Africa

1. Economies hit by Iran war
2. Tanzania’s new rail project
3. Zambia cancels RightsCon
4. US urged not to end food aid
5. Top editor suspended
6. Mali crisis spreads

Weekend Reads, and the New York African Film Festival opens.

China’s scrapping of tariffs on imports from 53 African countries, which takes effect today, is a soft power masterstroke. On the face of it, the policy marks a major market access opportunity for the continent, and positions Beijing as a trusted ally in stark contrast to Washington, which has wielded tariffs punitively. It also comes with a warning: The omission of Eswatini over its diplomatic ties with Taiwan is a reminder that crossing Beijing’s red lines has consequences.

But look beyond the headlines and the reality is that China’s new approach is unlikely to change much tangibly in the short or medium term.

The continent had a trade deficit with China of $102 billion in 2025 — a 65% year-on-year rise. African exports to China are dominated by minerals and raw materials, such as metallic ores and crude oil; Beijing’s global dominance in processing the materials needed for the energy transition and digital infrastructure has driven purchases of copper and cobalt from the continent. But China’s exports to Africa mainly consist of manufactured goods, which have a higher value.

Tariff elimination isn’t enough to bring about meaningful change in this regard. Instead, African nations will need to industrialize to improve the trade balance which, as I’ve previously written, will require access to energy and political will. Reforms are needed to cut red-tape around issues such as foreign exchange controls and health and safety. As development economist Linda Calabrese noted in a report for UK think tank ODI Global, non-trade barriers “are often more subtle and challenging to address than tariffs, yet they can substantially increase the cost and complexity of exporting.”

African countries will likely welcome the reduction in tariffs, and they should. But Beijing’s magnanimity isn’t going to transform the continent’s economy. That’s going to be a lot harder.

🟡 Plus: A big new live-journalism launch for Semafor — details below!

Silicon Valley is globally important but can be fairly parochial, a clubby California outpost where tech leaders and the products they churn out are setting the world economic agenda and influencing geopolitics.

Semafor’s Silicon Valley & The World, a new live journalism gathering in November, will bridge that widening gap.

Co-Chaired by Divesh Makan, Satya Nadella, Jensen Huang, Ruth Porat, and Lisa Su, the initiative will bring together top technology CEOs, senior government officials, and global financial leaders in Silicon Valley this fall. Our journalists will press tech leaders and their global regulators, investors, and customers on the forces now sitting at the center of global leadership: AI, national security, energy demand, jobs, and the shifting relationship between technological power and public authority.

Economic fallout of Iran war

Botswana’s central bank became the first in Africa to raise interest rates to tackle surging inflation across the continent triggered by the Iran war. Oil prices jumped to $126 a barrel on Thursday, their highest level since 2022, on fears supply disruption could continue for months. Botswana policymakers hiked the country’s main rate to 5.5% from 3.5% because they expect higher fuel prices sparked by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz to push inflation to a three-year high. Botswana is already reeling from a slump in the global diamond market: Sales of the precious stones account for a third of government revenues.

Meanwhile, Kenya is eyeing around $600 million in emergency funds from the World Bank to soften the fallout from the global energy shock. East Africa’s biggest economy is particularly vulnerable given it imports the vast majority of its fuels from the Gulf. And while Nairobi has already eased energy taxes in a bid to help consumers, pump prices have nonetheless surged.

“Most of Africa will face worsening terms of trade,” Capital Economics wrote in a note to clients, adding that this would drive inflation, “slowing or even halting monetary easing cycles and dampening economic growth.”

— Alexis Akwagyiram

Standard Bank funds Tanzania rail project

The size of a financing facility arranged by Standard Chartered Bank for the construction of Tanzania’s standard gauge railway project. The 1,200-kilometer (745-mile) line will be jointly built by China ​Civil Engineering Construction Corporation and Turkish firm Yapi Merkezi to connect the main port in the city of Dar es Salaam to cargo transportation routes in neighboring East African countries. Tanzania plans to build about 2,500 km of rail lines in total as part of the standard gauge project. It agreed to a $1.2 billion syndicated facility two years ago, arranged by the African Development Bank, with the participation of Deutsche Bank and Société Générale bank. Neighboring Kenya has struggled to complete its own Chinese-built grand railway project due to the absence of funds after a first phase was completed in 2017.

Zambia cancels tech and rights summit

Zambia canceled a major global digital rights summit due to take place in Lusaka next week after local reports of pressure from Chinese authorities over the participation of Taiwanese activists at the event.

The organizers of RightsCon this week advised international participants not to travel for the event scheduled for May 5-8. Zambia’s technology minister said the decision was made because some invited speakers were still subject to administrative and security clearances. But rights groups and local outlets pointed to geopolitical sensitivities around Taiwan’s participation given Zambia’s deep economic ties with China.

The disruption also forced UNESCO to significantly pare back its World Press Freedom Day conference in Lusaka, which was scheduled to take place alongside RightsCon. Under a “last minute information” banner on its website, the UN agency said the Press Freedom prize ceremony had been moved to its Paris headquarters, to be held “at a later date.”

Rubio urged not to end Ethiopia food aid

The top Democrat on the US Senate’s Foreign Relations Committee urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio not to end food assistance for millions of Ethiopians, warning of a potential “humanitarian catastrophe” amid renewed tensions in the northern Tigray region.

In a letter sent to Rubio on Wednesday, Senator Jeanne Shaheen warned that US funding cuts and the restructuring of food assistance programs would leave up to 3.1 million people without aid in a region that was rocked by war from 2020 to 2022. Shaheen said that the timing was potentially dire as “the break in food assistance will coincide with the lean and rainy seasons.”

