GHANA Red is the colour 25th July 2014 A banner-waving alliance of professionals and trades unionists is highlighting the growing economic hardships and shaking up the political scene A clever campaign against worsening economic conditions – known as Red Friday – is gaining momentum after several thousand activists marched through Accra on 24 July. The date had an added significance as it marks the second anniversary of the death in office of President John Evans Atta Mills. His Vice-President, John Dramani Mahama, took over amid a wave of sympathy, then went on to win the 2012 elections narrowly but his National Democratic Congress (NDC)government has been dragged down this year by a series of economic and political missteps. READ FOR FREE
GHANA Letting a crisis go to waste 25th July 2014 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Far from cruising to an inevitable electoral victory in 2016, the opposition New Patriotic Party has been left looking flat-footed, even as the government's troubles have multiplie...
ZIMBABWE Seized farms haunt ZANU-PF 24th July 2014 Image courtesy of Panos Pictures View site Party leaders worry that in a post-Mugabe world they may lose the land they seized from white farmers and they are secretly buying up title deeds A wave of anxiety is passing through the highest echelons of the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front, Africa Confidential has learned. Relatives of President Robert Mug...
Will the grand Africa-United States summit with more than 40 leaders in attendance in Washington D.C. on 4-6 August produce the results wanted by its protagonists? The expected high attendance is due both to President Barack Obama's charisma and the search for foreign capital. Certainly, the business agenda will be full: the Corporate Council on Africa is holding investor sessions on individual countries throughout the summit week. Similarly, the State Department, led by Assistant S... Will the grand Africa-United States summit with more than 40 leaders in attendance in Washington D.C. on 4-6 August produce the results wanted by its protagonists? The expected high attendance is due both to President Barack Obama's charisma and the search for foreign capital. Certainly, the business agenda will be full: the Corporate Council on Africa is holding investor sessions on individual countries throughout the summit week. Similarly, the State Department, led by Assistant Secretary of State for Africa Linda Thomas-Greenfield, is pushing development and economic issues such as the Africa Power initiative and a new round of trade concessions in the Africa Growth & Opportunities Act. China's trade with Africa is running at over US$200 billion a year; US trade with Africa has slipped back to around $85 bn. after a cut in oil imports from the continent of almost 90% due to domestic shale oil production. The diplomatic, security and social outcomes will be harder to gauge. Part of the point of the meeting is to show the US is getting more serious about Africa policy – whether deploying military and intelligence teams or working on innovations in education and health. There was some dismay in Africa at the rule that there would be no bilateral meetings with Obama: everything is to be discussed in open plenaries, in a more informal and inter-active setting with no set-piece speeches and position papers. Although China, Japan and France have hosted several such grand summits for the whole continent, this is new territory for the US. How will we know if it worked? We'll have another one in a couple of years' time, an official replied. Read more
CÔTE D'IVOIRE Polls beckon as Hollande flies in 22nd July 2014 Ouattara hopes the French President’s visit will help his coalition prepare for next year's elections. The main opposition is floundering President François Hollande’s visit last week to Côte d’Ivoire was full of fanfares for regional security and doing business with France but behind the sce...
KENYA Opposition misses tricks 25th July 2014 Despite a security crisis and economic woes, Raila Odinga is failing to capitalise on the government’s troubles Attempts by opposition leader Raila Amolo Odinga to put himself back on the political map are failing to spark the public imagination. The former Prime Minister's re-launch followi...
NIGERIA After the amnesty, more amnesty 25th July 2014 President Jonathan struggles to pacify militants and oil companies as violence and theft continue in his Delta homeland The environmental devastation, lawlessness and grand corruption have not stopped in the oil-producing Niger Delta but the situation looks far less forbidding when set against the h...
MOZAMBIQUE Frelimo and Renamo strike peace deal 16th July 2014 After a year of armed skirmishes the old civil war rivals are about to announce an end to hostilities, improving prospects for the October elections The Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (Frelimo) government and the Resistência Nacional de Moçambique (Renamo) rebels of Afonso Dhlakama have agr...
SOUTH AFRICA Invoking higher powers 25th July 2014 The case of a prominent broadcasting executive raises questions about the government’s commitment to the constitution South Africans are trying to figure out the secret of the hold that Hlaudi Motsoeneng has on his position as Chief Operations Officer of the South African Broadcasting Corporation....
LIBYA Islamists strike back 23rd July 2014 Unable to take on General Haftar's forces in Benghazi, jihadist militias strike at his allies in Tripoli Islamist militias aligned with Libya's Muslim Brotherhood have mounted their most serious counter-offensive yet against forces loyal to General Khalifa Belqasim Haftar in a series ...
NIGERIA The Jonathan surge 25th July 2014 Despite a security crisis and a poor public image, President Goodluck Jonathan's People's Democratic Party has engineered a startling political recovery. Much of the turnaround is ...
FRANCEAFRICA Writing development into law 25th July 2014 The drama of French military operations in Africa eclipses the fact that the continent is the target of almost all its admittedly tiny bilateral aid Following President François Hollande's brief African tour this month came questions about France's development aid policy. After all, critics say, it is economic developmen...
BURUNDI Peace at risk 17th July 2014 A climate of rising fear and uncertainty – never far from the surface in Burundi – is causing concern at home and abroad The government is clamping down on elements within its former coalition partner, the mainly Tutsi Union pour le progrès national (Uprona) because of their opposition to Pres...
ZIMBABWE Put a faction in your tank 18th July 2014 The intensifying fight for the ZANU-PF succession is affecting the retail fuel market as both factions promote rival businesses A new contestant in the fight to control fuel sales has burst on to the scene as the Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front's internal battles heat up. Engen Petroleum Zim...
SUDANISRAEL Proxy battles, real war 25th July 2014 The explosions that destroyed an arms depot at El Geili north of Khartoum on 18 July prompted a welter of speculation on news sites and social media. Many thought that Israel had t...
MOZAMBIQUE Princess Guebuza weds 25th July 2014 In a traditional ceremony on 19 July, Valentina Guebuza, one of Africa’s wealthiest young women and daughter of President Armando Guebuza, married Zofimo Muiane, the head of ...
SIERRA LEONE Honour among presidents 25th July 2014 Richard Konteh, the State House Chief of Staff supposedly fired for corruption, is claiming that he was in fact the fall guy for President Ernest Bai Koroma’s inadvertent ang...
ZAMBIA No laughing matter 25th July 2014 The governing Patriotic Front (PF) was in barely-concealed turmoil during President Michael Sata's week-long absence in Israel for medical treatment. Yet at the cabinet meeting on ...
