CAMEROON Chantal Biya gains ground as an old ally falls 11th December 2024 The Biyas. Pic: @ChantalBIYA_Cmr After a heated argument with the First Lady over a fraud investigation, Rear-Admiral Joseph Fouda was drummed out of the presidency where he had been a security kingpin He headed no unit of the Cameroonian armed forces, nor did he even grace its highest ranks, let alone did he earn President Paul Biya’s eternal gratitude by rescuing him from some plot or other, but Rear-Admiral Joseph Fouda was the most important military man of the last 20 years – nearly half the President’s time in power. Now, he is gone.
GHANA Mahama leads a decisive NDC comeback 9th December 2024 John Dramani Mahama. Pic: @JDMahama Vice-President Bawumia concedes early to ‘preserve the peace of our country’ amid sharpening polarisation Former President John Dramani Mahama won the 7 December presidential election decisively – defeating Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and leading the opposition National...
GABON General Oligui Nguema shows how to run a coup 5th December 2024 Pic: @oliguinguema The putschist general may stay in power after a constitutional change allows him to stand in next year’s elections Having secured a 91.8% ‘Yes’ vote in the 16 November referendum on the new constitution, transitional head of state General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema is set to run...
ZIMBABWE As army dissent grows, Mnangagwa appoints loyalist as security minister 4th December 2024 Lovemore Matuke. Pic: @HonMatuke Lovemore Matuke, who led Mnangagwa’s campaign for a third term, is the new spy chief and security coordinator Facing challenges to his authority from the army, which installed him in 2017 and his campaign for a third term in disarray, President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed Lovemore Matuke,...
FRANCEAFRICA Macron tilts to Anglophone Africa after Sahelian exits 3rd December 2024 President Bola Tinubu’s state visit to Paris, 28-29 November. Pic: @officialABAT After a spate of reverses in the region, the French President is boosting ties with Ghana and Nigeria One data point sums up the commercial stakes: there are more French companies in Nigeria than there are in the rest of West Africa. It also painted the...
GHANA Bawumia tries to defy economic gravity 28th November 2024 Ghana presidential and parliamentary elections held on 7 December 2020. © Africa Confidential 2024 Against a backdrop of slow recovery from a devastating national debt crisis, the vice-president promises to make history Using the slogan ‘Breaking the Eight’, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia is vying to succeed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in an ambitious bid to win a third consecutive national... READ FOR FREE
NIGERIA Tinubu looks to his military home boys 28th November 2024 President Bola Tinubu at the funeral of Lt Gen Taoreed Lagbaja. Pic: @officialABAT After a spate of coups swept West Africa, the President has stacked key positions with officers from his home region Faced with security threats on multiple levels – jihadist fighters, mass unrest and would-be putschists – President Bola Tinubu is taking no chances. He is building the country’s...
ZIMBABWECOMMONWEALTHBRITAIN Zimbabwe readmission ‘is off’ 28th November 2024 Baroness Patricia Scotland welcomes Emmerson Mnangagwa to Marlborough House, May 2023. Pic: @PScotlandCSG The UK won’t support Zimbabwe’s readmission to the Commonwealth, we hear, although it could threaten its charm offensive on the continent Commonwealth Secretary-General Baroness Patricia Scotland’s plan to re-admit Zimbabwe has run into resistance from Britain’s Labour government, diplomatic sources have told Africa Confidential. It was felt that taking...
ANGOLAUNITED STATES Lourenço mulls his succession 28th November 2024 Pic: João Lourenço FB With demonstrators marching again in Luanda, the MPLA government may start taking more risks When US President Joe Biden arrives in Angola on 2 December, he will be able to compare succession notes with his counterpart João Lourenço. After pushing some ground-breaking...
SOUTH AFRICA The rise, fall and rise again of Jacob Zuma 28th November 2024 Pic: @FloydShivambu Like his populist counterpart across the Atlantic, South Africa’s much prosecuted leader keeps bouncing back Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party is shaping the landscape as it gears up for its first anniversary on 16 December, its ranks bolstered by several high-profile defectors...
SOMALIASOMALILAND Hargeisa faces new pressures 28th November 2024 Pic: @Abdirahmanirro After Irro’s victory, the government must respond to demands on corruption and jobs as it tries to hold the territory together The decisive victory for Abdirahman Mahamed Abdullahi Irro with 64% in the 13 November presidential elections should be seen as the culmination of two years of politicking during...
NAMIBIA SWAPO aims to avoid a Botswana-style upset 25th November 2024 Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. Pic: @VPSWAPO With incumbents out of favour in the region, the outcome of the elections is on a knife-edge Vice-President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah (known as NNN) was swimming against the regional tide as she campaigned to become Namibia’s first female head of state in the parliamentary and presidential...
UNITED NATIONSCLIMATE CHANGE Cosplay at the COP29 – a climate finance summit without numbers 22nd November 2024 Photo op at the COP. © Asempa Ltd, 2024. All rights reserved. By failing to agree on a new cash target, the Baku delegates are acting in character but could break up the UN climate bargaining process The failure by delegates to agree on the core climate finance target at the Baku summit would risk a breakdown as serious as the collapse of the UN...
