The elections on 14 May were justifiably hailed as a victory for peace. Veterans said they were the least violent in the country's post-independence history (AC Vol 43 Nos 7 & ...

President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah has kept his supporters close about him in a new 22-member cabinet that shuffles posts but makes no real changes. Past efforts to include the Revolutio...

The man who once said 'only an idiot' would want to be Mali's head of state was confirmed as President on 23 May after two rounds of voting (AC Vol 42 No 19 & Vol 43 No 9). The...

The political peace depends, shakily, on the opposition's trust that President Laurent Gbagbo will deliver on his promises. The turning point came in February, with the Yamoussoukr...

Explosions in Conakry's main army camp on 5 May were not because of a coup but they show how the army's dominant role is becoming a liability.

The 14 May presidential and parliamentary elections were lauded as the most peaceful in four decades but political problems loom.

It is a measure of Nigeria's political class that in next year's presidential election, the two most likely candidates - Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari - are retired genera...

The army is back at the centre of politics, three years after it handed over to an elected government whose head, President Olusegun Obasanjo, is himself a recycled military leader...

A queue of enemies is closing in on President Charles Taylor, who is trying to see them off with fire-power and politics. As the veteran opposition leader Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, th...

President Charles Taylor, expecting United Nations sanctions against Liberia to be extended, despatched his skillful Foreign Minister, Monie Captan, to New York in late April to lo...