The scion of a prominent Somali family that has spread itself across Africa, business consultant Liban Soleman, having served as Ali Bongo's chief of staff for five years, now works closely with the family of Rwanda's president.
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Politics 
The PDCI will be convening on 12 June to officially name its presidential candidate and at 86 years old the former Ivorian president still feels fit for the job.
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Politics 
India's Agrawal clan, which originally specialised in pharmaceuticals, has recruited former executives from the giant Copperbelt mining groups to run its new prospecting activities in DRC and Uganda. The work is to be carried out by Samta.
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Mining Turkana governor Josphat Nanok aims to become one of the strong men in the Kenyan oil sector but the Covid-19 pandemic could put an end to his ambitions. The plans of Total and Tullow to withdraw from Turkana could also hold up the plans of the county's business community.
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Energy As the rest of Africa suspended flights in and out of China, Ethiopian Airlines stepped in to relay Chinese humanitarian equipment across the continent. This gave prime minister Abiy Ahmed Ali an opportunity to assert his position as a pan-African leader and is also a testament to the operation coordinator, the company's rising star Fitsum Abadi.
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Business 
The suspension of operations on ExxonMobil and ENI's gas projects on Coral and Mamba will have a significant impact on the timing of drilling programmes.
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Energy The state-owned power producer Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa, which operates a dam of the same name in Mozambique's eastern region of Tete, is preparing to inspect the export lines to South Africa, whose energy market is rife with tensions.
Bashir Saleh, Muammar Gaddafi's former financial and African affairs specialist now living in Abu Dhabi, has been offering his friendship and advice to UAE crown prince Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan - both on Libyan and African affairs.
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Diplomacy The energy and mines minister, who is against public-private partnerships, wants to cancel plans to build the plant which is supposed to supply water to the phosphate processing complex in Gabès. He risks incurring the wrath of the international financial institutions, however.
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Business Libyan "paymaster" Al Seddik Omar Al Kabir has lost the support of his right-hand man. Tarik Yousef al Megarief is now campaigning against Al Kabir on the central bank's board.
Belkheir Bayat's Bayat Catering has won a services contract for the Tinerkouk and Tinerkouk Ouest gas fields.