EUROPEAN UNIONAFRICA Africa could lose out from bid to rewrite Europe’s deforestation rules 20th November 2024 Dense forest, Katanga, Congo. Pic: Alvaro/stock.adobe.com EU lawmakers have brought in wide-ranging exemptions to the forestry laws but few African states will benefit The European Parliament’s vote on 14 November to take apart the EU’s deforestation rules is another step in the weakening of the bloc’s Green Deal laws. It has...
SENEGAL President Faye set to win in parliament as honeymoon endures 15th November 2024 Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Pic: @PR_Senegal New alliances are unlikely to stop the popular president and his Pastef party from success in the snap legislative election If President Bassirou Diomaye Faye hoped a relaxation of nomination rules for the 17 November parliamentary elections would see opposition to his ruling Patriotes africains du Sénégal pour...
SENEGALWHO'S WHO PROFILE: Ousmane Sonko – Premier League 28th November 2024 Ousmane Sonko. Pic: @SonkoOfficiel Revenge rarely tastes so sweet. A year ago Ousmane Sonko was in jail, his hopes of standing in Senegal’s 2024 presidential poll clearly doomed. Now he has celebrated...
GAMBIA Silence on sanctions-busting 28th November 2024 Apogee FZC No official reaction has followed Africa Confidential and the Gambian Republic investigative website’s article on sanctions-busting by a Russian company in Banjul. The United Arab Emirates-registered company Apogee...
CONGO-KINSHASABELGIUM The price of sainthood 28th November 2024 King Badouin leaves the church of St Mary, Leopoldville after attending mass. Belgian Congo 23 May 1955. Pic: Smith Archive / Alamy Stock Photo Pope Francis’s plan to beatify Belgium’s late King Baudouin risks re-opening the wounds of Congo-Kinshasa’s brutal colonial past.
UNITED STATESAFRICA Leaders look for deals in the Trump marketplace 14th November 2024 The White House. Pic: Public Domain States rich in critical minerals could win big investments as Washington jostles for access with Beijing
KENYA Facing calls for reform, the state hits back 14th November 2024 William Samoei Ruto. Pic: @WilliamsRuto A wave of murders and abductions at the hands of the police has prompted condemnation from civic activists and diplomats
GAMBIARUSSIASPECIAL REPORT Russian sanctions-busters find a Gambian haven 14th November 2024 The winding road from the Black Sea to Banjul A US-sanctioned Russian illegally imported US$29 million worth of diesel to The Gambia, sold it there, and sent the money to the UAE, but the authorities seem uninterested READ FOR FREE
FRANCEAFRICA It’s the economy, Macron! 8th November 2024 Pic: @EmmanuelMacron Paris has lost power in its old chasse gardée but French companies are spreading their wings across the continent READ FOR FREE
NIGERIA Cultural and political battles break out as the stolen bronzes come home 5th November 2024 Bronze Plaque looted from the Royal Palace of Benin, purchased by the Pitt Rivers Museum for five pounds in 1907 A $100 million museum to exhibit Benin bronzes looted by British soldiers is opening but few of the artefacts will be on display
BOTSWANA Boko wins big 14th November 2024 Duma Boko. Pic: @duma_boko Rebooting economic growth and and cutting unemployment are the new President’s priorities
GHANA Debt and inflation drag Bawumia down 14th November 2024 Ghana: Growth surprises, but will deficit overshoot? Copyright © Africa Confidential 2024 The green shoots of economic recovery may be coming too late for the ruling party’s electoral chances
CLIMATE CHANGE High stakes but low ambitions at Baku’s geopolitical climate summit 13th November 2024 COP29 opening, 11 November 2024. Pic: cop29.az Africa’s bargaining chips at COP29 are ‘green ores’, and trading its forests, grasslands and shorelines as carbon sinks
MOZAMBIQUE All roads lead to Maputo 6th November 2024 Pic: venancio.mondlanevm7 Opposition firebrand Mondlane is staking everything on his calls for mass protests in the capital on 7 November
GUINEA BISSAUWHO'S WHO PROFILE: Carlos Lopes: A leading climate voice 14th November 2024 Carlos Lopes. Pic: @LopesInsights
ZIMBABWE Mnangagwa takes on the army 14th November 2024 Heroes Day, August 2024. Pic: @edmnangagwa Seven years after the coup, Mnangagwa’s manoeuverings to stay in power are angering Chiwenga and other generals
WORLD BANKINTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND Global and regional conflicts hit economies 14th November 2024 Abebe Selassie. Pic: imf.org Opposition to the tax reforms necessary to boost revenues is fuelled by economic hardship and scepticism about spending choices
CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLICRUSSIA Touadéra’s balancing act 11th November 2024 Faustin-Archange Touadéra and Vladimir Putin, July 2023. Pic: Pavel Bednyakov, RIA Novosti/en.kremlin.ru The President walks a fine line, relying on military support from Moscow as he shores up ties with the EU and France
UNITED STATESAFRICA Ahead of the US elections, African bankers and generals hired pro-Trump lobbyists 6th November 2024 Pic: @realDonaldTrump Companies, banks and juntas are adapting to a new era for the international system