Vol 54 No 13 | GUINEA Condé takes on Steinmetz 21st June 2013 The President claims mining interests lie behind the increasingly effective opposition campaign in Conakry President Alpha Condé has escalated his government’s row with Geneva-based Beny Steinmetz Group Resources over the legitimacy of its stake in the Simandou iron ore mine.
Vol 54 No 13 | GHANA Presidential exports 21st June 2013 Foreign trips seem to hold a special magic for President John Mahama, who has spent most of his first six months in office struggling with chronic power and...
Vol 54 No 13 | MALI MNLA cedes Kidal 21st June 2013 Bamako has signed a deal with the Mouvement national pour la libération de l’Azawad (MNLA) that will allow its army and civil servants to enter Kidal for the...
Vol 54 No 13 | NIGER Attack dents Niger’s image 19th June 2013 The jihadist challenge is increasing and some militants seem to have friends inside the regime Jihadists launched an abortive attempt to break into a gendarmerie base in Niamey on 11 June. Alert guards chased away the small group of assailants and suffered no...
Vol 54 No 12 | CÔTE D'IVOIRE Justice may have to wait 7th June 2013 The government claims it treats both sides’ atrocities in the recent fighting even-handedly – it may prefer to let the reconciliation process slide Militia leader Amadé Ouérémi has handed himself in for trial for the worst massacre of the 2010-11 post-election crisis, the slaughter of 3,000 people at Duékoué in March...
Vol 54 No 12 | NIGER After Mali, Niger 7th June 2013 Bombings at Arlit and Agadez and a gaol break expose security problems The aftermath of the suicide attacks on a French company and a military barracks on 23 May will test Niger’s security forces. With almost half of its military...
Vol 6 (AAC) No 8 | MALIINDIA Not in our back yard 31st May 2013 While Mali’s government is preoccupied with retaking the northern region occupied by Islamists and Tuareg rebels, Indian firm Sahara Mining is facing challenges of its own in Tienfala,...
Vol 6 (AAC) No 8 | SIERRA LEONECHINA Doors opening 31st May 2013 China’s Kingho Energy has big ideas for Sierra Leone, but such plans could go the way of many other ambitious investments. The US$6 billion agreement the company signed...
Vol 54 No 11 | NIGERIA Blocking the great reform bill 24th May 2013 Partisan wrangling and commercial manoeuvring have derailed plans to make the oil and gas industry more efficient and accountable Efforts towards comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s oil and gas industry are in tatters some five years after the first version of the Petroleum Industry Bill was presented to...
Vol 54 No 11 | NIGERIA An insurgency without the oil 24th May 2013 With Map: Recent Boko Haram activity: bombings, shootings, kidnappings, jailbreaks At face value, the declaration by President Goodluck Jonathan’s government, dominated by appointees from the oil-rich Niger Delta, of a state of emergency in north-east Nigeria and plans...