Africa
UK slowly fine-tunes new Africa strategy

Central African Republic
Third IMF support tranche snags on reform of hydrocarbons sector

CAR finance minister Hervé Ndoba is counting on international aid to wrap up his 2025 budget but finds himself at odds with the powerful energy minister Arthur Bertrand Piri.

Central African Republic, Sudan
Touadéra switches allegiance in Sudan civil war

The Central African Republic president is distancing himself from Sudan's paramilitary RSF leader Hemeti and forging ties with his enemy in the country's civil war, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. In exchange, Bangui wants CAR rebel leaders in Sudan arrested.

Africa
France's new military command for Africa begins to take shape

The new military coordination body, which is modelled on the United States Africa Command, is working to reorganise France's presence on the continent. In addition to preserving military outposts in West and Central Africa, the project entails closer cooperation with a handful of other African states, some of which are English-speaking.

Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast
Ibrahim Traoré grapples with diaspora

The Burkinabe community in Ivory Coast has been quietly boycotting efforts by the junta to raise funds to combat jihadist insurgents back home. They are unhappy about a perceived lack of transparency over how the money is being spent.

Kenya
William Ruto schemes to win back Mount Kenya's wavering coffee growers

Ethiopia, Kenya
Ruto leverages trade to ease Ethiopia-Somalia tensions

The future of the East African Community and regional insecurity topped the agenda of a recent tete-a-tete between Kenya President William Ruto and Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.

Madagascar
IMF delays $103m loan to Antananarivo for failing to make petrol price adjustments

The International Monetary Fund believes that Christian Ntsay's government has not met the commitments it promised, particularly with regard to setting up a mechanism to adjust prices at petrol pumps, and so could miss out on millions of dollars.

South Africa
Former opposition leader turned agriculture minister John Steenhuisen struggles to assemble his team

The leader of the Democratic Alliance party has just appointed a new ministerial liaison officer. This is the first step towards forming a ministerial team that is still sparse.

Algeria
Lotfi Bellahcene, the Algerian oil sector's new golden boy

Morocco
Under pressure in Brussels, Azura calls on lobbying heavyweights

Via their lobbying agency Linkers, Myriam Abikzer and Driss Benhima are coaching Azura, the kingdom's leading tomato company, which has come under fire from the European Union over its labour costs and questionable environmental practices.

Algeria
Agri-food giants breathe sigh of relief after Algiers' trade sanctions withdrawn

After deciding to unofficially take economic retaliatory measures against France, Algeria has finally backed down. Several major groups had begun to reorganise their logistics.