Vol 55 No 9 | SOMALIA Regime's grip weakens 1st May 2014 Hassan Sheikh’s government can’t plug the leaks in public finances while Al Shabaab attacks increase in the capital. It’s a dangerous combination Somalia is beleaguered on all fronts: terrorist attacks are on the rise, the government cannot tackle the chronic theft of public money and the international community is losing...
Vol 55 No 8 | EGYPTSUDAN Saudi Arabia targets Khartoum 18th April 2014 The National Congress Party’s support for Egypt’s Muslim Brothers is exacting a heavy political and economic cost Financial sanctions on Sudan by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates are a political warning shot. The immediate targets are Khartoum's backing for Egypt's banned Muslim Brotherhood...
Vol 55 No 8 | RWANDA Kagame mourns – and warns 18th April 2014 The 20th commemoration of the genocide of 1994 found the President uncompromising towards France and others he sees as enemies President Paul Kagame's keynote speech at the Amahoro Stadium on 7 April urged everyone to face up to their responsibilities, since 'the people who planned and carried out...
Vol 55 No 8 | RWANDA Militant remembrance 18th April 2014 Formally entitled 'Kwibuka 20' (we remember), with the motto 'Remember, Unite, Renew', the concerns of the present were never far away from the commemoration of the past. That...
Vol 55 No 8 | BURUNDICONGO-KINSHASA Terms of abuse 11th April 2014 The President's bid to change the constitution to allow him to stand for a third term has failed The Kinshasa press loudly celebrated the failure of President Pierre Nkurunziza to amend the Burundian constitution at the end of March, a move intended to permit him a...
Vol 55 No 7 | BURUNDI Taxing troubles 4th April 2014 Tax reforms – which almost doubled state revenues over the last three years – are at risk from Bujumbura's elite and disorganised aid groups What is going wrong with Burundi's impressive tax reforms? Insiders say that corrupt politicians and business people have been fighting back, trying to get exemptions and write-offs. Until...
Vol 55 No 7 | EGYPTETHIOPIA Dam leak hits Addis 4th April 2014 Ethiopia risks isolation in the row with Egypt over the construction of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) now that the previously secret Independent Panel of Experts' report...
Vol 55 No 6 | KENYA A year of living precariously 21st March 2014 The ICC’s case against President Kenyatta is in disarray but so are his own political forces and the managers of his grandiose public spending plans At the presidential inauguration of Uhuru Kenyatta last April, few would have predicted the chaotic current state of the Jubilee Alliance government. Then, almost his sole preoccupation was... READ FOR FREE
Vol 55 No 6 | TANZANIA Gas and hot air 21st March 2014 Progress, albeit hesitant, is being made on the vaunted gas economy and on the assembly that will oversee the new constitution With two months remaining of the current offshore licensing round, Tanzania is making slow progress in defining the shape of its new 'gas economy'. The challenge is to...
Vol 55 No 6 | SOUTH SUDAN Talks or treason trials 21st March 2014 President Salva Kiir is hardening Juba’s line as Western governments threaten sanctions against those blocking peace talks Any parties in South Sudan – government or otherwise – trying to undermine the peace talks would face some form of sanction, the special envoys from the United...