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Pelé’s prediction still a distant prospect

Cabo Verde's Vozinha. Pic: @vozinhapr
Cabo Verde's Vozinha. Pic: @vozinhapr

The ten African World Cup teams have largely outperformed expectations, but the continent’s teams still struggle to defeat the world’s best

Thirty-two years ago, an exciting Nigeria team narrowly fell short of the quarter finals at World Cup ‘USA 94’, following Italy’s 89th minute equalizer and subsequent extra-time winner in Boston, and ten days after the Super Eagles’ narrow 2-1 group-stage defeat to an Argentina team led by Diego Maradona in his last ever World Cup game. While Africa’s two other qualifiers in 1994 – Morocco and Roger Milla’s Cameroon – departed the United States after the group stages with just one point between them, Nigeria’s promise and population raised the question of when an African nation could realistically (rather than merely because Pelé predicted it) win the World Cup.

The Haftar-Hemeti warlord connection catches up with Washington

Marco Rubio meets Saddam Haftar, Washington DC, June 2026. Pic: @SecRubio
Marco Rubio meets Saddam Haftar, Washington DC, June 2026. Pic: @SecRubio

As US envoy Boulos talks up a Libyan unity plan, investigators have traced arms supplies linking Haftar’s fiefdom with the RSF militia

A compelling new investigation into how fighters loyal to eastern-based warlord Khalifa Haftar have trained fighters from Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is complicating a new US push...

Washington courts Issayas as Tigray edges to the brink

Eritrea's Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and US Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos. September 2025 Pic: @Eritrea_UN
Eritrea's Foreign Minister Osman Saleh and US Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos. September 2025 Pic: @Eritrea_UN

US diplomacy is colliding with Eritrea's hedging strategy, Tigray's hardening politics and a widening regional contest stretching from the Nile to the Red Sea

The sands are shifting in the Horn, prompting a spate of diplomatic openings from the United States and the African Union. For now, it’s unlikely that either party...

The Horn’s shifting alliances unsettle Addis

Abdel Fattah el Sisi and Donald Trump, Évian, France, 17 June 2026. Pic: @SISEGY
Abdel Fattah el Sisi and Donald Trump, Évian, France, 17 June 2026. Pic: @SISEGY

As Saudi, Emirati, Egyptian and Eritrean interests collide around Ethiopia, US pressure may just sharpen Mekelle’s choices rather than tamp down the conflict

As the implications of the emerging alignment in the Horn become clearer, United States President Donald J Trump’s administration calculates that behind the threat of renewed conflict in...

Gulf states' proxy war leaves Sudan's peace process in ruins

Abdel Fattah al-Burhan meets with Saudi Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs. Pic: @KSAmofaEN
Abdel Fattah al-Burhan meets with Saudi Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs. Pic: @KSAmofaEN

Rivalries between Riyadh and Abu Dhabi have rendered the international Quartet powerless as the RSF prepares a devastating assault on El Obeid

After a brief pause during the United States-Iran war, regional competition between Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the United Arab Emirates President Mohammed bin Zayed...

The Red Sea reckoning to come

A NEW POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY: The Gulf now stretches from the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
A NEW POLITICAL GEOGRAPHY: The Gulf now stretches from the Strait of Hormuz to the Red Sea. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

The US-Iran MoU has not brought calm to the Horn – it has opened a new competition in the waters that matter most to the Gulf states and their African counterparts

The memorandum of understanding digitally signed by United States President Donald Trump and Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian on 18 June was welcomed in most world capitals as the...

The pips are already squeaking

William Ruto assents to the Finance Bill, 23 June 2026. Pic: @WilliamsRuto
William Ruto assents to the Finance Bill, 23 June 2026. Pic: @WilliamsRuto

Treasuries insist that higher domestic tax revenues will fund rising budgets, but can already hard-pressed workers be squeezed any further?

Faced with a combination of fuel and fertiliser price rises resulting from the Iran war, high debt servicing costs and declining aid flows hitting consumer spending and government...

Growth promised, but debt is closing in

EAST AFRICA: BUDGETS EXPAND DESPITE LARGE DEFICITS. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
EAST AFRICA: BUDGETS EXPAND DESPITE LARGE DEFICITS. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

Regional economies are pushing investment but face the same pressures: constrained budgets, tougher lenders and impatient electorates

East Africa’s budget season has again been framed as a fightback against the global slowdown. Finance ministers in Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi point to strong regional...

Mnangagwa buys another two years

Pic: @edmnangagwa
Pic: @edmnangagwa

The President has coerced and co-opted enough MPs to back the extension of his rule until 2030 – but he could still trip up

The fight against President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s plan to extend his tenure will not end with parliament’s passing of the Constitutional Amendment Bill Number 3 (CAB3) on 18 June....

