Community control of oil can worsen local strife, to judge by the experience of the Neconde Group, which won the bid for Shell’s 45% of Operations Management Licence (OML) 42. Shel...

Sierra Leone will start earning hundreds of millions of dollars from taxes when iron-ore production begins in November. At least that is what the controversial British-based mining...

So far the election season is a three-cornered contest with a lively battle for the leadership of the governing National Democratic Congress, which has prompted the leader of the m...

On 22 June, President Abdoulaye Wade – officially 84 but probably nearer 90 – was about to propose a constitutional amendment to secure a guaranteed third term in February’s electi...

In early June, Guinea’s President Alpha Condé set the tone for more tense negotiations with mining investors when he declared that Chinese-style mines-for-infrastructure deals are ...

Senegal’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Madické Niang has kept up a busy Asian schedule this year. February took him to Delhi for meetings with his counterpart, SM Krishna. He co-cha...

After his grand inauguration at Yamoussoukro on 21 May and pronouncements on the need for Ivorians to reconcile and rebuild the country, one of new President Alassane Dramane Ouatt...

Despite a growing sense that he is losing his political touch, President Abdoulaye Wade is determined to stand in February’s presidential election, people close to him have told Af...

President Abdoulaye Wade warmly welcomed Ivorian President Alassane Dramane Ouattara’s victory at the polls. The two are politically close, which excluded Wade as a mediator during...

The United Nations’ latest projection of world demographic trends* predicts that Africa’s population will reach 2.2 billion by 2050, 24% of the global population. Nigeria’s populat...