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Media reports in mid-June said the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) government had selected Australia’s Fortescue Metals Group to develop all six phases of the Grand Inga hydroelectric power project, in the latest iteration of the HEP mega-project’s long history. Reuters quoted President Felix Tshisekedi’s infrastructure advisor Alexy Kayembe De Bampende as saying in a text message that “Fortescue will be the sole operator for the entire Grand Inga (3 to 8).

Concession agreements have been signed for Democratic Republic of Congo’s Essor programme, which are expected to facilitate $100m of investment into remote grids. The approach has been mooted as a more sustainable way to promote isolated grids and more concessions could be on the way, writes Dan Marks.

As the hype around hydrogen gets ever louder, governments and developers are putting forward grandiose plans to manufacture green hydrogen – ‘the new oil and gas’ – across the continent. African Energy has been sceptical about the hydrogen boom’s relevance to economies that are hard pressed to finance basic needs, but high hopes are being generated in countries like Mauritania and Namibia, where schemes to install an unimaginable 65GW of hydrogen-driven capacity are promised, writes John Hamilton.

President Félix Tshisekedi’s Sacred Union parliamentary majority was approved by parliament on 26 April, marking a formal end to an uncertain period when ex-president Joseph Kabila Kabange remained a powerful influence.

DRC has fallen dramatically behind in meeting sustainable development goals that would provide basic improvements for its impoverished population, even as President Tshisekedi and friends from Cairo to Abidjan work on hugely costly prestige projects, from a new capital to yet more plans for Inga, writes François Misser.

Even before the ministerial portfolios in prime minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde’s new government were finalised on 12 April, President Félix Tshisekedi had picked the advisers to work on key dossiers with the presidency and ministers. The UK-based Tony Blair Institute (TBI) is among those advising the presidency, with a focus on the Inga dam mega-project, which remains as elusive as ever, while apparently even more candidates line up to develop the Congo river resource.

According to the most widely accepted version of still hazy events, President Idriss Déby Itno (IDI) was injured on 17-18 April fighting rebels near Mao in the Kanem region, some 300km from N’djamena; he was pronounced dead early on 20 April. The military leader, who became president in 1990, had just been re-elected (with 79.32% of the official vote) for a sixth term in a vote on 11 April.

The World Bank Group’s Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (Miga) has issued guarantees worth up to $37.1m to African Infrastructure Investment Managers’ (AIIM) African Infrastructure Investment Fund 3. It will cover AIIM’s investment in solar home system (SHS) company Bboxx’s operations in Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Kenya, and Rwanda for up to ten years.

After two months of negotiations, a new government led by President Félix Tshisekedi’s Union Sacrée has created a 57-member coalition government (down from 66 ministers), led by prime minister Sama Lukonde Kyenge. The government – comprised of four  deputy PMs, nine ministers of state, 31 ministers, a ministre délégué and 11 deputy ministers – includes supporters of leading opponents Moïse Katumbi and Jean-Pierre Bemba.

Italy’s Eni has settled a corruption case relating to its activities in Republic of Congo, making a payment of €11.8m ($14m). Eni said in a statement that allegations of international corruption “ceased to exist” and that the payment had followed the reduction of the charge by the Court of Milan to undue inducement.

Off-grid operations have proved resilient in the face of Covid-19 challenges, as major investors and financial institutions expand their support for electricity access away from national grids. But scaling up local businesses so that distributed energy solutions can reach their potential remains a huge challenge, leading industry players told a virtual African Investment Exchange (AIX) meeting.

President Denis Sassou-Nguesso laid a foundation stone on 3 March for a 3.4MW solar thermal hybrid plant at Impfondo in Likouala province. The project is financed by the government and will be built by Belgian company Produits de Construction de Brazzaville (Procob).

The new US administration has restored sanctions on Israeli diamond magnate Dan Gertler over alleged corruption in DR Congo. The Treasury Department had eased the sanctions five days before Donald Trump left office, quietly issuing a licence that temporarily lifted restrictions on the mining tycoon.

In a further stage in the battle for control of Democratic Republic of Congo between past and present heads of state, President Félix Tshisekedi on 15 February named Sama Lukonde Kyenge as prime minister.

In the third year of his presidency, Félix Tshisekedi has outflanked Joseph Kabila to the extent that the former president is now lying low at his ranch near Lubumbashi amid fears his senator-for-life status may be insufficient to give immunity from eventual prosecution. The resignation on 29 January of prime minister Sylvestre Ilunga Ilunkamba was another victory over key Kabila allies in a war of attrition for control of Democratic Republic of Congo that has seen members of the ex-president’s Front Commun pour le Congo (FCC) flooding to join Tshisekedi’s Union Sacré́e pour la Nation (USN).