Vol 37 No 7 | NIGER Soldiers' schemes 29th March 1996 Western support for democracy is being tested by Niger's military rulers who seized power on 21 January. On 25 March, the European Union decided, against French pressure, to mainta...
Vol 37 No 7 | LIBERIA Monrovia muggings 29th March 1996 Tension is rising in Monrovia. National Patriotic Front of Liberia leader Charles Taylor and United Liberation Movement -Krahn (Ulimo-K) leader Alhaji G.V.Kromah have banded togeth...
Vol 37 No 6 | NIGERIA Money and the military 15th March 1996 As Washington lobbies Europe for sanctions on the soldiers in Abuja, business gives them a vote of confidence In a bizarre way, business is learning to live with, if not to love, General Sani Abacha. For those not exercised by questions of human rights, democracy or longer term economic de...
Vol 37 No 6 | NIGERIA Advocates, advisors and accountants 15th March 1996 No one could describe General Sani Abacha as a convert to market economics yet the policy of 'guided deregulation' begun last year is certainly his own. Whilst he was mourning the ...
Vol 37 No 6 | BENIN Born-again poll 15th March 1996 The prospect of former dictator Mathieu Kérékou returning to power as elected President worries those who argue that economic liberalisation must go hand-in-hand with democratisati...
Vol 37 No 4 | LIBERIA Keeping what peace? 16th February 1996 The warlords behind the six-year conflict want to take control of the peacekeeping operation from the ECOMOG troops Who rules Liberia? At present, nobody. Since 1990, the nearest thing to a national authority has been the peacekeeping force of the Economic Community of West African States. Forma...
Vol 37 No 4 | BENIN Kérékou tries a comeback 16th February 1996 A former dictator tries an electoral comeback in a test of Benin's democratic stamina Next month's presidential election is important not just for the Beninese, who will give their verdict on five years of economic reform, but more widely as a test for multi-party d...
Vol 37 No 4 | NIGERIA Sanctions steam 16th February 1996 A head of steam is again building up for tougher sanctions against General Sani Abacha's government. A January review in Washington, we hear, considered three categories of sanctio...
Vol 37 No 3 | NIGERIA Who's killing who? 2nd February 1996 Bombings and arms caches mean that both sides are upping the stakes in the political crisis The rumblings are getting more ominous. General Sani Abacha's son killed in a plane crash, bombings in the north, tons of guns and ammunition found on the Benin border, South Afric...
Vol 37 No 3 | SIERRA LEONE Big sister's olive branch 2nd February 1996 Brigadier Maada Bio wants a family reconciliation to help end the rebel war Freetown may be stumbling into a peace deal of sorts with the rebels it has been fighting for the last four years. Brigadier Julius Maada Bio and his friends who seized power on 16...