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Published 9th September 2011

Vol 52 No 18

Libya

The Gadaffi clan scatters

A picture of Colonel Gaddafi defaced with red paint lies on a street. Teun Voeten / Panos
A picture of Colonel Gaddafi defaced with red paint lies on a street. Teun Voeten / Panos

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

After the collapse of the Colonel’s regime, its successors intensify the hunt for its chieftains and its assets

Reports of Gadaffi family deaths and flights by regime stalwarts to neighbouring countries have been greatly exaggerated but as Africa Confidential went to press, the signs were that the former ruling family was scattering in several directions and would fight to the death in Libya only if no alternative remained.

You can take the Africa out of Libya

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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Speculation is rife about what Libya’s new rulers will do with Gadaffi’s immense investment portfolio in sub-Saharan Africa

The strange thing about taking over the Libyan Arab Foreign Investment Company (Lafico), its head told Africa Confidential some years ago, was just how variable its assets could...

All the President’s businessmen

Image courtesy of Panos Pictures

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Tycoons can boost their fortunes sponsoring political parties and many are seeking admission to Jonathan’s circle

A group of power-brokers and fortune-seekers is taking shape around President Goodluck Jonathan. Often rivals, most have interests in the oil business, whose centre is his native Niger...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

After six months as cheerleader for the war on Colonel Moammar el Gadaffi, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy is still struggling in the opinion polls a year ahead of presidential elections. Voters get sceptical when their leaders intone high moral values in foreign policy. The French and British U-turn, after a decade of glad-handing and doing business with Gadaffi, concentrates minds in Africa and Europe.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s arrival in Paris on a state visit on 12...

After six months as cheerleader for the war on Colonel Moammar el Gadaffi, France’s President Nicolas Sarkozy is still struggling in the opinion polls a year ahead of presidential elections. Voters get sceptical when their leaders intone high moral values in foreign policy. The French and British U-turn, after a decade of glad-handing and doing business with Gadaffi, concentrates minds in Africa and Europe.

Rwandan President Paul Kagame’s arrival in Paris on a state visit on 12-13 September signals more changing diplomatic winds. Lately, Kagame has backed French military force in Libya and in Côte d’Ivoire as the ‘least bad option’. This follows Sarkozy’s trip to Rwanda in February 2010 when he referred to ‘a form of blindness’ among French officials about the ‘genocidal dimension’ of President Juvénal Habyarimana’s regime. Almost an apology, it undermines the position of Foreign Minister Alain Juppé, who has been sent to the Pacific for the duration of Kagame’s visit.

Juppé is one of several French politicians named as complicit in the 1994 genocide by a Rwandan commission of inquiry under Jean de Dieu Mucyo. Dismissing the commission as ‘lies and insinuations’, Juppé said he would refuse to meet Kagame, who in turn said Juppé would be unwelcome in Kigali. Kagame says his government doesn’t seek apologies from accomplices to genocide. His Foreign Minister Louise Mushikiwabo insists that Rwanda’s relations with France are far bigger than Alain Juppé.

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