Vol 55 No 1 | EGYPT Consolidation is the goal 10th January 2014 The political calendar is crowded as the forces that took control of the state and ousted Mursi seek to strengthen their position Egyptian electors will be called to the ballot box at least three times in 2014, to approve the new constitution, elect a president and choose a single-chamber parliament....
Vol 54 No 25 | EGYPTETHIOPIASUDANITALY Secrets of the dam builder 12th December 2013 Sudan has now thrown its weight behind the Millennium Dam, at a time when curiosity about the contractor, Salini, was already growing As Egyptian, Ethiopian and Sudanese ministers sat down to discuss the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam on 9 December, one item was notably absent from the agenda. The role...
Vol 54 No 25 | EGYPTETHIOPIASUDAN Shoring up regional support 12th December 2013 After a period of defiant independence, Addis Ababa has now, belatedly perhaps, built strong diplomatic support behind the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam. Before the joint meeting of the...
Vol 54 No 25 | EGYPT Vote on constitution nears 12th December 2013 Liberals hope democracy can co-exist with a military insulated from scrutiny but many lawyers wonder about the flaws in the new legal framework Egypt’s draft constitution has been handed to President Adly Mahmud Mansour for formal signing, after the 50-member drafting panel approved it on 1 December. A simple majority referendum...
Vol 54 No 25 | EGYPTSUDAN Cape to Cairo, again 12th December 2013 Agrogate, an Egyptian private equity group, hopes to start work this month on a hard-top road in Sudan, the 362 kilometre Dongola-Toshke (Argeen) Highway, which will link the...
Vol 54 No 23 | LIBYA Little leadership and less oil 14th November 2013 Ali Zeidan has kept his grip on the premiership but financial pressures, oil blockades and secession threats in the east and south are crowding in The recent failure of the Muslim Brotherhood-backed Justice and Construction Party (JCP) and its allies to remove Prime Minister Ali Zeidan – whether via a vote of the...
Vol 54 No 21 | EGYPT Smart bomb for subsidies 17th October 2013 The smart-card fuel rationing system is about to be launched, says a Finance Ministry source. The government of ex-President Mohamed Hosni Mubarak conceived the scheme and ex-President Mohamed...
Vol 54 No 20 | EGYPT Gulf states to the rescue 3rd October 2013 Massive aid to the military-backed regime from Saudi Arabia and its allies could help dampen political tension after the ousting of President Mursi The economy is still struggling on many fronts but some indicators look healthier, thanks largely to over US$8 billion of aid from Gulf Arab governments since the army...
Vol 54 No 20 | EGYPT Neither military nor Mursi 3rd October 2013 Activists from the 2011 revolution are struggling to organise a political alternative to the dominant military and its Islamist adversaries Left-wingers and other secularists are trying to remobilise the revolutionary spirit of January 2011 and on 24 September they formed an opposition alliance, the Jebhat Tariq el Thawra...
Vol 54 No 19 | ALGERIA Boutef's miracle return 18th September 2013 After reshuffles to the intelligence services and government, the President is unexpectedly back from the dead Enfeebled by an illness that hospitalised him in Paris between April and July, and limited public appearances to stage-managed photo-shoots, President Abdelaziz Bouteflika began the political rentrée as...