Vol 45 No 10 | EQUATORIAL GUINEA For show 14th May 2004 Parliamentary and local elections late last month produced an emphatic victory for supporters of the President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo. His Partido Democrático para la Guinea Ecuatorial (PDGE)...
Vol 45 No 9 | CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE Brazzaville breakdown 30th April 2004 As the President boosts his family's power, the ruling coalition is cracking up The peace process has run out of steam, key politicians remain in exile, and veterans in the ruling Parti Congolais du Travail (PCT) increasingly resent the dominant role...
Vol 45 No 9 | CONGO-BRAZZAVILLE Nepotists' nirvana 30th April 2004 President Denis Sassou-Nguesso's trusted advisors include: Emmanuel Yoka, the President's uncle and directeur de cabinet. A lawyer and former Ambassador to Morocco, he headed...
Vol 45 No 9 | CONGO-KINSHASA Future shock 30th April 2004 The new integrated army, created to solve political problems, is not much use for military tasks such as peacekeeping. Its First Brigade, whose 190 Belgian and twelve French...
Vol 45 No 8 | CHAD Rebels all round 16th April 2004 President Déby looks vulnerable but the French and American governments see no credible alternative The global 'War on Terror' arrived in Chad in early March when a heavily armed column of Algeria's Groupe Salafiste de Prédication et de Combat (GSPC), turned up...
Vol 45 No 7 | CONGO-KINSHASA To plot or not 2nd April 2004 Politicians in the power-sharing government fall out over coup allegations Facts are sacred and thin on the ground for Congolese struggling to make sense of what lay behind three hours of shooting in Kinshasa in the early hours...
Vol 45 No 7 | EQUATORIAL GUINEA True confessions 2nd April 2004 Amid the swirl of rumour and counter-claim surrounding March's alleged mercenary-led coup, enter a new ingredient - a 13-page, handwritten, signed confession by Simon Mann, the Old Etonian...
Vol 45 No 6 | EQUATORIAL GUINEA All in the family 19th March 2004 A failed plot to overthrow President Obiang is the first act in the unfolding succession drama Ten days after the unravelling of a bizarre plot to oust him, President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo strode into the People's Palace on 17 March to tell a...
Vol 45 No 6 | EQUATORIAL GUINEA Malabo imbroglio 19th March 2004 The failed plot to oust President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo swings wildly from farce to tragedy. The arrest of some 65 foreign soldiers (and the seizure of their...
Vol 45 No 6 | CONGO-KINSHASA Ruberwa's rift 19th March 2004 A dangerous rift has opened at the top of the transitional government, between President Joseph Kabila and Azarias Ruberwa, one of the four vice-presidents and leader of the...