Vol 51 No 14 | GUINEA A second, tougher round 9th July 2010 Business ties, ethnic politics and elite intrigues will shape a close race in the run-off for the presidency Former prime minister Cellou Dalein Diallo and long-time oppositionist Alpha Condé will battle it out in the second round of the presidential elections, due on 18 July. Political i...
Vol 51 No 14 | GUINEA Minister Thiam covers his bases 9th July 2010 Mahmoud Thiam, the energetic mines minister and former senior staffer at Union de Banques Suisses, insists that his decisions over the past 18 months are not reversible – especiall...
Vol 51 No 13 | GUINEA High-stakes election 25th June 2010 Over $10 billion of mining investment ride on the outcome of this election – and its military organisers are determined to maintain their influence Eighteen months after the coup led by Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, the military Conseil National pour la Démocratie et le Développement (CNDD) is keeping its promise of a president...
Vol 51 No 13 | GUINEAMINING Mine not yours 25th June 2010 Ahead of the 27 June elections (see Feature), the military regime has warned Rio Tinto to accept formally that it has lost two blocks of the giant Simandou iron ore concession – or...
Vol 51 No 11 | GUINEA Votes and the mining houses 28th May 2010 A heavy crop of parties will contest next month’s election but the real contest is about controlling mineral rights Of the 20-odd candidates running in the 27 June presidential election, two veterans stand out. They are Alpha Condé, the pugnacious leader of the Rassemblement du Peuple de Guinée ...
Vol 51 No 11 | GUINEA Promising contracts 28th May 2010 Guinea’s interim government has seen through several big developments in the mineral sector, in spite of an agreement that no new deals be ratified until after June’s elections. In...
Vol 51 No 10 | GUINEALIBERIA Beny’s railway coup 14th May 2010 The colourful Israeli billionaire Beny Steinmetz has finalised two remarkable deals this year: he has sold 51% of his iron ore mining operations in Guinea to Brazil’s Vale for US$2...
Vol 51 No 4 | GUINEAUNITED STATES The junta explains 19th February 2010 The putschists use former Pentagon officials to polish their image Blamed for the massacre of over 100 civilians last September, the junta in Conakry is trying to improve its image via a United States-based public relations company run by two form...
Vol 51 No 2 | GUINEA Democratic moves after the exit of Dadis 22nd January 2010 The shooting of the former junta leader, Captain Moussa Dadis Camara, has triggered his exile and fresh talks about elections this year After hours of bitter negotiation in Burkina Faso, soldiers from the junta and their civilian counterparts have agreed on a plan that will bar all members of the ruling Conseil Nat...
Vol 51 No 2 | GUINEA Who's who in the junta and beyond 22nd January 2010 General Sékouba Konaté had tried to escape the corridors of power during the 2008 coup but destiny caught up with him a year later, following the December 2009 shooting of Captain ...