Vol 49 No 14 | SIERRA LEONE Time to reshuffle 4th July 2008 Finance Minister David Carew, Foreign Minister Zainab Bangura and Lands Minister Benjamin Davies are generally held in high esteem. Other ministers are less appreciated. Rumours of...
Vol 49 No 14 | CÔTE D'IVOIRE Democratic deficit 4th July 2008 Leaders send out mixed signals on whether elections will take place this year President Laurent Gbagbo assured representatives of the United Nations Security Council - on a flying visit to Abidjan on 9 June - that the November election deadline would hold. T...
Vol 49 No 14 | CÔTE D'IVOIRE Skimming a bad system 4th July 2008 Côte d'Ivoire's Public Prosecutor, Raymond Tchimou, is leading a crackdown on corruption in the cocoa industry, which accounts for 40% of world supply. On 13 June, Tchimou an...
Vol 49 No 14 | GHANA Industrial revolution 4th July 2008 Ghana seeks partners following its 19 June purchase of Alcoa's 10% stake in the 200,000 tonne/year Volta Aluminum Company (Valco) smelter, mothballed since March 2007. The statal V...
Vol 49 No 14 | CÔTE D'IVOIRE Ivorian auction 4th July 2008 The wealth of Côte d'Ivoire's defunct founding father, Félix Houphouët-Boigny, was on display at an auction in the historic French town of Fontainebleau on 29 Jun...
Vol 49 No 13 | CAMEROONNIGERIA Slaughter on the border 20th June 2008 More gruesome killings raise doubts about the August handover of the oil-rich Bakassi Peninsula Troops from Nigeria and Cameroon were put on high alert in the Bakassi Peninsula, following the unexplained slaughter of five Cameroonian soldiers and a local government official o...
Vol 49 No 13 | NIGERIA Yar'Adua boosts oil production 20th June 2008 Nigeria is determined to raise its oil production capacity to four million barrels per day by 2010, President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua told Africa Confidential in Paris on 13 June. 'Tha...
Vol 49 No 13 | MALI Tough times 20th June 2008 Things have turned unexpectedly nasty for the huge Saharan state These are tough times for Mali and its President Amadou Toumani Touré (ATT). On top of the surge in prices which affects all of Africa, he faces a resurgence of rebellion among the...
Vol 49 No 13 | MALI Third term triangle 20th June 2008 Mali's democratic credentials are wearing thin at home despite winning international plaudits in the 16 years since Amadou Toumani Touré started the constitutional revolution i...
Vol 49 No 13 | NIGERIA The Ibori test 20th June 2008 Former Delta State Governor James Ibori faces charges of fraud and corruption in the Kaduna High Court and his wife Theresa faces money laundering charges in Britain, where she was...