The Famine Early Warning Systems Network, a State Department-funded monitoring program, projected in January that Ethiopia’s food assistance needs would nearly double — from around 9 million people to 16 million — as the lean, or pre-harvest, season peaks in July, with emergency conditions expected in several regions.

— Adrian Elimian

S. Africa editor suspended over graft

The editor of South Africa’s largest weekly newspaper was suspended after a corruption investigation found that public lottery money for a journalism workshop he organized in 2018 was funneled to a company he owned. The episode raises new questions about parallel income streams for journalists that have become a feature in the country’s cash-strapped media industry.

Around $33,000 meant for the workshop was paid to a company directed by Sunday Times Editor Makhudu Sefara before he took up the post, according to the findings of a probe by a state anti-corruption agency published on Tuesday. Investigators say the case showed “a coordinated scheme in which public funds meant for community upliftment were diverted into private pockets and toward property purchases.” Sefara has denied wrongdoing, saying he was between jobs at the time and that the workshop took place in 2018 as planned.

The scandal lands at a moment of deep financial strain for South Africa’s news industry, which has pushed many senior journalists toward taking on concurrent consulting work that can sit uncomfortably close to their editorial roles.

— Tiisetso Motsoeneng

View: Mali crisis could hit Europe

Insecurity in Mali is raising fears of destabilization across the Sahel and a new wave of migration to Europe, a Bamako-based expert wrote in a Semafor column.

The vulnerability of the Moscow-backed ruling junta in Mali was exposed by the success of weekend attacks by jihadist and separatist forces. The consequences of a destabilized Mali could quickly be felt in the wider region and beyond, said Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program at Konrad Adenauer Foundation.

“The risk of insecurity spreading across West Africa’s porous borders, even affecting stable democracies such as Senegal and Ghana, is real,” he wrote. “The misery wrought by insurgents in largely ungoverned spaces will push people to flee.”

Laessing warned that European countries needed to brace themselves for more migration from the Sahel — with people following smuggling routes to Libya and Mauritania — at a time when the Middle East conflict is pushing the eurozone into “a toxic mix of low growth and high inflation.”

• Funding for some of Africa’s largest conservation projects has come from an unlikely source: trophy hunters. For those looking to claim some of the continent’s famous wildlife, conservation of habitats for the sake of future kills is part of what they view as the long-term sustainability of the sport. The Guardian follows one wealthy trophy hunter to better understand the complex relationship between hunters and conservationists on the continent.

• Burundi’s football league rarely draws international headlines — a vulnerability global match-fixing networks exploit. Romain Molina investigates how players and officials have become entrenched within criminal networks now seen across some of the country’s top-tier football clubs. “Burundi was an obvious choice,” one betting markets investigator told Africa Is a Country, “fixing a result here is cheap.” In some cases it can cost as little as $280 a player, the investigation finds.

• South Africa’s Democratic Alliance party faces its first major test since its gamble to enter a coalition government in 2024: November’s local government elections. For a party that views itself as standing for “predictable governance, clean administration and fiscal discipline,” Business Day’s Tara Roos writes, its position as both an African National Congress partner and critic could shake this image. The coming ballot will test this balancing act, and the stakes of the potential fallout are high, she argues.

• Rising jihadist terrorist attacks in West Africa have pushed residents living in at-risk settlements to construct city walls, and have pushed some states to physically fortify their borders. Sand berms up to 10 feet high now encircle most major towns in northeastern Nigeria and the Lake Chad Basin, according to analysis from researchers at the University of Florida, which forces attackers to enter towns on foot, rather than using motorcycles. While safer, West Africa’s changing landscape has also left jihadists to control much of the rural land outside city walls, the researchers write.

Business & Macro

🇹🇬 Pan-African commercial bank Ecobank Group reported a profit-before-tax of $195 million, after revenues rose 23% to $636 million for the first quarter of 2026.

Climate & Energy

🇳🇬 Nigerian President Bola Tinubu nominated Joseph Tegbe, director of the Nigeria-China Strategic Partnership, to be the country’s new power minister.

🇸🇸 South Sudan said it would not renew the license of Nigerian oil company Oranto Petroleum over its failure to meet seismic survey and drilling requirements.

Geopolitics & Policy

🇿🇦 South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced Nov. 4, 2026, as the official date of local government elections.

🇿🇼 Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa promoted his son, Sean, 39, from major to lieutenant colonel in the Zimbabwe National Army, sparking talks of succession.

🇨🇩 The US imposed sanctions on former DR Congo President Joseph Kabila for his support of the M23 rebels, who have seized key parts of the country’s east.

Tech & Deals

🇷🇼 A fund for small to medium-sized businesses operated by asset management firm Enko Capital received anchor funding of $30 million from the Rwanda Social Security Board.

🇿🇦 Two senior South African officials were suspended after references in a cabinet-approved policy document on artificial intelligence were found to contain AI hallucinations.

The New York African Film Festival opens this month, showcasing more than 100 films from across Africa and its diaspora on screens citywide through May. The 33rd edition of the event lands amid rising global demand for African storytelling, with a mix of first-time directors and established names, including Hollywood star Idris Elba and Congolese music legend Fally Ipupa. French-Senegalese actress Aïssa Maïga stars in the opening film Promised Sky, the story of three Ivorian women in Tunis, by French-Tunisian director Erige Sehiri. There’s also a lot of excitement around a 2025 documentary called The Eyes of Ghana, which is backed by Barack and Michelle Obama’s production house. It uncovers footage of Ghana’s first leader, Kwame Nkrumah, that was believed to have been destroyed.