Senior United States official for African Affairs Ambassador Donald Y. Yamamoto, the country’s Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, is making a rare visit to the politically isolated Eritrea Monday before moving on to Djibouti and Ethiopia. In Asmara, Yamamoto is meeting with U.S. embassy staff as well as the wider diplomatic…
The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has welcomed the new appointment of a prime minister in Guinea Bissau, which has remained in a prolonged political crisis that began in 2015. President Jose Mario Vaz announced that Aristides Gomes, a fellow African Party of the Independence of Guinea…
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…
The United States announced Tuesday that it has assigned Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) status to the Ansarul Islam group, and will impose sanctions against members known to have committed terrorist acts or believed to be at a significant risk of doing so. “Ansarul Islam is a terrorist group based…
The United States announced new targeted sanctions on Friday against three individuals, including one in Puntland state in Somalia believed to be providing support to Islamic State terrorists. Mohamed Mire Ali Yusuf (Mire Ali) was listed among Specially Designated Global Terrorists, a status assigned by the U.S. Department of the…
With no clear end to the Guinea Bissau political crisis in sight, the West African governing body ECOWAS has announced sanctions on “all persons or organizations who impede the process” of its resolution. The 15-nation Economic Community of West African States said the sanctions – a long-discussed measure revisited in…
Former president Yahya Jammeh of The Gambia and international businessman Dan Gertler, implicated in corrupt mining and oil deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo, are among 13 individuals added to a United States Department of Treasury list of those subject to imposed economic sanctions under the government’s Magnitsky Act. “Treasury…
The much-anticipated United States decision to lift sanctions against Sudan will go into effect on Thursday, on the basis of “sustained positive actions” in key areas, but the U.S. has announced its concerns as well. “The Government of Sudan’s actions during the last nine months show that it is serious…
Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour, headed for the United Nations General Assembly in New York, has made a stop in Washington D.C. first to discuss U.S. sanctions imposed on Khartoum. Ghandour met with U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Sullivan last week, as well as Mark Green, the head of…
Members of the United Nations (UN) Security Council, meeting in an emergency session on Monday, expressed alarm over North Korea’s nuclear bomb test at the weekend. The security council members, including representatives of Egypt, Senegal and Ethiopia, condemned the test and explored options for dealing with Pyongyang that include new…
Two Namibian firms doing business with North Korea have fallen under new sanctions imposed by Japan, as tensions with Pyongyang have escalated in recent months. Those tensions reached new heights on Tuesday after North Korea launched a missile that flew over Japanese territory at Hokkaido, landing in the Pacific Ocean…
The United Nations Security Council should apply sanctions to nine leaders in South Sudan, including President Salva Kiir and exiled rebel leader Riek Machar, the Human Rights Watch organization argued in a new report on conflict-related atrocities released Tuesday. “Salva Kiir, former Vice President Riek Machar, former army chief of…
Amid threats over new sanctions and the strife over stalled presidential elections in the Democratic Republic of Congo – elections that President Joseph Kabila’s regime says the country can’t afford – comes a curious report on two close Kabila associates and their yacht. Leading French outlet Le Monde published on Tuesday…
Laureen is the editor of Africa Times
The European Union formally listed on Monday nine current and former officials of the Democratic Republic of Congo whose role in human rights violations has led to EU sanctions against them. Their names were added “in view of the gravity of the situation in DRC,” and join the list of…