Recently Idriss Déby Itno has spent more time in the international spotlight than at any time in his presidential career. Widely praised for a major military commitment in Mali against the Islamist revolt he is almost as widely condemned for his role in
24th May 2013

The 65% of the vote which carried President Macky Sall to victory over Abdoulaye Wade in March last year was always about who he wasn't not who he was. Sall made many election promises and is now under attack for not delivering. He replies that the state
26th Apr 2013

This year President Alpha Condé has consistently attempted to reassure investors that major projects especially in mining will go ahead as planned. ‘We are doing our best to help the companies achieve their ambitions ’ he declared at the World Economic
15th Mar 2013

The novelty of being invited at all times of the day and night to turn up at the Gendarmerie in Colobane wore off long ago for former ministers and other senior figures from the Parti démocratique sénégalais (PDS). The investigations are authorised by the
18th Jan 2013

Chinese companies are displacing European powers in African countries where ties were considered to be strongest and China is set to become Algeria’s largest trading partner ahead of former colonial power France and European neighbours Italy and Spain.
30th Oct 2012

President Faure Gnassingbé’s prospects of staying in office in the long-term are diminishing. Ever since he succeeded his late father Gnassingbé Eyadéma in February 2005 opposition to dynastic successions and the awareness that he was the choice of the
19th Oct 2012

Congolese ministers have been energetically lobbying in New York ahead of a high-level meeting on Central Africa at the United Nations General Assembly which opens on 25 September. Kinshasa wants the UN Security Council to sanction Rwanda’s Defence Minist
21st Sep 2012

The Kivu crisis is diverting attention from other provinces where order is collapsing. In Katanga two Republican Guard soldiers at Lubumbashi Airport were shot dead during squabbling over money reportedly extorted from civilians. This has revived fears
7th Sep 2012

No witch-hunt. That was Macky Sall’s message after he won a resounding mandate with two-thirds of the vote in the presidential run-off in March. Now he hopes he has extended his popularity and that of his broad coalition Benno Bokk Yakaar in the parliam
6th Jul 2012

Officials from the China Development Bank (CDB) are offering to finance a substantial part of the Conakry government’s US$8.6 billion overhaul of mining and industrial infratructure according to a source close to negotiations. Chinese mining companies ar
28th Mar 2012