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Published 6th February 2026

Vol 67 No 3

Bankruptcy beckons for the international system

António Guterres. Pic: UN Photo/Manuel Elías
António Guterres. Pic: UN Photo/Manuel Elías

Washington is withholding the funds it owes the UN to force reform but it is losing credibility and influence – even if no country wants to take over its role

António Guterres has sounded alarms before, but his 28 January warning that the United Nations faces ‘imminent financial collapse’ marked the organisation’s gravest moment since 1945. The Secretary-General’s stark message to the 193 member states came as United States President Donald Trump’s administration made explicit what had been implicit for months: Washington will not make its outstanding mandatory payments to either the UN’s administrative or peacekeeping budgets, and will withhold some voluntary payments too.

Africans flock to the UN’s Haiti mission

Pierre Ericq Pierre, Permanent Representative of Haiti to the UN, addresses the Security Council meeting on Gang Suppression Force in Haiti. Pic: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas
Pierre Ericq Pierre, Permanent Representative of Haiti to the UN, addresses the Security Council meeting on Gang Suppression Force in Haiti. Pic: UN Photo/Rick Bajornas

Francophone African troops take on the gangs of the troubled Caribbean nation as they – and UN headquarters – try to profit from a top Trump priority

African nations are queuing up to contribute troops to the United Nations-organised Gang Suppression Force for Haiti, whose role is to build on the peacekeeping work of hundreds...

Rich economies turn off the aid tap

Pic: weforum.org
Pic: weforum.org

Activists are demanding urgent policy reform and UN agencies are on the brink of ending many life-saving relief operations in war zones

Against the backdrop of heightening geopolitical rivalries and a sluggish world economy, rich western economies are ending many of their long-established aid – or Official Development Assistance (ODA)...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

Africa did not escape the reach of Jeffrey Epstein, the human trafficker, sex offender, financier and intelligence asset according to the three million pages of emails published by the United States Department of Justice this week.The cache of documents indicates that one of his main operations in Africa, apart from hosting South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, was helping to broker a security deal between Israel and Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara in 2014. The agreement...

Africa did not escape the reach of Jeffrey Epstein, the human trafficker, sex offender, financier and intelligence asset according to the three million pages of emails published by the United States Department of Justice this week.

The cache of documents indicates that one of his main operations in Africa, apart from hosting South Africa’s Jacob Zuma, was helping to broker a security deal between Israel and Côte d’Ivoire’s President Alassane Ouattara in 2014. The agreement was the culmination of two years of negotiations that began after Ouattara claimed to have foiled an attempted coup by military officers loyal to his predecessor, Laurent Gbagbo. Epstein helped Israel’s Defence Minister Ehud Barak and former Israeli intelligence officials draw up a deal to build a Signals Intelligence system in Côte d’Ivoire – covering phone, satellite, radio and cybercafés – with data fed to the Ivorian security services. But few of the other African initiatives drawn up by Epstein and his associates, including former British cabinet minister Peter Mandelson, ever bore fruit.

Among them were plans to exploit the post-Gadaffi vacuum in Libya, and ventures in Somaliland and Senegal. Elsewhere, plans by Mandelson to get Epstein to help create a private bank to manage Congo-Brazzaville’s oil funds for President Denis Sassou-Nguesso ran aground after the official who had solicited his help cancelled a planned meeting at the last minute.

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Opposition solidarity goes regional

Pro-democracy activists across the region are rallying together, but they are being met with brutal and coordinated repression by state authorities

‘Don’t try this again,’ was the message to dozens of pro-democracy activists from across East Africa as they were deported from Tanzania last year after attempting to attend...

Tigray’s cold war with Addis heats up

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‘Social justice’ off the G20 summit agenda

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Golden tickets for sale in Ruto’s party

The President envisages a two-three million margin of victory in next year’s elections as ambitious contenders flock to his party

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Tinubu gambles heavily on ‘fairer’ taxes

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Almost a year before they seek re-election, President Bola Tinubu and his All Progressives Congress (APC) administration continue to promote the much debated benefits of their ambitious reform...

Pointers

British court snubbed

On 9 January, the Tanzanian High Court threw out a request from a British court to enforce a ruling that Pan Africa Power Solutions (PAP), owned by Harbinder...

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