NEWS ANALYSIS

Malabo, Equatorial Guinea | AFP | Equatorial Guinea is ruled by Africa’s longest-serving president, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who took power by overthrowing his uncle and has since weathered several coup attempts himself. After claims of a new attempt late December, here is some background about the small nation tainted by …

COMMENT | LOUIS GAKUMBA | This is not a feel-good story. As impossible and improbable as it sounds, last month a story broke out of Libya; shocking images of thousands of African immigrants caged behind bars like cattle for auction sale. Emaciated and frail, some were sold for as little as …

What dispute over the world’s tiniest disputed island, tells us about international law COMMENT | CHRISTOPHER R. ROSSI | For as far back as anyone could remember, Migingo was nothing more than an uninhabited pinprick on Lake Victoria. One of three small islands in the eastern waters that make up an …

Power generator cleared to hire new dam supervisor Kampala, Uganda | JULIUS BUSINGE | Power generator—Uganda Electricity Generation Company Limited (UEGCL)—is set to hire a new supervisor technically known as Owner’s Engineer (OE) for the 183MW Isimba hydro-power dam. This comes two months after the contract of Energy Infratech expired in …

John Hursh | AFRICAN ARGUMENTS |  On 6 October, the US government announced that it would revoke the majority of economic sanctions imposed on Sudan. Many of them had been in place for two decades. Numerous governments, organisations, and commentators welcomed the decision. Sudan expert Alex de Waalcalled the move “long overdue”, while UN Special Rapporteur Idriss …

Roger Southall | AFRICAN ARGUMENTS | Rumours that President Jacob Zuma has instructed the South African National Defence Force to draw up plans for implementing a state of emergency may or may not be true. Nonetheless they are evidence of South Africa’s current febrile political atmosphere. Any assumption that yesterday’s election of Cyril Ramaphosa as the new leader …

Moscow, Russia | AFP | Russia’s top court on Saturday rejected an appeal by opposition leader Alexei Navalny against a decision to bar him from running in the country’s 2018 presidential election. The Supreme Court agreed with Russia’s Central Election Commission that Navalny cannot register as a candidate due to …

Paris, France | AFP |  From the inauguration of US President Donald Trump to the exodus of Rohingyas from Myanmar, here are 12 events that marked 2017. – A year of Trump – On January 20 Republican billionaire Donald Trump, 70, is inaugurated as US president, vowing: “America first.” Suspicions …

ANALYSIS: Troubled South African leader Zuma heads towards exit Johannesburg, South Africa | AFP | South Africa’s jovial leader Jacob Zuma is a former herdboy who fought in the anti-apartheid struggle and has held onto the presidency despite a plethora of scandals. Now aged 75, he has survived by building …

Low private sector lending, decline in interest rates to take toll on the bank’s profitability for the year ending Dec 2017 Kampala, Uganda | ISAAC KHISA | Uganda’s commercial banks seem to be laying down new strategies as the industry anticipates to record subdued earnings in 2016 owed to low private …