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Botswana

Antwerp gems deal on the rocks

Karowe diamond sorting. Pic: lucaradiamond.com
Karowe diamond sorting. Pic: lucaradiamond.com

The President put much store into a scheme intended to add value to diamond sales, but the dream seems to be turning sour

The Botswana government's ambitious plan to sell part of its huge rough diamond output have been dealt a hammer blow by the implosion of its selected sales partner, the privately-owned cutting and polishing firm HB Antwerp, after the Belgian-Israeli founder of the firm, Oded Mansori, was ousted as chief executive in September. The proposed sales deal between HB Antwerp and Botswana remains under review despite the Belgian company announcing Mansori's reinstatement on 2 October.


Concerns mount over carbon credit deals

Pic: Africa climate summit FB
Pic: Africa climate summit FB

President Samia's government is piling into 'green bonds' and stepping up fossil fuel projects at the same time

As questions multiply about 'greenwashing' and financial compliance Tanzania is gearing up to enter the booming carbon credit market, signing memoranda of understanding with invest...


Western governments send mixed signals on aid and trade

Ursula von der Leyen. Pic: Valeria Mongelli/ZUMA Press/Alamy
Ursula von der Leyen. Pic: Valeria Mongelli/ZUMA Press/Alamy

Brussels, London and Washington are jostling for Africa's green minerals with China but cutting funding

Wrongfooted by a spate of military putsches in Africa amid deepening financial woes in the region, western policymakers had promised a policy reset. Instead, new rows have blown up...


Two hands on the levers of power

Pic: @USEmbalo
Pic: @USEmbalo

Faction fighting between members of the old ruling party paralyses government and threatens catastrophe for vital cashew exports

A new government took office in mid-August pledging cohabitação (cohabitation). But the cohabitees– parliament and president – look as divided as ever as ...


At last, the $8.5bn energy transition plan is ready

Pic: @GovernmentZA
Pic: @GovernmentZA

Delayed by the power crisis and fights with the coal lobby, the government says the green plan will launch at the UN Climate Summit

After two years of turf wars, the government's implementation plan for its US$8.5 billion (R160bn) Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) will be made public at the UN COP28 Cli...


Kremlin ponders its post-Wagner options

Portrait of Yevgeny Prigozhin and flowers laid in his memory at a cafe in St. Petersburg. Pic: Artem Priakhin/ZUMA Press Inc/Alamy
Portrait of Yevgeny Prigozhin and flowers laid in his memory at a cafe in St. Petersburg. Pic: Artem Priakhin/ZUMA Press Inc/Alamy

Moscow must dispose of the remnants of its most famous mercenary outfit and has some hard choices to make

The crash of Yevgeny Prigozhin's jet on 25 August was both expected and full of surprises. It was expected because no one believed President Vladimir Putin would do business as usu...

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Cash crunch tests Tinubu's top finance team

Olayemi Michael Cardoso. Pic: @PBATMediaCentre
Olayemi Michael Cardoso. Pic: @PBATMediaCentre

The government is hunting for foreign exchange to stabilise the naira and speed up growth after its reform shocks

The nomination of Olayemi Michael Cardoso, a former chairman of Citibank, as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) opens the next chapter of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's e...


Bawumia leads race for NPP ticket

Mahamudu Bawumia. Pic: @MBawumia
Mahamudu Bawumia. Pic: @MBawumia

President Akufo-Addo is helping his deputy in the succession campaign despite growing internal dissent

Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia's landslide victory in the New Patriotic Party's Special Delegates' Conference and the withdrawal of former Trade Minister, Alan Kyerematen, has put...


Cross-party talks open, carrots provided

Pic: @AzimioTv
Pic: @AzimioTv

A new cross-party committee will strengthen ambitious politicians and steer clear of the cost-of-living crisis

The prospect of a political deal between President William Ruto and opposition Azimio la Umoja leader Raila Odinga is unsettling some of their followers and allies who fear they co...


Mnangagwa keeps it in the family

Zimbabwe's Cabinet Ministers sworn in, September 2023. Pic: @edmnangagwa
Zimbabwe's Cabinet Ministers sworn in, September 2023. Pic: @edmnangagwa

An enlarged cabinet stuffed with relatives and loyalists is complicating international efforts to restart negotiations on the country's finances

International and regional concerns persist about the legitimacy of President Emmerson Mnangagwa's victory in national elections last month, particularly the failure of the Zimbabw...


