After the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) comes America First healthcare. In the week ending 13 December, Lesotho, Eswatini and Uganda joined Kenya in signing agreements...

Ten weeks after its expiry on 30 September, the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) is close to being reborn, at least for three years. Less clear is...

A lawsuit accusing the Banque de France of complicity in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda is set to reopen sores between Paris and President Paul Kagame’s government.

United States President Donald Trump’s administration is intensifying its diplomatic feud with South Africa, inviting Poland to next year’s G20 summit in Miami and excluding South Africa. President...

Kenya will get US$1.7 billion of United States funding in the first of a series of bilateral health spending pacts that will replace assistance from the United States...

The money may be rolling in from the Mopane offshore field but President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah’s government is looking beyond oil to fuel growth.

Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame has hedged on the prospect of a peace deal with Congo-Kinshasa being signed in Washington DC next week, accusing the Kinshasa government of having...

Last week’s European Union-African Union summit in Luanda was a damp squib in monetary terms, after the European Commission made so many big money promises ahead of the...

President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s government will introduce a new royalty structure for gold mining companies from 1 January in a bid to cash in on prices exceeding US$4,000 per...

On 20 November, European Union foreign ministers moved closer to taking a side in Sudan’s civil war by imposing sanctions on the deputy leader of the Rapid Support...

The agreement struck on 20 November between China, Zambia and Tanzania to refurbish and reopen the Tanzania-Zambia Railway Authority (Tazara) railway line at a cost of US$1.4 billion...

S&P Global Ratings has refuted claims that it treats African countries unfairly after it and the two other major credit ratings agencies, Moody's and Fitch, were slammed in...

Ministers plan to use revenues from the recently opened Simandou iron ore mine to underpin Guinea’s first sovereign wealth fund, aiming to have it operational by the second...

Instead of opening its doors on 10 November, the Museum of Western African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City appears to be on the brink of collapse. A glossy...

A US$1.35 billion public-private financing plan by the World Bank for Kenya’s property market reflects the sky-rocketing demand for housing in Africa, the fastest urbanising continent. Over 40,000...

Kenya and Senegal both continue to experience slow progress towards agreeing new lending arrangements with the International Monetary Fund.

General Abdel Fattah al Burhan’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) are under pressure to agree to the United States’ plans for a humanitarian ceasefire after the Rapid Support Forces...

A US$29.7 billion investment from Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund to develop a major real estate and tourism project on Egypt’s Mediterranean coast is the latest evidence of close...

Rejecting Washington’s 31 October designation of Nigeria as a country which violates religious freedom, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu said it did ‘not reflect our national reality’. He added...

The international community’s stance on Western Sahara’s future has been decisively altered by a United Nations Security Council vote on 31 October that endorsed Morocco’s plan for semi-autonomy...

The dismissal of Mining Minister Wilmot Paye has raised eyebrows in Monrovia as the government intensifies talks with the United States aimed at obtaining investment in critical minerals.

Veteran oppositionist Raila Omolo Odinga’s death appears to have offered President William Samoei Ruto an opportunity to bury bad news. Hours before the opposition leader’s passing was...

Senegal’s debt servicing bill for next year will be almost US$1 billion higher than expected, partly on the back of hidden liabilities accrued by former President Macky Sall.

Although increasing global protectionism is adding to market uncertainty, the regime is for now set to continue reaping the benefits of growing Chinese demand for steel and aluminium....

Two mourners died in a stampede at Raila Odinga’s state funeral on 17 October, a day after three were killed when police opened fire and used tear gas...

One of President Colonel Michael Randrianirina’s first tasks is gaining international acceptance of his new regime after he took power in a Gen Z-inspired coup that followed weeks...

President Abdel Fattah el Sisi is hoping to use a two-day bilateral summit with the European Union starting on 22 October to move closer to concluding a debt-swap...

Despite the absence of a major challenger to President Samia Suluhu Hassan, her government is taking no chances, banning coverage of an opposition leader’s trial and stepping up...

South Africa and the countries involved in the Angola–Congo-Kinshasa Lobito Corridor project were the main beneficiaries from the two-day Global Gateway Forum in Brussels last week.

A dangerous rift between Eritrea and Ethiopia is growing ever wider. In a 2 October letter to UN Secretary General António Guterres, Ethiopia’s Foreign Minister Gedion Timothewos accuses...

Former Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo described the debt restructuring that dominated his second term as ‘one of the darkest and most painful episodes’ of his presidency as he...

