Vol 53 No 6 | SUDAN Opposition turns up the heat 16th March 2012 Civilian and military opponents of the Khartoum regime win more battles in their campaign Over a hundred people tried to storm a police station in Khartoum’s Ed Deim area on 6 March after Awadia Agabna died in clashes with police. Protests then...
Vol 53 No 6 | SUDAN Khartoum rewrites history 16th March 2012 Despite bombing civilians, the National Congress Party (NCP) has some success abroad in the propaganda war, persuading governments to accept its version of events: that the Sudan People’s...
Vol 53 No 6 | TANZANIA Poisoning the atmosphere 16th March 2012 President Kikwete remains aloof from party strife, so the anti-corruption faction and its enemies keep on fighting Bitterness is growing in the disputes within the governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi and government and CCM skeletons are refusing to stay in the closet. The latest row concerns...
Vol 53 No 6 | TANZANIA Dead banker tweeting 16th March 2012 In mid-February, the governing Chama Cha Mapinduzi’s old guard and their well-connected business friends experienced a collective shudder when the former Bank of Tanzania (BOT) Governor, Daudi Ballali,...
Vol 53 No 5 | UGANDA Rebels with a cause 2nd March 2012 The latest intake of MPs from Museveni’s party is causing ructions over oil and corruption as jockeying starts for the presidential succession A group of truculent members of parliament in the governing National Resistance Movement has forced ministers to resign and is obliging President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to contemplate sacking...
Vol 53 No 5 | UGANDA All go for Tullow 2nd March 2012 After over a year of political and commercial disputes, Ireland’s Tullow Oil has signed for its production licence in Uganda, which means mid-2013 is now a realistic date...
Vol 53 No 5 | SOMALIA Cashing in on chaos 2nd March 2012 The work of a former government accountant again exposes financial confusion and crime on a grand scale While February’s London Conference on Somalia sought ways out of the military and political quagmire, a former civil servant in the Transitional Federal Government was documenting how its...
Vol 53 No 5 | SOMALIA Board to probe finances 2nd March 2012 Privately, diplomats in Mogadishu agree that the reports by Abdirizak Jama ‘Fartaag’ are the best source of financial information about the Mogadishu government.
Vol 53 No 5 | SOMALIABRITAIN Martial music plays in London 2nd March 2012 Whispers of possible negotiations with Al Shabaab were drowned out by the drums of war The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) may have been hosting the London Conference on Somalia but there was no doubting that Downing Street was in the driving seat.
Vol 53 No 5 | KENYA Kibaki loses his peers 2nd March 2012 Standing alone as the last of the Kikuyu Big Men, Kibaki has to reassess his plans for succession It was a tough week for President Mwai Kibaki, 80. While he was attending the Somalia Conference in London, two of his closest friends died.