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Southern African governments have been slow to recognise the potential of regional power pools to draw investment into their countries. Most have seen the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) through a resource nationalist lens...

Nothing is what it seems in a political environment dominated by insincerity and double-dealing – not even the apparent victory of hydrocarbons sector bastion Mustafa Sanalla in his bitter show-down with oil and gas minister Mohammed Aoun.

Analysts have cast doubt on the government’s claims to have killed or injured 130 mercenaries linked to insurgents in Tigray who, the government said, planned to bomb the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd).

Politics in Algiers and Rabat are driving hugely ambitious – and arguably less than necessary – schemes to pipe gas from West Africa, supplying northern Nigeria and Niger in Algeria’s project and an array of potential markets along the proposed Moroccan route.

Algeria’s announcements that it was severing diplomatic ties with Rabat and won’t renew the GME gas supply agreement puts into question energy flows into Morocco and southern Europe, while posing questions about stability in the region. Even by the standards of decades of antipathy between the Maghreb’s major powers, recent developments should give all parties cause for concern, writes Jon Marks

The newly elected government of President Hakainde Hichilema is hoping to agree an International Monetary Fund (IMF) package to stabilise foreign exchange reserves and enhance Zambia’s credibility as it seeks to renegotiate with lenders.

There are further doubts about the progress of major renewables schemes in Algeria – including plans to invited bids for 1GW of solar – after the high-profile energy transition and renewable energies minister Chems-Eddine Chitour was replaced by Ziane Ben Attou.

In an out-of-court settlement to avoid a further public biens mal acquis (ill-gotten goods) scandal, a dispute has been concluded over the penthouse apartment in Biscayne Bay, Miami purchased in the name of the wife of presidential son and international co-operation and public/private partnerships minister Denis-Christel Sassou Nguesso (widely known as Kiki).

Trials of leading figures linked to the now disgraced ‘Bouteflika clan’ continue, along with former senior military and civilian officials close to the ousted regime. Prominent among them are the Kouninef brothers, Réda and Tarek, who – like many others held since Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s 2019 removal from the presidency – are in prison but continue to be summoned over other cases proceeding through the justice system.

Nigerian Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has criticised the impetus from rich countries to divest from fossil fuels in a strongly-worded article for New York-based Foreign Affairs magazine, In The divestment delusion: Why banning fossil fuel investments would crush Africa, published on 31 August.

Proposals to solve Libya’s interminable power and water supply crises are being advanced by competing institutions, but deep uncertainties about governance, security and finance mean only the most expensive and least sustainable projects are likely to be completed. Pragmatic renewable power schemes will remain on the sidelines, writes John Hamilton

The Moroccan electorate delivered a crushing blow to the Parti de la Justice et du Développement (PJD) on 8 September, as the ‘moderate Islamist’ party, which has led the government since 2011, won just 12 of the 395 seats in the House of Representatives (lower house of parliament). With a small number of votes still to be counted as African Energy went to press, the likely outcome was a new coalition led by overtly pro-business parties with close ties to the palace.

Guinea has world-scale iron ore, bauxite and other mineral resources, as media reports quickly reminded their consumers when news came in on Sunday 5 September that an imposing-looking putschist, Groupement des Forces Spéciales (GPS) commander Colonel Mamady Doumbouya, had seized power in Conakry.

The government is reviewing the $6bn infrastructure-for-minerals deal concluded by then President Joseph Kabila Kabange and Chinese investors, in the context of a broader examination of mining contracts, finance minister Nicolas Kazadi told Reuters on 27 August.

At the 1 September meeting of the Federal Executive Council, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari fired power minister Saleh Mamman along with agriculture and rural development minister Mohammed Nanono. Mamman was replaced by Abubakar Aliyu, formerly works and housing minister.