An army general has been sworn in as Guinea-Bissau’s new head of state a day after an apparent coup.

Gen Horta N’Tam becomes the transitional president for a period of one year. He took the oath on Thursday, in brief and muted proceedings in the army headquarters.

The military had already suspended the electoral process and blocked the release of the results of Sunday’s presidential election which were expected on Thursday.

Some civil society groups in Guinea-Bissau have accused outgoing President Umaro Sissoco Embaló of masterminding a “simulated coup” against himself with the help of the military, saying it was a ruse to block election results from coming out in case he loses.

“This manoeuvre aims to prevent the publication of the electoral results scheduled for tomorrow, November 27,” the civil society coalition Popular Front said in a statement on Wednesday.

The president has not responded to the allegations.

He has said he has survived multiple coup attempts during his time in office. However, his critics have previously accused him of fabricating crises in order to crack down on dissent.

Sandwiched between Senegal and Guinea, the West African country is known as a notorious drug-trafficking hub where the military has been influential since independence from Portugal in 1974.

Guinea-Bissau has witnessed at least nine coups or attempted coups over the last five decades.

Source: BBC

If you’d have asked about Col Michael Randrianirina on the island of Madagascar before last weekend, you’d have got a lot of blank looks.

In just three days, however, he has become arguably the most powerful person in country.

Randrianirina’s sudden ascent began on Saturday, when as the head of Madagascar’s elite CAPSAT army unit, he drove with his troops into the centre of the capital city, joining thousands of protesters who had long been demanding the president’s resignation.

After Andry Rajoelina eventually fled the city and MPs voted to impeach him, 51-year-old Randrianirina stood in front of the vacant presidential palace and informed the world’s media that CAPSAT was taking over.

The constitutional court then declared that he was the country’s new ruler, even though the ousted president still insists that he remains in charge.

Randrianirina carries a rare air of mystery – for the leader of the country’s most powerful military unit, there is not much information about him in the public domain.

What we do know is that he was born in Sevohipoty, a village in the southern Androy region.

He later became the governor of Androy, serving between 2016 and 2018 under former President Hery Rajaonarimampianina.

Then, Randrianirina became head of an infantry battalion in the city of Toliara, a position he held until 2022.

He was a vocal critic of Rajoelina, an entrepreneur who took power via a coup in 2009, stepped down in 2013, then returned five years later after winning elections.

Randrianirina was jailed in a maximum-security prison without trial in November 2023, accused of inciting a mutiny and planning a coup.

Student groups, fellow soldiers and politicians were among those who argued Randrianirina had been imprisoned for unfair political reasons, and he was released in February the following year.

Just hours before announcing he was taking over Madagascar on Tuesday, Randrianirina told the BBC he was a mere “servant” of the people. He exuded charm, hospitality, confidence – but not arrogance.

Magalasy journalist Rivonala Razafison describes him as “simple but tough”, “straightforward” and “patriotic”.

Randrianirina certainly has thoughts about his country and how it is still influenced by France, Madagascar’s colonial master until 1960.

When offered the option to respond to the BBC’s questions in French, an official language in Madagascar, Randrianirina countered: “Why can’t I speak my language, Malagasy?” adding that he does not like glorifying the colonial tongue.

The CAPSAT leader has told local media that, moving forward, his priority is “social welfare” – a pressing issue in a country where roughly 75% of people live below the poverty line.

He has said the military will rule for up to two years alongside a civilian government before an election is held.

Sources have told Reuters that Randrianirina will be sworn in over the next day or two – a ceremony that will serve as a coda to a whirlwind few days that took him from mystery man to the officer everybody is talking about.

Source: BBC

Chad’s parliament has overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment abolishing presidential term limits, a move critics decry as a maneuver to entrench the rule of President Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno. The controversial decision, passed on Friday, paves the way for Deby to potentially remain in power for decades.

The amendment, introduced by Deby’s Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS), was approved by 236 of the 257 lawmakers.

The vote was boycotted by some opposition members, with the National Rally of Chadian Democrats walking out in protest.

Opposition leader Albert Pahimi Padacke had earlier condemned the change as “unconstitutional and authoritarian,” signaling a deepening political rift.

