Vol 37 No 10 | MALI Gold gain goes 10th May 1996 BHP-Utah, the country's biggest foreign mining concern, is selling up and pulling out of Mali. And according to an industry source it blames 'an unhappy mix between arrogant...
Vol 37 No 9 | NIGERIA Sacking the Sultan 26th April 1996 Dethroning Dasuki and cocking a snook at the Commonwealth will not solve the crisis These are busy days for General Sani Abacha. Critics of his slow work rate and his indecisiveness are revising their opinions. In one week, he has sacked the...
Vol 37 No 9 | BENIN General Chameleon 26th April 1996 Minority parties helped return Kérékou to power with some help from his old friends Mathieu Kérékou is back in power. Benin's electors preferred the strongman they once rejected to Nicéphore Soglo, the economic reformer whose policies brought them scant rewards. Benin's...
Vol 37 No 9 | SIERRA LEONE Edging and hedging 26th April 1996 President Ahmad Tejan Kabba is edging towards some form of agreement with Foday Sankoh's Revolutionary United Front following their talks at Yamoussoukro, Côte d'Ivoire on 22-23 April....
Vol 37 No 8 | NIGERIA Changing the guard 12th April 1996 General Sani Abacha's sacking of his Chief of Army Staff, Major General Alwali Kazir, and Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice-Marshall Femi John Femi, was a punishment, we...
Vol 37 No 7 | SIERRA LEONE Falling out parade 29th March 1996 Civilians eagerly voted the military out but they ignore the soldiers at their peril Demanding elections and calling the military's bluff in the middle of a civil war was always going to be a high risk strategy. Yet it may have worked,...
Vol 37 No 7 | SIERRA LEONE Diamonds, dollars and democracy 29th March 1996 Sensing the war is dying down, Lebanese diamond traders are swiftly moving back into centres such as Kono in the east. They are keen to regain control of...
Vol 37 No 7 | GHANA Last chance alliance 29th March 1996 Personal ambition has again got the better of hopes for a united opposition front Articulate, persuasive and wealthy; for many, Kwame Pianim seemed the best candidate the opposition could put up against Jerry Rawlings in this year' s presidential election. Pianim' s...
Vol 37 No 7 | NIGER Soldiers' schemes 29th March 1996 Western support for democracy is being tested by Niger's military rulers who seized power on 21 January. On 25 March, the European Union decided, against French pressure, to...
Vol 37 No 7 | LIBERIA Monrovia muggings 29th March 1996 Tension is rising in Monrovia. National Patriotic Front of Liberia leader Charles Taylor and United Liberation Movement -Krahn (Ulimo-K) leader Alhaji G.V.Kromah have banded together against Liberia Peace...