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Mali

The junta loses control after the onslaught and a stalemate sets in

MALI: The coordinated attacks by a jihadist-Tuareg alliance have shaken the junta. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
MALI: The coordinated attacks by a jihadist-Tuareg alliance have shaken the junta. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

Assimi Goïta’s regime is teetering as insurgent attacks intensify and its Russian allies withdraw

Three days after Jama’at Nusrat al Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) fighters killed defence minister Sadio Camara and destroyed his home in Kati, General Assimi Goïta finally resurfaced. After the attacks began, Goïta fled to an old air base in Bamako. The Kati attack formed part of a combined and coordinated operation with rebels of the Front de libération de l’Azawad (FLA), which targeted five localities across Mali almost simultaneously.

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Traoré’s revolution abolishes democracy

BURKINA FASO: Captain Traoré's regime is losing the security battle despite its militaristic posture. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
BURKINA FASO: Captain Traoré's regime is losing the security battle despite its militaristic posture. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

The junta’s military operations have killed over 1800 civilians in two years, but it has lost control over most of the country

Abandoning any pretence that his regime is a transitional bridge to even a distant restoration of elected multi-party politics, Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who seized power in a military...

A tax maestro takes the reins

Wale Edun hands the Finance Ministry over to Taiwo Oyedele. Pic: @FinMinNigeria
Wale Edun hands the Finance Ministry over to Taiwo Oyedele. Pic: @FinMinNigeria

The new finance minister wants to double federal revenues but first has to address galloping poverty levels in the face of radical reforms

When Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu quietly dropped his longtime ally Wale Edun as Finance Minister on 21 April, describing the sacking as ‘a resignation on health grounds’,...

Regional rifts define the succession race

Macky Sall's dialogue session with the UN General Assembly with regard to his candidacy for the position of Secretary-General. Pic: @Macky_Sall
Macky Sall's dialogue session with the UN General Assembly with regard to his candidacy for the position of Secretary-General. Pic: @Macky_Sall

Africa’s split over Macky Sall contrasts with Latin America’s trio of contenders as member states weigh competing reform agendas

Against a backdrop of shrinking funding and sharpening geopolitical rivalries, the formal hustings at United Nations headquarters in New York on 21-22 April showcased four contenders, all keen...

Africa faces the costs of the US-Iran war

AFRICA: GROWTH, EXCHANGE RATES, BORROWING COSTS WORSEN. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
AFRICA: GROWTH, EXCHANGE RATES, BORROWING COSTS WORSEN. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

Bretton Woods institutions have cut Africa’s growth prospects at their Spring Meetings, as economists assess the shock to the global economy

The early 2026 optimism on Africa’s economic prospects, when the International Monetary Fund raised growth projections for African economies, has given way to concerns over the impact of...

Ruto stakes his presidency on a $39bn investment blitz

Aliko Dangote, Yoweri Museveni, and William Ruto. Pic: @KagutaMuseveni
Aliko Dangote, Yoweri Museveni, and William Ruto. Pic: @KagutaMuseveni

Courting capital from Beijing to the Gulf and Paris to become Africa’s Singapore, the President is being stymied by a fuel import scandal and fraying regional alliances

William Samoei Ruto opened the Africa Finance Corporation summit on 23 April in Nairobi last week flanked by Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote and Uganda's Yoweri Museveni – a tableau...

Balancing Rome and Paris, Ruto locks in the Mattei plan

Giorgia Meloni and William Ruto. Pic: @WilliamsRuto
Giorgia Meloni and William Ruto. Pic: @WilliamsRuto

On a three-day trip to Italy, the President agreed multiple funding deals under Giorgia Meloni's €5.5bn Mattei Plan but the opposition questions the pace and volume of disbursements

President William Ruto’s sales pitch to Italian politicians and business leaders went down well, even if some of his claims strained credulity. ‘If you are looking at de-carbonising...

