Central Africa

Angola’s capital, Luanda, saw protests over the hike in diesel prices turn violent on Monday. Local media reported that looting and clashes between police and protesters led to several deaths and arrests. In a bid to reduce costly subsidies and strengthen public finances, the oil-producing nation in Southern Africa raised diesel prices by a third this month. The minibus taxi associations increased fares up to 50%, and began a 3-day strike on Monday. On its website, the Novo Jornal reported that three people were killed during the protests. One of them was a policeman. Novo Jornal reported that the police...

Angola’s oil-backed loan to China is expected to drop from $7.5 billion to $8 billion by the end the year. This comes as the government tries to reduce its dependence on resource-backed finance. Dorivaldo Téixeira, Director, Debt Management Unit, Finance Ministry, said late on Wednesday that "all debt collateralised by the oil revenue is concentrated in agreements made with China. These have been reduced gradually in recent years." Angola is trying to reduce the amount of loans backed by resources it has in order to cope with a challenging external environment, which has seen a rise in interest rates and...

Angola has increased the price of diesel by a third as part its drive to reduce costly subsidies and strengthen public finances. Since 2023, the International Monetary Fund has encouraged the African oil producing country to gradually remove fuel subsidies. The economy of the country is facing pressure due to a drop in global crude oil prices earlier this year. It also faces repayments on external debt of $9 billion by 2025. This includes a Eurobond that matures in November. Diesel prices have risen from 300 kwanzas to 400 kwanzas per litre, which is the second increase this year. The...

In a joint statement, the Angolan government and Chevron said that 17 people, including four serious injuries, were injured when a fire broke in the early morning hours of Tuesday on the deep-water Benguela, Belize, Lobito, Tomboco oil platform. Investigations are currently underway to determine the cause of a fire that occurred on the basement level of the multi-storey production platform of Block 14 in the Block 14 concession, some 60 miles (97 kilometers) off the coast of Cabinda. Angola's National Agency for Petroleum, Gas and Biofuels issued a statement referring to the injured. Chevron stated that the incident took...

Angola runs stress tests to assess the impact of a drop in oil prices on the government's finances, said Finance Minister Vera Daves de Sousa on Friday. She added that this situation makes a request for a loan program from the IMF more likely. After U.S. President Donald Trump's announcement of sweeping tariffs, Brent oil futures briefly fell below $60. This was the lowest level for four years. The contract closed at $66.91 per barrel on Friday. Daves de Sousa said in an interview at the International Monetary Fund Spring Meetings in Washington that "we are rolling out stress tests...

Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd, the state-owned energy company, reported a decline in profits in 2024, compared with a year earlier, due to global volatility, lower oil prices, and geopolitical tensions and economic uncertainty. The firm also warned of future market challenges. Petroliam Nasional (or Petronas) reported a profit of $55.1 billion after taxes in 2024, compared to $80.7 billion in 2023. In 2024, revenue fell from 343.6 billion to 320 billion Ringgit. Capital investments in 2024 were 54.2 billion Ringgit compared to 52.80 billion Ringgit in the year 2023. Tengku Muhammad Taufik Tengku Aziz, Petronas' Chief Executive Officer, said that...

On Thursday, a top Swiss court found that a former Gunvor employee had corrupted officials in the Republic of Congo for oil contracts. This is the first time that a corruption case in Switzerland's commodities trading industry, worth $80 billion, has been brought to court. This follows the conviction of Trafigura, a rival trading firm, and a former executive in a corruption case involving Angolan Oil Deals last month. The Swiss Federal Criminal Court released a statement on Thursday that the ruling concerned bribes worth over $35 million, intended at least in part for Congolese officials, over an 18-month period...

S witzerland’s top criminal court found Trafigura, a former executive and a company guilty of corruption on Friday in a case involving the payment made to an Angolan government official in exchange for oil contract. The court ordered that the trading house pay $148 million as fines and compensation, and sentenced Mike Wainwright, a former employee of itss to 32 months imprisonment. Of this time 12 months must be served. You can appeal the decision to the same court. This is the first case in Switzerland where a company was charged with corruption of an official from abroad. It's also...

