Facing the prospect of United States's tariffs that will hurt their exports, the European Union and African Union are under pressure to deepen and widen their trade relations. The European Commission wants to diversify its trade partnerships, setting a De...
The approval of South Africa’s budget in the National Assembly, by 194 votes to 182 after several false starts, may have inflicted terminal damage on the fledgling Government of National Unity, and particularly the partnership between the African National...
The United States' administration’s decision to slash government funding to media organisations such as Voice of America, like the shuttering of USAID, continues an established trend in the west. US and European media houses have beaten a retreat from Afr...
The abrupt end of development aid from the United States leaves governments across Africa facing funding shortfalls, particularly for healthcare. Washington spent US$8 billion in aid to Africa last year, most of which will be lost if the three-month freez...
With geopolitics in flux, alliances are shifting. United States President Donald Trump’s attacks on South Africa, including the suspension of government programmes, the boycott of its G20 presidency, and claims of ‘genocide’ against white farmers by Trump...
The unilateral ceasefire by the M23 announced days after laying siege to Goma in eastern Congo-Kinshasa did not mean an end to fighting in the Kivus. M23 and the Rwandan army are continuing to push towards Bukavu in Kivu-Sud. Shortly before Africa Confide...
‘Our partners want more from Europe,’ the European Union’s new International Partnerships Commissioner Jozef Síkela told MEPs in the European Parliament at hearings last year.
In the case of Africa, they are unlikely to get it. Facing wars in Ukraine and ...
17-18 February – Leaders at the African Union summit in Addis Ababa will choose between Kenya’s Raila Odinga, Djibouti’s Foreign Minister Mahmoud Ali Youssouf and Madagascar’s Richard Randriamandrato to elect the AU Commission Chair.29 May – Eight candida...
Addressing the spiralling debt-servicing costs facing African economies will top the agenda of South Africa’s G20 presidency which started on 1 December. President Cyril Ramaphosa plans to launch a cost-of-capital commission to address the major dispariti...
Blue Lines
The abduction of Ugandan opposition leader Kizza Besigye in Nairobi is a chilling demonstration of the Kenyan government’s collusion with autocratic leaders. Besigye was lifted by Uganda intelligence officers in the evening of 16 November at an apartment ...