Vol 46 No 10 | TOGO Faure's French friends 13th May 2005 West African presidents and the Elysée Palace endorse Gnassingbé's election The army had crushed the opposition uprising and the Constitutional Court had rejected claims of electoral irregularities well before Faure Gnassingbé was sworn in on 4 May. Hospital...
Vol 46 No 10 | MALI Belgium's man in Africa 13th May 2005 Little did a royal Belgian foundation expect that by bestowing a prize on Mali's shy, soft-spoken former Territorial Administration Minister, it would reignite controversy over the 2002 elections....
Vol 46 No 9 | LIBERIA Double Wamco 29th April 2005 Six months before elections, ministers have signed a deal on a trade in banned diamonds A secret deal signed in February by government ministers in Monrovia would give a mysterious mining company a ten-year monopoly on Liberia's diamond production, according to contract documents...
Vol 46 No 9 | LIBERIA Warlord on the loose 29th April 2005 Charles Taylor, Liberia's exiled warlord, stands accused of crimes across the region. A 30-page confidential report to the internationally financed Special Court in Sierra Leone alleges that he...
Vol 46 No 9 | TOGO Merci, Papa 29th April 2005 People take to the streets in Lomé to protest against Faure Gnassingbé's victory in the polls 'If they declare Faure the winner, this place is going to go up in flames', predicted a much quoted opposition supporter in Lomé. And right on cue, the...
Vol 46 No 7 | GHANA Nervy neighbours 1st April 2005 Along its frontiers, Ghana keeps a nervous eye on turbulent Côte d'Ivoire and Togo A strange silence from Accra greeted the sudden death, on 5 February, of Togo's (and Africa's) longest-serving leader, Etienne Gnassingbé Eyadéma. The subsequent events have upset neighbouring Ghana's...
Vol 46 No 7 | NIGERIA Can the centre hold? 1st April 2005 Regional violence and a constitutional conference challenge federal power Calming Nigeria's murderous ethnic tensions and reducing its chronic corruption are the chief declared aims of President Olusegun Obasanjo, half way through his second and last term. There...
Vol 46 No 7 | NIGERIA Credibility on corruption 1st April 2005 The sudden sacking on 22 March of Education Minister Fabian Osuji was well timed to show Nigeria's creditors that President Olusegun Obasanjo's anti-corruption policy is working. Osuji is...
Vol 46 No 7 | NIGERIA Oloibiri, oil capital 1st April 2005 There is no power or running water in Oloibiri, the town that hosted Nigeria's first oil well, and few visible signs of progress after five decades of oil...
Vol 46 No 7 | NIGERIA What Cheney knew 1st April 2005 United States Vice-President Dick Cheney could face questioning by a US Grand Jury about his knowledge - or lack of it - of US$180 million of illegal payments...