Chadians were voting on Sunday in a parliamentary election boycotted by the opposition that will likely consolidate President Mahamat Idriss Deby's. power and finish the oilproducing country's transition towards. constitutional guideline. Deby was elected in a challenged vote in May, three years after. taking power and declaring himself interim leader when rebels. killed his father, President Idriss Deby, on the battlefield. Opposition leader Succes Masra's Transformateurs party and. numerous other celebrations boycotted Sunday's legislative election,. the country's first in over a decade. They are also boycotting. community and local elections also being hung on Sunday. Surveys opened for wanderers and...

Cameroon's President Paul Biya cautioned on Monday of devastating consequences for the countries of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central Africa if immediate action is not taken to address their degrading net external reserves. The member nations - Cameroon, Gabon, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, and the Republic of Congo - share monetary policy and a currency with a common reserve bank. Between them, they have actually struggled to emerge from the impact of the COVID pandemic and other external international shocks, leaving them short of forex or other properties to cover import costs and debt payments. They...

Britain has barred Angolan billionaire Isabel dos Santos and Ukrainian oligarch Dmytro Firtash and has frozen their UK possessions, the federal government announced on Thursday, in what it said became part of a new crackdown on ' dirty cash'. The procedures were the first step in tightening Britain's. anti-corruption sanctions program as promised in July's election,. the Labour federal government stated. These deceitful people selfishly deny their. fellow people of much-needed funding for education, healthcare. and infrastructure - for their own enrichment, Foreign. Secretary David Lammy said in a declaration. Dos Santos, whose daddy Jose Eduardo dos Santos ruled. Angola...

The possibility of lower oil rates puts lots of pressure on Angola, the country's finance minister told Reuters on Friday, including that she expected to see rates average around $70 to $72 per barrel compared to $75 in 2024. The federal government of Africa's second-largest petroleum exporter will likewise continue to phase out fuel subsidies, Financing Minister Vera Daves de Sousa said in an interview on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank annual conferences in Washington. The number of steps we didn't decide yet, but our concept is to do it in actions, she said, verifying that aids...

According to the U.N. Human Rights Office, M23, a rebel group backed by Rwanda, Congolese forces, and other armed organizations have committed grave rights violations, including some that may be considered war crimes in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. A new report from the U.N. Human Rights Office Fact-Finding Mission stated that M23, Congolese forces, and other groups were responsible for gross violations to international humanitarian law ever since fighting broke out in North and South Kivu late last year. In a press release, U.N. Human Rights High Commissioner Volker Turk called for accountability for the victims. There was no...

Some farmers in eastern Congo, who fled their land during the violent advance of M23 rebels to escape M23, have received a shocking surprise when they return: their fields of cabbage and cauliflower have been occupied by newcomers including Rwandans. Tensions may arise, complicating efforts to bring peace to a region devastated by war, which produces strategic minerals like coltan and cobalt. In June, the Trump administration mediated a peace agreement between Rwanda and Congo. Last month, peace talks between Congo and M23 were supposed to result in a deal. However, they have been postponed. According to a senior rebel...

Maman Soki, a Congolese woman who is part of a small group that does heavy mining for survival in the wake of a terrorist attack by Islamic State rebels on her village which killed her daughter as well as her sister. The 49-year old widow fled her home with her son, her grandson, and her sister's kids in April to escape the jihadists, one of the many armed groups that occupied the mineral-rich area. Soki, along with two other women, now hauls 30 kg bags of debris up a steep muddy slope to earn a few dollars per day for...

On Monday, the Congo River Alliance (a coalition of Congolese rebel groups, including the M23), accused the government of breaking agreements meant to end the conflict in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The fighting in eastern Congo intensified in this year. M23 launched an offensive which allowed it to take control of the two biggest cities in the area. At a recent press conference, Corneille Nangaa (leader of the Congo River Alliance, AFC), said: "We have a duty to inform the Congolese and international community about the repeated violations of the ceasefire that are preventing the principle agreement." On...

