Opposition politicians seeking an explanation for the continuing grip on power of some of the more authoritarian Francophone leaders may find guidance from the Nu Health Clinic in ...

The surprise was not Charles Taylor's victory in the 18 July elections but the scale of it: he won over three-quarters of the votes; his nearest rival, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, won l...

Almost two months after seizing power (AC Vol 38 No 12), Major Johnny Paul Koroma's regime is consolidating and digging in for a lengthy military confrontation with Nigerian-led fo...

All the ingredients are there: political uncertainty (about General Sani Abacha's candidacy in next year's elections), economic collapse (fuel shortages and worse poverty than 25 y...

First, look at the figures which General Sani Abacha prefers. Inflation was at 70 per cent in late 1995 and is now at 20 per cent. Foreign exchange reserves tripled last year to ov...

Could the United States stomach a Charles Taylor presidency? And how would it cope with his US prison record? As General Services Agency director under Samuel Doe, Taylor was accus...

Two frontrunners dominate the election campaign which started on 16 June: ex-Finance Minister and former United Nations Development Programme Africa Director Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf ...

Major Johnny Paul Koroma's 25 May coup d'état (the third change of regime by force in five years) was the most bloody and destructive in Sierra Leone's history. Nigeria's na...

Most members of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council are little known, being drawn from young, ill-educated and poorly trained junior officers and other ranks. All have benefited...

Soldiers from Togo proved useless when sent to fight for Marshal Mobutu Sese Seko (who was a guest of the Presidency in Lomé after his fall). Perhaps mindful of Mobutu's fat...