President Andry Rajoelina says that he is ‘ready to listen, ready to extend a helping hand, and above all, ready to bring solutions to Madagascar’. He is, however,...

The expiry of the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) at the end of September is another headache for African states already counting the costs of the United...

The conviction of former French President Nicolas Sarkozy of criminal conspiracy is an indictment of the murky operations at the heart of Françafrique, the French government’s influence-peddling in...

African leaders have warned international partners that Somalia’s security situation in its battle with the Al Shabaab terror group could regress if they don’t cough up extra cash...

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s decision to sign a deal with Russia to plan and build a nuclear power plant in Ethiopia was one of several diplomatic coups for...

President Cyril Ramaphosa faces crunch trade talks with United States President Donald Trump’s administration next week, with talks expected on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly...

With South Sudan on the brink of return to war, one of the main holdouts to the 2018 peace agreement is returning to the political fray.

President Lazarus Chakwera and his predecessor Peter Mutharika have been rebuked by the head of the Malawi Electoral Commission after both claimed they had won the 16 September...

By charging First Vice-President Riek Machar Teny Dhurgon and 20 others with murder, treason and crimes against humanity, President Salva Kiir Mayardit’s government is raising concerns that all...

Tanzania’s presidential election is set to become slightly more competitive after the High Court ordered that Luhaga Mpina of the ACT Wazalendo party should be allowed to submit...

President Hakainde Hichilema’s government has upped the ante in its dispute with Sino-Metals, demanding more compensation for a collapse at the dam that resulted in more than one...

South Africa has scrapped plans to hold a naval exercise with China and Russia in November in a bid to avoid diplomatic embarrassment as it would have coincided...

The Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by General Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo ‘Hemeti’, have intensified efforts to take control of El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, by building...

Tidjane Thiam faces a judgement by the Constitutional Court this week on his application to be reinstated as a candidate for the presidential elections on 25 October.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government plans to make Ethiopia a major African fertiliser producer after signing a US$2.5 billion agreement with Nigeria’s Dangote Group to build one of...

South Africa has stepped up its demands for concessions from the EU’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) after Brussels’ recent deal with Washington. In a letter to the...

Rwanda has become the latest African state to accept foreign deportees from United States after confirming that it had received seven people expelled by Washington.

President Duma Boko is hoping that pledged Qatari investments worth up to US$12 billion will help plug a hefty deficit left by his predecessor and boost his bid...

Having previously rejected it due to Ankara’s support for the rival government based in Tripoli, the Tobruk-based House of Representatives (HoR) aligned with General Khalifa Haftar is set...

Uganda’s agreement to accept deported migrants from the United States as long as they don't have criminal records and are not unaccompanied minors is the latest success in...

The African Union (AU) is urging the international community to ditch the 16th century Mercator map by endorsing the Equal Earth Wall Map which bills itself as ‘showing...

Kenya has signalled its intentions to kickstart talks with United States President Donald Trump’s administration on a trade deal by signing a US$2.1 million contract with Washington DC-based...

President Félix Tshisekedi has gone for a broad coalition in a major reshuffle that brings in opposition politicians, senior former ministers and parastatal bosses.

Defence Minister Edward Omane Boamah and Environment Minister Ibrahim Murtala Muhammed were among eight people killed on 6 August when a military helicopter crashed in the central Ashanti...

The Rapid Support Forces’ (RSF) new parallel government faces a tough task in persuading neighbours to recognise it amid a pushback by international organisations including the African Union.

Peace talks in Doha are under pressure after the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group complained that it had not received an invitation to the talks scheduled on Friday 8...

The ruling Rassemblement des houphouëtistes pour la démocratie et la paix (RHDP) is pushing for President Alassane Ouattara in elections on 25 October – without him on the...

President João Lourenço’s administration has been striving to cut fuel subsidies to reduce debt servicing costs while avoiding disorder. But it has failed to strike that balance and...

Somaliland’s President Abdirahman Mahamed Abdullahi Irro is the latest African leader to appeal to US President Donald Trump’s transactional instincts by offering Washington a military base on the...

Africa will be the main victim of cuts to the UK’s foreign aid budget, according to a new report and impact assessment by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development...

Orange Democratic Movement General Secretary Edwin Sifuna has stepped up his attacks on the deal between his party leader Raila Odinga and President William Ruto. Sifuna says that...

Over 80 Fulani herders have disappeared and at least a dozen have been executed by the Malian army and Wagner group, the Russian mercenary outfit, according to a...

The text itself is low on substance: its references to the importance of multilateral cooperation, the World Trade Organization and ‘rules based’ trade are hardly radical. Nor are...

