The Military Investment Authority, which is the main financial body behind the regime of General Khalifa Haftar in eastern Libya, is run by figures drawn from Libyan National Army. It has charge of infrastructure projects and troop supplies but is also involved in smuggling.
The former head of energy and minerals at Rio Tinto, who was ousted in 2016 after the Simandougate affair, is now solidly established on the Dubai diamond scene, where the majority of African diamonds are traded.
Though keen to support the 2023 electoral process, the DRC's partners are concerned by various issues surrounding the new leadership of the independent national electoral commission and fear the electoral calendar could slip.
The Congolese Ministry of Defence budget is expected to increase by 22% next year. However, it may not be enough to finance the military operations in the two eastern provinces of North Kivu and Ituri, where a state of siege was declared last May.
Frenchman Christian Perrière, dismissed from his position as managing director for the private security company Croisement SA, has been reinstated after a decision by the Central African courts. Arouna Nikiema and a host of figures hostile to MINUSCA were behind the attempted removal.
In a decree signed on 6 October, Finance Minister Roger Rigobert Andely created the National Committee for Multilateral Surveillance and Monitoring of Economic and Financial Reforms in the Republic of Congo.
The junior energy company Trident, owned by the private equity firm Warburg Pincus, is seeking to improve its strained relations with the Equatorial Guinean government, and its legal director in Malabo is currently courting the oil ministry.
Officially, the Prestea-Sankofa gold mine owned by the state-run Ghana National Petroleum Corp (GNPC) halted all of its operations in 2016. In fact, over the past few months production tests have started up again.
A Ghanaian court has denied the Italian major any opportunity to contest the decision to unitise its Sankofa oilfield with Afina.
Turkey, the main partner of Omar al-Bashir's regime, lost its influence in Sudan when power fell into the hands of civilians in 2019. Despite Ankara not being as well connected to General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, who took power on 25 October, as Egypt and the Emirates, Recep Tayyip Erdogan's regime nevertheless hopes that the breakdown of relations with Europe and the US will lead to a restoration of close ties with Khartoum.
The sentencing of Chinese national Yunhua Lin to 14 years in prison for possession of and trafficking in rhino horn, as well as for money laundering, on 28 September in Lilongwe has fed into an investigation by the police in Tanzania.
France has invited some dozen heads of state to its forum devoted to Libya on 12 November, but several neighbouring countries may skip the event, and the schedule for elections in Libya remains up in the air.
The swift ousting this month of diplomat Christophe Farnaud, the head of the powerful North Africa and Middle East directorate at the French foreign ministry since 2019, was the result of a deepening rift between with the Elysée over key issues such as Libya and Lebanon.
