The African Tribune

Why Spain’s housing deadlock pushed Sánchez toward a snap election

6Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Politics

Why Spain’s housing deadlock pushed Sánchez toward a snap election

The housing crisis in Spain has entered a new phase of political uncertainty. After Parliament rejected the measures designed to improve access to housing, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez made the decision to call early elections. This move comes amid mounting social tension, driven by rising rents, soaring property prices and a shortage of affordable homes. In several major cities, many residents are struggling to find housing, while a growing number of young people are delaying their departure from the family home. What the government proposed and why it fell apart Pedro Sánchez's government had aimed to support the construction of affordable housing, strengthen tenant protections and combat real estate speculation. However, these proposals failed to secure the necessary support in Parli...

Behind Cameroon-Nigeria trade revival: security, climate pressure and a customs windfall

5Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Actualités

Behind Cameroon-Nigeria trade revival: security, climate pressure and a customs windfall

Cross-border commerce between northern Nigeria and Cameroon's Far North has been gradually rebuilt since 2019, and the reasons behind that recovery are far more layered than a simple uptick in traffic. Improved security along the shared corridor has allowed hauliers to return to routes they once avoided, while customs receipts have climbed sharply. Yet the revival also rests on deeper pressures: repeated climate shocks, the search for economic survival, and a border population that has few alternatives. On the sandy track linking Nigeria to Cameroon, convoys of heavy trucks now wait on both sides of the frontier. Not long ago, these same convoys were regularly targeted by Boko Haram. Aboubacar Mahamed, a Nigerian driver hauling millet sacks toward N'Djamena in Chad, describes a journey th...

Inside Niger’s post-Orano uranium strategy: what the shift really signals

5Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Actualités

Inside Niger’s post-Orano uranium strategy: what the shift really signals

When Niger's military government moved to reclaim its uranium sector after the July 2023 coup, it set off a chain of events that few outside the industry fully anticipated. The break with Orano, the French giant that had operated in the country for over half a century, was never going to be a simple divorce. It has become a slow, layered restructuring of an entire industry — and a test of whether political sovereignty can be converted into commercial leverage.The central question remains unanswered: is Niger actually selling its uranium on better terms today? The available evidence suggests a more complicated picture. Niamey's bargaining power has clearly grown, yet no public data confirms that the country consistently commands higher prices. And several confidential negotiations have surf...

Inside Algeria’s Cotonou strategy: why African trade ambition runs into closed borders

5Oct

By Fati SeyniNo Comments

Actualités

Inside Algeria’s Cotonou strategy: why African trade ambition runs into closed borders

When a multisectoral Algerian delegation walked into the Benin Deal Room 2026, held from 16 to 18 September in Cotonou, the message was clear: Algiers wants its African presence to translate into tangible economic partnerships. Pharmaceuticals, energy, infrastructure and state-owned enterprises topped the agenda. Yet beneath the Beninese opportunity lies a far more complicated regional equation — how do you intensify South-South trade when borders remain shut in the very heart of West Africa? The frontier between Niger and Benin, still closed despite repeated attempts at rapprochement, stands as one of the starkest paradoxes facing any ambition of a more self-reliant African economic integration. Cotonou becomes a marketplace for African economic ambition For three days, Cotonou turned i...

What the Igbokoda ATR-42 crash reveals about Nigeria’s military aviation pressures

5Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Actualités

What the Igbokoda ATR-42 crash reveals about Nigeria’s military aviation pressures

The loss of a Nigerian Air Force ATR-42 over the coastal belt near Igbokoda on Monday, 5 October, has thrust the inner workings of the country's military transport operations into rare public view. With 25 passengers and seven crew members reported on board, the aircraft went down in Ondo state while flying a routine link between Benin City and Lagos. The wreckage has been located close to a naval facility, and search-and-rescue teams are still working to account for everyone who was on the plane. How the flight slipped off the radar The first signs of trouble emerged during the morning. Air traffic controllers lost contact with the aircraft at about 9:13 a.m. as it headed from Benin City toward Lagos, according to Festus Keyamo, the minister of aviation and aerospace development. Repeate...

Inside Cotonou port’s pivot: why Burkina Faso now anchors Benin’s transit economy

5Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Actualités

Inside Cotonou port’s pivot: why Burkina Faso now anchors Benin’s transit economy

The diplomatic rupture between Benin and Niger did not paralyse Cotonou's port. It redirected it. As overland trade with Niamey stalled, the platform gradually steered its flows toward other landlocked markets, and Burkina Faso moved to the front of the queue. In 2025, close to one million tonnes of goods — overwhelmingly petroleum products — passed through Cotonou en route to the Sahelian country. Early figures for 2026 suggest the momentum has not faded: 7.79 million tonnes were handled in the first half of the year, a 16.6% increase year on year. The numbers tell a story of corridors being quietly redrawn around Benin's coastline. The Niger shock that reset the board For years, Niger was the port's flagship hinterland client. Geography did most of the work: a short road corridor linki...

