Free Republic

Elf Aquitaine, until its privatisation in 1994, was much more than a oil company - according to prosecutors at the trial of Elf's top managers. They claim the state-owned firm worked as an unofficial arm of France's murkiest diplomacy. The close relationship between Elf and French officials is well-documented, and goes back to the presidency of General Charles de Gaulle. As the company expanded into Africa in the 1960s and 1970s, Elf paid secret "commissions" to African officials with the blessing of French governments. By the 1980s Elf had operations in Gabon, Congo Brazzaville, Cameroon, Angola and Nigeria - which,...

Guinean soldiers said they had overthrown president Alpha Condé in an apparent military coup, less than a year after he won a controversial third term in the mineral-rich west African country. A group of armed men appeared on state television on Sunday dressed in fatigues and draped in national flags, declaring that Guineans were being mistreated by the country’s elites. “We are capable of taking our destiny in our own hands,” one of the soldiers said in the state TV broadcast, adding that the constitution would be dissolved and the borders closed for one week. But Guinea’s defence ministry said...