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Published 7th June 1996

Vol 37 No 12

Angola

The state is sick 

The ailing president has sacked all his ministers and seems to be travelling in a different direction from his party

President José Eduardo dos Santos' sacking of Prime Minister Marcolino Moco and his cabinet on 3 June is a belated attempt to rally his troops before they have to start doing business with Jonas Savimbi's political cadres in Luanda. The merging of government and rebel armies is meant to be finished within three months. Dos Santos' sacking of central bank governor António Furtado and banning of foreign exchange dealings is meant to signal a crackdown on the appallingly corrupt and mismanaged forex market. But Angolans are sceptical; Dos Santos is widely seen as heading a weak, divided and discredited party. So discredited that it has taken to locking up foreign priests who criticise its lack of concern for the poor.

On the mend

The accountants have overhauled it but the bank still lacks a mission

Morocco's Omar Kabbaj is a man to make the trains run on time. Under his Presidency, the annual meeting of the African Development Bank (22-23 May) finished a...

Toes in the water 

Commercial bankers are getting interested again in financing African trade

The risks seem to be growing smaller, the chances of fat short-term profits greater. Commercial banks are cautiously moving into the financing of sub-Saharan Africa's trade, spurred by...

Hands across the water

Addis Ababa is becoming Washington's key ally against an expansionist Khartoum

The Addis Ababa-Washington axis is in better shape than for more than 25 years, probably since the hey-days of Emperor Haile Selassie in the 1960s. For the United...

Pointers

Army in brief 

The army's taste of power was brief. General Ibrahim Barré Mainassara's coup of 27 January this year (AC Vol 37 No 3) will be swiftly followed by the...

On the border

Eight major-generals, 22 brigadiers and 3 full colonels were appointed by President Isayas Aferworki. The Defence Minister, Sibhat Ephrem, gave the rank of lieutenant-colonel to several officers in...

Army in brief 

The army's taste of power was brief. General Ibrahim Barré Mainassara's coup of 27 January this year will be swiftly followed by the presidential elections due (inconveniently for...

Heart of Anglo

Zinc mine development at Kipushi, mineral exploration in Shaba, metal processing at Kolwezi; these new ventures in Zaïre show how the world's biggest mining company, the Anglo- American...

Mutineers' mistake

Two military uprisings within a month have thoroughly destabilised the government of President Ange-Félix Patassé. On 18 May the leaders of the April mutiny, headed by Adjutant (Sergeant...

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