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Published 25th October 2019

Vol 60 No 21

Mozambique

Frelimo takes no chances

President Nyusi arrives in Sochi for Russia-Africa Economic Forum. Pic: Alexander Ryumin/Tass/PA Images
President Nyusi arrives in Sochi for Russia-Africa Economic Forum. Pic: Alexander Ryumin/Tass/PA Images

Despite claims that the election was won through fraud and violence, the results will stand and strengthen the President’s hand

President Filipe Nyusi has won a second and final term of office with the second-largest majority since multi-party elections began in 1994. The election win – which included parliamentary and municipal polls – is tainted by widespread accusations of fraud and unprecedented intimidation prompting fears that the fragile peace accord between the ruling Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo)and opposition Resistencia Nacional Moçambicana (Renamo) could break down.

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Up against the slowdown

Copyright © Africa Confidential 2019
Copyright © Africa Confidential 2019

As growth ebbs in 90% of the world’s economies, Africa is trying to swim against the tide

The annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank between 14 and 20 October in Washington DC was one of the gloomiest for decades, with economists competing to o...

The price of legitimacy

The President must hold elections that look fair if he is to win the wider acceptance he craves

After their boycott of the 2018 legislative polls failed to extract concessions from the regime of President Faure Gnassingbé, most of the opposition is returning to the electoral ...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

Although he pulled in dozens of Africa's leaders to the first Russia-Africa summit in Sochi on 23-24 October, Russia's President Vladimir Putin is years behind the competition in courting Africa. Russia-Africa trade has doubled to US$20.4 billion over the past five years but that is a tenth of China-Africa business. Russia isn't in the top five trading partners with Africa, something Putin says he wants to remedy as a foreign policy priority.

His special subjects are nuclear power and...

Although he pulled in dozens of Africa's leaders to the first Russia-Africa summit in Sochi on 23-24 October, Russia's President Vladimir Putin is years behind the competition in courting Africa. Russia-Africa trade has doubled to US$20.4 billion over the past five years but that is a tenth of China-Africa business. Russia isn't in the top five trading partners with Africa, something Putin says he wants to remedy as a foreign policy priority.

His special subjects are nuclear power and the military. Africa now buys a third of Russia's arms exports. As the summit opened at the Black Sea resort, two Tupolev TU-160 strategic nuclear bombers touched down at the Waterkloof Air Force base in South Africa, presumably as a symbol of military cooperation.

But relations between South Africa and Russia remain strained after President Cyril Ramaphosa shelved his predecessor's plans to spend over $80 billion on nuclear power projects to be built by Rosatom. Undaunted, Rosatom's sales representatives have been touting their wares to gas and oil-rich Nigeria as well as Ethiopia, whose mega-hydro plants will make it one of Africa's top power exporters over the next five years.

Putin is co-hosting the summit with Egypt's Abdel Fattah el Sisi – the two leaders are working together in Libya in support of the rebel general Khalifa Haftar, whose military campaign against the Tripoli government is bogged down. Moscow says it has military cooperation deals with at least 15 states.

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The politics of counter-terror

The government issues appeals to the West and the region for solidarity and money to resist the jihadist onslaught

Soldiers, civilians, worshippers at a mosque were but some of the dozens of victims of Islamist guerrillas in Burkina as the pace of jihadist attacks on civilians and security forc...

Backs to the wall

The speed of the jihadists’ campaign has caught the government off-guard and exposed the woeful inadequacy of the security forces

This year the country has experienced more violent attacks in six months than the whole of the previous three years, causing hundreds of thousands to flee their homes while the arm...

Short circuits

A US aid agency and President Akufo-Addo’s government are clashing over a plan to reform the state power company

The government's cancellation of a contract with a business consortium to manage the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) has put it at odds with the United States government and cos...

Pointers

Tuna bonds in Brooklyn

Privinvest salesman Jean Boustani's trial on money-laundering charges in connection with Mozambique's $2 billion hidden loan scandal started in New York on 14 October.

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