Tunisia
Saïed in Paris for frank talks about debt, OIF summit with Macron

Palace Intrigues
Denis Sassou Nguesso, Kais Saied, Mamady Doumbouya, François Beya

Intrigues big and small... Every Tuesday, Africa Intelligence takes a peek into the corridors of power in Africa and beyond.

Congo Macron's embarrassing handshake at presidential palace

Tunisia Saied requests $500m in aid from Al Thani

Guinea French-Guinean duo brings Pogba and Ronaldinho to Conakry and Abidjan

Central African Republic François Beya fails to show in Bangui

Tunisia
OIF seeks PR agency on tight budget and deadline

The Tunisian firm Impact and two French companies are bidding for the contract to take care of communications for the next summit of the organisation of French-speaking nations. However, the budget is tight, as are the deadlines.

Africa, France
OIF seeks to rival Commonwealth by boosting Francophone business

Ahead of November's summit of French-speaking states in Tunisia, Louise Mushikiwabo, the secretary general of the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), will lead a 70-strong economic and trade delegation on a trip to Hanoi.

Tunisia
Tribulations of Francophonie summit drag on

President Kais Saied is at loggerheads with Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi over possibly again postponing the 50th anniversary summit of the French-speaking nations club. Tunisia is far from ready to host the event even if it does decide to hold it as planned in November.

Tunisia
Negotiations with IMF for $4bn loan still at an impasse

Neither President Kaïs Saïed nor the government of Hichem Mechichi have so far managed to come up with a reform plan which meets the conditions imposed by the IMF for granting a $4bn loan. In any case, the loan would barely enable Tunisia to cover its upcoming payment deadlines.

Tunisia
No solution for budget crisis as Mechichi is cold-shouldered by IMF and Ghannouchi by Doha

Having failed to present a structural reform plan to the International Monetary Fund, Prime Minister Hichem Mechichi is unlikely to get any new budgetary aid in the short term. Parliamentary speaker Rached Ghannouchi, meanwhile, has been unable to obtain support from his allies in Qatar.

In Focus | Tunisia
Tunis tries to defuse its debt bomb to avoid going into default

Tunisia, which has been given an official warning by the IMF and had its credit status downgraded by the ratings agencies, is struggling to cope with an external debt which currently stands at close to 100% of its GDP and is weighing heavily on its finances.