Africa Confidential
Few of the delegates arriving in Belém for the opening of the UN COP30 climate summit on 10 November expected a breakthrough on finance. Funding for global climate adaptation is running at less than 10% of the US$300 billion a year promised by wealthy cou...
Africa Confidential
A more assertive and united Africa is being promised ahead of the UN Climate Change Conference COP30 from 10-21 November in the Brazilian port city of Belém. ‘We are not here to negotiate our survival. We are here to design the world’s next climate econom...
Africa Confidential
Some rights campaigners argue that now most western governments, led by the United States, have dropped their strictures on corruption and stolen elections, credit rating agencies could offer the most effective constraint. That hopeful hypothesis hasn’t p...
Africa Confidential
Governments, even optimistic ones, had been preparing for the expiry of the United States’s trade preference programme on 30 September – the African Growth and Opportunity Act. A former senior White House official told Africa Confidential that AGOA was un...
Africa Confidential
African leaders have put on an impressive display of unity at the UN General Assembly this week. On climate change and the campaign for permanent African seats on the Security Council, they have been on message. The UNSC’s five permanent members ‘make dec...
Africa Confidential
The inauguration of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, Africa’s largest hydro-electric dam, is a moment of truth for Ethiopia’s national identity. Expected to generate 6,000MW of electricity when it reaches full capacity, it also threatens to overhaul t...
Africa Confidential
‘Mission accomplished. We’re going home’ was the statement on the Wagner Group’s social media platforms in early June, signalling its departure from Mali. In truth, a rebranding exercise is taking place. Most Wagner fighters in Mali, Burkina Faso and Nige...
Africa Confidential
African trade officials are changing strategies urgently in the wake of the tariff tsunami, ranging from 10%-30%, imposed on 1 August on their exports to the United States. Most governments are concentrating their focus on the three alternatives to the US...
Africa Confidential
Portugal’s decision to support Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara sees Lisbon joins a lengthening list led by the United States, France, Spain and Britain as well as several African countries, including Ghana and Kenya. F...
Africa Confidential
Was the invitation from United States President Donald Trump to the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal to lunch at the White House on 9 July as random as many diplomats thought? None of them would generate headlines. But the ...