As the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko tottered to its end, his generals were negotiating a rescue package with former South African military men. The President approved the...

None of the protagonists emerge with any credit from the murderous struggle for power in Brazzaville. The fighting precedes the presidential election, which President Pascal Lissouba still insists...

President Paul Biya and his Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais (RDPC) look likely to get away with another flawed election. The RDPC claims to have won 109 of...

After his triumphal debut at the Organisation of African Unity summit (2-4 June) in Harare, Laurent-Désiré Kabila returned to Kinshasa and a sea of problems. Security is the...

Zaïre has a new name, République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), a new strongman, Laurent-Désiré Kabila and a new burst of goodwill from most of the world's capitals with...

The shape of Africa resembles a revolver, wrote Algeria's Franz Fanon, 'and Zaïre is the trigger'. Over 30 years after Fanon's assessment, new fingers are on the trigger...

It is turning out worse than they had feared in Paris. President Omar Bongo's government in Gabon has cut out his old ally, France's Elf Aquitaine, in favour...

However Mobutu Sese Seko is finally chased from the Presidency, Zaïre's new rulers will inherit a formal economy that barely exists. In 1996 gross domestic product was just...

KIVU• Empain-Schneider (France) sold goldmining concession of Société Minière du Kivu to Cluff Minerals (Britain) and Banro (Canada).

Yet another of Africa's military leaders who has swapped khaki for boubou or danshiki, President Idriss Déby Itno has spent the last three months getting domestic politics under...