New rules for extended power

The reform fundamentally reshapes Chad’s political landscape. It replaces the previous five-year term, renewable once, with a seven-year mandate with no limit on re-election.

The new rules take effect at the next presidential election, but opponents argue it effectively grants Deby two additional years in power immediately.

The changes also extend parliamentary terms and reinstate immunity for government officials.

A fractured political landscape

The amendment consolidates power for Deby, who took over as transitional leader in 2021 after his father’s death and won a disputed election in May 2024.

The main opposition party, the Transformers, had already dismissed recent elections as a “resounding failure.”

Its leader, Succes Masra, a prominent critic, was sentenced to 20 years in prison in August, a move his attorney called a manipulation of the judicial system.

Source: Africa News

The African Union’s human rights court on Thursday rejected a petition by Ivory Coast’s ex-president Laurent Gbagbo, who argued his rights were violated by a criminal conviction that is blocking his comeback bid.

The court, known as the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights, also threw out a petition by ex-prime minister Guillaume Soro, who like Gbagbo is barred from running in Ivory Coast’s elections this year because of his criminal record.

Gbagbo was the west African country’s leader from 2000 until he was forced from power in 2011 in a bloody civil war that brought current President Alassane Ouattara to power.

Gbagbo has declared his candidacy for the October 25 presidential election, even though he is ineligible to run because of a conviction stemming from the conflict.

Several prominent opposition figures have been excluded from the October election, including Gbagbo, Soro and Tidjane Thiam, leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Ivory Coast (PDCI).

Gbagbo and Soro petitioned the African Court in 2020, arguing their rights had been violated by the Ivorian justice system.

The Tanzania-based court ruled Gbagbo had provided insufficient evidence and was not the victim of discriminatory treatment.

It threw out Soro’s case, ruling he had not exhausted his appeals in Ivory Coast.

In 2020, the same court had issued provisional orders ruling both men must be allowed to run in that year’s elections.

Ivory Coast has however withdrawn recognition of the court’s jurisdiction.

Gbagbo, 80, who was acquitted on charges of crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court, still has a conviction in Ivory Coast stemming from the violent post-election crisis that ended his rule.

Soro, 53, who is in exile, was sentenced to life in prison in Ivory Coast on corruption and insurrection charges.

Source: AFP

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni will seek re-election for a seventh term in polls due early next year, according to a senior official from the ruling party.

Museveni was widely expected to run again but this is the first confirmation from his National Resistance Movement (NRM) party.

The country will hold general elections in January 2026, in which voters will choose both the president and lawmakers.

Yoweri Museveni, 80, has held power in Uganda since 1986. He is the fourth longest-ruling leader in Africa after Teodoro Obiang from Equatorial Guinea (46 years), Paul Biya from Cameroon (43 years) and Denis Sassou-Nguesso from the Congo Republic (41 years).

Under his tenure, the NRM has changed the 1995 constitution twice to allow him to extend his rule.

The 2005 amendment removed presidential terms limit and in 2017, the Ugandan Parliament voted to withdraw age eligibility requirements. 

Museveni is expected to formalise his bid for his party’s nomination on Saturday, according to Tanga Odoi, the chairman of the NRM’s electory body.

The president “will pick [up] expression-of-interest forms for two positions, one for chairperson of the party and the other to contest, if he is given [the] chance, for presidential flag bearer”, Odoi said in a press conference.

Museveni’s biggest opponent in the 2026 polls should be Bobi Wine. The singer-turned-politician came second in the 2021 elections but claimed the results were fraudulent.

Wine has already said he intends to run again next year.

Museveni has shrugged off recurring accusations from human rights groups and opposition leaders that he has maintained his grip on power through patronage and intimidation.

He claims his long rule is due to lasting popular support.

 Source: Africa News

Joseph Kabila, the ex-president of the Democratic Republic of Congo, has lashed out at the government of his successor – calling it a “dictatorship”.

The 53-year-old made a 45-minute speech live on YouTube on Friday evening from an unspecified location a day after the Senate lifted his immunity from prosecution.

DR Congo’s authorities intend to charge the former president with treason and war crimes, linking him to the Rwandan-backed M23 rebels, who have taken control of several towns in the east.

Kabila, in power between 2001 and 2019, said he had broken his silence because he felt the unity of the country was at risk.

