Month: September 2026

Cameroon’s B-/B rating: will the political transition decide the country’s economic fate?

Aïcha Abdou

Standard & Poor’s (S&P) has reaffirmed Cameroon‘s sovereign credit rating at “B-/B” with a stable outlook—a verdict that, beneath its reassuring surface, thrusts the political transition in Yaoundé to the forefront of market concerns. The decision, made public in mid-September, arrives at a pivotal moment when the long-taboo presidential succession is becoming a central variable in assessing country risk. For investors and multilateral partners alike, the rating’s reaffirmation serves less as a stamp of approval than as a cautionary signal. A rating renewed, but a barely veiled warning By extending…

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Senegal’s revised finance bill 2026: can the budget timetable still hold after Sonko’s outburst?

Aïcha Abdou

The standoff that almost derailed Senegal’s budget revision For days, the fate of Senegal’s 2026 revised finance bill hung in the balance. A deadline set by the Prime Minister’s office came and went. Accusations flew. And the President of the National Assembly, Ousmane Sonko, publicly declared he had received no notification of the text. The question on everyone’s mind: would the government miss its own budget timetable, or would the bill finally arrive? On Friday, September 18, 2026, the National Assembly announced it had received the draft revised finance bill…

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Dioura: denial or disclosure — which path can Mali’s junta still afford?

Aïcha Abdou

One sentence was meant to close the file. Asked about the situation around Dioura, Mali’s chief of defence staff replied curtly that there was ‘nothing’ there. Hours later, the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM) answered with a communiqué, photographs and video footage — and the question now hanging over Bamako is a blunt one: can an authority that denies a battle still decide how that battle will be remembered? By claiming the assault with unusual precision, detailing casualties, captives and seized equipment, the Al-Qaeda branch in…

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Cotonou forum: can UEMOA turn its own savings into a shield against external shocks?

Ousmane Tandja

Cotonou, Benin — The strategic dilemma facing West Africa’s monetary union is blunt: can the region’s own savings be converted into the capital that funds its development, or will it remain dependent on external financing? That question framed the second edition of the Regional Shareholding Forum, held in Cotonou on 17–18 September 2026, where institutional actors, business leaders and market specialists demanded a deep shift in investment habits across the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). Under the theme “Shareholding and financial sovereignty: mobilising savings to accelerate economic transformation”,…

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Niger: can a regime that revokes citizenship outlast the anger it breeds?

Aïcha Abdou

What does it really mean when a state can delete one of its own citizens with a single signature? In Niger, that question stopped being theoretical a long time ago. Since the National Council for the Safeguard of the Homeland (CNSP) took power by force in July 2023, the hunt for dissenting voices has entered a far more dangerous phase. General Abdourahamane Tiani no longer settles for prison sentences or forced exile — his administration now wipes out the legal existence of its opponents. By elevating citizenship revocation to the…

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Libreville’s top prosecutor job: can Alain-Georges Moukoko turn green justice credentials into real results?

Aïcha Abdou

Libreville’s top prosecutor job: can Alain-Georges Moukoko turn green justice credentials into real results? Libreville, Friday 18 September 2026 – The general prosecutor’s office in Libreville is changing hands at a moment when Gabon’s judiciary is under pressure to prove it can be faster, tougher and more credible. On 16 September 2026, in Port-Gentil, the Superior Council of the Judiciary appointed Alain-Georges Moukoko as general prosecutor at the Libreville Judicial Court of Appeal. He takes over from Eddy Narcisse Minang as part of a sweeping reshuffle decided at the highest…

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Is the Benin–Spain cultural alliance a model for intercontinental diplomacy or just a symbolic gesture?

Ousmane Tandja

When Cotonou and Madrid chose to deepen their cultural ties, they raised a crucial question: can art and diplomacy genuinely build a lasting strategic partnership, or is this merely another well-intentioned but hollow declaration? The answer is beginning to emerge through concrete initiatives between Benin and the Kingdom of Spain, where heritage, contemporary creation, and upscale tourism are being positioned as powerful engines of international influence. What exactly is at stake in this cultural convergence? This renewed momentum reflects a remarkable strategic alignment between Spanish diplomacy and Benin’s Ministry of…

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Can Tiani tell ally from enemy in Niger — and who ends up paying the price?

Aïcha Abdou

How does a man who took power by force convince himself that the same manoeuvre cannot one day be used against him? That is the awkward question now hanging over Abdourahamane Tiani’s Niger, after a failed assault on his presidency, a widening purge inside the armed forces, and a decree that has provisionally stripped five citizens of their nationality. On one side stands a junta that says it is simply securing the state. On the other, a growing list of soldiers, ministers and former officials who have been removed, arrested…

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Niger’s security dilemma: does the CFPD’s 1.8 billion FCFA monthly fund serve the nation — or the men who run it?

Aïcha Abdou

At the summit of Niger’s power structure, one question has become impossible to sidestep: when a security programme is worth 1.8 billion FCFA a month, who gets to decide how it is financed — and what happens to the people who try to block it? The answer runs straight through the Commandement des Forces de Protection et de Développement (CFPD), an arrangement that has turned General Salifou Mody, CNSP leader Abdourahamane Tiani and former finance minister and prime minister Lamine Zeine into open rivals. On paper, the CFPD exists to…

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Mali’s press reform dilemma: self-regulate now, or be regulated later?

Aïcha Abdou

The show of unity that surrounded Mali’s latest employers’ consultations — and the planned prefiguration cell for media self-regulation — struggles to hide what is really happening on the ground. Behind the polite endorsement and the lukewarm “yes, but” voiced by the Cadre de concertation des faïtières (ASSEP, Groupement patronal, UNAJEP), this gathering was never a spontaneous clean-up operation. It is the inevitable destination of several years of muted anger, turf battles and profound disagreements within Mali’s press. A consultation born of crisis, not of progress Employers’ leaders now repeat,…

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Is Niger’s Tiani risking his own grip on power in Libya’s Fezzan?

Ousmane Tandja

Is Niger’s General Abdourahamane Tiani ready to trade a quiet border for a seat at Libya’s table — and what would that cost his own authority at home? For years the man in Niamey concentrated on defending his power inside Niger. His attention now drifts far beyond those frontiers, towards the Libyan south, where a former Haftar loyalist turned rival is redrawing the balance of force. Mohamed Wardougou’s rise opens a fresh space of confrontation, and Niger could end up as one of its central pieces. Why the Fezzan has…

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