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Pentagon strikes on Sokoto will speed sale of $345 million of US rockets and missiles to Abuja

Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in an emergency security meeting with the Service Chiefs, 23 November 2025. Pic: @NGRPresident
Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in an emergency security meeting with the Service Chiefs, 23 November 2025. Pic: @NGRPresident

Both governments are turning jihadist operations to their political advantage

Few confirmed details have emerged about the Pentagon’s attacks – launching 16 GPS-guided missiles from MQ-9 Reaper drones – on claimed jihadist camps near Jabo in Sokoto State on 25 December but officials from both the Nigerian and the United States governments have called it a strategic success. Both governments want to use the strikes to bolster their standing with disenchanted voters at home: evangelical Christians in the US and communities in Nigeria who fear that the Tinubu government has lost control of security.


Goïta’s junta goes drone shopping

Assimi Goïta. Pic: @PresidenceMali
Assimi Goïta. Pic: @PresidenceMali

Lucrative contracts with a Turkish arms dealer point to graft and power struggles in Bamako, even as jihadists edge closer

Apart from keeping itself in power by bartering resources, it returned three tonnes of gold after resolving a two-year dispute with Canada’s Barrick gold this month, the Bamako...


Gold, power and the price of control

John Dramani Mahama. Pic: @JDMahama
John Dramani Mahama. Pic: @JDMahama

Surging markets, a sweeping audit and deepening conflict are reshaping the battle for mining’s spoils – behind the boom lies a scramble for influence

A far-reaching audit of large mining companies, launched last month, has rattled Ghana’s booming gold sector. Some had expected stricter controls on taxes and royalties but questioned these...


All that glisters in Addis

Eyob Tekalign. Pic: @NBEthiopia
Eyob Tekalign. Pic: @NBEthiopia

The central bank’s eyebrow-raising gold export figures are raising questions about the precious metal’s provenance

Ethiopia has posted a staggering rise in gold exports, earning US$3.5 billion from 37 tonnes in the fiscal year ending 7 July, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed told the...


Policies? What policies?

Baroness Jenny Chapman launches the UK’s new approach to Africa, 15 December 2025. Pic: @JennyChapman
Baroness Jenny Chapman launches the UK’s new approach to Africa, 15 December 2025. Pic: @JennyChapman

Diplomats consulted 47 governments and 25 multilateral institutions, but Britain’s new Africa policy is still seen as a damp squib

‘A new approach to Africa’ was the promise of Britain’s Labour government, led by Sir Keir Starmer, ahead of its 16 December launch. Yet after six months of...


Ex-dictator threatens a homecoming

Yahya Jammeh. Pic: “<a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/presidentialoffice/7452316012" title="1010626馬英九總統主持「甘比亞共和國總統賈梅(H.E. Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh)閣下訪華軍禮歡迎儀式」">1010626馬英九總統主持「甘比亞共和國總統賈梅(H.E. Sheikh Professor Alhaji Dr. Yahya A.J.J. Jammeh)閣下訪華軍禮歡迎儀式」</a>” by <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/presidentialoffice/">總統府</a>, <a href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en" rel="license noopener noreferrer">CC BY 2.0</a> cropped

Despite being accused of plundering the state and murdering opponents Yahya Jammeh is coming home and little stands in his way

After nine years in exile in Equatorial Guinea, Yahya Jammeh, the dictator who ruled Gambia for 22 years with an iron fist, has announced he is returning to...


Mogadishu’s strategy in limbo as rumour mills whirr

Hassan Sheikh arrives in Doha, Qatar for the 23rd Doha Forum, December 2025. Pic: @TheVillaSomalia
Hassan Sheikh arrives in Doha, Qatar for the 23rd Doha Forum, December 2025. Pic: @TheVillaSomalia

Trial balloons, rumours and back-channel traffic offer pointers to the strategic future of the country as foreign allies take up their own positions

The air is thick with contradictory indicators about Somalia’s future, from online warnings that Mogadishu is about to be overrun by Al Shabaab through to media articles saying...


Trump’s peace deal unravels as M23 seizes strategic eastern city

CONGO-KINSHASA: Fighting intensifies after US peace accord signed on 4 December. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2025
CONGO-KINSHASA: Fighting intensifies after US peace accord signed on 4 December. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2025

Hopes for an historic reset linking security to a US-backed minerals and infrastructure deal have been overshadowed by fresh fighting displacing 200,000 people

It has taken less than a week for a brutal reality to intrude on the brash hopes for the peace accord signed between Congo-Kinshasa and Rwanda in Washington...


Hands off our minerals

Pic: @UNEP
Pic: @UNEP

Uganda was the unlikely blocker of a draft resolution proposed by Colombia and Oman on the environmentally sound management of minerals and metals at the United Nations Environment...


Deepening security crisis threatens Tinubu’s re-election plans

Nuhu Ribadu meets Pete Hegseth. Pic: @SecWar
Nuhu Ribadu meets Pete Hegseth. Pic: @SecWar

Presidential allies blame political agendas and sabotage within the military for failure to protect citizens

In early November, officers in the Department of State Services received intelligence about a planned abduction at Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School (GGCSS) in Maga, Kebbi State. They...


Ruto holds the parties together

William Ruto. Pic: @WilliamsRuto
William Ruto. Pic: @WilliamsRuto

The president’s party and its allies won most of the seats on ‘Super Thursday’ – yet numbers show a coalition fraying at the edges


Who is guarding the guards?

Kissi Agyebeng. Pic: osp.gov.gh
Kissi Agyebeng. Pic: osp.gov.gh

Activists are trying to push out the chair of the Electoral Commission and the Special Prosecutor as frustration grows with the government’s anti-corruption plan


Faye and Sonko agree an uneasy truce

Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Pic: @PR_Diomaye
Ousmane Sonko and Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Pic: @PR_Diomaye

Debt pressures, IMF talks and partisan rivalries expose the fragility of a leadership once seen as unbreakable


Hassan Sheikh takes poll position

Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Pic: @HassanSMohamud
Hassan Sheikh Mohamud. Pic: @HassanSMohamud

The President hopes he can remain in power by winning a ‘one person one vote’ election next year, or get his term extended if delays persist