The central African nation of Congo Brazzaville has become the newest member of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), following the conclusion of the OPEC member meeting in Vienna on Friday. It is now the 15th nation to become a member, seven of them on the continent. The…
No one talked very much ahead of the fossil-fuel conference hosted by Pope Francis at the Pontifical Academy of Sciences at the Vatican this weekend: not the participants, not the Vatican, and not the University of Notre Dame in the United States, a Roman Catholic institution that co-sponsored the event….
The World Bank has approved USD$180 million in loan guarantees to boost Kenya Electricity Generation Company Limited (KenGen) and the country’s energy sector. The KenGen project, supported by private sector financing, will build on Kenya’s progress in diversifying its energy sources – including geothermal power – while bringing much needed…
South Sudan’s Ministry of Mining, Ministry of Petroleum and the state-owned Nile Petroleum Company were among 15 oil-industry entities added to the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List on Thursday, for what officials say is their funding of the country’s ongoing conflict and actions deemed “contrary to the national security…
The United States has announced it will publish Thursday the names of 15 oil-industry entities in South Sudan that U.S. officials say are supporting the country’s ongoing crisis with their revenues. The decision to place the South Sudanese businesses on the U.S. Department of Commerce Entity List means licensing will…
A hydroelectric dam project, years in the making and planned for the Zambezi River between Zambia and Zimbabwe, remains under pressure from whitewater rafting enthusiasts and tourism businesses concerned about the environmental and economic impacts. Munyaradzi Munodawafa, chief executive with the Zambezi River Authority, told reporters this week that the…
Officials in Equatorial Guinea say ExxonMobil has struck oil with the Avestruz-1 well drilled by the company in October. It’s now being assessed for its commercial potential. The site is about 160 kilometers off Malabo, in an area adjacent to the Zafiro field in the country’s maritime area to the…
A corruption case revealed this week in the United States led to the arrest of the former foreign minister of Senegal while implicating high-level African leaders in two countries – and casting a new shadow on China’s role on the continent as Beijing advances its Belt and Road Initiative. The…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
Angola’s new president announced Wednesday the removal of Isabel dos Santos as board president of Sonangol, the state-controlled oil company. She has been replaced by Carlos Saturnino, according to ANGOP, Angola’s news agency. Dos Santos, the daughter of longtime former president Jose Eduardo dos Santos, was removed by President João…
A mining company in the South Kordofan region of Sudan has halted operations after two attacks on company workplaces within the space of a week. The attacks on Leha Mining Company at its Baloula site led to a total shutdown, Radio Dabanga said. There were no casualties reported in either…
Africa Oil Week begins Monday in Cape Town, with energy ministers and senior officials from a host of African nations participating. Joining them is United States Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, who traveled this weekend to South Africa and will deliver an address Tuesday on global energy policy and security….
At least one person has died and there are reports of 20 injured following a new round of riots in the Guinean mining town of Boke on Wednesday. This week’s street protests escalated as residents blocked access to mine workers headed for their jobs, and then attacked a police post…
Malawi is seeing another round of power outages caused by lower water levels in Lake Malawi, and the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) warns that there are likely more on the horizon. Local media outlets say that recent outages are lasting for more than five hours a day in…
A report last week on President Joseph Kabila and his family’s holdings in the Democratic Republic of Congo – copper, cobalt and tin mining among them – offered a comprehensive look at what the Congo Research Group calls “a conservative reading” of assets worth tens of millions of dollars. The…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
A new report from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in London should send shivers down the collective spine of the development community: On its current trajectory, sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) will face a projected shortfall of 50 million jobs by 2040. The paper argues – as have others –…
Arnaud is a French freelance writer with an African heart who has lived in 10 different Sub-Saharan countries in the past decade. He is currently based in Paris.