European Union and Moroccan officials are working on a ‘cash for migrant control’ deal that would place border management at the heart of their relationship. At a press...

Médecins Sans Frontières’ conclusion that in 2021 Ethiopian troops ‘executed’ three of the medical charity’s employees during the fierce fighting in the northern Tigray province is likely to...

The Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) finally has new leadership following more than two years of inertia after a court in Nairobi ruled against a petition challenging...

TotalEnergies’ US$20 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) project in northern Mozambique is eyeing a rapid resumption, with the French oil and gas major informing contractors to prepare for...

South Africa, Libya, Algeria and Tunisia were among a group of over 20 countries to be issued with tariff letters from United States President Donald Trump’s administration this...

President Samia Suluhu Hassan appears to be consolidating her control of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party after Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa became the latest senior official...

Brian Molefe and Siyabonga Gama, both deputies for former President Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party will appear in court in October after being arrested on multiple corruption...

EU governments will be encouraged to use carbon credit schemes in Africa to count towards their own emissions reduction targets by 2040, under a new law tabled on...

The Government of National Unity (GNU) was on the brink of collapse following the Democratic Alliance’s reaction to the sacking of Deputy Trade Minister Andrew Whitfield. The ostensible...

Ghana has taken another key step towards stabilising its economy after its parliament approved a debt restructuring deal on 24 June with 25 creditor nations, including China, France,...

Gavi, the global vaccine alliance, secured most of the funding it needs for its next five years of operations at a pledging summit in Brussels on 25 June,...

The Pan-African Parliament (PAP) has moved closer to agreeing a model law to harmonise the treatment of migrants across the continent following three days of meetings in Nairobi...

An expert panel chaired by Nobel prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz has called for a new round of debt relief for African countries to prevent a ‘perfect storm’ of...

Despite leaving the G7 summit in Canada without a meeting with United States President Donald Trump, South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa is hoping to kickstart trade talks with...

China continues to position itself as Africa’s most important economic partner after offering tariff-free trade to all 54 African countries, other than Eswatini, which recognises Taiwan’s sovereignty.

The murder of Albert Ojwang, a teacher and blogger, and attempts by the police to cover it up, have brought Kenyans back to the streets. On 12 June,...

The United States is stepping up the pressure on Kigali and Kinshasa to conclude a security-minerals access deal by the end of June. Both Washington and Kinshasa insist...

Defence chiefs are preparing the ground for major changes on border security and domestic procurement. At a security conference in Abuja in the week-ending 7 June, Chief of...

Support for democracy across Africa appears is ebbing due to falling governance standards, according to a new annual survey covering 39 African states by the Accra-based think tank...

New Prime Minister Kamil Idris’s decision to dissolve the government in preparation to form a new cabinet breaches the 2020 peace agreement, according to some political parties, including...

Five Democratic Congress members have sent a letter to President Donald Trump’s Africa advisor Massad Boulos demanding details of the administration’s deal on critical minerals that has accompanied...

Burkina Faso’s military government says that industrial gold production will increase by 4% this year on the back of projects led by Mauritian and Australian firms. That extra...

African leaders should make their positions on the future of the United States’ military command in Africa known in the coming months, Africom commander General Michael Langley told...

Raising capital will be the first immediate challenge facing Sidi Ould Tah, elected on 27 May as the new president of the African Development Bank (AfDB). His previous...

The European Union may not be putting anything new on the table but it ‘is the partner Africa can rely on’, the EU High Representative on Foreign Affairs...

The detention and torture of Boniface Mwangi, one of Kenya’s most prominent civil society activists, is the latest move by President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s increasingly authoritarian government. Hassan...

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer is taking heat at home over his government’s £3.4 billion deal with Mauritius that will allow Britain to retain control of the...

The mood music out of Brussels suggests that relations with Africa are not getting priority at the European Commission despite rhetorical assurances to the contrary. That is reflected...

Widespread scepticism greeted Prime Minister Amadou Oury Bah’s announcement at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan on 12 May that three years of military dictatorship will come to...

The average yield on Angola’s dollar bonds has soared above 13.5% in recent weeks, prompting Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa to shelve plans to test the...

Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi has ruled out any new tax rises in his budget plan for 2025/26, arguing that greater efficiency in revenue collection will be sufficient.

Facing public opposition to General Assimi Goïta’s plans to stay in power until 2030, his military junta has suspended all political activities across the country ahead of protests...

The US Trump administration plans to slash US$555 million in support for the African Development Bank’s (AfDB) soft-loan affiliate will leave a hefty funding gap for the new...

