The trade department at the French embassy in Nouakchott recently published a survey on the big family groups that corner most of Mauritania's economy. Top dog is the MAOA group (owned by Mohamed ...

With Sophie Ranaivo, the younger daughter of head of state Didier Ratsiraka, Justin Randrianasolo is one of the two administrators representing the largest shareholders of Banque de la Solidarité ...

Kefagn Patriotic Front (KPF, see also ION N° 571), an armed group which opposes the government Ethiopian Peoples' Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), recently named five generals to its executive ...

After having been a former official of a rival political movement to the Eritrean People's Liberation Front which took power in Asmara, Mohamed Nour Ahmed rallied to their cause and has now become ...

A handful of French military veterans gave training to around 20 Senegalese officers in November. The officers who received the training are active in a range of services, from the gendarmerie to ...

Ethiopian businessman Yemeru Nega (who is of the Gurage tribe) has set his company, Yencomad Inc. Pvt. Ltd Co, to putting up a twelve-floor building of 4,000 sq.m in Addis Ababa, at an estimated cost ...

In a January 2 letter, the Tanzania Communications Commission (TCC) informed the company TriTelecommunications (Tritel) that it had suspended Tritel's GSM cellphone license beginning January 31.

As a member of the Nigerian delegation led by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Paris in November, Defence Minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar was approached by a handful of French companies. Some of the ...

Former secretary of state for foreign affairs Mustafa Osman Ismail is to take over from Ali Osman Mohamed Taha as foreign minister as Taha moves to replace the late Sudanese first vice president ...

A professional statistician has been appointed Ethiopian ambassador to Kenya. Teshome Toga Chanaka, who is a member of the small Wolayta tribe and was born in southern Ethiopia in 1959, is a BSc ...

Businessman Joseph Lusse and three other Ugandan nationals were arrested on May 9 on charges of treason. They are suspected of working since August 1994 to overthrow the regime of head of state Yoweri ...