Vol 54 No 14 | SENEGAL Presidential wobbles 5th July 2013 The Obama visit was a welcome distraction for an increasingly shaky President Macky Sall, who is finding political support hard to maintain President Macky Sall needs money. On his recent travels to Qatar, Gabon and Northern Ireland, where he attended the Group of Eight Summit in June as head of...
Vol 54 No 14 | SENEGAL The gay elephant 5th July 2013 Homosexuality is illegal and subject to aggressive public hostility in Senegal, and with the United States having so recently legally enabled gay marriage, it was an elephant in...
Vol 54 No 14 | GUINEA Dodgy dialogue 5th July 2013 The UN-sponsored mediation between the bitterly opposed parties over elections proceeds in fits and starts, much like the mining situation Saïd Djinnit, the Algerian United Nations Special Representative for West Africa, is just about keeping the political dialogue on track between the government, its supporters and the opposition....
Vol 54 No 14 | GUINEA Keeping Simandou on track 5th July 2013 The key missing element in the Simandou project is not good will but a strong market for steel and finance to support the Trans-Guinea Railway President Alpha Condé’s advisor and friend, the financier and philanthropist George Soros, hosted a meeting on 17 June to celebrate agreement that the development of the Simandou iron...
Vol 6 (AAC) No 9 | GHANACHINA Miners out but no funds in 2nd July 2013 Accra-Beijing relations are tested by growing concerns about illegal gold mining and a slowdown in finance for the Chinese-built gas plant Ghana’s expulsion of some 200 Chinese accused of involvement in illegal gold mining and more delays in disbursements from the China Development Bank for the gas plant in...
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...