The British oil major has repeatedly revised its timetable for the offshore gas field as problems mount, much to the annoyance of the two governments involved.
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Energy 
Bujumbura has hired a consulting firm to help it find financial partners to develop the Musongati nickel mine.
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Mining 
By appointing Nigerian financier Andrew Alli as non-executive director of his holding company Heirs, Tony Elumelu has even more chances of attracting investors.
The Guinean businesswoman is trying to approach the military leaders who overthrew Alpha Condé on 5 September to win their support over her four-year dispute with Chinese group TBEA. She wants payment for her services in making contacts for TBEA in Guinea, where it is developing a hydropower dam and a bauxite mine.
Defence Minister Téné Birahima Ouattara has been approached by the US-Israeli entrepreneur about a project to assemble armoured vehicles in Ivory Coast. Amar, who has no track record in the defence sector, was given his calling cards for Abidjan by the Ivorian ambassador and the defence attaché in Washington.
Egypt and Ethiopia are fighting to get their voices heard in Washington, and have hired new PR professionals to help them.
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Diplomacy Uhuru Kenyatta has been forced to send his lieutenant Joseph Kinyua to tackle multiple conflicts at the helm of the state-owned utility, whose chairwoman, Vivienne Yeda Apopo, is being questioned by investigators.
Embroiled in legal complications for the past three years, the Empress gold mine might finally resume exploitation, after an influential Chinese miner's victory over a local investor.
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Mining 
The latest step in Rabat's breathless rapprochement with Israel's defence industry is Morocco's plan to set up a domestic sector to develop suicide drones, devices that are relatively easy to build and have devastating consequences.
After serving as consul in Milan and then amabssador to Abu Dhabi, Abdelkrim Touahria has been appointed ambassador to Rome amid several court battles in Algeria and Italy over potentially damaging lawsuits involving ENI subsidiary Saipem.
Algerian foreign minister Ramtane Lamamra has taken tentative steps to mediate between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan in their dispute over the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and is considering holding a summit Algiers.
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Diplomacy 