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 She has been replaced by Carlos Saturnino, according to ANGOP, Angola’s news agency.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
The Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), based in Kenya, has renewed its call for the African Renewable Energy Initiative (AREI) to move forward as an African-led organization without the interference of France and the European Union. “The European Union and French Government are interested in imposing and deviating from…
Mozambique will build its first solar PV plant, thanks to funding from the International Finance Corporation. The IFC, a member of the World Bank Group, announced this week that it is providing USD$19 million in funding as part of a $55 million package to support the new utility in Mocuba….
The Ghana Armed Forces, in response to recent media reports, denies that its soldiers are involved in the country’s illegal mining operations or providing security and assistance to those who are. In a statement issued Tuesday, GAF spokesman Col. Eric Aggrey-Quarshie challenged information that surfaced last week during a panel…
Fighting groups have long understood how important it is to secure a stable stream of financial resources in order to sustain the fighting effort over a prolonged time. Fighters need to be fed and remunerated. In other words, no cash, no conflict. In July 2010, the United States passed the…
The mines in Botswana will be the first in Africa to adopt a Canadian model of sustainability that requires members to continuously assess their mining practices and report them to the community. The Towards Sustainable Mining® (TSM) initiative looks at six core areas – including greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity conservation and community…
The news that a provision of United States law requiring companies to report “conflict free minerals” information will be lifted by President Donald Trump’s executive order has been met with dismay by human rights organizations and activists. Yet are the conflict free rules really helping in the Democratic Republic of…