Republic of Congo’s puppet master A master rule-breaker is preparing to change the rules again While elections in the Republic of Congo are a year away, Brazzaville, its riverside capital, is awash with rumours that the president will amend the constitution, again, to remain in power. Denis Sassou-Nguesso, 72, has ruled over the oil-rich state for nearly 35 years, against a backdrop of coups, civil wars and repeated constitutional revisions. He first came to power after a military takeover in 1979 and ruled until 1992, when he lost a presidential election to Pascal Lissouba in the nation’s first multi-party elections.…
Kamissa Camara
Côte d’Ivoire’s crippled opposition The main opposition party in this west African nation is barely standing With Côte d’Ivoire’s presidential elections slated for November 2015, and the country still recovering from the violence that followed the last polls in 2010, the role of the former ruling party and now the main opposition is anyone’s guess. The Ivorian Popular Front (FPI) ruled this west African nation for ten years under the stewardship of Laurent Gbagbo, its founding father and the country’s former president. Large blue posters of Mr Gbagbo smiling and wearing sunglasses festoon the FPI headquarters in Abidjan, the capital.…
Mali’s risky rebel integration project All past attempts to merge Tuareg rebel groups into the regular army have failed The next round of peace talks in Algeria between Mali’s government and six armed rebel groups—mostly composed of Tuaregs, the fabled blue-robed men of the desert—was scheduled for January 2015, as this magazine went to press. The third round finished inconclusively on November 27th 2014. The talks come in the wake of a Tuareg rebellion in January 2012, the fourth since Mali’s independence in 1960. The National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), one of the groups represented in Algiers,…
