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.
Vol 53 No 5 | KENYA John Michuki (1932-2012): A life 2nd March 2012 John Stanley Njoroge Michuki had a hero’s send-off in his native Kangema constituency on 28 February, testimony that the idea of the Big Man is alive and well...
Vol 5 (AAC) No 5 | DJIBOUTIETHIOPIACHINAINDIABRIEFING The railway’s coming 28th February 2012 Work will begin soon on the long-awaited new Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway. The two governments and their Chinese contractors are creating a US$1.5-billion trade corridor from Addis Ababa to the Djibouti...
Vol 53 No 4 | SOMALIABRITAIN No great expectations 17th February 2012 British Prime Minister David Cameron’s grand conference will bring together many parties but no one is forecasting a breakthrough After two decades of political mayhem, Somalis and more perspicacious foreign diplomats are intensely sceptical about high-level conferences. Many approach the London Conference on Somalia on 23 February...
Vol 5 (AAC) No 4 | SUDANSOUTH SUDANCHINA Workers safe but oil at risk 10th February 2012 Oil rows and workers caught in the crossfire force Beijing to develop political and military tools to accompany its ever-growing economic muscle Sudan and South Sudan are dragging a reluctant China into their smouldering relations at a time when both sides say the situation is on the brink of open...