Africa

India is upgrading diplomatic, economic and strategic ties with several African states in the search for oil and gas to meet its energy needs, which are expected to double by...

Tokyo’s diplomats and trade officials are promising an upsurge of activity in Africa in 2008, aiming to boost trade and development. Trade Minister Akira Amari speaks unambiguously about...

When China pledged 20 million renminbi this year for education projects in South Africa to include the teaching of Mandarin in 50 local high schools, it was an indication...

Chinese construction companies are sprinting ahead of their Western rivals to secure the biggest state contracts and expand their market share in Africa’s new building boom. By the end of...

As it loses the diplomatic and commercial competition with Beijing, the Taiwan government is casting around for new friends and a new strategy in Africa. Painfully aware of its unequal...

The extravagance on show at the China-Africa Summit in Beijing last November marked the beginning of a consolidation of ties between the two regions. Chinese and African leaders celebrated their...

European Development Commissioner Louis Michel eagerly handed out pamphlets entitled 'The Indispensable Alliance' at the Africa-European Union summit in Lisbon on 8-9 December. In it, he pleaded for...

Bored with the fractious Euro-African summit in Lisbon on 8-9 December, French President Nicolas Sarkozy used the opportiunity to try to patch up quarrels with Côte d'Ivoire, Rwanda...

The great and good have met and argued vigorously over which African head of state should be the first to receive the Mohammed Fathi Ibrahim Prize for Achievement...

British and French officers are being invited to join the United States’ planned Africa Command (AfriCom) as ‘fully integrated’ officers, US officials have told Africa Confidential. AfriCom’s Public...

Canada's once vibrant enthusiasm for Africa is caught in the middle of this argument. In the left corner are the myriad critics of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government...

Stephen Lewis: United Nations' Special Envoy, HIV-AIDS in Africa, 2001-06; Deputy Director, UN Children's Fund, 1995-1999; Canada's Permanent Representative, UN, 1984-98; was Coordinator, Graça Machel study on children...

President Nicolas Sarkozy is billed as France's first post-colonial head of state but his first state visit to Africa did not presage a rupture with the Françafrique system....

Africa produces far less than the Middle East: around 2.6 million barrels a day from Nigeria and close to 2 mn. b/d from Angola by the end of...

British engagement in Africa and aid levels will continue to rise under Prime Minister Gordon Brown, who took over from Tony Blair on 27 June, government sources told...

New Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has won his battle to keep development policy in his Ministry, rather than in the new Immigration Ministry under the right-wing Brice Hortefeux,...

For the last decade, Prime Minister Tony Blair's Labour government has presided over the modernisation of British Africa policy, from one suited to the era of the Cold...

Little is known about new Prime Minister Gordon Brown's intentions on foreign policy or his choice of lieutenants, even though he has been the economic supremo in the...

The revelation by African Development Bank President Donald Kaberuka that the China Exim Bank, the country's official export credit agency, has agreed to finance projects worth some US$20...

Ostensibly, Western finance officials welcomed Asia's developing ties with Africa at the African Development Bank meeting in Shanghai. Norway's Secretary of State for International Development, Anne F. Stenhammer,...

African governments are preparing for a tougher relationship with Paris on trade and immigration policy following the victory of Nicolas Sarkozy in presidential elections on 6 May. Perhaps...

As Africa posts its strongest economic growth for two decades on the back of buoyant commodity prices, the continent's banks are also thriving. Recent financial reforms have shaken...

Eva Joly, the Norwegian-born French magistrate who broke open the Elf Aquitaine affair in Paris - which involved oil-fired corruption in Gabon, Congo-Brazzaville and Angola (AC Vol 42...

Transparency International estimates that Africa's political elites and their foreign business allies hold US$700-800 billion in offshore accounts - outside Africa. These transactions are facilitated by a pinstripe...

Is the sun rising or setting? There was a teasing ambiguity about the posters, showing an orange sun over a calm sea, that cropped up all over the...

Africa's economies were buoyed by international conditions, improved domestic policies, increased exports to China and high commodity prices. However, African economies are more sensitive than any others to...

Africa Confidential Map 2007 with political forecasts and statistical data.