To achieve net zero emissions by 2050 will mean clean energy investments of $1-2 trillion a year in developing economies
After a frustrating lack of progress on finance and mapping out a 'just transition' to renewable energy at the COP26 climate summit last month, African officials are preparing...
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European Union will block co-operation with Russian mercenaries in Mali, CAR and Libya
United States diplomats have welcomed the European Union's imposition of sanctions on the Russian mercenary Wagner Group, and eight of its senior commanders, under its Magnitsky human rights...
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WTO chief complains of 'sabotage' in talks on technology transfer by pharma companies to developing countries
A pledge by South Africa to give away two million doses of Johnson & Johnson's Covid-19 vaccine to low-income countries in the region adds to the substance of...
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The virtual meeting was stronger on symbolism than practical policies with 16 African countries participating and counted as US allies
The most tangible development to come out of the United States' summit for democracy on 9-10 December was its pledge of $424 million to fight corruption and promote...
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Vaccine nationalism, supercharged by fears of the Omicron variant, pushes African countries towards local manufacturing
The indefinite postponement of the World Trade Organization's meeting on a temporary waiver of the intellectual property rights on Covid vaccines, and the emergence of the Omicron variant...
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Slow and unpredictable supplies and donations continue to disrupt the roll-out of Covid-19 vaccines in Africa. According to the World Health Organization, most vaccine donations have been 'ad...
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The US's top diplomats return to the continent with shuttle diplomacy, infrastructure funding and a democracy campaign
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the United States' top diplomat, spent much of his three-stop tour of Africa last week fighting the headlines. That diluted the bold aims...
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Actum International UK is the new big player in African political lobbying, taking over K–Street lobby shop Mercury Public Affairs' foreign lobbying contracts after absorbing Mercury's London affiliate,...
Boosting democracies and resolving conflicts were being pushed as the main themes of US Secretary of State Antony Blinken's Africa tour when he spoke in Nairobi on 17...
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Hardest hit by climate change but producing the lowest emissions, the continent is losing out in the deal-making in Scotland
Negotiators at the UN COP26 climate summit, which is due to close on 12 November, are racing to avert failure on its two main aims: to limit global...
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Vol 62 No 22 |
- ECONOMY
- AFRICA
The region’s economies on average will lose over 5% of output by 2024 relative to pre-pandemic trends, according to the IMF
Twenty months since Covid-19 first disrupted the global economy, the outlook for Africa's economies remains subdued. The upgrades by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank at...
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Continuing shortages of vaccines and medical equipment undermine the continent's fight against the pandemic
Alongside climate change, uneven economic recovery from the pandemic, the deep inequities in vaccine distribution will be on the agenda again at the G20 talks in Rome on...
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Vol 62 No 21 |
- FRANCE
- AFRICA
Facing a tough election next year, President Macron is fighting off attacks from the far right and recasting Africa policy
Despite hosting a new-style dialogue with activists and artists and attending a commemoration in Paris for a long hushed-up 1961 massacre of Algerian demonstrators, Emmanuel Macron's overhauling of...
Ghana and Burkina Faso are the first destinations for Mary Catherine 'Molly' Phee, newly confirmed as the Biden administration's top Africa official.
Vol 62 No 21 |
- TURKEY
- AFRICA
After several years of gradually increasing its political role in Africa, Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has his eyes on trade.
Vol 62 No 21 |
- AFRICA
- BRITAIN
Tony Blair's secretive lightning tour of Africa in September and October included meetings with five presidents in four days, Africa Confidential has now been able to confirm, mostly...
Vol 62 No 21 |
- CHINA
- AFRICA
As geopolitical divides get sharper, China is accused of using debts owed by African states to compel support for its diplomatic and security goals
African diplomats are becoming exasperated by China's demands for diplomatic support on every issue from Covid-19's origins to the human rights of the Uighurs in Xinjiang province, whether...
Two new reports investigate how political leaders are subverting constitutional rule and handing power to business cronies
Call them illiberal democracies, elective dictatorships or 'no-party' politics, the global tide of authoritarianism with constitutional characteristics has been welcomed, sometimes pioneered, by some governments in Africa.
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Tax losses and illicit financial flows are growing a decade after a high-level African Union report calculated they were costing the continent over $60 billion a year
The leak of documents known as the Pandora Papers and published on 3 October showed that 35 current and former heads of state, three in Africa, along with...
