Africa in 2026

Only a fool hell-bent on a suicidal path can dare to challenge President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, 73, in 2027, says Vice President Kashim Shettima. Discounting politicians’ default sycophancy,...

The results from Benin’s parliamentary elections on 11 January will decide whether there is a strong opposition challenge ahead of April’s presidential elections likely to be won by...

The honeymoon period for President John Dramani Mahama will come to an abrupt end in 2026 as political and economic challenges mount. Top of the list will be...

Niger is the second Sahel state (Burkina Faso was the first in 2023) to announce a draconian national mobilisation. A resolution adopted by its cabinet of ministers on...

With the presidential and legislative elections done and dusted amidst much indifference (the 28 December legislative elections attracted less than a third of eligible voters), political minds can...

General Mamady Doumbouya is a happy man at the start of the New Year. Since his election on 28 December as Guinea’s first nonpartisan candidate (he hardly bothered...

This has to be the year of delivery for President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko as their administration moves into midterm, the electoral triumphs of...

In 2026 Djibouti finds itself at the centre of the growing regional divide between Somalia, Eritrea and Egypt on the one hand and the opposing alliance of Ethiopia,...

President Évariste Ndayishimiye’s New Year jitters after the capture by M23 and Rwandan troops of Uvira, a city 5 kilometres from the Burundian border, will hardly have been...

The dark clouds of a new Ethiopia-Eritrea war are set to linger over Addis Ababa in 2026. Yet despite an ongoing risk of escalation, hostilities will likely remain...