Dear Reader,
Dozens of people were killed this morning when two bomb blasts hit a busy bus station on the outskirts of Abuja, Nigeria. No-one has claimed immediate responsibility for the attack, but suspicion has fallen on the militant group Boko Haram. The Islamist insurgents were reportedly behind an assault last week in the north-eastern Borno state in which at least 60 people were killed, and are believed to have been responsible for the abduction of two Italian priests and a Canadian nun in Cameroon at the start of the month. If their involvement in the kidnapping is confirmed, it will have been the group's third abduction in Cameroon and could signal a shift in tactics.
Several sources within the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM), an instrument set up by the African Union to encourage good governance, have alleged that the organisation is fraught with high-level corruption, mismanagement and political manipulation. In an in-depth investigation conducted by Think Africa Press, officials as well as a number of senior figures in the APRM claimed that there has been widespread fraud and misuse of funds, and that the mechanism's integrity and independence have been undermined. Some allege that the responsibility for APRM's state of affairs goes right to the top.
Momentum is continuing to build towards Egypt's 26 May elections, which are widely expected to see Abdel Fattah al-Sisi stroll into the presidential office. The rise of the field marshal to the presidency will see the military's grip tighten even further, but it is not just in the political arena that the army's power is likely to expand. Since the overthrow of President Mohamed Morsi in July 2013, the military appears to have increased its involvement in the economy. The army is already estimated to control up to 40% of Egypt's GDP, and in recent months it has signed a number of mega-infrastructure deals worth several billions of dollars.
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North: Egypt's Military Economy: Money is Power, Power is Money
West: Nigeria: Federalism Works
Central: What Does the Tactic of Foreign Kidnappings in Cameroon Tell us about Boko Haram?
East: Rwanda's 20 Year Miracle: "We Had Nowhere To Go But Up"
South: S. Africa: Parliament Forms Committee to Probe Nkandla
Below are a few highlights from the past week:
Who Audits the Auditors: Scandal at the Heart of the African Peer Review Mechanism
Doing Business with the World Bank: When 'Development' Drives Inequality and Poverty
What We (Don't) Know About Eritrea's Economy
It's Time for Africa's Stolen Artefacts to Come Home
Food and Farmers: When Public-Private Partnerships Become Corporate Takeovers
All the best,
The Team at Think Africa Press
Editor-in-Chief
James Schneider is the Editor-in-Chief of Think Africa Press. He read Theology at the University of Oxford and has a particular interest in the study of political economy, capital flows, and equitable development. He is also a frequent commentator on African affairs for Monocle24 radio and other media. Email: editor@thinkafricapress.com. Follow him on twitter @schneiderhome.
