Campaigning for the presidential election due next July has started early. President Joseph Kabila set the ball rolling on 16 October with a groundbreaking visit to Kisangani, almost...

As President Paul Biya settles in to his fifth consecutive term of office, with seven more years stretching ahead, there is no sign of any serious challenge to...

Everyone in N'djamena is worried about where the oil revenues are going. Opposition parties, advocacy groups, even the oil companies, whose splendid isolation behind the walls of Komé...

The World Bank's scheme for ensuring the oil revenue is spent on poverty alleviation is necessarily complex. Some 85 per cent of royalties and dividends go to priority...

At the end of November, several months late, a report is due from the National Assembly's Commission on contracts signed during Congo's recent wars (AC Vol 45 No...

The National Assembly's Commission on war contracts consists of 17 members of parliament: four each from Société Civile and Opposition Politique, two each from the Parti pour la...

Attempts to strengthen Congo's new integrated national army have met an unexpected obstacle. Five weeks' 'training the trainers' in Belgium was planned for 285 Congolese officers. But 16...

The shortcomings of Cameroon's electoral process are becoming glaringly obvious as polling day approaches. The combination of an ill prepared and divided opposition and a lack of independent...

Zambian President Levy Mwanawasa sacked Vice-President Nevers Mumba on 4 October for igniting a serious diplomatic row. Mumba had accused individuals in Congo-Kinshasa of funding the Zambian opposition.

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan wants to increase the strength of Monuc, the UN Mission in Congo, from 10,800 to 23,000 men. He also wants troops for...