CONGO-KINSHASARUSSIA Wagner Group is struggling to sell arms to Tshisekedi 24th December 2024 Pic: @FelixUdps Kinshasa’s closer business ties with the US are sidelining Moscow’s military offers Congolese businessmen close to President Félix Tshisekedi are trying to negotiate a regime security, and arms deal between Kinshasa and the remnants of the Wagner Group, now under Pavel Prigozhin, son of the group’s founder Yevgeny Prigozhin who died in a plane crash on 23 August, 2023.
MOZAMBIQUEUNITED STATES TotalEnergies makes a dash for the US gas cash 20th December 2024 Pic: totalenergies.com Before Trump takes over in Washington, the French oil company wants the US export bank to back its gas export plan France’s TotalEnergies is making a final push to win United States funding for its liquefied natural gas project in northern Mozambique before Donald J Trump is inaugurated US...
MOZAMBIQUE Frelimo falters as a people’s uprising gathers steam 19th December 2024 Albino José Sibia ‘Mano Shottas’ Anger is rising as civic activists say police have killed over 130 protestors and the Constitutional Council prepares to rule on disputed election Mozambique’s police crossed a previously unthinkable line on 14 December when they opened fire on mourners after the funeral of 30-year-old Albino José Sibia, known as ‘Mano Shottas’.... READ FOR FREE
WEST AFRICA The Sahel-exit splits open Ecowas 18th December 2024 Ecowas sixty-sixth ordinary session, 15 December 2024, Abuja, Nigeria. Pic: @ecowas_cedeao Nigeria’s Tinubu presides over the regional bloc’s worst ever crisis The break up of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) into two rival blocs is now irreversible. At an emergency summit in Abuja on 15 December,...
GHANA Mahama lacks time to turn his promised reset into reality 12th December 2024 President-elect Mahama meets President Akufo-Addo to discuss the transition process, 11 December 2024. Pic: @JDMahama Pledging a lean and accountable government, the new President says he will end nuisance taxes but keep the IMF reform programme on track Following his victory in the 7 December presidential elections and securing a two-thirds majority in parliament, President-elect John Dramani Mahama has the executive power and the parliamentary support...
GHANA Mahama leads a decisive NDC comeback 9th December 2024 Ghana presidential election held on 7 December, 2024. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2024 Vice-President Bawumia concedes early to ‘preserve the peace of our country’ amid sharpening polarisation Former President John Dramani Mahama won the 7 December presidential election decisively – defeating Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and leading the opposition National...
NIGERIA Tinubu prepares to present 2025 budget 12th December 2024 Nigeria: Naira weakens, subsidies fall, revenues improve. Copyright © Africa Confidential 2024 Foreign exchange and tax reforms are praised by international banks but most Nigerians are yet to see the benefits For the multilateral financial institutions and investment banks, President Bola Tinubu’s economic reforms are stabilising the country’s finances and staunching the loss of billions of dollars in revenues... READ FOR FREE
NIGERIA Reforms spark a national tax revolt 12th December 2024 Pic: @officialABAT State governors and federal lawmakers oppose plans to centralise revenue collection in a new agency in Abuja President Bola Tinubu’s alliance with northern Nigeria, which helped him get into power last year, risks falling apart as he attempts to re-engineer the country’s revenue structure. Tinubu’s...
CAMEROON Chantal Biya gains ground as an old ally falls 11th December 2024 The Biyas. Pic: @ChantalBIYA_Cmr After a heated argument with the First Lady, Rear-Admiral Joseph Fouda was drummed out of the presidency accused of fraud He headed no unit of the Cameroonian armed forces, nor did he even grace its highest ranks, let alone did he earn President Paul Biya’s eternal gratitude by...
KENYA New alliances on shaky ground 12th December 2024 Hassan Joho and William Ruto at State House Nairobi. Pic: @HassanAliJoho The putative opposition is enjoying its five seats in government but is hedging its bets before committing to a formal coalition with Ruto Even by the standards of Kenyan politics, where the bitterest political enemies in one election can become close allies at the next, the five members of Raila Odinga’s...
NAMIBIA SWAPO bucks the regional trend 12th December 2024 Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. Pic: @VPSWAPO Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah, the ruling party’s first female presidential candidate, now has to deliver on her jobs promise SWAPO retained power in the presidential and legislative elections last month although on a smaller vote share than in 2019 amid claims by the opposition of skulduggery in...
GABON General Oligui Nguema shows how to run a coup 5th December 2024 Pic: @oliguinguema The putschist general may stay in power after a constitutional change allows him to stand in next year’s elections Having secured a 91.8% ‘Yes’ vote in the 16 November referendum on the new constitution, transitional head of state General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema is set to run...
