Senegal: Faye, Sonko in an intense power struggle

Features /
President Faye was elected on the PASTEF ticket in 2024, despite Prime Minister Sonko being the party’s leader and having much more of a popular following, because Sonko was ruled ineligible to run. Since the dispute between the two sp illed over into public view, few public figures have come out in favor of Faye, with many suggesting that he had betrayed Sonko.

Tensions are rising between Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye and Prime Minister Ousmane Sonko. Sonko, who was much more prominent, selected the relatively unknown Faye as their Patriots of Senegal (PASTEF) party’s candidate in the 2024 presidential election because he himself was barred from running. Faye subsequently appointed Sonko as prime minister. Since November, indications …

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Kotey transforms the driving scene in Ghana

Business /
Julius Neequaye Kotey, the 38-year-old head of Ghana’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority, began keeping some offices open 24 hours a day to clear up a backlog of 440,000 applications for drivers’ licenses.

Julius Neequaye Kotey has headed Ghana’s Driver and Vehicle Licensing Authority for a little over one year, but has already made a significant impact, digitizing the vehicle licensing system. Kotey says he envisions “a DVLA where everything is digitized.” He tells Africawatch he believes that will “improve efficiency, curb avoidable infractions, reduce revenue leakages, and …

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Rash makes her mark

Sports /

If American star Megan Rapinoe’s short pink hair was the lasting image of the 2019 Women’s World Cup, Nigerian Rasheedat Ajibade’s close-cropped blue might be an omen of the future. The 23-year-old forward has already played in two World Cups and on the teams that won the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations in 2018 and …

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Africa faces a harsh dilemma

Business /

Africa’s economies have been battered by external shocks over the past three years, and several countries are in debt trouble. That gives governments a dilemma: Austerity measures can help attract foreign investment that improves the economy, but at the price of raising the cost of living and provoking popular backlash. Menzi Ndhlovu and Ronak Gopaldas …

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The tales of 3 Africans who fought with Russia’s Wagner mercenaries in Ukraine

Special Reports /

Last year, thousands of Russian prison inmates were offered pardons if they served for six months in the war against Ukraine, fighting in the Wagner Group’s mercenary army. Three of those who did were Africans, from Tanzania, Zambia, and Cote d’Ivoire, who’d migrated to Russia and run afoul of its harsh drug laws. Two of …

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Nigeria: Bola Tinubu ‘He has a chance to determine how history will remember his time.’

Features /

Nigeria President Bola Tinubu took office while the nation was experiencing a multi-dimensional crisis. From raging inflation to widespread poverty, from large numbers of children not in schools to broken-down oil refineries and frequent mass shootings, almost every facet of Nigerian national life appears to be in trouble. Will President Tinubu be up to the …

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Libya: A nation in limbo

Features /

Libya’s first presidential elections since the 2011 ouster of Muammar al-Qaddafi, scheduled for Dec. 24, have been postponed indefinitely. That outcome was not surprising, as the country’s two competing parliaments couldn’t agree on a framework for the vote. One major faction argued that it would premature to elect a president before a constitution was ratified, …

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