Parliament’s anti-LGBTQ law risks $3.8bn in World Bank financing

Alban Bagbin. Pic: parliament-gh
Alban Bagbin. Pic: parliament-gh

The bill criminalising same-sex relations may force President Mahama to choose between US and local religious activists and the multilateral funding

Ghana risks losing US$3.8 billion in World Bank financing and jeopardising a $3bn IMF programme if President John Dramani Mahama signs the Human Sexual Rights and Family Values...

Border talks gain unexpected momentum

Abdourahamane Tiani and Romuald Wadagni, 2 June 2026. Pic:@NigerAr
Abdourahamane Tiani and Romuald Wadagni, 2 June 2026. Pic:@NigerAr

Technical teams have mapped out steps towards reopening crossings and reviving trade after months of political rupture

Gunfire around Niamey’s airport on 18 June – the second militant assault on the facility in six months – has sharpened the urgency of a diplomatic opening between...

Whitehall’s soft power shrinks as the BBC cuts back again

BBC Focus on Africa medley
BBC Focus on Africa medley

The broadcaster’s African services face more cuts, even to its flagship Nairobi bureau, as managers hunt for savings and reshape digital teams

What is being presented in London as an efficiency drive looks like a strategic retreat in Nairobi, Lagos and Johannesburg. Under government pressure, the BBC is trimming capacity...

Beijing is selling arms to both sides in the Congo war

Norinco Group’s integrated air defence weapon system. Pic: norincogroup.com.cn
Norinco Group’s integrated air defence weapon system. Pic: norincogroup.com.cn

Weapons sold to Kigali are reaching M23 rebels, angering Kinshasa officials and threatening China’s mining interests

Officials in President Félix Tshisekedi’s government are increasingly frustrated by the flow of sophisticated Chinese-made weapons sold to Rwanda, then handed over to the Mouvement du 23 Mars...

Not yet ubuntu

The SA Border Management Authority processes 663 Ghanaian nationals for repatriation from South Africa to Ghana through OR Tambo International Airport, 6 June 2026. Pic: @TheBMA_SA
The SA Border Management Authority processes 663 Ghanaian nationals for repatriation from South Africa to Ghana through OR Tambo International Airport, 6 June 2026. Pic: @TheBMA_SA

Evacuations of Ghanaians fleeing xenophobic attacks have strained Accra-Pretoria ties, exposing divisions between historic Pan-African partners

Tshisekedi tests opinion with third-term kite

CONGO-KINSHASA: The war in the Kivus rumbles on after a year of negotiations. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
CONGO-KINSHASA: The war in the Kivus rumbles on after a year of negotiations. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

The President’s hints at ending term limits and delaying the 2028 polls unsettle investors wary of conflict in Africa’s biggest copper producer

After the IMF, Accra targets growth

GHANA: GROWTH, DEBT, RESERVES AND INFLATION MOVE IN RIGHT DIRECTION. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026
GHANA: GROWTH, DEBT, RESERVES AND INFLATION MOVE IN RIGHT DIRECTION. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2026

Accra’s roadshow hits the London stage, but investors are looking beyond the macro-data to assess the reforms

IMF critiques Abuja’s opaque lending

Group CEO, NNPC Ltd Bashir Bayo Ojulari and Afreximbank President George Elombi, NNPC Towers, Abuja, May 2026. Pic: @nnpclimited
Group CEO, NNPC Ltd Bashir Bayo Ojulari and Afreximbank President George Elombi, NNPC Towers, Abuja, May 2026. Pic: @nnpclimited

After the Tinubu government sold forward 14% of national oil production last year, it is borrowing US$5 billion from the UAE

How Anita Among lost the House to the succession wars

Anita Among and Thomas Tayebwa at the swearing-in ceremony of President Yoweri Museveni, 12 May 2026. Pic: @Parliament_Ug
Anita Among and Thomas Tayebwa at the swearing-in ceremony of President Yoweri Museveni, 12 May 2026. Pic: @Parliament_Ug

Museveni's inner circle has moved to curb a Speaker who had built her own political machine as the question as to who succeeds him edges closer

Immigration ire exposes faltering state

Malawian nationals at Beitbridge Border Post making their way back home from South Africa under the Malawi government's voluntary repatriation exercise. Pic: @MalawiGovt
Malawian nationals at Beitbridge Border Post making their way back home from South Africa under the Malawi government's voluntary repatriation exercise. Pic: @MalawiGovt

Growing public anger over enforcement failures is raising doubts about whether the government can still assert its authority

Mnangagwa’s 2030 power bid hits the barracks

Kudakwashe Tagwirei. Pic: @cozwva
Kudakwashe Tagwirei. Pic: @cozwva

Behind the constitution debate is a struggle over the post-Mugabe state with presidential allies, disgruntled generals and a fragmented opposition testing their strength

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