The Week That Was – 5th June 2020

8 Jun 2020

Here is a recap of the major activities that happened in Africa in the last 7 days. You can see the video here. 

Central Africa

  • The WHO confirmed an Ebola outbreak in the North West of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
  • Angola announced that it will reduce the number of oil shipments to China as it renegotiates debt payments.
  • Burundi’s constitutional court upheld the victory of the ruling party’s presidential candidate Evariste Ndayishimiye is the president-elect.

North Africa

  • Canada announced its intention to establish a project development fund for Sudan
  • Egypt and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) agreed $5.2 billion stand-by agreement. This is on the back of a $5 billion Eurobond sale and $2.8 billion in emergency funding from the IMF in May.  This brings the total funding to $13 billion.
  • Egypt proposed a ceasefire in Libya from Monday, June 8th, and suggested peace talks should be held in Geneva.
  • Arab Monetary Fund has agreed to lend $98 million to Tunisia to deal with the Coronavirus pandemic
  • The Arab Monetary Fund agreed to lend Morocco $211 million to deal with its Coronavirus outbreak.

 West Africa

  • Senegal saw some protests spread across the country against COVID19 lockdown
  • The Guinea government approved a basic agreement for the development of its giant Simandou Iron Ore mine.  The consortium that received the approval consists of SMB from France, Winning Shipping from Singapore, and entities from China and Guinea.  The consortium won the $14 billion tender in November 2019 to develop blocks 1 and 2.  It is estimated that the mine will produce 2 billion tons of high-grade iron ore.
  • The International Monetary Fund approved a $50 million disbursement to Liberia under the rapid credit facility to fight COVID19
  • In Mali, thousands march to demand the leader to step down.
  • The World Health Organisation (WHO) confirmed a case of yellow fever in TOGO.
  • During the OPEC+ meeting on June 5th, Nigeria agreed to additional oil output cuts from July to September to compensate for producing more than its quota during May and June.
  • The Ghana Railway Authority (GRA) and Amanda Holdings Limited signed a $560 million contract for the construction of sections of the standard gauge Western Railway Line between Takoradi Harbour and Huni Vali. Construction is set to start in October 2020 and will take 42 months to complete.

Interested in knowing more, get in touch.

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