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President Filipe Nyusi announced a major reshuffle on 4 March, with changes including the appointment of a new prime minister and a new mineral resources and energy minister.

The Tshisekedi government’s announcement that Israeli billionaire Dan Gertler’s Ventora Development would return control of its mining and oil assets to Democratic Republic of Congo puts assets back into play including the Albertine Graben blocks 1 and 2, managed by Gertler’s company Oil of DRCongo. But there are potential further complications from continued US sanctions against Gertler and over exactly what’s in the deal, writes François Misser.

Despite a difficult business environment, Burundi offers possibilities for the transition minerals market. London Stock Exchange-listed Rainbow Rare Earths is operating one of Africa’s only rare earths mines at Gakara and has another rare earths play at its Phalaborwa project in South Africa.

Democratic Republic of Congo has the resources – if not yet the right governance framework – to help meet rising global demand for rare earth minerals. China has so far made much of the running with such resources, prompting economic and strategic concern in the US and Europe where DRC’s potential has not gone unnoticed, writes François Misser.

African Union and European Union leaders met for the sixth EU-AU Summit in Brussels on 17-18 February, co-chaired by European Council president Charles Michel and AU’s Senegalese chairman President Macky Sall. It had been three years in the making – due to Covid and other delays – and, as with previous summits, there was talk of huge financial flows, boundless co-operation and commitments to a future of inclusive development.

A pattern of similar traits is discernable in the spate of coups d’état that have shaken assumptions about governance across Francophone West Africa – a region which has experienced six putsches since August 2020, when Colonel Assimi Goïta first took over in Mali, after three decades of post-Cold War democratisation.

Political and security conditions may be acutely difficult in the G5 Sahel countries, but a new era beckons for solar projects in the region, symbolised by AfDB approval of a plan to develop 500MW of PV capacity. Sector insiders believe that short-term problems such as rising risk premiums may be offset by the positive medium-to-long-term prospects for the rollout of solar PV across the Sahel, writes Marc Howard

Libya is sinking deeper into a state of extreme political uncertainty as Prime Minister Abdelhamid Dabaiba and his Government of National Unity (GNU) cling to power in defiance of attempts by other state institutions to appoint a new administration. With every day that Dabaiba holds on, the more likely it becomes he will continue in office, in some form at least. The pressure is therefore on Prime Minister-designate Fathi Bashaga to not only appoint but also to install his government in Tripoli as soon as possible.

Abdelhamid Al-Dabaiba’s government has granted permission for the construction of two highly ambitious power generation projects. Cork-based AG Energy, with links to the former Irish Taoiseach Bertie Ahern, is in line to build what could be Libya’s first private sector solar PV plant. Qatar-based Urbacon Trading and Construction (UCC) has been authorised to build a large gas-fired plant in Zliten. Neither company has built power plants in Libya until now, but UCC has teamed up with Germany’s Siemens Energy, Tripoli-based Acesco Consulting Engineering and Services and Philadelphia-based Hill International, who bring substantial experience in major construction projects in the country, while AG has been promoting projects in Libya and the wider region for a decade.

In a new policy brief, the Africa-EU Energy Partnership (AEEP) has identified five key areas where action is needed if Africa is to make the most of its vast wind energy potential.

Far-reaching amendments aimed as enabling a competitive market for electricity preceded another infrastructure-heavy State of the Nation address from President Cyril Ramaphosa. The devil will be in the detail as the industry pores over South Africa’s latest draft bill and the president’s statements about upcoming generation procurement, writes Dan Marks.

The proliferation of coups d’état across West Africa and the wider region over the past 18 months points to the return of chronic instability to one of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable (not least to climate change) regions. Many parts of the post-colonial continent, and especially its emerging West African nations, were defined by the speedy demise of civilian government as military rulers took over in the 1960s.

The Zambian government has shelved a plan to reintroduce taxes on imported fuel, in an effort to keep prices lower. In December, fuel prices increased after the government removed subsidies on petroleum products in an effort to better reflect market prices. Zambia has migrated to a monthly pricing cycle that makes local pump prices more responsive to shifts in international oil prices and foreign currency exchange rates.

South Africa’s mineral resources and energy minister Gwede Mantashe remains an unapologetic advocate for the continued use of coal, arguing that its importance for the economy and employment cannot be ignored. The DMRE arranged a colloquium with coal industry leaders on 1 February for Mantashe to deliver a call to arms.

Africa’s natural gas exporters have been warned they need to do more to track their methane emissions, ahead of the adoption of the EU Methane Strategy and in light of the global methane pledge to cut emissions by at least 30% by 2030, which was signed by more than 100 countries at the COP26 Conference in November.