While War Rages, Congo’s Neighbors Smuggle Out Its Gold and Mineral Wealth
April 11th, 2025
Via the Wall Street Journal, a look at how – while war rages – the DRC’s neighbors are smuggling out its gold and mineral wealth: During the 19th century’s Scramble for Africa, European countries raced to secure territory and wealth across the continent. Now, African powers are grabbing resources from a neighbor crippled by infighting and […]
Read more »DRC-Rwanda: Rubaya Coltan Mine at the Heart of M23 Financing
February 7th, 2025
Courtesy of The Africa Report, a look at how a coltan mine is integral to M23 funding: In April 2024, Rwandan-backed armed group M23 seized one of the world’s most productive coltan concessions, in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. Since then, a UN report estimates that 120 tonnes of the precious mineral are mined every […]
Read more »Africa: Home To Some Of The Fastest Growing Economies in 2025
November 26th, 2024
Via The Economist, a look at Africa where several fast-growing economies show that not everyone is having a lost decade: To walk around Luanda, Angola’s capital, is to tour a graveyard of another era. Half-finished or empty skyscrapers loom over the sun-kissed corniche. Some of the bars along the beach are gaudy monuments to when the […]
Read more »Africa’s EV Revolution: Two Wheels, Not Four
October 22nd, 2024
Via The Economist, a look at why Africa’s EV revolution has two wheels not four: With his electric motorcycle resting on the curbside, Stephen Omusugu explains the economics. The two-wheel-taxi man from Nairobi, Kenya’s capital, went electric a month ago, after watching several of his colleagues do the same. He took out a loan for the […]
Read more »God, Bars, Roads, and The Struggle for The African Economy
October 9th, 2024
Via Pan African Review, commentary on how a drive into Africa’s heartland serves up endless churches and loud roadside bars rather than factories or other businesses: Some years ago, the Uganda government rebuilt and widened the road from the western region city of Mbarara to Kabale onwards to the border with Rwanda. It was a […]
Read more »Are Rwandan Troops Becoming Cabo Delgado’s Main Security Provider?
September 29th, 2024
Via Eurasia Review, a look at the growing security relationship between Rwanda and Mozambique: In July 2021, around 1 000 personnel from the Rwanda Defence Force and Rwanda National Police arrived in the terrorist-hit Mozambique province of Cabo Delgado. The province faced a severe threat from violent extremism characterised by increased attacks on civilians and […]
Read more »Focusing primarily on The New Seven Sisters - the largely state owned petroleum companies from the emerging world that have become key players in the oil & gas industry as identified by Carola Hoyos, Chief Energy Correspondent for The Financial Times - but spanning other nascent opportunities around the globe that may hold potential in the years ahead, Wildcats & Black Sheep is a place for the adventurous to contemplate & evaluate the emerging markets of tomorrow.