Analysts say any trial of Kabila could further destabilise the country, which has been battling the M23 rebellion since 2012.

The government of President Félix Tshisekedi has not responded to the speech in which Kabila also set out a 12-point plan that he said could help end decades of insecurity in the mineral-rich east of DR Congo.

Dressed in a navy suit with a Congolese flag badge pinned to his lapel, Kabila stood before a lectern in what was termed an “address to the nation” – a broadcast topped and tailed by the national anthem.

The YouTube link shared by his spokesperson has subsequently been deleted, but the recording has been shared by numerous other accounts.

Once an ally of Tshisekedi, Kabila fell out with his successor and their parties’ coalition formally ended in 2020.

The former president has been living outside the country for two years – he initially left to pursue a doctorate in South Africa.

During his speech, he hit out at “arbitrary decisions” taken by the government last month after “rumours” that he had travelled to the eastern city of Goma.

This prompted the authorities to ban his People’s Party for Reconstruction and Democracy (PPRD) and order the seizure of his assets.

It all “testifies to the spectacular decline of democracy in our country”, Kabila said.

During his speech, he did mention that he intended to go to Goma “in the coming days”, where he is not in danger of arrest as the city has been under control of the M23 rebels since January.

Kabila also hit out at the president for trying to undermine the constitution, at parliament for failing to hold the president to account and at the justice system for allowing itself to be “openly exploited for political end”.

He was critical of government’s handling of the economy, corruption and public debt, which he said had “skyrocketed” to more than $10bn (£7.3bn).

Kabila, a former general, was also disparaging about the government’s handling of the security situation countrywide, especially the use of pro-government militias as “auxiliaries” of the armed forces.

“The national army… has been replaced by mercenary bands, armed groups, tribal militias, and foreign armed forces that have not only demonstrated their limitations but also plunged the country into indescribable chaos.”

He mentioned that one of these armed groups was the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), an ethnic Hutu militia involved in the Rwandan genocide in 1994 and still active in eastern DR Congo.

Rwanda sees the presence of the FDLR rebels as an existential threat. Rwandan troops are currently in DR Congo in support of the M23, which is led by ethnic Tutsis who say they took arms to protect the rights of the minority group.

Kabila urged the withdrawal of “all foreign troops” from DR Congo and welcomed a recent decision by Southern African Development Community (Sadc) to pull out troop that had been deployed to help the army fight the M23.

Source: BBC

Former Credit Suisse boss Tidjane Thiam is to run for president in Ivory Coast’s forthcoming election, his party has confirmed.

Thiam, 62, was the only candidate vying to represent the country’s main opposition party, the PDCI.

Thiam has spent the last two decades living abroad, and had to give up his French citizenship to be able to stand in the presidential election.

The former minister has held directorship positions in leading international businesses like Aviva, Prudential and Credit Suisse, though he resigned from the latter following a spying scandal.

Political scientist Geoffroy Kouao told the AFP news agency that Thiam was not “well known to Ivorians,” after spending more than 20 years out of the country pursuing his business career, and so would have to run a strong campaign in order to win October’s election.

The governing RHDP party has not yet announced its candidate, but the current president, 83-year-old Alassane Ouattara, has indicated that he would like to run for what would be a fourth term in office.

Three other prominent figures, including former President Laurent Gbagbo, have been barred from running, AFP reports.

Thiam has had something of a chequered career.

After becoming the first Ivorian to pass the entrance exam to France’s prestigious Polytechnique engineering school, he returned to Ivory Coast and took up politics.

In 1998, aged 36, he became planning minister before the PDCI was ousted from power in a coup the following year.

He then moved abroad and pursued a successful business career.

In 2009, he became the first black person to head a company on the UK’s FTSE 100 stock exchange when he was named CEO of the Prudential insurance company.

However, he was later censured by a financial regulator for not being open about a planned takeover.

After five years as the head of the Swiss bank Credit Suisse, he was forced to resign in 2020 after being accused of spying on two formers colleagues, which he has denied.

He is well connected in West African political circles – he is the great-nephew of Ivory Coast’s first President Félix Houphouët-Boigny, while his uncle Habib Thiam was a prime minister in Senegal, on two occasions, spanning a total of nine years.

Source: BBC