Under the terms of a peace process agreed with the United States, the governments of Congo-Kinshasa and Rwanda are due to submit separate draft peace agreements ahead of...

Goldman Sachs has positioned itself as the trade whisperer to United States President Donald J Trump, holding talks with several African leaders, including South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa...

Vedanta Resources, the mining and energy company controlled by Indian billionaire Anil Agarwal, is considering listing its Zambian copper unit to raise the finance it promised to invest...

The latest compromise on rates for value added tax in the much-delayed budget has kept the Government of National Unity in power – but at the expense of...

Kenya will overtake Ethiopia as East Africa’s largest economy this year, the IMF has said. Kenya’s gross domestic product will be US$132 billion in 2025, compared to Ethiopia’s...

The crackdown against opposition to President Kaïs Saïed’s regime is intensifying with over a dozen politicians and activists being jailed for between 18 and 66 years on treason...

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) says that aid to struggling sub-Saharan African countries should be ringfenced amid the deep spending cuts threatened by the...

The government’s repeal of exchange rate controls is set to speed up the demise of the Zimbabwe Gold (ZIG) currency, just a year after its introduction.

Disagreement among the regional sponsors of the main combatants in Sudan’s civil war, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led to the collapse of...

Charging opposition leader Tundu Lissu with treason and banning him from this year’s election shows that President Samia Suluhu Hassan’s opening of Tanzania’s political space has ended. Calls...

United States President Donald Trump’s administration has renewed its support for Moroccan sovereignty over Western Sahara at a meeting in Washington with Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita. US...

One of the world’s weakest economies, with a GDP per capita of US$509 a year, Madagascar was threatened with a 47% tariff on goods exports to the United...

Confusion reigns as officials and companies seek clarity on the timetable for the swingeing ‘reciprocal’ tariffs imposed on exports to the United States by President Donald Trump on...

Organising a summit in Moscow on 3-4 April for the foreign ministers from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – respectively Abdoulaye Diop, Karamoko Jean Marie Traoré and Bakare...

Appointing Bashir Ojulari as Group Managing Director, who with his new team formally took over the management of the state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) on 5 April,...

The round of tariffs due to be imposed by the United States across the world on 2 April signals the end of the African Growth and Opportunity Act...

Complaining about inheriting a battered and debt-ridden economy, Prime Minister Navinchandra Ramgoolam is planning radical new tax incentives to attract more foreign capital and get wealthy investors to...

The trial of former President Nicolas Sarkozy, who may face a seven-year sentence if convicted on corruption charges, is shedding light on France’s backchannel talks with the government...

Initially TotalEnergies’ use of Washington lobbyists to push through a vital US loan for its US$20 billion gas export project in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province backfired. France’s TotalEnergies...

After capturing the bombed-out Republican Palace in Khartoum on the banks of the Blue Nile, General Abdel Fattah al Burhan’s Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) is celebrating a symbolic...

President Bola Tinubu’s imposition of a state of emergency in oil-producing Rivers State where crude pipelines have been damaged in a series of attacks has secured parliamentary support...

After a majority in parliament failed to back Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s amended budget on 12 March he still has more drafting to do to get it over...

By agreeing that its deployment will be ‘terminated’ as part of a ‘phased withdrawal’ at a summit on 13 March, the Southern African Development Community has at last...

The political and security schisms in the Sahel have intensified as relations between the three military ruled states – Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger – and the regional...

Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) leader General Abdel Fattah al Burhan has escalated the propaganda war against President Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan (MBZ) and the United Arab Emirates,...

In line with his opposition to renewable energy projects, President Donald J Trump’s decision to revoke and rescind the United States International Climate Finance Plan will mean cancelling...

Former President Joseph Kabila has re-emerged from the political wilderness, holding talks with opposition politicians about Congo-Kinshasa's political future and issuing a fierce denunciation of his successor, Félix...

The follow-on effects of the United States’ foreign aid freeze are set to include patients with HIV/AIDs and tuberculosis in Kenya. Those patients will now have to pay...

When Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed was greeted on the tarmac at Mogadishu airport by President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud on 27 February, hopes were raised of a normalisation...

A peace agreement brokered by Guinea-Bissau's President Umaro Sissoco Embalo should move Senegal closer to ending Africa’s longest-running separatist conflict despite one of the main rebel groups not...

President Félix Tshisekedi is offering the United States access to Congo-Kinshasa’s critical minerals as a bargaining chip to get Washington’s support to force out M23 and Rwanda from...

