With parliamentary elections due next month and expectations of an oil boom, a long-simmering political feud finally exploded on 4 February with the resignation of Patrice Emery Trovoada,...

Benin's Finance Minister, Abdoulaye Bio Tchane, will take over as the International Monetary Fund's Africa Department chief next month. He was once tipped as a potential prime minister...

The murder of Attorney General and veteran politician Chief Bola Ige on 23 December raises new doubts about the prospect of free elections in 2003. He was murdered...

On winning the election a year ago, President John Kufuor promised Ghana a 'golden age of business.' His commitment to market economics is being sorely tested. Jerry John...

Ghana's privatisation efforts have so far done little more than cut the public payroll. State assets were often sold at cut price to politically connected companies operating under...

Opus Dei, a secretive organisation favoured by Pope John-Paul II, hopes to sign up more followers in Africa, where only 1,500 of its 80,000 members are estimated to...

Against all tradition, President Charles Taylor has turned taciturn. He and his advisors have made almost no denial of or other reaction to a long list of serious...

Despite all its domestic troubles, Liberia is host to the world's second-largest maritime open-registry, better known as a flag of convenience. Until 1994, when it was overtaken by...

When Nigerian soldiers slaughtered more than 200 civilians in Benue State, they called into question the moral basis of President Olusegun Obasanjo's government. The Obasanjo regime, in contrast...

Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaoré is the latest in a series of African leaders on overseas visits to be harried by human rights organisations. He spent mid-October in...