Addis Ababa has followed in Cairo's footsteps and hired a US lobbying heavyweight. Worried his Egyptian rival will take the lead in the Grand Renaissance dam debate and concerned about his declining reputation over the Tigray conflict, the Ethiopian prime minister is working institutions, diplomats, and the media.
The head of state is a practising Muslim but has always been at pains to show he cares about the other religions in his country. The latest display of this diplomatic-spiritual prudence was the appointment of a Frenchman, who was one of his tutors in the 1970s, to represent Gabon at the Holy See.
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Diplomacy The former British prime minister Tony Blair's institute is preparing a report for the Congolese presidency to help guide the main economic policy of Sama Lukonde's future government.
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Business The Chadian government, which is mired in debt and badly affected by the Covid-19 crisis, wants to speed up the sale of part of its shares in the COTCO oil pipeline to Cameroonian state-owned oil company SNH.
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Energy At the request of Saudi Arabia and Russia, leaders of the Vienna-based organisation want to force Brazzaville and Libreville to comply with OPEC rules and have instructed Nigeria to pull the uncooperative members back into line.
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Energy 
New US ambassador to the United Nations, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, who was previously Barack Obama's assistant secretary of state for African affairs, has begun gathering around her Africa specialists she has already worked with.
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Diplomacy Guinean authorities approved the feasibility study to mine bauxite on the Santou II and Houda blocks early January. SMB is currently building a railway to use for export.
Thirty-six firms, among them major European and Chinese players, have experssd interest in tenders by Mauritania's Société Nationale Industrielle et Minière (SNIM) to carry out the earthworks for three new iron deposits.
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Mining 
Two years into his presidency, Andry Rajoelina has still not filled some the most important diplomatic appointments, leaving Madagascar without an ambassador to the US, the UN, or South Africa.
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Diplomacy Two businessmen with a longstanding presence in Harare's agricultural trading community have launched a grain import-export company based in Mauritius to target the Zimbabwean market. They are seeking to take advantage of a booming sector, driven by President Mnangagwa's plans to improve the security of the country's food supplies.
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Business The American entertainment colossus Warner Music decided to create a base in Mauritius' financial centre at the end of February in order to enter the Indian market, partnering with South African firm Ziiki Media.
The ministry of technologies has not be able to find a contractor to build the inter-operability platform key to the government digitisation progamme dubbed "Tunisie digitale 2020", now well behind schedule.
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Business The national electricity board has commissioned Cegelec, a subsidiary of French group Vinci, to connect Laâyoune in Western Sahara to the national grid. This line will be used to offload electricity from the Sahrawi power plants of Mohammed VI's company Nareva.
