President Nana Akufo Addo of Ghana was set to speak as the virtual Summit for Democracy, hosted by the United States, kicked off on Thursday. Akufo Addo and Yvonne Aki-Sawyer, the mayor of Freetown in Sierra Leone, planned remarks for a discussion on “Bolstering Democratic Resilience: Building Back Better Together…
More than US$73 million has gone missing from the coffers in South Sudan in just the last two years, according to a new Commission on Human Rights report. That money was diverted by the country’s ruling elites, the United Nations rights agency said, and is a fraction of the total…
Former South African president Jacob Zuma has turned himself into police, according to a statement issued by the Jacob Zuma Foundation late Wednesday. “Please be advised that President Zuma has decided to comply with the incarceration order,” the foundation said, referring to the 15-month sentence handed down last week and…
The clock is ticking on former South African president Jacob Zuma, who was given five days to report to police after he was sentenced to 15 months in prison on Tuesday for contempt of court. But he’s filing an appeal of the Constitutional Court decision, and supporters say it’s unlikely…
The long-time president of Djibouti, Ismaïl Omar Guelleh, has launched his re-election campaign in the run-up to national elections on 9 April. With the exception of Zakaria Ismael Jafar, an “anti-system” independent candidate, Guelleh is set to run for his fifth term unopposed. His challengers in the 2016 election have…
Note: This article was updated on March 26, 2021 to include comments from Apollinaire Compaoré. Two troubling recent investigations from the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) have shone a fresh spotlight on the tobacco industry’s continued complicity in tobacco smuggling in Africa. The first highlighted how Philip Morris…
South Africa must prioritize both the fight against the coronavirus pandemic and the country’s economic recovery, especially with an eye toward climate change and the energy sector, the president said during the annual State of the Nation address. President Cyril Ramaphosa compared his nation to the fynbos, a South African…
Senior government officials in South Sudan have embezzled US$36 million from the country’s coffers with the aid of international institutions and multinational banks, says Yasmin Sooka, the head of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights for the nation. “It is worth noting this is just what we were able to…
Zimbabwe’s crackdown on anticorruption protesters has captured the attention of human rights campaigners at home and abroad, many of them using the #zimbabweanlivesmatter hashtag on Twitter to share their concerns. Among them is President Lazarus Chakwera of neighboring Malawi, who was sworn in at the end of June following new…
Young adults focused primarily on South Africa are worried about the continent’s future, but remain optimistic about their own opportunities and their own communities. That’ s according to the recently released Pan-African Youth Survey, which asked 4,200 young adults ages 18-24 how they viewed both the African future and its…
Germany has been involved in development projects in Liberia since at least 2005, providing millions in funds and expertise to the country in areas ranging from infrastructure to health. This, however, will now come to an end. Berlin recently announced earlier this week it would withdraw support for the country…
I am a London-based researcher specialized in security issues and environmental protection. He is currently writing a book about the role lobbying plays in keeping African leaders in power.
With its publication of the “Luanda Leaks,” the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) effectively dispelled decades’ worth of myth-building surrounding Isabel dos Santos, daughter of Angola’s longtime president José Eduardo dos Santos. The investigative series explains how the younger Dos Santos – the former head of Angola’s state oil…
Sub-Saharan Africa again was the world’s lowest-ranking region in the 2019 Corruption Perceptions Index, released Wednesday by the Transparency International (TI) organization based in Berlin, Germany. The report painted “a bleak picture of inaction against corruption,” the NGO said, with some countries – Liberia, Madagascar and Malawi among them –…
The president of Equatorial Guinea will need to declare his assets in keeping with requirements set by the International Monetary Fund, in order for the West African nation to receive a US$283 million bailout agreed to earlier this month. That’s according to a Bloomberg interview with Lisandro Abrego, the IMF’s…
Participants in the three-day African Oil & Power conference, which runs through Friday in Cape Town, are showcasing African industry’s efforts to align with this year’s theme of “Make Energy Work.” Gwede Mantashe, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy in South Africa, served as keynote speaker on Thursday with…