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After buying out most of BP’s downstream sub-Saharan African assets in 2010 and entering into a lucrative partnership with DT Group to market Angolan oil into China, Trafigura and its partners seem set to become the biggest suppliers of fuel and logistics in Angola and neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), as well as major buyers of their minerals.Trafigura describes DT Group as a joint venture between its Singapore subsidiary Trafigura Pte Ltd and Cochan Ltd. The group’s interests span trading, shipping infrastructure, asset management, logistics and mining, as well as crude oil and products trading, mainly from and into Angola.

Commentators were stunned by Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) leader General Bosco Ntaganda’s decision to leave his haunts in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, presenting himself on 18 March at the US embassy in Kigali, where he asked to be transferred to the International Criminal Court in The Hague. For Ntaganda, apparently, the prospect of facing trial for war crimes and crimes against humanity is preferable to continuing his conflict with President Joseph Kabila Kabange’s administration in Kinshasa or facing the wrath of his former Rwandan ally President Paul Kagame. The warlord’s move prompted speculation that an elusive peace deal between the DRC government and M23 might be forthcoming. However, peace with M23 provides no guarantee that DRC’s oil sector can quickly fulfil its promise.

Copper miner First Quantum Minerals Ltd plans to build a $230m transmission line from Lusaka West to Solwezi in North-Western Province to supply its new Sentinel mine at Kalumbila.

Under pressure on several fronts to reform its licensing regime, Namibia is to abandon direct negotiations and revert to competitive bidding rounds, writes Our Windhoek Correspondent