Chatham House Africa Programme

25/08/2026

🇳🇬 | Without accompanying reforms, the risk is that President Tinubu’s plan only makes Nigeria’s army bigger but not better, writes Matthew Page in his latest Chatham House expert comment:

21/08/2026

🎙️| By 2050, many of the world’s fastest-growing cities will be in .

HE Babajide Sanwo-Olu joins Chatham House’s Tighisti Amare to discuss how Lagos is developing solutions to manage rapid population growth and deliver infrastructure at scale: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/08/africa-aware-what-can-lagos-teach-us-about-africas-emerging-megacities?utm_medium=organic-social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=afr

18/08/2026

🌍 | “China increasingly sees Africa as one of the few remaining large-scale spaces where industrial expansion, urbanisation, infrastructure deployment and consumer growth can still unfold simultaneously over decades,” Prof Carlos Lopes tells South China Morning Post:

Countries including Zimbabwe and Guinea are ending the pit-to-ship model that saw them exporting raw minerals with limited local gains.

14/08/2026

🇿🇲 | The state of democracy and human rights concerns many voters in .

Chatham House’s Christopher Vandome discusses what’s at stake in the elections on Al Jazeera English’s Inside Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2DCVP53vYY

13/08/2026

🇿🇲 | “Even Hichilema supporters want to see due respect given to those that have died...When it appears things get messy, it just makes the incumbent look disrespectful,” Chatham House’s Christopher Vandome on the enduring feud between Hichilema and the family of former president Edgar Lungu via The Guardian:

Hakainde Hichilema is bidding for second term, but feud between him and family of Edgar Lungu, who died in 2025, continues

11/08/2026

⚕️ | “Resilience is not only about infrastructure and technology, it is also about trust. Trust is not only a social consideration, it can also have direct consequences for epidemic control,” Bienvenu Mukungilwa notes on the latest episode: https://chathamhouse.org/2026/08/africa-aware-drcs-ebola-outbreak-local-systems-international-responses-and-lessons-africa?utm_medium=organic-social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=afr

10/08/2026

🇿🇲 | In opposition, President Hakainde Hichilema made international friends as a champion of democracy. In power, he must resist tipping the scales in favour of his party.

Christopher Vandome writes on ’s upcoming 13 August election for Chatham House:

In opposition Hichilema made international friends as a champion of democracy. In power he must resist tipping the scales in favour of his party.

07/08/2026

⚕️ | The international response during the 2018-2020 Ebola outbreak in the DRC was organized through health structures parallel to the existing Congolese health system – contributing to undermined trust, outbreaks of violence and ultimately prolonging the outbreak.

Dr Rachel Niehuus discusses the broader context of public health in the DRC and why that matters to make sense of the current Ebola outbreak on : https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/08/africa-aware-drcs-ebola-outbreak-local-systems-international-responses-and-lessons-africa?utm_medium=organic-social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=afr

06/08/2026

🎙️| Questions are emerging about the measures being taken at the local, national, regional and international levels to contain what has become the fastest-growing Ebola outbreak on record two months after it was officially declared.

Guests explore tensions between ad hoc international responses and local health systems: https://www.chathamhouse.org/2026/08/africa-aware-drcs-ebola-outbreak-local-systems-international-responses-and-lessons-africa?utm_medium=organic-social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=afr

03/08/2026

🇲🇬 | “There is definitely a sentiment now that the Americans are back, in a big way, and in a way that means ‘let’s talk business,’” Chatham House’s Christopher Vandome on the US backing a critical minerals project in Madagascar via Semafor:

The announcement is part of Washington’s efforts to chip away at China’s dominance of the critical minerals sector across Africa.