Niger’s uranium output collapses as SOMAÏR blames logistics for a technical failure
For years, the teams running the Société des mines de l’Aïr were paraded as living proof that Niger could pull uranium out of the ground without a single foreign engineer on site. The production figures for the opening months of 2026 have punctured that narrative in the most brutal way possible. The numbers coming out […]
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The Alliance of Sahel States owes the regional market more than 7,700 billion CFA francs
Three governments that have staked their political identity on financial autonomy are, in practice, among the busiest borrowers on West Africa’s shared bond market. As of 31 July 2026, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, the three members of the Alliance of Sahel States, carried a combined 7,727.38 billion CFA francs in outstanding public securities on […]
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Niger’s SONIDEP faces a 28 billion FCFA loss in 2026 as fuel subsidies bite
Keeping petrol affordable at the pump is proving far costlier than Niger’s government bargained for. New projections from the International Monetary Fund sketch a worrying outlook for the national oil company, SONIDEP, which is on course to close the 2026 financial year with a net loss of 28 billion FCFA — the combined result of […]
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Burkina Faso’s Texforces-bf: how Ibrahim Traoré is gambling with retirees’ money
Texforces-bf: an industrial flagship built on borrowed confidence Touted as a pillar of economic sovereignty and a driver of Burkina Faso’s industrialisation, the TEXFORCES-BF textile scheme enjoys unmistakable official enthusiasm. Yet beneath the determined rhetoric, the project’s financial architecture and the terms of its implementation invite hard questions. Taken together — levies on pension reserves, […]
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Niger’s external liabilities climb past 12,900 billion FCFA, laying bare a shifting dependence
In Niamey, the official narrative keeps celebrating a clean break and economic emancipation. The ledger says something else entirely. At the close of the 2024 financial year, Niger’s international investment position was buried deep in negative territory, painting the portrait of an economy that remains structurally tied to foreign capital. Foreign claims that dwarf national […]
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Dioura assault: 130 Malian soldiers killed and 70 taken prisoner in JNIM’s deadliest strike
The military base at Dioura, a town in the Tenenkou circle of central Mali, was overrun in the early hours of Thursday 10 September 2026. Fighters of the Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), Al-Qaeda’s Sahel branch, breached the compound, pounded it for hours and then pulled out with captured hardware and […]
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Benin’s AME teachers: integration, pay and social gains in 2026-2027
When classrooms reopened for the 2026-2027 school year, thousands of Benin’s aspiring teachers — the corps known as AME — walked into a chapter that looks markedly different from the one they entered just a few years ago. After a string of measures designed to lift their incomes and living standards, the government has now […]
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Burkina Faso blocks former prime minister Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambèla from leaving the country
Apollinaire Kyélem de Tambèla, who ran Burkina Faso’s government for more than two years, has been barred from leaving the country. The decision was taken by the authorities of Captain Ibrahim Traoré, the man who had appointed him to the premiership. The exit ban adds a fresh chapter to the gradual tightening of control that […]
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Burkina Faso’s 104 billion CFA electricity bet meets a wall of unpaid bills
A 104 billion CFA push to widen access to electricity The authorities in Burkina Faso have approved a 104.175 billion CFA franc programme intended to accelerate the country’s electrification. The funding is meant to reinforce electricity transmission and distribution infrastructure, extend service to households still off the grid and raise the national coverage rate. It […]
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Benin senate opens its first official sitting in Cotonou
The members of Benin’s upper parliamentary chamber gathered in Cotonou on Tuesday 15 September 2026 for their very first formal plenary sitting, held at the provisional seat of the institution. Benin’s new senate meets for the first time With senate president Patrice Talon steering the proceedings, the senators came together to put in place the […]
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Au Bénin, la stratégie de délocalisation scolaire face à la menace jihadiste au nord
Le Bénin a choisi de ne pas attendre que les groupes armés dictent leur loi. Confronté à une pression terroriste persistante aux confins septentrionaux de son territoire, l’État béninois a décidé de fermer et de transférer plusieurs écoles situées dans les « zones rouges » de l’Atacora et de l’Alibori vers des sites sécurisés. Une […]
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Palokinam Pitché appointed to lead West Africa’s health organisation
Lomé, 14 September 2026 — West Africa’s health policy machinery has a new hand at the wheel. On 1 September 2026, professor Palokinam Pitché, a leading figure in Togolese medicine and higher education, took over the presidency of the West African Health Organisation (OOAS). His appointment formed part of the renewal of ECOWAS governing bodies […]
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