon, Benin, Angola and Egypt, the United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen started a 10-day African sojourn by flying to Dakar on 17 Ja...
Blue Lines
White House officials have been at pains to brief journalists that United States President Joe Biden will pull out all the stops to show that this week's African leaders' summit is a demonstration of Washington's genuine commitment to the continent after ...
Blue Lines
It has been a game of two halves for Ghana's World Cup squad and its treasury team in Accra. After beating South Korea 3-2 in the group stage on 28 November, the Black Stars will face Uruguay on 2 December.Equally hard-fought will be finance minister Ken...
Blue Lines
After the 'African COP' in Egypt, the Group of Twenty (G20) summit in Bali on 15-16 November – with its focus on debt restructuring and energy policy – addressed several issues key to African leaders. Several G20 members are calling for the African Union ...
Blue Lines
The disjointed international response to the fighting between the Congolese army and the Tutsi-led M23 militia in eastern Congo-Kinshasa has shown where influence lies in the evolving regional order. The little traction that has been generated towards pea...
Blue Lines
Growth in Africa is slowing this year according to the World Bank and IMF. Much of that seems to have been triggered by the spillover from Russia's war on Ukraine, spiralling food and fuel prices and rising interest rates and debt servicing costs. But the...