West Africa
Africa's masonic grand masters using square and compasses for political gain

Gabon
Brothers in spot of bother for Grand Master election

Having been announced in October, the election of Jacques-Denis Tsanga as Grand Master of the Grande Loge du Gabon is about to take place. But behind the scenes, the previously dominant consensus has evaporated.

Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast
Kaboré aides reinvent themselves in Abidjan finance

Vista Bank boss Simon Tiemtoré has invited two men who advised the former Burkinabe president to join him in Ivory Coast's economic capital.

Palace Intrigues
Alassane Ouattara, Arlette Soudan-Nonault, Aristides Gomès, Omar Denis Bongo Junior

Intrigues big and small... Every Tuesday, Africa Intelligence takes a peek into the corridors of power in Africa and beyond.

Ivory Coast/Burkina Faso Ouattara wary of the Burkinabe PM

Congo Arlette Soudan-Nonault still enjoying the limelight

Guinea-Bissau Former PM Gomès calls on France and the UN to help

Equatorial Guinea Omar Denis Bongo Junior supports Obiang in Malabo

Ivory Coast
Bitter battle for presidency of Ivorian employers' union

The two candidates campaigning to take over from Jean-Marie Ackah at the head of the CGECI, Ivory Coast's main employers' union, are both members of the powerful GLCI Masonic Lodge.

Ivory Coast
Abidjan hunting three masterminds suspected of cocaine trafficking op

Ivory Coast police are searching an Italian national and two Lebanese citizens believed to be behind the recent cocaine trafficking operation. Ten days after the arrest of around ten people suspected of being linked to the affair, the case has been taken up by officials at the highest level.

Africa, Europe
Groupe Agir Europe-Afrique puts positive spin on African elections

The association, which is officially based in France and coordinated by the Ivorian Jean Amoikon Eba, has been observing elections across the African continent for the last decade.

Ivory Coast
Arrests linked to cocaine trafficking investigation send Freemasons into turmoil

The arrest and the indictment of several influential members of Ivory Coast's main masonic lodge, the Grande Loge de Côte d'Ivoire, last month as part of an investigation into a cocaine seizure in April in Abidjan has put Grand Master Sylvere Koyo in a tight spot.

Ivory Coast
Former prime minister Hamed Bakayoko to get tribute book

Former French Prime Minister Manuel Valls will sign the preface of a book dedicated to the former Ivorian Defence Minister Hamed Bakayoko who died a year ago.

Ivory Coast
Sylvère Koyo set to take over at Grande Loge de Côte d'Ivoire

Ivory Coast's main Masonic lodge will next month officially appoint its new leader, a year after its veteran Grand Master and former prime minister Hamed Bakayoko died.

West Africa
Fertiliser king Salif Ouédraogo targeted by Cotonou lawsuit

The fertiliser trader, a key figure in the Sahelian agricultural sector for the past twenty years who was close to Burkina Faso president Blaise Compaoré and Beninese president Thomas Boni Yahi, is the target of a lawsuit by a Malian client.

Ivory Coast
Lidya Ludic venture threatens Abidjan-Pretoria relations

Lydia Ludic Côte d'Ivoire, a joint venture between the gambling and entertainment group Pefaco International and South African investors, has been paralysed by trench warfare between its shareholders and its management.

Congo, Ivory Coast
Sassou set to mediate in Freemason crisis

The succession tussle at the Grande Loge de Côte d'Ivoire (GLCI) is continuing to divide the country's Freemasons. The Congolese president, who is influential in this milieu, is gearing up to mediate in the coming days.

Central African Republic
Lebanese firms battle over passport contract

Al Madina, which makes ID cards and other documents for Central African Republic citizens, wants to snatch the biometric passport contract held since 20210 by compatriot Africard.

Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast freemasons battle over Bakayoko's succession

The death in March of Ivory Coast grand master and prime minister Hamed Bakayoko created a vacuum that has still not been filled. Interim grand master Sylvère Koyo, assisted by retail distribution magnate Adnan Houdrouge, is trying to take his place but is meeting growing resistance.

Gabon
Gendarmerie intel chief sidelines his number two

Spymaster Jean-Norbert Madjoupa, who is at odds with his deputy, delegates his powers to other more trusted officers when he travels abroad.

Africa
French grand lodge faces pushback from 'regular' Masons in Africa

The trip to Benin by Jean-Pierre Rollet, one of France's most senior Freemasons, has riled African affiliates of his French grand lodge who take increasing exception to his tutelage and look with envy to so-called 'regular' lodges with loose ties to the United Grand Lodge of England.

Ivory Coast
Sylvère Koyo appointed interim masonic lodge grand master after Bakayoko's death

Without waiting for the end of the traditional three-month mourning period, the brothers of the Grande Loge de Cote d'Ivoire (GLCI) have appointed an interim successor to recently deceased prime minister Hamed Bakayoko. He will remain in the position until the lodge's next general assembly.

Chad, Congo
Congo's Freemasons shaken by Idriss Déby's death

Denis Sassou Nguesso introduced Idriss Déby to the Freemasons in the early 2000s, making him the first Deputy Grand Master (DGM) of the Grande loge du Congo (GLC).

Ivory Coast
Who is standing in for Bakayoko at GLCI lodge?

The temporary absence of its Grand Master Hamed Bakayoko, who is currently undergoing medical tests in France, has obliged the Grande loge de Côte d'Ivoire to provisionally restructure itself.

Congo
Sassou receives a fillip from Turkish billionaire Ali Metin Kazanci as he bids for re-election

As Denis Sassou NGuesso seeks a fourth term as president, Aksa Enerji, a firm owned by a Turkish oligarch close to Ankara's ruling party, is speeding up its plans to increase electricity supply to Pointe-Noire, a city that has traditionally been hostile to the Congolese leader.

Ivory Coast
Ouattara draws up cabinet shortlist

As the country gears up for legislative elections on March 6, there have been intense negotiations about who will be in the next government. The president has already pencilled in a few names.

Gabon
Maixent Accrombessi makes his Masonic influence felt

Tangible in Libreville since the fall of his successor Brice Laccruche, the influence of Ali Bongo's former chief of staff Maixent Accrombessi is especially keenly felt in Freemason circles.

Congo
Donatien Kivouvou, new Grand Master of GOCB

In late October, the Grand Orient du Congo-Brazzaville (GOCB), one of the three main Masonic lodges in Congo, chose a [...]

Mali
Famakan Sissoko, new master of Mali's brotherhood

At a gathering on 10 October in its temple in [...]

Togo
Ignace Clomegah caught in Sassou/Bongo crossfire

The dispute that has been tearing apart the Grande Loge nationale togolaise (GLNT) for months now has implicitly drawn in [...]

Spotlight | Africa
The Freemasons push back against the politicians

Freemasonry may be the classic means for governments to co-opt their elites, but lodges throughout west and central Africa are increasingly defying the politicians. An investigation into the lodges that are striving to assert their independence.

Mali
War rages on among freemasons after new leader's appointement

Far from assuaging tensions among Mali’s Freemasons, the appointment of Lamine Sow as grand master has made things worse.

Spotlight | West Africa
Freemasonry in disarray

The death in a road accident on Jan. 29 of Clotaire Magloire Coffie shouldn’t result in a major shake-up of the Grande Loge de Cote d’Ivoire (GLCI). After serving as grand master for three decades Coffie gave up his post [.