26 February, 2022 | Menas Associates, Sahara
With Europe’s gas supplies coming increasingly under the spotlight because of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, it was almost inevitably only a matter of time before an umpteenth attempt to resurrect the pipedream of the Trans-Saharan Gas Pipeline (TSGP) made a return bid....
25 February, 2022 | Menas Associates, Nigeria
On 25 February, just as Nigeria Focuswent to press, President Muhammadu Buhari finally signed the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill 2022 into law following widespread protests by civil society organisations who were demanding that he do so. This was three weeks after an...
24 February, 2022 | Menas Associates, Morocco
Morocco is facing what looks set to be the worst drought in 30 years which has prompting one official in the agricultural sector to describe the situation as ‘catastrophic.’ This year’s rainfall is 64% less than average and the reservoirs are already low and on...
24 February, 2022 | Iran, Menas Associates
In mid-February a leaked audio file grabbed the attention of many observers in Iran. The recording reflected a conversation between the former chief commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Mohammad Ali Jafari, and his deputy in charge of the...
23 February, 2022 | Algeria, Menas Associates
The reason why the Algerian economy is progressively failing is because the regime has remained stuck in its mindset of living off one of the world’s most extreme ‘rentier’ economies: one based almost entirely on hydrocarbon rents. Since the 2014 collapse of the oil...
8 February, 2022 | Algeria, Menas Associates
This morning, we received a call from one of our sources to say he had just met the former minister, Cherif Rahmani, in his home town of Djelfa. The ‘Lion of the Desert’, as he was known, fled Algeria a few years ago, to avoid imprisonment for corruption which mainly...
