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Published 29th June 2018

Vol 59 No 13


Sierra Leone

Koroma accused of grand corruption

Julius Maada Bio at his inauguration ceremony, Freetown, 12 May 2018. Pic: Shi Song/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images
Julius Maada Bio at his inauguration ceremony, Freetown, 12 May 2018. Pic: Shi Song/Xinhua News Agency/PA Images

A transition team report – exclusively obtained by AC – lists wholesale plunder, ethnic favouritism… and how ex-President Koroma profited from it

President Julius Maada Bio is to appoint a judicial commission of inquiry into massive state plunder and fraud during Ernest Bai Koroma's two terms of office after receiving an explosive report from his 12-member transition team, our sources in Freetown say. The team, led by Bio's new Chief Minister, Professor David Francis, was charged with taking stock of government finances and administration. The report, which landed on the President's desk this week, is expected to be published in the next few days.

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Putting on the brakes

The government is taking steps to curb the ballooning debt, but will they be enough to make an IMF programme possible?

The goal is to bring the risk of 'debt distress' from 'high' to 'moderate'. Even this modest target will probably elude Finance Minister Margaret Mwanakatwe because the government'...


The lone general

President Sisi opens his second term by reshuffling the high command again as signs emerge he is planning a new ruling party

When President Abdel Fattah el Sisi was sworn in for a second term on 2 June, a 21-gun salute rang out in front of parliament to mark the occasion. A few days later, in the Supreme...


Full of sound and fury…

Warm words from President Kenyatta about tackling corruption hold little promise of transforming an endemic culture of rot

Grand corruption throughout society is being exposed on a scale Kenyans have never seen before – all, apparently, with the full support of President Uhuru Kenyatta. Such is t...


Adieu à Françafrique

The investigation of Vincent Bolloré highlights how the old business networks are losing influence in French former colonies

When the French billionaire industrialist Vincent Bolloré was placed under formal investigation by Paris prosecutors on suspicion of bribing foreign officials in Africa, commentato...


Bombs, smoke and mirrors

With five weeks to polling day, an explosion at a rally in Bulawayo and arguments at the electoral commission threaten the vote

The blast that rocked the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) election rally in White City Stadium, in Bulawayo, on 23 June has refocused attention on...


Trading blocs hit the blocks

Does Morocco really want to join Ecowas? Its application is going nowhere and clashes with other commitments and interests

After scoring a significant coup by rejoining the African Union in January 2017, Rabat's next step in its 'turn to Africa' was to consolidate regional links by joining the Economic...


Discontent takes wing

High opinions of the President are crashing to Earth amid accusations of favouritism, ineptitude and luxurious living at public expense

President João Lourenço excited Angolans with a high-profile anti-corruption campaign that targeted the extended family of former President José Eduardo dos Santos, but now crack...


Masisi steps out of Khama's shadow

Sacking a spy chief, ending the alcohol levy and promising to open up the economy, the new President is junking his predecessor's policies

As if determined to disavow Ian Khama's description of him as a 'bootlicker', new President Mokgweetsi Masisi has been breaking with the past, pushing more pro-business policies, c...



Pointers

Scuttle diplomacy

June's abortive round of the South Sudan peace 'revitalisation' process in Addis Ababa, convened by the eight-nation regional Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD), did...


A proconsul retires

The leading representative of the Ethiopian security services in Somalia, Colonel Gebregziabher Alemseged, better known in Somalia as Colonel Gebre, has been recalled. Since 2002 C...


Abiy scores – so far

An Eritrean Government delegation arrived in Addis Ababa on 26 June in response to the Ethiopian ruling coalition's latest peace initiative. The dispatch of the fact-finding missio...


Sparks still fly

It's a year since the businessmen Harbinder Singh Sethi and James Rugemalira – alleged architects of scams involving the public-private Independent Power Tanzania Ltd (IPTL) ...