The European Commission recognises that mining and extractive companies in Africa are responsible for 65% of tax fraud, i.e. the money that states in Africa fail to collect due to the Illicit Financial Flows (IFF). The mechanisms that the multinationals use for tax fraud are complex, such as tax avoidance, tax evasion and transfer pricing.…

The year 2020 is going to tell us a lot about the long-term future of our country. Are we going to pull ourselves out of the mud of corruption, incompetence and ignorance, and start to glimpse the ‘better life for all’ that we have been promised since 1994, or will we instead continue dithering around,…

The country has been struggling with extreme weather changes, violence and disease for nearly 30 years and is increasingly subject to severe climate shocks that are worsening a prolonged humanitarian crisis. Here are seven things we should know about the crisis in Somalia: 1. It’s a complex crisis The humanitarian crisis in Somalia is one…

Holding summits for African heads of governments is fast becoming a recurrent event among the global power brokers. The EU has had about 5 of these summits, probably to massage and codify her colonial exploitative economic spree with Africa because nothing significant has really emerged from those submits to enhance Africa’s fortune. Following the example…

In February 2018, in the midst of ongoing political turmoil, few could have predicted the radical political change of direction Ethiopia would experience within a matter of weeks. The election in March 2018 of Abiy Ahmed as Chairman of the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and consequently the country’s Prime Minister heralded the…

President Trump’s statements concerning a proposal to purchase Greenland from Denmark were met with derision throughout the Western world, especially in diplomatic and journalistic circles. Other pundits even described such plan as a sign of his supposed ‘megalomania.’ Trump’s peculiar style is certainly unorthodox: his inflammatory tweets, his frequent disdain for some traditional American allies,…

Among all the natural resources that Africa possesses, minerals are the most coveted by developed countries including the European Union (EU). In fact, in 2017 the European Commission published a Communication updating the list of certain minerals that are essential for maintaining economic growth in Europe. The number of critical raw materials has been growing…

The civil society is unceasingly denouncing the mining companies´ behaviour in Africa. Most of the denounced cases involve companies from developed countries such as the French AREVA, the Swiss Glencore, the French-Israeli Beny Steinmetz, the British Rio Tinto, AngloAmerican, AngloGold Ashanti and Vedanta Resources, the Spanish SEPHOS, the Chinese Haiyu or the Canadian Barrick Gold.…

Robert Mugabe is the sort of figure that always caused discomfort. He was a permanent revolutionary, becoming, in time, the despotic ruler who frittered away revolutionary gain. He played multiple roles in international political consciousness. As Zimbabwe’s strongman, he was demonised and lionised in equal measure for a good deal of his time in power.…

The vast expanses of the sea, the complexity of the maritime transportation system, the immense volume of cargo transferred at each port, and the limited capacity for inspections of cargo creates opportunity for criminals. Seaborne trade in the maritime realm follows a defined set of “sea lines of communication” based on currents and weather. Because…