As TotalEnergies restarts gas project, the insurgents take up piracy

TotalEnergies and Mozambique government announce restart of onshore and offshore LNG project activities, January 2026. Pic: @TotalEnergies
TotalEnergies and Mozambique government announce restart of onshore and offshore LNG project activities, January 2026. Pic: @TotalEnergies

Jihadist fighters in Cabo Delgado are rebooting their campaign on land and sea as a row over cash could end Rwanda’s security operations

When France’s TotalEnergies resumed work on its US$25 billion gas project on Afungi in January, it was taken as a challenge by the jihadist insurgents based in the...

Jihadist onslaught exposes fatal flaws in Moscow’s Sahel tactics

Vladimir Putin and Assimi Goïta, June 2025, The Kremlin, Moscow. Pic: kremlin.ru
Vladimir Putin and Assimi Goïta, June 2025, The Kremlin, Moscow. Pic: kremlin.ru

The killing of Sadio Camara and the fall of Kidal to Tuareg rebels delivered a devastating blow to Assimi Goïta's junta and casts doubt on Russia's security claims

Amid a combined offensive by Tuareg and jihadist fighters against the Bamako junta at dawn on 25 April, the killing of Defence Minister General Sadio Camara, the architect...

A power-sharing deal – based on oil, drones and secret cash

Massad Boulos and Abdel Hamid Dubaiba. Pic: @US_SrAdvisorAF
Massad Boulos and Abdel Hamid Dubaiba. Pic: @US_SrAdvisorAF

Washington envoy Boulos has brokered a deal between Tripoli and Benghazi but fraud claims against the Haftar family could scupper it

Libya is edging towards a power-sharing agreement after the rival parliaments in Tripoli and Benghazi agreed on 11 April to approve a unified budget, as the first since...

Court pulls the rug from under anti-corruption drive

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

A High Court ruling has effectively stripped the Office of the Special Prosecutor of its independence, giving President Mahama’s Attorney-General decisive control

Ghana's seven-year experiment with an independent anti-corruption prosecutor is unravelling. On 15 April, the High Court in Accra ruled that the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) could...

Failure to launch

Eswatini Deputy Prime Minister Thulisile Dladla visits Lai Ching-te in Taiwan as special envoy of His Majesty King Mswati III. Pic: @ChingteLai
Eswatini Deputy Prime Minister Thulisile Dladla visits Lai Ching-te in Taiwan as special envoy of His Majesty King Mswati III. Pic: @ChingteLai

Taiwan President Lai Ching-te’s last-minute cancellation of his trip to Eswatini last week was an embarrassing setback and further evidence of Taipei being outmanoeuvred by China. Lai accused...

Propaganda swamps social media but Moscow fails to sway the juntas

Ibrahim Traoré, Assimi Goïta and Abdourahamane Tiani. Pic: @PresidenceMali
Ibrahim Traoré, Assimi Goïta and Abdourahamane Tiani. Pic: @PresidenceMali

Leaked memos reveal millions spent on pro-Russian online stories, but the documents’ claims to be directing policies in friendly states don’t check out

A cache of 75 secret Russian memos about the Kremlin’s propaganda offensive in Africa by the Wagner Group and its successor organisation, ‘The Company’, has exposed a vast...

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How Moscow wages social media war

Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

Some 35 websites or media organisations published 700 stories at Russian instigation for fees ranging from $250 to $700 per article

The documents leaked from ‘The Company’, the inheritor of the Wagner Group’s network in Africa, itemise US$7.3 million spent on social media ‘influencers’ and journalists to promote the...

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Berlin raises €1.5bn for Sudan but fails to rein in its warlords

THREE YEARS OF WAR IN SUDAN: Efforts to broker a ceasefire have been sidelined by the US-Iran war. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
THREE YEARS OF WAR IN SUDAN: Efforts to broker a ceasefire have been sidelined by the US-Iran war. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

Three years into a war that has killed 150,000 people, the world's diplomats found it easier to write cheques than to name the Gulf states fuelling the fighting

More than 120 delegations met in Berlin on April 15 for an international conference marking three years of Sudan's civil war and raising pledges of over €1.5 billion...

A new axis emerges

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Abiy Ahmed, February 2026. Pic: @AbiyAhmedAli
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Abiy Ahmed, February 2026. Pic: @AbiyAhmedAli

Fresh evidence reveals covert military cooperation on Ethiopia’s western frontier, reshaping the dynamics of Sudan’s war

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