Worst earthquake for 120 years could unleash economic and political tremors 

Amizmiz, Morocco, September 2023. Pic: SOPA Images Limited/Alamy

IMF and World Bank annual meeting in quake-hit Marrakech likely to go ahead next month

At least 2,900 people have been killed and 5,500 injured in Morocco's worst earthquake for 120 years, state television reported late on 12 September as anger was growing over delay...


Caught cold by the coups

Pic: @vonderleyen
Pic: @vonderleyen

Von der Leyen calls for a bolder strategy amid the wave of putsches and deepening crisis in the Sahel

European Union officials are scrambling to revise their approach to the Sahel and West Africa after being blindsided by the military coups d'état in Niger and Gabon.


Muse Bihi's political headaches worsen

Copyright © Africa Confidential 2023
Copyright © Africa Confidential 2023

After failing to conquer Dhulbahante rebels in Las Anod, which led to conflict within the Isaq clan, the President needs to repair the splits

President Muse Bihi Abdi is adding political problems to the military reverses he has suffered in his ill-judged confrontation with the Dhulbahante clan over Las Anod. That’s...


Despite everything, the ANC charts a path to victory

Fikile Mbalula. Pic: GovernmentZA
Fikile Mbalula. Pic: GovernmentZA

Beefed up local organisation and a public spending push could help the ruling party avoid a coalition next year

Unheralded, the campaign for next year's national elections started this month. The ruling African National Congress will be fighting on multiple fronts: to cut state spending and ...


How militias police the Mediterranean for Europe

Pic: fabian-berg.photo / Alamy
Pic: fabian-berg.photo / Alamy

Accused by the UN of heinous rights abuses, militias tied to Dubaiba and Haftar now run border control

Militias linked to the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) and its erstwhile rivals in the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by General Khalifa Haftar have taken over nat...


Bribes case on the rocks

Pic: Piotr Pawinski / stock.adobe.com
Pic: Piotr Pawinski / stock.adobe.com

The Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) has decided not to prosecute government officials who may have taken bribes so long as they return them to the state, according to leaks to the med...


Seck seeks DC clout

Pic: @idrissa_59
Pic: @idrissa_59

Former Prime Minister Idrissa Seck has beefed up his international lobbying and campaign team by hiring Bruce Fryer, a US advisor for the non-profit Vanguard Africa and Future Pact...


Heart of the migration storm

Pic: @GiorgiaMeloni
Pic: @GiorgiaMeloni

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni continues to exert diplomatic pressure on Tunisia and Libya as the Italian island of Lampedusa continues to receive unprecedented numbers of m...


Will Biya be next?

Pic: Paul Biya FB
Pic: Paul Biya FB

The nonagenarian President has been shaken by the coup against his Gabonese counterpart, whose relationship to the military was similar to his own

President Paul Biya has shuffled military posts and reorganised defence ministry departments to forestall any attempt by the army to take power. Whether he has done enough to avoid...

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An iron grip may be slipping

Paul Biya. Pic: Stephane Lemouton/Abaca Press/Alamy
Paul Biya. Pic: Stephane Lemouton/Abaca Press/Alamy

The case of a sacked general illustrates how the president's deft management of the military may be faltering

There's a chronic insurgency in Anglophone Cameroon, militant jihadists in the north, and democrats and civil society bodies yearning for relief from rigged elections and suppressi...


Kagame shakes up the army – just in case

Pic: @UrugwiroVillage
Pic: @UrugwiroVillage

The president's latest army reshuffle is part of a long-term plan to safeguard his regime and his family's role in it

The army reshuffle in Rwanda, announced on 31 August, was not a panicked response to the military coup in Gabon on the previous day as some have suggested. President Paul Kagame fr...


Legitimacy questions may spur talks

Pic: @edmnangagwa
Pic: @edmnangagwa

Regional and international critiques of election rigging have undermined ZANU-PF amid calls for a transitional authority to be set up


After Tinubu opened Pandora's Box

Pic: @officialABAT
Pic: @officialABAT

The President's policy experiments – on subsidies, the naira and the military – have raised questions about his ministerial team