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Vol 62 No 20 |
- AFRICA
- AIRLINES
Two of Africa's biggest airlines are relaunching this month with longer-term plans to merge their operations
Once African airline giants, massive financial losses and failed government rescue attempts have left Kenya Airways and South African Airways on life support. But both have set out...
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Plans for a 'strategic partnership' between the EU and Africa were an early victim of the Covid pandemic
In her annual State of the EU speech on 16 September, the offer of investment in green energy and new promises on vaccine supply were the only mentions...
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Credible plans are in train to establish production centres in Africa but the global inequities in distributions are stark and deadly
On 6 September, Britain's former Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC that the Group of 7 economies would have a billion surplus doses of vaccine by the...
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Widespread criticism forces European Commission to review supply deal which ignored emergency needs in Africa
After activists in South Africa demanded to see details of their government's contracts with Johnson & Johnson and other pharmaceutical companies, under which locally-bottled vaccines were to be...
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Although they refuse to finance the IMF's global vaccine plan, the world's richest economies compete on pledges to share out the shots
After it became clear that rich countries would get Covid-19 vaccines far faster than the global south having tied up all the procurement contracts last year, they started...
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United States President Joe Biden's initial African policy plans are starting with a programme inherited from President Donald Trump called Prosper Africa. The Biden White House wants to...
Multilaterals change rules to boost loans to Africa, to startclosing a $425 billion finance gap
Africa will be the main beneficiary of a new plan by the International Monetary Fund to boost cheap loans for countries hardest hit by the pandemic in what...
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Delta variant has reached 26 countries with case fatality rates among the world's highest
As the third wave of the coronavirus pandemic sweeps across Africa, the continent has become the most vulnerable region hit by the more transmissible Delta variant of the...
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For the second year running, many of the continent's most popular tourist attractions have been shuttered by the pandemic
While case numbers and deaths from Covid-19 continue to rise across Africa, the devastating costs of the travel restrictions that have been imposed on visitors as a consequence...
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Vol 62 No 14 |
- AFRICA
- BRITAIN
British government plans to cut £4 billion (US$5.5bn) from aid budget sparks protests from philanthropists and politicians
Civil society activists who joined forces with opposition MPs and Conservative rebels to force a parliamentary vote on 13 July on the British government's plan to cut its...
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Vol 62 No 13 |
- FRANCE
- AFRICA
Rethinking its Africa policy, Paris is cutting military operations in the Sahel and stepping up economic diplomacy
When he announced the end of Opération Barkhane, France's 5,100-strong military force deployed across the Sahel for the past eight years, President Emmanuel Macron said he owed 'consistency'...
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Vol 62 No 11 |
- AFRICA
- BRITAIN
- G7
Parliamentary rebels in London organise to stop government's reneging on funding pledges just days ahead of G7 summit
When the heads of state and government of the Group of 7 biggest economies meet in Cornwall on 11-13 June, their host, Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson, says...
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United States President Joe Biden's backing for an unlikely patent-waiver for Covid-19 vaccines is deft political manoeuvring. It announced the USA's return as lead player international development issues...
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Vol 62 No 11 |
- FRANCE
- AFRICA
European leaders and international officials ensured the discussions were more about recycling prior pledges
Talk of a 'New Deal' with 'urgency' and 'ambition' for Africa ahead of the grand summit in Paris on 17-18 May ultimately produced no new continent-wide commitments on...
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Differences between Western states on patents and exports are likely to persist after Rome summit
Accusations of 'vaccine apartheid', voiced by South Africa and Kenya in recent months, and repeated again earlier this week by World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus,...
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First in-person conference on the pandemic's economic effects on the continent draws wide turnout
By bringing together 20 African presidents with IMF, World Bank and EU chiefs in Paris on 17-18 May, France's President Emmanuel Macron's declared aim was to launch a...
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Africa's health ministers watch with alarm the disastrous fatality rate as the second wave of the virus rips across India
The Covid-19 experience in Africa has been something of a rollercoaster ride. Early predictions were calamitous, then it seemed to pass ominously mildly (unless you were in South...
Vol 62 No 10 |
- FRANCE
- AFRICA
With two upcoming summits, President Macron is trying once more to reset his country’s relationship with Africa
If President Emmanuel Macron needed a reminder of his country's reputation in Africa it came with the fury on the streets of Ndjamena to his ill-phrased remarks at...
