Briefing

South Africa will hold the Fifth Summit of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) group on 27 March 2013 at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli Convention...

China Union’s plan to relocate six villages near the Bong iron mine has been met with anger from the people of Lower Bong County, posing yet another threat...

Two new large dams will be built before President Goodluck Jonathan’s first presidential term expires in 2015, according to the government. The companies constructing the dams, however, admit...

The Japan International Cooperation Agency celebrated twenty years of international assistance to African countries at the United Nations University on 30 November. JICA’s African Department is working on...

The Kinshasa government plans to begin discussions in November with three consortiums that are interested in the construction of a third hydroelectric dam capable of producing several thousand...

Faced with difficult negotiations with its Chinese partners and the seemingly implacable demands of the population, the Nigerien government admitted in mid-October that the Chinese-built Société de Raffinage...

Chinese companies are displacing European powers in African countries where ties were considered to be strongest, and China is set to become Algeria’s largest trading partner ahead...

In October, Chinese companies were once again the target of Madagascar’s environmental groups for their role in illegal rosewood exploitation. Environmental umbrella group Alliance Voahary Gasy pointed ...

China will continue to support the Bamako government’s position and ‘will bring our aid to the extent that it is possible, in particular to the army, where we...

China Development Bank has expressed its interest in backing Congo-Kinshasa’s colossal Grand Inga Dam project. The announcement was made during the visit of Zou Lixing, a CDB Vice-President,...

After months of talks, Sudan and South Sudan have signed agreements that should allow South Sudan to resume oil production. The 27 September deal came after...

Opaque flows of foreign direct investment (FDI) from Mauritius to India look set to continue – despite the eight rounds of negotiations over the Double Taxation Avoidance Agreement...

Plans by two Thai companies – PTT Asia Pacific Mining and Italian-Thai Development Company (Italthai) – to develop rich coal deposits at Sakoa have stalled amid...

Indian policy-makers are getting more serious about the effective delivery of aid to their diplomatic allies. New Delhi lags far behind its Asian counterparts in speed of despatch,...

Amid unprecedented criticism from the European Union and strikes on several worksites, Chinese companies are having a rough time in Cameroon. With Hanlong Mining’s backing of the Mbalam...

Ahead of the Fifth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC V) in Beijing on 19-20 July, President Mahamadou Issoufou declared that Niger’s cooperation with China on natural...

Anjin Investments is attracting even more attention from the authorities after a Global Witness report released in late June highlighted the company’s links to the security services and...

Benin’s Syndicat national des travailleurs de l’administration des transports et des travaux publics (Syntra-Ttp) is leading public calls for African governments to hold Chinese construction companies to account...

Prime Minister Jean-Omer Beriziky says that Chinese investors are angry about the treatment they have received from the government. Wuhan Iron and Steel Corporation executives vociferously point out...

On 6 June, Algeria’s courts ruled that Chinese telecoms companies Huawei and ZTE are banned from participating in public tenders due to their inappropriate relationship with a former...

Pakistan’s engagement with Africa is struggling to get off the ground. While the government is launching its first serious efforts at summitry, boosting trade and improving continental diplomacy,...

Africa’s top private equity firms are in talks with their Chinese counterparts to channel a new wave of investment into African companies. On 16 June, Vincent Le Guennou,...

Australian mining firm Chalice Gold Mines announced on 27 April that it would sell its 60% stake in the Zara gold mine in Eritrea to China Shanghai Corporation...

A wage dispute at an Angolan building site in Chindonga, a sleepy town in Kwanza Sul, is causing a storm in India.

Despite a faltering economy and a devastating 2011 earthquake, Japan’s Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba told the follow-up meeting to the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Marrakech,...

China is Sierra Leone’s largest foreign investor. However, you would not know that from the chaotic state of Sierra Leone’s mission in Beijing, which has had to change...

Southern Africa is now the major frontier of coal exploration for Indian energy companies. Khopoli Investments, a subsidiary of India’s largest private power producer, Tata Power, agreed a...

On 7-18 April, President Ma Ying-jeou will make a state visit to three of Taiwan’s four African allies – Burkina Faso, Gambia and Swaziland. It will be the...

The African Union will determine which African countries will host India’s two new industrial clusters, which will be backed by billions of dollars in investment from the New...

President Mahamadou Issoufou is under pressure to reduce petrol prices at the pump. On 23 March, the Syndicat National des Travailleurs du Commerce (Syntracom)warned that unless the government...

The former Chief Executive Officer of troubled Air Tanzania Corporation Limited, David Mattaka, and two others appeared in court on 21 March to answer charges of abuse of...

President Idriss Déby Itno inaugurated a new cement factory at Baoré in Mayo-Kebbi on 16 February. Chad’s first cement plant was built by China CAMC Engineering Company, thanks...

Work will begin soon on the long-awaited new Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway. The two governments and their Chinese contractors are creating a US$1.5-billion trade corridor from Addis Ababa to the Djibouti...

The government of West Africa’s leading narco-state remains tight-lipped about a corruption case involving three officials of the Energy and Natural Resources Ministry who were arrested in November 2011...

A war of words has broken out between Negbalee Warner, Chairman of the Liberia Petroleum Refining Company, and his Managing Director, T. Nelson Williams. At issue is a US$25 million...

South Korean President Lee Myung-bak prides himself on his government’s resource diplomacy, but now a corrupt Cameroonian diamond deal has taken its first political casualties. The CNK International...

President Idriss Déby Itno’s government has finally reached an agreement with the Chinese owners of the troubled Djermaya refinery. Discussions between the government, led by Justice Minister Abdoulaye...

A bruising election year in Ghana kicked off with President John Atta Mills’s 9 January announcement of the death of South Korean company STX Corporation’s US$10 billion housing...

The two-day state visit of India’s Commerce Minister Anand Sharma in mid-January gave Indian investors the opportunity to complain about the restrictions and obstacles that – despite decades...