Inside the Élysée accords: the strategic logic behind Benin’s 65.5 billion FCFA package

5Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Actualités

Inside the Élysée accords: the strategic logic behind Benin’s 65.5 billion FCFA package

When Benin and France gathered at the Élysée on Monday, 5 October 2026, the headline figure of 65.5 billion FCFA told only part of the story. The ceremony itself was less a starting point than a culmination — the visible tip of months of quiet negotiation between Cotonou, Paris and a network of European partners. Understanding what actually happened requires looking past the number to the dynamics that produced it: a deliberate choice to bundle electricity, agriculture and health into a single financing architecture rather than scattering support across disconnected projects. Why the partnership moved into a higher gear The cooperation between Benin and France has entered a distinctly new phase. At the Élysée presentation, Benin's officials and their French counterparts framed the commitm...

Why the death of Kalev Mutond exposes deeper fractures in DR Congo’s intelligence machine

5Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Politics

Why the death of Kalev Mutond exposes deeper fractures in DR Congo’s intelligence machine

Behind the headline news of Kalev Mutond's death lies a more complex story about how power, secrecy, and institutional weakness intertwine in the Democratic Republic of Congo. As the former head of the country's intelligence services, Mutond's passing is not merely an obituary — it is a lens through which the fault lines of Congo's security apparatus become visible. Understanding the dynamics at play requires looking beyond the immediate announcement to the structural realities that shaped his career and continue to shape the nation's intelligence community. The man who knew too much: Mutond's role in Congo's shadow networks Kalev Mutond served as the general administrator of Congo's intelligence agency, a position that placed him at the intersection of political power and covert operatio...

Inside Benin’s trafficking response: how a $250,000 US package targets the gaps that let victims slip through

5Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Actualités

Inside Benin’s trafficking response: how a $250,000 US package targets the gaps that let victims slip through

When US officials handed over a set of new technical instruments to Benin's national anti-trafficking committee on 16 September 2026, the ceremony itself was brief. What it revealed, however, is a deeper story about where Benin's fight against human trafficking has been breaking down — and why Washington and its technical partners believe standardised tools, rather than simply more money, can close the gaps. The US Embassy in Cotonou went public with the $250,000 initiative on 2 October, but the underlying logic has been months, if not years, in the making. The coordination problem hiding behind the funding Look past the headline figure and the real insight emerges: Benin has not lacked actors willing to fight trafficking. Police units, magistrates, social services, health workers and sp...

Behind Niger’s press freedom collapse: the dynamics driving arrests and disappearances

5Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Actualités

Behind Niger’s press freedom collapse: the dynamics driving arrests and disappearances

When Moussa Kaka left his office in Niamey around 7 p.m. on 31 August 2026, he was simply heading home. He never arrived. More than two years after the coup that brought General Abdourahamane Tiani to power, his disappearance is not an isolated incident but the visible tip of a deeper transformation of Niger's media landscape — one shaped by judicial pressure, suspended outlets and a narrowing space for independent reporting. The case that has gripped newsrooms Moussa Kaka is no marginal figure. Over a career spanning nearly four decades, he became one of the most recognisable names in Nigerien journalism, a former correspondent for international broadcasters and press freedom organisations, and the director-general of Radio-Télévision Saraounia, which he built up over the years. His fa...

Inside Niger’s fuel debt labyrinth: the forces that pushed SONIDEP’s SORAZ arrears to 418 billion FCFA

5Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Culture

Inside Niger’s fuel debt labyrinth: the forces that pushed SONIDEP’s SORAZ arrears to 418 billion FCFA

The hidden mechanics behind a record shortfall Niger's hydrocarbons sector is weathering its most severe financial storm yet. At the centre of the turbulence sits the Société Nationale des Produits Pétroliers (SONIDEP), whose outstanding obligations to the Société de Raffinage de Zinder (SORAZ) have climbed to an unprecedented 418 billion FCFA. The scale of this liability raises urgent questions about how the national fuel supplier reached such a point — and what it means for the stability of the domestic market and the continuity of fuel deliveries. The roots of the shortfall Understanding this crisis requires looking beyond the headline figure. Historically, SONIDEP's debt to the refinery hovered in a far more manageable range, roughly 40 to 50 billion FCFA under the previous administra...

Burkina Faso: what the absence of the Stallions in Argentina reveals about the reach of patriotic mobilisation

5Oct

By Harouna OusmaneNo Comments

Actualités

Burkina Faso: what the absence of the Stallions in Argentina reveals about the reach of patriotic mobilisation

The non-appearance of Burkina Faso's senior national football team in Argentina has generated considerable speculation, and the underlying dynamics deserve closer scrutiny. Information reaching this publication indicates that the entire squad may have been requisitioned at the behest of Captain Ibrahim Traoré as part of what has been described as a "patriotic insertion." The context: mobilisation as a governing imperative For several years, Burkina Faso has experienced a pronounced militarisation of public life, accompanied by the mobilisation of various segments of society around the national effort. While the authorities justify these measures by citing security imperatives, their extension into domains such as sport warrants careful documentation and explanation. Should the reported ...