Egypt and Sudan are playing a central role in the dispute over the Nile. They know they can no longer ignore the thirst for water of the seven upstream countries but are focussed on their own growing needs. The five states most concerned, led by Ethiopia, intend to change the balance of water power.
The old arguments about the Nile waters will enter a new stage this autumn, when the nine governments of the Nile Basin Initiative (NBI) next meet. On present...
Congo's 'clean' minerals are more politically toxic
than buyers would like
Rebels are taking over more mines throughout the east, while control of minerals by corrupt government forces continues, making even Congo's 'clean' state-sourced minerals more politically toxic than...
Next month, Congolese will mark 50 troubled years of
Independence from Belgium amid growing concern about security and
development prospects under President Kabila’s government. Kabila and
the ruling PPRD are feverishly preparing for elections next year and
are ramping up the nationalist rhetoric. They want the UN peacekeepers
out as soon as possible to reassert the country’s independence. They
also want to pressure the foreign mining and oil companies to boost
state revenue.
President Joseph Kabila and the ruling Parti du Peuple pour la Reconstruction et le Développement (PPRD) have called for the United Nations’ peacekeepers to quit Congo-Kinshasa as soon...
The country now produces a paltry 25,000 barrels a day but the big international oil companies are lining up to buy their way into Congo-Kinshasa. Smaller companies have been locked in wrangles with each other and successive Kinshasa officials for several years. New blocks are likely to be offered in a licensing round that will open up new parts of Congo to exploration; competition for disputed blocks is heating up. But will the oil boom boost economic development or just repeat the confusion and corruption of the mining sector?
President Joseph Kabila is blocking exploration contracts that were granted several years ago and the lack of his approval has left several companies hanging on in Kinshasa, hoping...
Vol 51 No 7 |
- SUDAN
- ANALYSIS
Sudan is set to become the first country to elect an indicted war criminal as president. Yet the elections are deemed so unlikely to be free and fair that, as AC went to press, the focus was on the extent and effects of the opposition boycott. Oppositionists argued there was little to be gained by participating and lending credence to the elections as the regime had rigged a victory with a manipulated census and elector registration, gerrymandered constituency boundaries and used state funds to buy loyalty.
In the face of blatant preparations for election rigging, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement decided on 31 March to boycott the national presidential election and all elections in...
From the surrealism of ‘missing president’ Umaru Yar’Adua, linked to the outside world via a ghostly voiced interview with the BBC, and with attendant disputes of legitimacy and sovereignty, Nigeria has solved the crisis in its own way, by effecting what some call a ‘democratic coup’. One by one, the elected institutions of state (the powerful governors’ forum and both houses of the National Assembly) and several non-elected regional councils met and agreed to support the handover to Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan.
Whatever the constitutional doubts that remain, the 9 February resolution by the National Assembly, citing the ‘doctrine of necessity’, to recognise Vice-President Goodluck Jonathan as Acting President was...
Vol 51 No 3 |
- SUDAN
- ANALYSIS
There are fears that the thrice-delayed national elections, now due on 8 April, could trigger an escalation of fighting in Darfur and the South, given the probability that few will accept the results as free and fair. The Khartoum regime has failed to implement most of the key democratic reforms agreed under the 2005 peace deal. The 2008 census and the constituency boundaries lacked credibility and the Islamist government has done nothing to promote an independent judiciary or independent electoral administration.
referendumA new wave of violence and fraudulent elections could block any chance of progress on Darfur and undermine the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) led by Salva Kiir...