Blue Lines
A report just published by the United States Institute of Peace has given President Joe Biden's government a jolt. 'U.S. economic and national security depend on securing a reliable supply of critical minerals, including from Africa,' it argues. The Unite...
Patrick Smith
Thirty years after the genocide in Rwanda, President Paul Kagame remains omnipresent on the national and regional political scene. He is certain to secure another term with a Soviet-style vote share in July's election. He has made no attempt to groom a su...
Blue Lines
With just over nine months until the end of the current administration in the United States, Tom Perriello, a former Congressman and Director of the Open Society Foundation, has his work cut out as President Joe Biden's Special Envoy for Sudan. Days after...
Blue Lines
Senegal had been edging back from the brink. But the latest plans put forward by civic, political and religious leaders for its delayed presidential elections to be held on 2 June, with President Macky Sall staying in office until then, threaten to reigni...
Africa Confidential
When leaders gather at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa on 17-18 February, they will face the most serious test of the organisation's credibility since its foundation in 2002.The AU is being challenged at every level: most of all on its response to...
Blue Lines
When leaders gather at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa on 17-18 February, they will face the most serious test of the organisation's credibility since its foundation in 2002. The AU is being tested at every level: most devastatingly on its ability...
Blue Lines
The stage-managed decision by the military juntas in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger to quit the Economic Community of West African States strikes at the organisation's credibility and at the region's framework for cooperation.
Some downplay its significance...
Blue Lines
The start of production this week, after years of delay, of the Dangote Group's US$18.5 billion oil refinery opens a brave new world for Nigeria's oil and gas sector, after 50 years of dependence on refined petroleum products from Europe. The refinery wil...
Blue Lines
Efforts by regional leaders to convene talks between Sudan's warring generals at the beginning of the year follow several failed international plans to end the brutal eight-month conflict. This is less a rebirth of multilateral African peacemaking than an...
Blue Lines
The UN COP28 climate summit in Dubai is being heralded as a triumph by western nations and its Emirati hosts. That is largely because of the presence in the final communiqué of a commitment, albeit heavily qualified, to shift 'away from fossil fuels in en...
