Despite a breakthrough in the Doha-Riyadh feud in January, the Angolan president Joao Lourenço is methodically positioning his players to make the most of the ongoing competition between the Gulf countries.
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Diplomacy 
Under pressure from the IMF, which for the past 18 months has been blocking the second tranche of the $448.6m loan it approved in 2019, Congo is trying to revive talks with traders who have extended oil-backed loans to the country.
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Business The Canadian company has been pulling out all the stops in Congo to get its Tilapia license renewed. But while it has been focused on this priority, its plans in Gabon are faltering.
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Energy 
Having failed to take advantage of the G20's debt suspension initiative, which brought in new African contracts for all his competitors, former International Monetary Fund managing director Dominique Strauss-Kahn is now offering his services as a consultant in Africa's smallest capitals.
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Business As Cécé Noramou, technical advisor to Guinea's ministry of mines, awaits his imminent retirement, he is finalising a project to decide upon the best approach for relocating, resettling, and compensating people affected by mining projects.
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Mining With less than a month to go before he faces Mahamne Ousmane in the second round of the presidential election, Mohamed Bazoum has been in Paris since 19 January with a host of press interviews already lined up.
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Politics Le géant américain des services à la défense Constellis Group (ex-Academi Training Center) a envoyé en fin d'année des instructeurs militaires en Afrique de l'Ouest.
The African Development Bank (AfDB) is examining a case for the financing of the 42-MW hydropower plant Kenié. The Abuja-based institution is in talks with the project developer, French power producer Eranove.
The Djiboutian president has raised hackles among the top brass in the Sudanese army as he seeks closer ties with the Ethiopian prime minister in the hope of persuading him to forget his long-running friendship with the Tigrayan leadership.
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Diplomacy 
Tax Review Committee chair Dennis Davis has slammed the state's inability to collect dues from its wealthiest citizens. The fiscal authority is trying to get a better grip, but has been left weakened by its previous director.
The arrest of three gold smugglers in South Africa earlier this month was a particularly unwelcome development for Rajoelina's government because the plane that flew them to Johannesburg is frequently used by the finance ministry.
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Business 
Moulay Lakbir Alaoui Ismaili's street lighting and street furniture specialist Lamalif will build four luxury estates in one of Marrakesh's most affluent neighbourhoods.
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Business Kuwaiti construction group Al Kharafi, which is seeking $1bn in compensation from the Libyan Investment Authority following the cancellation of a big property project in Janzour, has had seized a number of the authority's assets in France, among them the FNAC store in Paris's Avenue des Ternes.
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Business Following the example of Rada, the Ghneiwa militia has now accepted the authority of Fayez Sarraj's Presidential Council. This brings the prime minister a step closer to gaining control of the Tripoli government's security system, which is normally answerable to the Ministry of the Interior, and, by the same token, to thwarting the ambitions of Misrati interior minister Fathi Bachagha.
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Diplomacy 