The European Union moved closer to sanctioning Rwanda on 24 February after the bloc’s foreign ministers agreed to suspend defence cooperation with Kigali and put the controversial agreement...

The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which offers tariff and quota-free United States trade for 33 African states, looks set to follow the United States Agency for...

EU High Representative on Foreign Affairs Kaja Kallas will hold talks with President Cyril Ramaphosa and ministers on 19 February, ahead of a G20 foreign ministers meeting the...

Treasury ministers are paving the way to take on more debt in the coming months, starting with a US$1.5 billion supplementary budget to make up for missed tax...

News of the fall of Bukavu, the largest city in Kivu Sud in eastern Congo-Kinshasa, over the weekend, while the region’s leaders gathered for the African Union summit...

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Kristalina Georgieva was effusive about Ethiopia’s ‘impressive economic performance’ following a two-day visit to Addis Ababa. This comes amid claims that Prime Minister...

The long-term status of the Kenya-led police mission to combat gang warfare in Haiti remains under threat, despite President William Ruto and United States Secretary of State Marco...

Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch’s government has survived a two-day general strike after pushing through a controversial bill that will significantly curtail workers’ rights, including the right to strike.

The rift between factions in the Zimbabwean army, as well as veterans of the 1970s war of liberation, and President Emmerson Mnangagwa appears to be broken beyond repair....

South Africa is the first African country to be specifically targeted by the new United States President, Donald J Trump. On 3 February, Trump announced the halt of...

President Yoweri Museveni has defied a Supreme Court judgement ordering the release of opposition leader Kizza Besigye and mandating that Besigye can only be tried in a civilian...

Kenya’s President William Ruto has telephoned Presidents Félix Tshisekedi and Paul Kagame to invite then to an emergency summit in Nairobi on 29 January as M23 militia fighters,...

Within hours of entering the White House, President Donald Trump issued an executive order for a three-month freeze on all foreign aid. This move seemed certain to result...

President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to sign a controversial Expropriation Bill into law is likely to be the first major test to his governing coalition. Signed on 23 January,...

President William Ruto has pinned his government’s economic hopes on new loans and trade with the United Arab Emirates, as he seeks alternatives to Chinese financing.

Lower US interest rates will mean cheaper borrowing for African states, ratings agency Moody’s believes. The ratings agency has revised its outlook on sub-Saharan Africa’s sovereign credit to...

The deaths of seven galamsey miners in a shoot-out with army officers have deepened the crisis over Ghana’s illegal mining.

Six people were reported killed and a further 15 injured by gunfire in clashes on 13 January, in the first of three days of planned protests called by...

Canadian mining company Barrick Gold has pulled the plug on operations at its Loulo-Gounkoto complex in Mali after the Malian government seized an estimated 3 metric tonnes of...

The kidnapping and subsequent release hours later of the Tanzanian political activist Maria Sarungi Tsehai in Nairobi is the latest in a chilling series of abductions involving the...

The fate of the new African Union Support and Stabilisation Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) is in doubt after Burundi announced that it would refuse to participate because its...

Masisi town, the administrative capital of the Masisi territory in North Kivu, has become the latest to be taken by the Rwandan-backed M23 militia group, whose recent incursion...

Mozambique is set for a showdown this week after Venâncio Mondlane, the presidential candidate of the opposition Partido Otimista pelo Desenvolvimento de Moçambique (Podemos), announced that he will...

President William Ruto is under mounting pressure to halt a wave of abductions, mainly of youth activists since the nationwide Gen Z protests in June, which are widely...

The crisis over the presidential election results has deepened following a prison riot in Maputo on Christmas Day. At least 30 were killed in clashes between inmates and...

President João Lourenço’s pardoning of José Filomeno dos Santos, aka Zenú, the son of his predecessor President José Eduardo dos Santos, who had been imprisoned for fraud, marks...

The diplomatic chill between the Sahelian military juntas and France grew colder over Christmas after Niger’s junta leader General Abdourahamane Tiani accused France of allying with militant groups,...

Somalian President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud looks like the big winner from the so-called Ankara agreement struck with Ethiopia last week, which could effectively nix the memorandum of understanding...

The Uganda Law Council’s decision to withhold a special temporary certificate for National Rainbow Coalition–Kenya (NARC-Kenya) leader Martha Karua to practise law in Uganda, preventing her from defending...

The eleventh-hour cancellation of peace talks between Congo-Kinshasa and Rwanda by the Angolan government mediating the talks, means that the deadlock over the Kivu war will continue into...