Features | - Part 150

Ex-Civil War Leader Wins Presidential Vote in Sierra Leone

FREE TOWN (Capital Markets in Africa) – Sierra Leone elected as president an opposition politician who briefly ruled the West African nation as head of a junta during the civil war in the 1990s. Julius Maada Bio of the Sierra Leone People’s Party was declared the winner on Wednesday of a tight presidential run-off by the electoral commission after receiving 51.81 percent of ballots cast against 48.19 percent for his opponent, Samura Kamara, of the All…

Tanzania Grants Bail to Opposition Leaders Accused of Sedition

Posted on by The Editorial Team

DAR ES SALAM (Capital Markets in Africa) – A Tanzanian court granted seven opposition officials bail after most were detained for a week on charges of sedition, incitement to violence and unlawful assembly, their political party said. Chadema Party Chairman Freeman Mbowe, Secretary-General Vincent Mashinji and four others had been remanded in custody since March 28. A seventh person, lawmaker Halima Mdee, was arrested April 1 on arrival at the airport in Dar es Salaam, the commercial…

Netanyahu Backtracks on African Migrant Plan, Then Shifts Again

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu backtracked on a just-announced agreement with the United Nations to let about 20,000 African migrants remain in Israel, following an outcry from coalition partners and his political base. On Monday afternoon, Netanyahu called a news conference to disclose Israel had cancelled an earlier plan to deport all 38,000 migrants to Africa, following mass demonstrations against the policy at home and criticism from abroad. Instead, he said, he…

Credibility of Zimbabwe’s First Post-Mugabe Vote Is at Stake

Posted on by The Editorial Team

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – As Zimbabwe prepares to hold its first election since Robert Mugabe was toppled after almost four decades in power, a key question is whether the government can accomplish something he failed to do: oversee a free vote. Whether the election due before Sept. 1 is regarded as fair may determine the success of efforts by President Emmerson Mnangagwa, who replaced Mugabe as president in November, to attract investment to revive an economy…

Zambian Debate on Impeaching President May Not Happen Until June

Posted on by The Editorial Team

HARARE (Capital Markets in Africa) – An opposition party proposal to impeach Zambian President Edgar Lungu may not be debated until June after it wasn’t included in Wednesday’s parliamentary program as expected, and as the legislature closes this week for a two-month recess. The motion brought by Zambia’s main opposition party accuses Lungu of violating the constitution and has been dismissed by the government as frivolous. It has ratcheted up tensions in the southern African nation,…

As Election Begins, El-Sisi Ponders How Hard to Push Egypt

Posted on by The Editorial Team

CAIRO (Capital Markets in Africa) – Horns blare as the car screeches to a halt near a Cairo supermarket. “Don’t you have any integrity?” the driver screams at a man erecting a poster of Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi ahead of this week’s elections. “Hasn’t he done enough to us?” The billboard was extolling the achievements of the former army general, who is running virtually unopposed for a second, four-year term with seemingly much to brag about. After…

The Disappearing $1.1 Billion Behind Shell, Eni Trial: QuickTake

Posted on by The Editorial Team

LAGOS (Capital Markets in Africa) – Royal Dutch Shell Plc and Eni SpA are going to trial in Italy over bribery charges involving an oil field in Nigeria. Two things are unusual about the case. One is the sheer scale of the sum involved — $1.1 billion. The other is that the defendants include Eni’s Chief Executive Officer Claudio Descalzi, the company’s former CEO and a former top executive at Shell. Hearings resume in Milan on May 14. What…

« 1 … 148 149 150 151 152 … 259 »