The president s latest army reshuffle is part of a long-term plan to safeguard his regime and his family s role in it, The army reshuffle in Rwanda, announced on 31 August, was not a panicked response to the military coup in Gabon on the previous day as some have suggested. President Paul Kagame frequently circulates his top brass to ensure no military commander builds up a faction of supporters who might challenge his hold on power. This has been a three decades-long strategy. Unlike the military reshuffle in Cameroon on 31 August, there s no sign that Kagame s moves were triggered by General Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema s putsch in Libreville.
While publicly opposing the Niger junta, Lomé is offering it support amid reports that the Wagner Group is operating in northern Togo, President Faure Gnassingbé s government is assisting the Niger junta to consolidate power, Africa Confidential has learned, although as a member of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Togo is publicly hewing to the bloc s anti-coup line.
Africa Confidential presents a Special Report on the Breton tycoon’s growing influence in Africa. Far from quitting the continent, Vincent Bolloré’s business and political interests in Africa are deepening – even as he faces trial in Paris for grand corruption in league with two West African leaders. By Andrew Weir and Nicolas Vescovacci, Billionaire Vincent Bolloré, who has built up monopoly control over some of the biggest container terminals in Africa, is heading back to the French courts with two of his top executives to face charges of bribery.