Blue Lines
Reports that Nigeria's
economy shrank by 2% in the second quarter of
the year and is officially in recession – its worst performance for 25
years – has fuelled speculation about negotiations between the
government and the International Monetary Fund. Unti...
Blue Lines
Predictions that President Jacob
Zuma will redouble efforts to regain control over policy and patronage after
the African National Congress's losses in the municipal elections (see
Feature, Zuma carries on regardless) are fast proving accurate. On 22 Augu...
Patrick Smith
This week elections dominate our list of things to watch: the
recent past, in the case of South Africa, where the
ANC comes to terms with its loss of power in the big cities; the
present, in Ghana, where the governing National
Democratic Congress has just...
Patrick Smith
This week we consider the recent elections in Zambia and South Africa and a new opposition
alliance in Ethiopia, while
President Salva Kiir changes
his mind again about the prospect of more foreign troops to keep the
peace in South Sudan.
ZAMBIA: Lungu w...
Patrick Smith
This week we have important election stories – before and
after – in Zambia, South Africa and Congo-Kinshasa. And there are new
international efforts to get the two sides in South Sudan to implement their peace
agreement ,while Nigeria's
finance officials...
Blue Lines
A year before next year's general elections, Angola is balanced between a
'promising' and a 'problematic state', according to Abel Chivukuvuku, leader of an
opposition coalition which claims to be the country's fastest growing
political movement, the Conv...
Blue Lines
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma's
extended swan song as chairwoman of the African Union Commission has
been more productive than the rest her of four-year term. Dlamini-Zuma
doesn’t want a second term and will return home to South Africa. There, she’s likely to
ma...
Patrick Smith
This week we start in Kigali, which is hosting the summit of
the African Union, and stay in East Africa to hear that the region's
three biggest economies are putting their trade negotiations with the
European Union on hold. If the latest opinion polls in ...
Patrick Smith
This week we start with the fighting in South Sudan
and then look at the prospects for more anti-government protests in Zimbabwe.
In Zambia, tensions are rising ahead of what many
expect to be a very close election next month while Ghana
is channelling th...
Blue Lines
A new protest movement known as #ThisFlag is gaining momentum in Zimbabwe after one of the biggest
stayaways in cities for a decade on 6 July. At the head of #ThisFlag is
Evan Mawarire, a 39-year-old
pastor who launched a social media
campaign in April to...