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Published 14th March 2024

Vol 65 No 6

Nigeria

Cost-of-living crisis forces government rethink

Riot police, Lekki tollgate 2021. Pic: Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto/Alamy
Riot police, Lekki tollgate 2021. Pic: Olukayode Jaiyeola/NurPhoto/Alamy

Armed attacks and kidnappings, combined with food riots and looting, are putting President Tinubu and his inner circle under pressure

The cost-of-living crisis is becoming the most serious political challenge facing President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's government a year after it was elected. Whether it is maladministration and corruption in the distribution chain, many of the government's social welfare grants aren't getting through to the poorest Nigerians. In the hardest hit northern states, people have resorted to looting food trucks and warehouses. Some militants are threatening to abandon the government's amnesty programme and take up arms.

It's the politics that counts

William Ruto lays the foundation stone for the construction of an Affordable Housing Project. Pic: @WilliamsRuto
William Ruto lays the foundation stone for the construction of an Affordable Housing Project. Pic: @WilliamsRuto

Disregarding economic woes, President Ruto has asserted his authority over the ruling party and its opponents

Laments over spiralling prices and multiplying taxes on transactions dominate conversations in Kenya's cities and towns these days. President William Ruto's strategy of pushing through austerity policies instead...

Parties prepare for the costliest election

Pic: Vividrange / stock.adobe.com
Pic: Vividrange / stock.adobe.com

Businesses and wealthy individuals are stepping up political donations and their influence on policy

Ahead of the most competitive election ever in South Africa on 29 May, local and foreign political donors are trying to influence the outcome within – and sometimes...

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THE INSIDE VIEW

With just over nine months until the end of the current administration in the United States, Tom Perriello, a former Congressman and Director of the Open Society Foundation, has his work cut out as President Joe Biden's Special Envoy for Sudan.

Days after his appointment on 26 February, he launched a two-week tour of East Africa, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The purpose of the trip is to 'align efforts to bring an end to the devastating Sudan conflict,' says Perriello. T...

With just over nine months until the end of the current administration in the United States, Tom Perriello, a former Congressman and Director of the Open Society Foundation, has his work cut out as President Joe Biden's Special Envoy for Sudan.

Days after his appointment on 26 February, he launched a two-week tour of East Africa, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The purpose of the trip is to 'align efforts to bring an end to the devastating Sudan conflict,' says Perriello. That starts with finding interlocutors that both sides in the conflict will listen to. Attempts at mediating a ceasefire have been repeatedly obstructed by regional players taking sides in the civil war. He will also work closely with Ramtane Lamamra, Algeria's former Foreign Minister and UN Envoy to Sudan.

The early signs underscore the scale of Perriello's challenge. On 8 March, the UN Security Council called for a ceasefire in Sudan during the holy month of Ramadan, urging 'all parties to the conflict to seek a sustainable solution to the conflict through dialogue'. But the Sudan Armed Forces led by General Abdel Fattah al Burhan rejected the call. After retaking control of the state broadcasting company in Omdurman on 12 March, it launched a counter-offensive, winning its first significant victory against the Rapid Support Forces of Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo 'Hemeti' since the civil war started a year ago.

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Kaka paves a hard road to sham poll

The killing of opposition leader Yaya Dillo consolidates the President's control of the elite and confirms his autocratic path

The shooting dead of opposition politician Yaya Dillo Djérou on 28 February by security forces in Ndjamena proves that Chadian elite politics are as bloody as they are...

Contenders spar in the waiting room

As the post-Biya era looms, internal rivalries are dominating governance and politics in Cameroon to the exclusion of all else

With every birthday – 13 February was his 91st – the succession to President Paul Biya draws nearer, as does the intensity of the rivalry of the factions...

How war sank the development plan

After the devastating human cost of the Tigray war comes its destruction of the country’s economic base

Almost six years since taking office, Ethiopia's Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed presides over an economy that falls far short of the grand ambitions set forth in the 2019...

Can mega discovery end debt impasse?

Bad management and lack of accountability – not the lack of new finds – have held back the mining business

After its two year-long attempt to restructure US$4 billion in dollar bonds fell apart last November, President Hakainde Hichilema's government has been turning to its mining industry to...

Addis enters the debt talks tunnel

Abiy Ahmed’s government is edging towards an IMF deal as it approaches a March deadline for a debt agreement

Three years after Ethiopia officially requested relief under the G20-backed Common Framework for debt treatments beyond the Debt Service Suspension Initiative (DSSI), Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed's administration is...

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Pointers

Pipeline to nowhere

Two years after the final investment decision to construct the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) was taken, the US$5 billion project is limping on to an uncertain...

Book guts Goïta's junta

Colonel Alpha Yaya Sangaré went from celebrated author to prisoner in one week. On 24 February, he presented his book, Mali, le défi du terrorisme en Afrique, (Mali:...

Telescoping the campaign

It is the shortest and most dramatic presidential election campaign to date in Senegal. It will be telescoped into less than two weeks after the Constitutional Council accepted...

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