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Published 7th September 2007

Vol 48 No 18

Nigeria

A tale of two cities

Amid growing mayhem in the Niger Delta President Yar'Adua has started to restructure the country's oil business

It has been the worst of times in the oil capital of Port Harcourt in the 100 days since President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua was elected. And it has been the most uncertain of times in Abuja, the political capital. More than 70 people have been killed in clashes around Port Harcourt in what appears to be both a test of the new government's resolve and a settling of scores between rival political godfathers and their armed bands. In Abuja, politicians are still struggling to understand the new President's policy agenda and working methods. His understated approach and constant references to the rule of law could hardly be more different from the style of his rumbustious predecessor, Olusegun Obasanjo.

Gas project haunts politicians

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New developments in the investigations into Nigeria's $US10 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export project on Bonny Island could have serious political ramifications in Washing...

More fighting, more aid

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Renewed fighting in the eastern provinces could help the government to qualify more quickly for aid

Theories abound about who is funding and arming the Forces Démocratiques de Libération du Rwanda (FDLR) in the eastern provinces of Congo-Kinshasa. General Laurent Nk...

BLUE LINES
THE INSIDE VIEW

The World Bank is preparing for another push in Washington next month as part of its efforts to secure another US$25 billion from donors to replenish the International Development Association. The negotiations will be an important indicator of progress made by new President Robert Zoellick in rehabilitating the institution after the painful forcing out of his predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz. Insiders say the Bank is unlikely to hit its target. The Bank's critics in Europe and Asia are conciliato...
The World Bank is preparing for another push in Washington next month as part of its efforts to secure another US$25 billion from donors to replenish the International Development Association. The negotiations will be an important indicator of progress made by new President Robert Zoellick in rehabilitating the institution after the painful forcing out of his predecessor, Paul Wolfowitz. Insiders say the Bank is unlikely to hit its target. The Bank's critics in Europe and Asia are conciliatory towards Zoellick personally but still have misgivings about the Bank's policy direction. This week, the Bank's Vice-President for Africa, Obiageli Ezekwesili (formerly Nigeria's Education Minister), announced the Bank had committed a record $5.7 bn. in soft loans to Africa this year, a billion dollars most than last. With unprecedented financial flows from China and capital markets, the Bank's headline figures will impress less. African governments want the Bank to provide policies and technical capacity to launch sustainable projects. A smaller IDA replenishment may change it from financing agency to giant development consultancy company. Music to neo-conservative ears in Washington.
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He keeps on winning

Mugabe's cunning but ruinous regime is smarter than its quarrelsome critics

Zimbabwe defies political gravity. Almost nobody in Harare or Tshwane takes seriously the South African-mediated negotiations between government and opposition. Next year's electio...

Darfur deadlines

Western troop contributors fall behind schedule while Khartoum expels Western diplomats and aid workers

The United Nations has missed its first deadline for deploying peacekeepers in Darfur - not because of African Union recalcitrance but because non-African governments failed to off...

Secretarial duties

The Commonwealth's next chief executive will take over in April 2008 and there are three strong candidates for the secretary general's job: Kamalesh Sharma, Indian High Commissione...

Putting the country to work

The new grand industrial strategy is the most important economic initiative since GEAR

After many years of debate among politicians, business and unions, the draft of a grand industrial strategy for South Africa has emerged in time for the party conference in Decembe...

Africa moves up the agenda

Choosing a new secretary general, acting on Zimbabwe, admitting extra members and the probable appearance of several fresh leaders will keep the commentators busy at November's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting

President Robert Mugabe, leader of an already suspended Zimbabwe, walked out of the Commonwealth club at the end of the Abuja summit in 2003 and since then, the venerable body has ...

Cocaine central

President Vieira's feeble regime is being almost overwhelmed by the drugs trade

Cocaine has been, after oil, West Africa's highest value export to Europe in recent months, according to regional police reports. The coca which forms the basis of the drug is not ...

Pointers

Leaky bucket

The leaking of a report detailing how former President Daniel arap Moi's family and associates have stolen more than US$2 billion of state revenues was timed to cause maximum embar...

A turn for the worse

Praised for their peaceful and credible conduct at first, the elections turned violent when rivals clashed a week before the presidential runoff on 8 September.

Yellowcake rebellion

President Mamadou Tandja has declared a state of alert in the north, the base of Niger's fast growing uranium industry, after attacks on key targets killed some 50 government soldi...

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