Congo-Kinshasa's neighbours and foreign investors had high hopes of business gains following the overthrow of Mobutu Sese Seko but the old dictator's legacy of institutional collap...

Perhaps it's just a bizarre coincidence but some Cameroonians have noticed that personalities close to the President have died just before multiparty elections. In 1992, the dead i...

Veteran opposition leader Étienne Tshisekedi wa Mulumba still has huge support in the capital Kinshasa and his arrest on 26 June was for many Kinois the final stage in their...

As the regime of Mobutu Sese Seko tottered to its end, his generals were negotiating a rescue package with former South African military men. The President approved the plan, made ...

None of the protagonists emerge with any credit from the murderous struggle for power in Brazzaville. The fighting precedes the presidential election, which President Pascal Lissou...

President Paul Biya and his Rassemblement Démocratique du Peuple Camerounais (RDPC) look likely to get away with another flawed election. The RDPC claims to have won 109 of ...

After his triumphal debut at the Organisation of African Unity summit (2-4 June) in Harare, Laurent-Désiré Kabila returned to Kinshasa and a sea of problems. Security...

Zaïre has a new name, République Démocratique du Congo (RDC), a new strongman, Laurent-Désiré Kabila and a new burst of goodwill from most of the w...

The shape of Africa resembles a revolver, wrote Algeria's Franz Fanon, 'and Zaïre is the trigger'. Over 30 years after Fanon's assessment, new fingers are on the trigger but t...

It is turning out worse than they had feared in Paris. President Omar Bongo's government in Gabon has cut out his old ally, France's Elf Aquitaine, in favour of a deal with Energy ...