Full Coverage: West Africa

29.04.2005 Ivorian President Laurent Gbagbo has agreed to let rival candidate Alassane Ouattara run in elections in October, reversing his stand that a referendum be held to decide the issue and paving the way for rebels to return to the negotiating table and bring an end to the country's three-year conflict.

28.04.2005

28.04.2005 Charles Taylor, the former despotic ruler of Liberia nicknamed the "Murderer of Monrovia," is already manipulating the country's elections set to take place in October to avoid standing trial for war crimes, writes Douglas Farah, a former West Africa-based U.S. journalist.

28.04.2005 LOME, Apr 27 (IPS) - Emmanuel Akitani-Bob, an opposition candidate in the presidential election held Sunday in Togo, declared himself winner of the poll Wednesday. This came a day after the National Independent Electoral Commission (CENI) announced that Faure Gnassingbe, son of deceased head of state Gnassingbe Eyadema, was the provisional winner.

27.04.2005 Despite the criticism aimed at many water privatisation schemes across Africa, Senegal has provided a successful model of a public/private partnership in water management. Senegalaise des Eaux, a subsidiary of the French firm Saur, the fourth largest water company in the world, has contributed in reconstructing Dakar's ailing water system, with the government claiming that the city's needs are met until 2015.

27.04.2005 There are fears that the annual pilgrimage of over a million Muslims to Touba, a town affected by a serious cholera outbreak, may cause the disease to spread to neighbouring countries.

27.04.2005 A bargaining session Monday in Nigeria, where both parties agreed to form a government of national unity, did little to pre-empt violence in the tiny West African country of Togo Tuesday once the ruling party was declared the winner of the weekend's elections. The opposition has urged the country's five million people to resist, and tensions remained high overnight.

26.04.2005 Confusion seems to be reigning in Togo after Sunday's hastily organized presidential election, which was supposed to determine a legitimate successor to Gnassingbe Eyadema, Africa's longest-serving ruler who died in office in February. But both sides have claimed fraud, and while the parties nominally agreed to a government of national unity Monday, Tuesday's announcement that Eyadema's son won the poll has sparked fresh violence.

26.04.2005 EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson demonstrates his old mastery of presentation in telling West African cotton producers that the EU cotton trade regime "has no distorting effect on the international market". The response is not recorded.

26.04.2005 Nigeria is in financial crisis and close to default on its international debt. The recent IMF spring meetings provide a reminder that headline promises of debt relief are more selective than they sound. Nigeria does not fulfil IMF conditionality and is excluded from the HIPC debt initiative.

22.04.2005 Togo's last and only president served 38 years until he died in office earlier this year. While his son is expected to win Sunday's election--although allegations of fraud are already circulating--the country's citizens all appear to be eagerly anticipating any change after decades of economic and political stagnation.

15.04.2005 The only remaining rebel group in Burundi said this week it would join the peace process ahead of elections scheduled for later this month. In the Congo, one militia group announced an end to its armed struggle while another sent the last of its conscripts to hand in their weapons. Meanwhile, Ivorians are waiting to see if their president will accept mediator Thabo Mbeki's ruling that the main opposition candidate should be allowed to stand in elections later this year.

13.04.2005 The leader of Nigeria's Senate has resigned after being accused of bribe-taking. He quit less than 24 hours after President Olusegun Obasanjo sacked his housing minister for trying to sell off government houses cheaply to people of power and influence.

08.04.2005 The government and rebels of Cote d'Ivoire declared an "immediate and definitive" end to hostilities on Wednesday after three days of negotiations in South Africa. However, the crucial matter of whether opposition candidate Alassane Ouattara can stand in October elections has been left to South African President Thabo Mbeki, who expects to rule within a week. Stay tuned.

06.04.2005

05.04.2005 A program in Senegal, which has led 1,527 villages to stop circumcising girls, is becoming a regional model.

01.04.2005