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While renewables projects in North Africa have been making progress – led by Moroccan solar development agency Masen’s 125MW first concentrated solar power phase of the 500MW Ouarzazate scheme – the most highly publicised, ambitious scheme of all, the Desertec Industrial Initiative (Dii), is struggling to convince sceptics it can revolutionise patterns of electricity generation south of the Mediterranean and of supply within the European Union area.

The Algerian national football team’s first Africa Cup of Nations victory for 27 years fed a renewed sense of national pride, which has soared since 22 February following anti-government protests that led to president Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s resignation and have maintained pressure on a weak government manipulated by ambitious military strongman Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaïd Salah. At the Cairo final, the interim president, Abdelkader Bensalah, represented a nation that does not want him to continue in office.

The meeting of the Libyan British Business Council in Tunis at which National Oil Corporation (NOC) chairman Mustafa Sanalla set out ambitious plans to increase crude production was also notable for an altercation with Central Bank of Libya governor Sadiq Al-Kebir. Speaking in Arabic at the start of the meeting, Sanalla berated the governor for allowing central bank funds to be dispersed to the armed militias who control Tripoli.

As memories of its violent past and episodes such as the ‘Wonga coup’ recede, and with the joint hosting of the 2010 Africa Cup of Nations deemed generally to be positive, Equatorial Guinea is appearing on lists of sub-Saharan African success stories, its oil and gas-fuelled GDP producing graphs showing sustained growth, and propelling it to the rank of middle-income country. An African Development Bank (AfDB) Country Strategy Paper (CSP) released on 18 July reminds us that Equatorial Guinea has sub-Saharan Africa’s highest per capita income and the potential to emerge as a regional energy hub, generating electricity from hydropower, as well as producing gas for local processing – pioneered by the Atlantic Methanol Company plant – and export, and supplying crude to US and other buyers.

The suspension by President Goodluck Jonathan of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor Sanusi Lamido Sanusi led the naira to fall sharply and investors to rue the volatility of Nigerian politics. But it was hardly a surprise, following years of controversy surrounding the highly talented and combative governor, and months of Sanusi’s increasingly public criticism of the management of the oil sector and government finances by Jonathan and his close ally petroleum minister Diezani Allison-Madueke. By naming names in the Senate, Sanusi was more or less directly implicating the ruling clique on Aso Rock in gross malfeasance.

President José Eduardo dos Santos and his Movimento Popular de Libertação de Angola (MPLA) party mobilised the apparel of state (along with Brazilian election experts and a massive birthday bash for the 70-year-old leader) to secure a landslide in the 31 August general election. The MPLA may not win as much as the 82% it won in 2008, but it will have gained enough votes to legitimise dos Santos’ 33-year rule – at least in the eyes of Angolan power-brokers – and open the way for peaceful political transition.

On paper at least, the new ceasefire signed on 9 May between South Sudan President Salva Kiir and his opponent Riek Machar is a step forward. Not only does it recommit them to the terms of the 23 January ceasefire, but provisions for a transitional unity government and fresh elections go several steps further. As well as Kiir’s government and Machar’s forces, the peace process would include a group of key figures detained until recently by the government, representatives of political parties and civil society, and religious leaders.

The images of grief and riot that followed the assassination of opposition leader Chokri Belaïd on 6 February highlight the extent to which the first, and so far most successful, of the Arab Spring revolutions has been put in jeopardy by ideological and factional divisions among the country’s new leaders. The killing was quickly interpreted as marking a violent new phase in a region-wide struggle between democratic modernisers – who include secular politicians like Belaïd and President Moncef Marzouki, but also mainstream figures in the Islamist Ennahda party such as prime minister Hamadi Jebali – and ultra-radical Salafists.

Project developers and financiers spend inordinate amounts of time and money assessing risks and their mitigation. But when traditional credit and political risk calculations are being made, they still too often overlook the populations whose land they are building on, even if they think they have community engagement in hand. Disgruntled populations may express their frustration and even violently turn on developments that seem beyond their control, and that threaten their (sometimes literally) sacred home turf.

Debt restructurings and budget cuts, and reform commitments still to be implemented: in many respects, newsflow from Republic of Congo is much as usual. However, the coronavirus lockdown and oil price slump have severely exacerbated the problems confronting President Denis Sassou Nguesso’s government and the population’s daily lives.

Relationships with China have become and will remain a defining feature of most African states’ economic and geopolitical relations. Those relations are not always easy, as reflected in the popular anger at Beijing’s handling of the thousands of African students and traders stranded by coronavirus. Tensions have been rising over many countries’ mounting debts. As Covid-19 drives global recession, China’s reluctance to join the International Monetary Fund and Paris Club in negotiating transparent long-term debt relief is a concern.

Climate change denier Donald Trump’s 8 November election victory stunned the COP22 meeting in Marrakech, before the other 196 governments responded with defiant statements supporting the Paris Agreement. Tackling climate change and energy poverty has been central to Barack Obama’s presidency; his championing of COP was underlined by secretary of state John Kerry’s robust appearance in Marrakech; the Power Africa initiative is supported by the Electrify Africa Act, which puts sub-Saharan economies’ lack of energy access onto the US statute book.

Investor interest in Madagascar picked up when companies were attracted by the island state’s potential for power sector developments, as former president Hery Rajaonarimampianina hosted an influential donor and investor conference in 2016.The going has since proven tough for many investors, as early movers have run into payment issues with malfunctioning state utility Jiro sy Rany Malagasy (Jirama) and the administration has proved unpredictable in renegotiating power purchase agreements (PPAs).

Some African governments specialise in grandiose statements about mega-projects that will drive the continent’s electrification or achieve some other transformational goal. In many cases little happens, but the mega-project provides a useful symbol of rapprochement between two states. The Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP) planned by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo and Algeria’s Abdelaziz Bouteflika is one example still prominent on the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa project list.

The Government of Southern Sudan will not compromise in negotiations with the north over the status of Abyei, and is prepared to take up arms again if the impasse continues