Sudan Hands Suakin Island to Turkey for Development

Sudan has agreed to hand over the Red Sea Suakin island temporarily to Turkey for infrastructure development and rebuilding. The announcement was made during a visit by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Sudan, which included a visit to the Suakin island and its old port. During a speech at the University of Khartoum, where […]

Fitch downgrades four Egyptian banks’ Issuer Default Ratings to “B”

Earlier this May, Fitch downgraded Egypt’s sovereign rating to “B” with a negative outlook. Three of the four banks, whose ratings it downgraded, are public banks exposed to the state. Rating agency Fitch downgraded on May 17 the credit ratings of four major Egyptian banks, namely The National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Banque Misr, Banque […]

France’s Persistent Role in Africa: The Other ‘Indispensable Nation’?

While recently attending a conference in Benin, the crisis in Mali still loomed large. The conflict in Mali had threatened to unravel the entire security situation in the Sahel and Western African nations spent much of the last year bickering whether a military intervention to save Bamako from approaching Islamist militias was feasible. In the […]