The President appears to be ignoring reforms agreed with the main opposition party
Political fault lines are widening ahead of national elections due by July 2028. The ruling Sierra Leone People’s Party (SLPP) and the opposition All People’s Congress (APC) are...
Somaliland and Somalia are in a mining-based competition to influence Washington’s stance but the prevailing mood there may be indifference
Somaliland Minister of the Presidency Khadar Hussein Abdi repeated on 21 February an oft-made promise: Hargeisa will grant the United States access to its mineral resources, including lithium...
With the economy in technical default and a student killed in campus protests, the prime minister may be forced to accept an IMF-debt restructuring
Senegal’s government is sliding toward a financial reckoning. Now Africa's most indebted country – its debts are estimated at 132% of GDP after a post-election audit exposed US$7...
Small boat crossings are falling fast but the EU is coercing African states to accept deportees or face penalties
The numbers look like a win for the European Union’s border policy – on its own terms, at least. Irregular crossings into the EU fell 26% in 2025...
Two days of speeches in Addis Ababa skirted around harsh realities – the AU’s lack of independent finance and its failure to prevent conflict
As a measure of the dysfunction of the international system, the African Union has a special role, according to the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. ‘In a world...
MAGA Republicans want open confrontation with Pretoria, but many US companies are rebuilding ties
The arrival of United States President Donald Trump’s new ambassador, Leo Brent Bozell III, a veteran critic of the African National Congress, in South Africa sets up bilateral...
Abuja is spinning President Tinubu’s stay in the Palace – and warmer ties with the British government – as part of a reset of bilateral relations
On the back foot since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu made France the centrepiece of his foreign policy, Britain is trying to restore its waning relationship with Nigeria. To...
State lenders claim that private creditors have secured unfair advantages in Addis Ababa’s drawn-out debt restructuring talks
Seven months after signing a crucial memorandum of understanding (MoU) with bilateral creditors, Ethiopia’s hopes that recent progress in negotiations with bondholders would hasten a comprehensive debt-restructuring agreement...
Government claims double-digit expansion, yet hardship and scepticism remain widespread
With Ethiopia heading to the polls in June, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and his ruling Prosperity Party radiate optimism on the economy. Not only has annual inflation returned...
The former Vice-President will need new ideas and allies to take on President Mahama and his resurgent party
Mahamudu Bawumia has been re-elected as the New Patriotic Party’s (NPP) presidential candidate for the 2028 general elections, securing 56% of the vote in the party primaries. This...
The President’s plan to end term limits is rallying opposition parties, unions, churches and war veterans against him
The long-planned and indefinite extension of Emmerson Mnangagwa’s presidency is taking shape in the form of a Constitutional Amendment Bill pushed by the uber-loyalist Minister of Justice, Parliamentary...
Infirmity is catching up with the President – 93 on Friday the 13th – with would-be successors battling over the spoils of office
The most convincing sign that President Paul Biya’s powers are waning is his inability to restrain ministers and close aides openly feuding over lucrative contracts. This would have...
Western states have cut funding in protest at state violence during the election but gold and domestic borrowing are plugging the gap for now
The crisis in foreign relations triggered by horror at the conduct of Tanzania’s 29 October general election crisis, when hundreds were believed killed by security forces, has compelled...
Vice-President Vance and Secretary Rubio unveil critical minerals plan in Washington
Amid a flurry of initiatives in Congo-Kinshasa, Sudan, Kenya, and the Sahel, the Trump administration has named Frank Garcia, a former staffer on the Intelligence Committee in the...
Who would be in the new government? The buzz began after Côte d’Ivoire’s 27 December legislative elections, won by the ruling Rassemblement des houphoëtistes pour la démocatie et...
A report by the All Eyes on Wagner (AEOW) investigative group, published on 11 February, lists 1,417 fighters from 35 African countries who joined the Russian army between...
The sacking of Edwin Sifuna as Secretary-General of the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) is a desperate attempt by party leader Oburu Odinga to contain divisions but risks breaking...
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...
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...
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)...
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...
The President envisages a two-three million margin of victory in next year’s elections as ambitious contenders flock to his party
President William Ruto is bullish. He is aiming for re-election in August 2027 ‘by a margin of between two and three million so that we unite the country...
Growth, reserves and inflation are improving but the government’s new revenue drive is politically risky
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...
Clashes in the disputed western areas risk igniting a wider conflict across the Horn, drawing in outside sponsors
A new war in Tigray – one that could again pull in Eritrea – is looking more likely after clashes broke out on 27 January between Tigrayan forces...
A 1,000 tonne stockpile of yellowcake is the latest flashpoint in General Tiani’s pivot from Paris to Moscow
Concerns are growing for the security of a consignment of about 1,000 tonnes of uranium held at the Niger government’s military Air Base 101 next to the Diori...
Rival plans to extend Washington’s tariff relief offer – by one, three or sixteen years – are under review but South Africa looks set to be shut out
The US Senate is due to vote on the renewal of Washington’s preferential trade agreement with African economies in the next few days with South Africa facing the...
Trump’s exclusion of South Africa from the Miami summit shouldn’t deter other Africans from attending, says Washington
United States diplomats have told African governments and others planning to attend December’s G20 summit in Miami that if they want to continue to address issues such as...
Buoyed by the US President dismissing human rights policies and pausing anti-corruption laws, Harare had offered business incentives to Washington
Within hours of US President Donald J Trump’s re-election on 6 November 2024, his Zimbabwean counterpart Emmerson Mnangagwa ladled on the sycophancy in a social media posting: ‘Congratulations...
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A new split has emerged within President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s cabal, as his Presidential Investment Advisor, Paul Tungwarara, has openly clashed with ‘Queen Bee’ Kudakwashe Tagwirei. Tungwarara and Tagwirei...