KoBold Metals - the mining company owned by U.S. billionaires Jeff Bezos & Bill Gates - has been granted seven permits for the search of lithium and other minerals within the Democratic Republic of Congo. This was announced on Wednesday. In July, the Central African nation signed a contract with KoBold that allowed it to begin a large-scale exploration program for minerals. KoBold also acquired Manono, a lithium deposit that is considered to be one of the largest in the world. A company official said that "our exploration efforts will be centered on lithium" across the seven new licenses. Four...

The African Union (AU) has endorsed a campaign to stop governments and international organizations from using the 16th century Mercator world map in favor of one which more accurately depicts Africa's size. The projection was created by Gerardus Mercator to aid navigation. It distorts the sizes of continents, enlarging the areas near poles such as North America and Greenland, while shrinking Africa, and South America. Selma Haddadi, deputy chairperson of the AU Commission, said that the Mercator map gave the false impression that Africa is "marginal" despite the fact it's the second largest continent in the world by area and...

The Congolese company sanctioned this week by the United States has "categorically rejected" allegations that it is linked to armed group and mineral smuggling within the turbulent eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. The U.S. Treasury Department announced Tuesday sanctions against Cooperative des Artisanaux Miniers du Congo, or CDMC, for what it termed the illegal sale of critical minerals from the mineral rich region of Rubaya. The U.S. sanctioned two Hong Kong exporters and the Coalition des Patriotes Resistants Congolais - Forces de Frappe (PARECO FF), an armed group that Washington claimed controlled Rubaya's mining sites from 2022-2024. CDMC claimed that...

Under the watchful eyes of M23 rebels, in the hills surrounding the Congolese city of Rubaya a line men in rubber boot ferry sacks of crushed stones up winding paths cut in to the slopes. Coltan, a mineral which powers modern technology, is being hauled by the workers. The ore is loaded onto motorbikes, and then shipped thousands of kilometers to Asia. The ore is then processed into tantalum - a heat resistant metal which fetches over $300 per kilogram. It's in demand by manufacturers of mobile phones and computers as well as aerospace components and gas engines. Rubaya is...

De Beers joint venture in Angola announced on Tuesday that it had discovered a kimberlite mine, which is the main source of diamonds. This was its first discovery of this kind in 30 years. Anglo American is exploring for diamonds with Endiama, the state-owned diamond firm of Angola. De Beers announced in a press release that the joint venture's first drill hole in July 2025 was kimberlite. The company stated that further drilling, geophysical survey and laboratory analyses will be carried out over the next few month to confirm the type of kimberlite and assess its diamond-producing potential. Kimberlites, a...

The government announced on Friday that the Democratic Republic of Congo has appointed former mining executive Louis Watum Kabamba to be its new mines minister, in preparation for important decisions regarding potential foreign investments and exports of cobalt. Kinshasa has been engaged in peace negotiations in Washington and Doha, which the Trump administration hopes will attract Western investment to its vast reserves, including lithium, tin cobalt copper, and other essential minerals. The talks are aimed at ending the fighting with M23 rebels, who have been backed by Rwanda and killed thousands of people this year. Watum, who replaces Kizito Pakabomba,...

The French mining group Eramet announced a sharp drop in its first-half earnings on Wednesday. It warned that macroeconomic conditions would remain difficult throughout the rest of this year. This led to a revision downwards of Eramet's production targets for 2025. Eramet reported adjusted earnings prior to interest, taxes and depreciation (EBITDA), of 191 millions euros ($219.12million) for the first half of this year, a drop of 45% compared to a year ago. Earnings exclude Eramet’s New Caledonian Nickel subsidiary SLN which is supported by French government loans. Eramet's Chief Executive Paulo Castellari said to reporters that "our first-half results...

On Tuesday, U.S. president Donald Trump said that he would be announcing a new initiative. Imports of copper are subject to a 50% tariff Later in the day, a global industry, whose output is crucial for electric vehicles, military equipment, semiconductors, and a variety of consumer goods, was surprised. Trump had a February election. Ordered a Probe As part of efforts by the United States to rebuild its production of copper, there is a deadline of November for possible tariffs. The investigation, which was meant to evaluate the imports of copper concentrates, copper scrap, and copper alloys, was still ongoing....