ZIMBABWE As army dissent grows, Mnangagwa appoints loyalist as security minister 4th December 2024 Lovemore Matuke. Pic: @HonMatuke Lovemore Matuke, who led Mnangagwa’s campaign for a third term, is the new spy chief and security coordinator Facing challenges to his authority from the army, which installed him in 2017 and his campaign for a third term in disarray, President Emmerson Mnangagwa appointed Lovemore Matuke,...
FRANCEAFRICA Macron tilts to Anglophone Africa after Sahelian exits 3rd December 2024 President Bola Tinubu’s state visit to Paris, 28-29 November. Pic: @officialABAT After a spate of reverses in the region, the French President is boosting ties with Ghana and Nigeria One data point sums up the commercial stakes: there are more French companies in Nigeria than there are in the rest of West Africa. It also painted the...
BELGIUMWHO'S WHO In the news: Didier Reynders and Belge-Afrique 12th December 2024 Didier Reynders. Pic: @dreynders The investigation into former EU Justice Commissioner and pillar of the Belgian establishment, Didier Reynders, linked to a wider probe of money laundering via state-owned institutions, has triggered...
EUROPEAN UNIONAFRICA Brussels gets a new Africa corps 12th December 2024 Kaja Kallas. Pic: @kajakallas The European Commission has used one problem to solve another after strategically appointing Portuguese diplomat Salvador Pinto da França as the Africa advisor to Kaja Kallas, the EU’s...
ZIMBABWE London vetoes Harare 12th December 2024 Lord Collins. Pic: @Lord_Collins The British government has vetoed the re-admission of Zimbabwe to the Commonwealth, Africa Minister Lord Ray Collins confirmed in a written answer to a question about Zimbabwe’s readmission...
GHANA Bawumia tries to defy economic gravity 28th November 2024 Ghana presidential and parliamentary elections held on 7 December 2020. © Africa Confidential 2024 Against a backdrop of slow recovery from a devastating national debt crisis, the vice-president promises to make history Using the slogan ‘Breaking the Eight’, Vice-President Mahamudu Bawumia is vying to succeed President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo in an ambitious bid to win a third consecutive national... READ FOR FREE
NIGERIA Tinubu looks to his military home boys 28th November 2024 President Bola Tinubu at the funeral of Lt Gen Taoreed Lagbaja. Pic: @officialABAT After a spate of coups swept West Africa, the President has stacked key positions with officers from his home region
SOUTH AFRICA The rise, fall and rise again of Jacob Zuma 28th November 2024 Pic: @FloydShivambu Like his populist counterpart across the Atlantic, South Africa’s much prosecuted leader keeps bouncing back
UNITED NATIONSCLIMATE CHANGE Cosplay at the COP29 – a climate finance summit without numbers 22nd November 2024 Photo op at the COP. © Asempa Ltd, 2024. All rights reserved. By failing to agree on a new cash target, the Baku delegates are acting in character but could break up the UN climate bargaining process
SENEGALWHO'S WHO PROFILE: Ousmane Sonko – Premier League 28th November 2024 Ousmane Sonko. Pic: @SonkoOfficiel
ZIMBABWECOMMONWEALTHBRITAIN Zimbabwe readmission ‘is off’ 28th November 2024 Baroness Patricia Scotland welcomes Emmerson Mnangagwa to Marlborough House, May 2023. Pic: @PScotlandCSG The UK won’t support Zimbabwe’s readmission to the Commonwealth, we hear, although it could threaten its charm offensive on the continent
SOMALIASOMALILAND Hargeisa faces new pressures 28th November 2024 Pic: @Abdirahmanirro After Irro’s victory, the government must respond to demands on corruption and jobs as it tries to hold the territory together
EUROPEAN UNIONAFRICA Africa could lose out from bid to rewrite Europe’s deforestation rules 20th November 2024 Dense forest, Katanga, Congo. Pic: Alvaro/stock.adobe.com EU lawmakers have brought in wide-ranging exemptions to the forestry laws but few African states will benefit
ANGOLAUNITED STATES Lourenço mulls his succession 28th November 2024 Pic: João Lourenço FB With demonstrators marching again in Luanda, the MPLA government may start taking more risks
NAMIBIA SWAPO aims to avoid a Botswana-style upset 25th November 2024 Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah. Pic: @VPSWAPO With incumbents out of favour in the region, the outcome of the elections is on a knife-edge
SENEGAL President Faye set to win in parliament as honeymoon endures 15th November 2024 Bassirou Diomaye Faye. Pic: @PR_Senegal New alliances are unlikely to stop the popular president and his Pastef party from success in the snap legislative election
CONGO-KINSHASABELGIUM The price of sainthood 28th November 2024 King Badouin leaves the church of St Mary, Leopoldville after attending mass. Belgian Congo 23 May 1955. Pic: Smith Archive / Alamy Stock Photo