Analysis

Chinese Ambassador to South Africa Lin Songtian is reportedly being recalled to Beijing according to a report in the Daily Maverick newspaper. The article quotes unnamed sources within South Africa's Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO) suggesting that Ambassador Lin will leave as soon as Monday.

Just as every African government is now contending with the terrifying prospect of a deadly viral outbreak while scrambling to deal with deteriorating economic conditions at home, policymakers also have to confront the possibility of being dragged into a rapidly escalating dispute between the United States and ...

In February, the number of COVID-19 cases was still limited in the Mediterranean region. Hence, the media of the countries in the wider Mediterranean region mostly focused on the economic impact of the virus. Interestingly, some commentators in the Gulf, framed the appearance of the virus as ...

The COVID-19 pandemic is having a severe impact on the global economy, from aviation and tourism to car sales. Already, markets have been upended, with commodities like oil being especially hit. With its economy still reliant on oil exports, Angola’s expectations to end a 4-year recession in ...

Providing global "public goods" in health, security and other areas has long been a responsibility taken on by the United States. Now, though, as the United States struggles to contain the COVID-19 outbreak at home and with its "America First" foreign policy doctrine, Washington is less inclined ...

In August 2019 Melange Coffee Roasters, a family-owned Ethiopian coffee processing company inaugurated a new plant in Addis Ababa. With an investment of 1.37 million USD, the plant immediately began exporting processed, powdered packages of Ethiopia’s world-renowned coffee to China and South Africa. ...

COVID-19 has infected more than 100,000 people in at least 77 countries, disrupting global manufacturing supply chains and causing a slowdown in key service sectors such as tourism, transport, and recreation. While the virus will cause exports from Cameroon to China and Italy to fall, policymakers must ...

From Ethiopia to Kenya and soon Tanzania, thousands of kilometers of new railways are coming online. And if Tanzanian President John Magufuli is successful, Dar es Salaam will emerge as the hub of a hugely ambitious regional railway network that will stretch across half a dozen countries. ...

When oil trading started today in Asia, sellers moved quickly to unload their positions prompting a "cataclysmic collapse" that saw prices plunge by a stunning 31%, the single largest price drop in almost 30 years. The sell-off ...

Now that the COVID-19 infection rate in China is steadily declining and the government appears to be gaining some measure of control over the outbreak, officials in Beijing are now turning their attention to getting the domestic economy going again and to re-shaping ...

In 2006, the Chinese government began a program of delivering agricultural aid to Africa through establishing Agriculture Technology Demonstrations Centers (ATDC), aimed at stimulating local development and also promote Chinese commercial and diplomatic interests in Africa.  Some of these ATDCs have been beneficial, but many others are ...

One day, hopefully soon, scientists will find a cure for COVID-19 and things will start to get back to normal. Planes will start to fly, ports will reopen and people on both sides will try to get back to where they were just a couple of months ...