Vol 52 No 12 | CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC Ritual killings spark riots 10th June 2011 Three days of clashes in Bangui sparked by the discovery of the corpses of two young boys on 31 May, believed to have been ritually murdered, show the...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 8 | GABONASIA Contracts galore but no delivery 9th June 2011 On 1 June, President Ali Ben Bongo Ondimba sacked Housing Minister Blaise Louembe – who has only had the job since January – and the entire staff of...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 8 | GABONCHINA Bélinga bonus, uncertainty for CMEC 9th June 2011 The Gabonese government is looking for a way out of its contract with a Chinese company to mine iron ore at Bélinga New technical studies have found that the Bélinga iron ore mine in northeastern Gabon contains almost four times the original estimated resources and the Libreville government is actively...
Vol 52 No 10 | CONGO-KINSHASAMINING Ethical smelting 13th May 2011 The Katangese Mines Minister, Juvénal Kitungwa Lugoma, was in Paris on 5 May assuring nervous electronics and automotive company representatives that cassiterite and colombo-tantalite (coltan) from Katanga was...
Vol 52 No 9 | CHAD Déby on top 29th April 2011 President Idriss Déby Itno has been winning presidential elections since December 1990 and the 25 April poll is likely to prove no exception. With the opposition boycott, turnout was expected...
Vol 52 No 8 | CONGO-KINSHASA Taking the democratic out of DRC 15th April 2011 President Joseph Kabila and his supporters will restrict democratic representation only to the rich, if a bill sponsored by Kabila-stalwart Evariste Boshab goes through. The law will double...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 6 | CONGO-KINSHASACHINA Old debts and new deals 15th April 2011 Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal will decide this month whether FG Hemisphere, a United States-based vulture fund, is entitled to seize US$100 million from payments due to the Congolese...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 5 | CHADCHINA Campaigns made in China 31st March 2011 President Déby is campaigning in April’s presidential polls on the back of infrastructure and natural resource projects supported by China Chadian President Idriss Déby Itno is choosing the same political strategy as Congo-Kinshasa’s President Joseph Kabila: he has opened the country’s doors to numerous development projects financed by...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 5 | CONGO-KINSHASACHINA Surveying Sicomines 31st March 2011 The Congolese authorities are having trouble holding their Chinese partners to account while new barter deals and contracts pile up Concerns are rising over the opacity of the US$6 billion Sicomines deal between the Congolese government and a group of Chinese companies. Congolese civil society groups and oppositionists,...
Vol 4 (AAC) No 5 | CONGO-KINSHASACHINA All roads lead to Beijing 31st March 2011 Chinese construction companies are not just carrying out Beijing-backed projects, they are also winning contracts from international donors. The first phases of telecommunications projects funded by China Export-Import...