Africa

Leave aside the posturing and wishful thinking on both sides, Asia is getting more interested in Africa. Part of it is political and diplomatic: aspiring United Nations Security...

The nomination of Madeleine Albright as President Bill Clinton's new Secretary of State for African Affairs opens the way for a reshuffle of the Africa department's officials. Most...

Iran is working to build a presence across Africa as it seeks to overcome efforts by the United States, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states to isolate it....

President Mobutu Sese Seko was detained elsewhere but everybody in Ouagadougou wanted to know what was happening to his country. The Rwandan and Zaïrean delegations had hardly...

World Bank President James Wolfensohn called it a 'lovefest'. True, the rich country finance ministers did reach a rare consensus in Washington on 1-3 October on the outline...

Italy is back in the Horn of Africa. The trigger was Romano Prodi's appointment as Prime Minister in May. Driving the revival (of which there are signs elsewhere...

Paris is cutting its unwieldy, mainly conscript, 500,000-strong army, to form a smaller, well equipped regular force. Defence Minister Charles Millon visited Chad and Gabon on 5-8 October...

United States' plans for a 10,000-strong all-African military force to intervene in regional political crises are winning cautious backing from European and African governments. Much remains to be...

When he came to power 14 months ago, President Jacques Chirac promised a new French policy for Africa. This he failed to deliver during his visit to Gabon...

Africa's private armies are growing in power and influence. Hired guns are intervening in almost every conflict on the continent, in some cases supplanting, rather than just assisting,...