Blue Lines
Although he pulled in dozens of Africa's leaders to the first Russia-Africa summit in Sochi on 23-24 October, Russia's President Vladimir Putin is years behind the competition in courting Africa. Russia-Africa trade has doubled to US$20.4 billion over the...
Patrick Smith
We start this week with knife-edge negotiations over Britain's attempts to leave the European Union and their implications for Africa. And then to Nairobi where President Kenyatta is taking on parliament over interest rates. Russia says that 47 African le...
Patrick Smith
This week we start with the boost for Ethiopia and Kenya before looking at the gloomy growth forecasts ahead of the IMF and World Bank's meetings in Washington this week. Calls for the British, United Arab Emirates and Indian governments to impose sanctio...
Blue Lines
Batten down the hatches. Shorn of its economic diplomat-speak, the World Bank's latest update for Africa sounds a loud warning about rising poverty, the debilitating effects of discrimination against women and galloping government debt, especially to comm...
Patrick Smith
This week the news agenda starts in Pretoria, where despite a successful summit with Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa is under mounting pressure to set out a radical new strategy to get his country out of the ...
Patrick Smith
As many of the African delegations leave the UN's summit in New York – some are preparing for the IMF and World Bank's annual meeting in Washington DC in two weeks' time – officials are assessing the wins and losses. Egypt's President returns to face deep...
Blue Lines
The opening of the UN General Assembly this week brought out some unlikely commonalities. Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson both used their speeches to the assembly to rail against tech companies. 'They cannot...
Patrick Smith
This week we start in New York at the UN General Assembly where African and Asian leaders are pressing governments in Europe and North America to do more to combat climate change and contribute more to measures to mitigate the damage that it's causing to ...
Patrick Smith
We start in Harare – in the throes of economic and political crises – with the funeral of Robert Mugabe, and then to the first-round upsets in the presidential election in Tunisia. Tanzania's leader gets cash from the World Bank despite attacking civil ri...
Blue Lines
President Emmerson Mnangagwa's hopes that the death of independence leader Robert Mugabe would lead to a helpful outbreak of nationalistic fervour are proving forlorn. Mnangagwa implored Zimbabweans 'to show your love of the great leader who has left us....
