Jump to navigation

Published 23rd January 2020

Vol 61 No 2

Multilateralism falters as crises multiply

Copyright © Africa Confidential 2020
Copyright © Africa Confidential 2020

Sprawling conflicts in 13 conflict-wracked countries are dragging down indices for social progress, economic growth and stability. The second of our special forecast editions focuses on security

Out of 1.2 billion people and 54 countries, the security crises afflicting over 25 million people in 13 countries are having a disproportionate effect on the continent's fortunes as its leaders prepare to launch the African Continental Free Trade Area in July and make good on pledges to outlaw the trade in small arms. Yet the ambition to establish a single market across Africa has not been accompanied by parallel efforts to help the movement of labour to faster growing economic regions.

READ FOR FREE

Desperately seeking legitimacy

Anti-government demonstration, Algiers, January 2020. Pic: Louiza Ammi/ABACA/PA Images
Anti-government demonstration, Algiers, January 2020. Pic: Louiza Ammi/ABACA/PA Images

The new President will struggle to assert himself and break free from the military and the Deep State

The sudden death on 23 December of military strongman Lieutenant-General Ahmed Gaïd Salah may prove more significant for Algeria's future than the election on 12 December of a...

Life as a client state looms

L to R: Ghassan Salame, Antonio Guterres, Angela Merkel and Heiko Maas, Berlin Conference on Libya, 19 January 2020. Pic: Wang Qing/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images
L to R: Ghassan Salame, Antonio Guterres, Angela Merkel and Heiko Maas, Berlin Conference on Libya, 19 January 2020. Pic: Wang Qing/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images

As the US leaves the scene, Russia and Turkey may be about to carve up the country between them

Whether General Khalifa Haftar will this year enter Tripoli in triumph – which he continually predicted for most of last year – is in doubt now that Libya's future is i...

Regime reality check

The poster child for the new Africa, Abiy Ahmed, faces tricky elections and more strident calls for local power-sharing

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his fresh-faced Prosperity Party (PP) are set for a tough struggle in elections despite domestic acclaim and enthusiastic international support, inclu...

Power struggles and inflation

A wrecked economy will cause more worry this year but it won’t stop the two leading factions battling for supremacy

As Zimbabwe limps into 2020, its heaviest shackle is the economy. One analyst suggests it will shrink by 12.9% while inflation averages 165.5%. Last February, Minister of Finance M...

Sahel summit's fighting talk

The meeting of West Africa's most jihadist-affected states and France has laid out a new military strategy against the local IS affiliate

The message was unambiguous. 'We are going to prioritise the need to fight against Islamic State in the Greater Sahara in the three frontiers,' Burkina Faso's President Roch Marc C...

Nyusi’s win poses questions

Far from consolidating presidential authority, the electoral fraud that brought Frelimo victory may well hurt the President

The working year began with a day of golfing and post-inauguration partying for President Filipe Nyusi, who was sworn into office on 15 January for his second five-year term amid e...

Terminal turbulence

Alpha Condé is keeping the nation in a state of suspense by refusing to confirm whether he is standing for a third term

In his New Year address to the nation, President Alpha Condé confirmed his plans to submit a new constitution to a popular referendum. But he again failed to answer the question up...

More trickle-down please

There has to be more in it for Tshisekedi’s camp followers if his uneasy partnership with the former president is to survive

The coalition of the Cap pour le changement (CACH) alliance, led by President Félix Tshisekedi, and ex-President Joseph Kabila's Front commun pour le Congo (FCC) is unhappy ...

In the rough

Africa's paragon of democracy and prudence is finding stability and prosperity increasingly difficult as commodity prices fall

Envied by its peers for its track record of good governance and fiscal prudence, and prized by investors for its low tax regime, Botswana has posted budget deficits for the past th...

Stories by country

Footer Map