Africa

The financial crisis has had one indisputable effect: it has put the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund back in business in Africa. Suddenly there is no...

South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, despised by African National Congress President Jacob Zuma's bedrock supporters on the party's left and populist wings, is busy making himself indispensable....

Africa advisor at the Elysée Bruno Joubert will be awaiting a ruling by Paris's parquet on the admissibility of a civil case against Gabon's President Omar Bongo Ondimba,...

Untitled Document Indian companies are behind three now somewhat troubled bids to take over the choicest assets in the African telecoms business: Bharti's US$23 billion merger with MTN, Essar's takeover of...

Tokyo's pledges to double aid to Africa and offer US$4 billion in concessional loans are in question following the landslide election of the Democratic Party of Japan on 30 August....

Aggressive investment by the China Investment Corporation, which manages nearly US$300 billion of Beijing's $2.1 trillion in foreign reserves, is leading to a boom in Africa-focused investments. In...

Strategic minerals are back in fashion and - along with oil and gas - at the centre of geopolitical rivalries between industrial economies in Asia and the West. New technologies...

All modern economies face the challenge of securing access to strategic minerals: cobalt, used to make superalloys; rare earth metals like neodymium, which is used in the manufacture of hybrid automotive...

African trades unionists are stepping up their criticism of the Chinese companies in countries like Algeria, Nigeria and South Africa. In mid-August the Congress of South African Trade Unions called on...