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Vol 62 No 10 |
- AFRICA
- HEALTH
US backing for intellectual property waivers on vaccines triggers spat with European Union over distribution and equity
The United States support for a lifting of patents on Covid-19 vaccines in coming negotiations at the World Trade Organization is a big win for African campaigners and...
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Vol 62 No 9 |
- ECONOMY
- AFRICA
Growth predictions have risen, but Covid-19 will have a devastating impact on Africa's economy, health and education
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank upped their forecasts for sub-Saharan Africa's growth at their 2021 Spring Meetings, but the economic impact from Covid-19 is still...
'No special favours' for individual countries but, instead, 'broad engagement' with Africa was the message from Robert Godec, the United States African Affairs Acting Assistant Secretary, ahead of...
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Africa's involvement is key to making a success of the latest wave of green tax, finance and technology initiatives
United States President Joe Biden's virtual climate summit on 22-23 April, in which he pledged to cut US fossil fuel emissions by up to 52% of 2005 levels...
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Career diplomats dominate the new team as the Biden administration tries to repair ties and regain influence
The nomination of Mary 'Molly' Catherine Phee as US Assistant Secretary of State for Africa on 15 April reinforces the message that career diplomats are back in charge,...
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Mandarins in Brussels call it a turning point but the deal makes few commitments on trade terms, climate and migration cash
The European Union and African, Caribbean and Pacific Community on Thursday (15 April) signed off on the successor to the Cotonou agreement, ending two-and-a-half years of negotiations.
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The IMF wins support for $650 billion reserve currency plan as the US proposes global minimum corporate tax and G-20 extends debt relief package
There are signs that the $650 billion issuance of new Special Drawing Rights, the International Monetary Fund's reserve currency, will offer a bigger boost to African treasuries than...
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Trade and production deals may help the region’s vaccination drive in the short term more than lobbying for changes to the IP and patent laws
The challenge to access vaccines against Covid-19 is not just an African problem, it is a global battle. But it has shone a spotlight on the complexities that...
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The UN's latest report strikes a more positive note if commodity prices hold up and there is more flexibility on debt
This year's rebound in commodity prices and the fact that Africa's public health systems have experienced far less pressure from the pandemic than initially feared are two glimmers...
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Vol 62 No 6 |
- ECONOMY
- AFRICA
Although it's campaigning for debt relief, the AfFB is more upbeat than the other multilaterals on the continent's prospects for recovery this year
Africa will recover from its worst recession in half a century and reach growth of 3.4% in 2021, but long-term structural damage to the continent's economies is inevitable....
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The Fund prepares to hand out huge sums to its members, but an outdated formula means it may fail to kick-start economies
United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen stalled a G20 plan for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to issue hundreds of millions of dollars in Special Drawing Rights (SDR),...
A year after promising to be Africa's 'partner of choice', the UK is offering little beyond more of the same
In ordinary times, January's UK-Africa investment summit – the second such event ever and the first international investment event Britain has hosted since leaving the European Union's single...
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The US and European countries, while prioritising their own populations for vaccination, are beginning to commit to a more credible global policy on immunisation
French President Macron and United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson were among the first to pledge to offer surplus vaccine supplies at the end of last week, with...
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The EU's €1 trillion Green Deal project sits at the heart of Ursula von der Leyen's European Commission Presidency, but the bloc wants to export its climate change...
The Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention and its director, John Nkengasong, are in a turf war after winning praise for their leadership combatting the pandemic throughout...
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As President of the European Council this year, Portugal is prioritising commercial and security ties with Africa
João Gomes Cravinho, Portugal's defence minister, wants to strengthen political dialogue between the European Union and African decision-makers. Most European countries have military missions in Africa but...
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Vol 62 No 3 |
- ECONOMY
- AFRICA
Hit by capital flight and an investment drought, the continent's more diversified economies will bounce back faster from the pandemic
Struggling with the first continent-wide recession for 25 years, Africa's economies will barely keep pace on average with the tempo of the global growth recovery this year as...
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The pandemic's economic effects and Brexit disruptions have diverted focus on business deals with Africa
A year ago at its inaugural Africa Investment conference, the United Kingdom's prime minister Boris Johnson hosted 16 African heads of state, resulting in commercial deals across the...
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Despite pious pledges of equal access to the shots, Africa is losing out. Fixing that will take more cooperation and bold policy
While the outgoing chair of the African Union, South Africa's President Cyril Ramaphosa, was able to make a triumphant announcement on 13 January that the AU had 'secured'...