A de facto ceasefire between Congolese forces and Rwandan-backed rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo town of Walikale appeared to have broken down on Monday, with the rebels going back on a pledge to withdraw and accusing the army of violating its own commitments.
Kenya had applied for a new lending programme from the International Monetary Fund that would factor in unused money from the current programme which both sides walked away from last week, Finance Minister John Mbadi said on Monday.
Zambia’s Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) would invest $500-million over the next two years to increase its solar power output and double the capacity of a power transmission line to DRC, said a senior company official on Monday.
DRC ceasefire in trouble as rebels stay in strategic town
A de facto ceasefire between Congolese forces and Rwandan-backed rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) town of Walikale appeared to have broken down on Monday, with the rebels going back on a pledge to withdraw and accusing the army of violating its own commitments.
The prospect of a ceasefire in the strategic town of Walikale, which the M23 rebels captured last week, had briefly fuelled hopes of reviving stalled diplomatic efforts to resolve eastern DRC’s biggest conflict in decades.
The conflict, rooted in the long fallout from the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and competition for control of mineral riches, has led to rebel control of eastern DRC’s two largest cities, thousands of deaths and fears of a wider regional war.
But less than 48 hours after the rebels announced their intention to withdraw from Walikale and DRC’s army responded by saying it would refrain from attacking them, the arrangement risked going the way of a string of prior failed ceasefires.
Lawrence Kanyuka, the spokesperson for M23’s Congo River Alliance (AFC) rebel coalition, accused the army and allied militias of not withdrawing their attack drones from Walikale.
“This situation delays the repositioning of AFC/M23 forces in the zone,” he wrote on X. “It should be noted that this act constitutes a major obstacle to respecting the ceasefire and thus compromises peace initiatives underway.”
Residents of Walikale, which marked the farthest west M23 had reached since escalating their offensive in January, said rebel fighters were still in town on Monday morning.
“They haven’t moved. They are still visible in the centre of town,” said one, speaking on condition of anonymity for safety reasons.
Attempts to bring DRC and the rebels to the negotiating table have repeatedly failed.
The two sides were scheduled to hold direct talks for the first time in Angola last week after Kinshasa dropped its longstanding refusal to speak to the rebels, but M23 then pulled out in protest of European Union sanctions against its leaders and Rwandan officials.
Angola said on Monday that it was pulling back from efforts to mediate in the conflict and that another African state would take its place.
President João Lourenço, the current chairperson of the African Union (AU), had been trying to facilitate a lasting ceasefire but his office said in a statement that Angola needed to devote itself more to the AU’s overall priorities.
The Angolan government expressed frustration last week about a surprise meeting arranged by Qatar’s emir between DRC President Felix Tshisekedi and his Rwandan counterpart Paul Kagame, saying it preferred African solutions to African problems.
Tshisekedi and Kagame expressed support at that meeting for an immediate ceasefire, but M23 said it was not bound by those calls.
DRC, the United Nations and Western countries all accuse Rwanda of providing arms and troops to the ethnic Tutsi-led M23.
Rwanda denies supporting M23 and says its military has been acting in self-defence against Congo’s army and a militia founded by perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.
Kenya seeks new International Monetary Fund loan deal
Kenya had applied for a new lending programme from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that would factor in unused money from the current programme which both sides walked away from last week, said Finance Minister John Mbadi on Monday.
The East African nation and the IMF agreed last week to ditch the ninth and final review of the current programme, which was set to expire next month, sending Kenya’s dollar bonds lower.
Mbadi said the decision to stop the review was down to time limitations, and denied reports that Kenya had fallen out with the IMF over the government’s failure to meet some of the targets set in the current programme. The IMF has not commented on why the ninth review did not go ahead.
“Because there is a carryover, there is some money that we have not utilised in the ninth review, then we agreed that there’s a possibility of a funded programme,” Mbadi told Reuters.
There was roughly $800-million left on the table from the programme that had started in April 2021, he said.
The whole programme comprises $3.6-billion in an Extended Credit Facility and Extended Fund Facility, and $541.3-million in a Resilience and Sustainability Facility, out of which $3.12-billion and $180.4-million, respectively, had been approved for disbursement last October.
Bloomberg reported last week that Kenya abandoned the ninth review after failing to meet the required targets, citing unnamed sources. Mbadi denied that.
“It is not correct that there is any problem with the IMF. That narrative people are driving is not accurate,” he said.
“If anything, the IMF found our fundamentals better,” the minister added, citing debt sustainability metrics, which the IMF staff said were better than they had expected.
Kenya has struggled to rein in its fiscal deficit and boost revenue collection, two of the main requirements of the IMF.
The IMF declined to give further information on the new programme request by Kenya, only saying talks between both sides would be held and an announcement made in due course.
Zambia’s CEC to invest $500m in power projects
Zambia’s Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) would invest $500-million over the next two years to increase its solar power output and double the capacity of a power transmission line to DRC, said a senior company official on Monday.
CEC owns the sole power transmission line between DRC and the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP).
Chief Financial Officer Mutale Mukuka said CEC wanted to attract investors to finance the projects as the country emerges from a four-year sovereign debt default.
“We’re looking to invest around $500-million over the next two years and most of this financing will come from third-party financiers,” Mukuka told Reuters.
“We’ll invest quite heavily in transmission projects to make sure that power from [new projects] can reach consumers,” he said.
Developers are showing interest again in Zambia’s energy projects after the country emerged from a sovereign default and following an El Niño-induced drought which wiped out 70% of power generation.
CEC also plans to bolster the power transmission line between Zambia and DRC to 550 megawatts (MW) from 250MW currently.
IMF says no talks on new Senegal programme until misreporting addressed
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said on Monday that talks on a new programme for Senegal could not go ahead until the government addressed the misreporting of key economic data under the previous government.
The IMF suspended its existing $1.8-billion credit facility to Senegal pending a review of state finances, which confirmed last month that the debt and budget deficit were much wider than former President Macky Sall’s administration had reported.
Finance Minister Cheikh Diba said Senegal was hoping for a new IMF programme by June.
In an interview with Reuters in Dakar on Monday, IMF mission chief Edward Gemayel said “everything is possible” but did not commit to that timeline.
“We cannot discuss a new programme before we settle on the misreporting,” he said, though he added that once that was done the IMF could move “very, very fast”.
Gemayel said it was also “too early to make that call” when asked if Senegal was heading for a credit event such as a debt restructuring, rescheduling or default.
Senegal’s Court of Auditors last month released a long-awaited review of the country’s finances that confirmed the previous government misreported key economic data including debt and deficit figures.
At the end of 2023, the total outstanding debt represented 99.67% of the gross domestic product, said the court’s report. That compared with a previously recorded figure of 74.41%.
Gemayel also said energy subsidy cuts would be an essential part of economic reforms under current President Bassirou Diomaye Faye.
Fuel subsidies had “exploded” to up to 4% of GDP since the Covid-19 pandemic, he said, adding that they should be gradually phased out.
“The problem with these subsidies is that it’s not the vulnerable households that benefit from them,” he said.
“Most of these subsidies, they go to the wealthiest households.”
Drought-hit Morocco to extend wheat import subsidies
Morocco would extend its current subsidy programme for soft wheat imports until 31 December, said the state grains agency ONICL on Monday, indicating the drought-affected country will need to import throughout the year.
Citing a decision by Morocco’s finance and agriculture ministries, ONICL said in a statement on its website that the new round of subsidies for importers would run from 1 May to 31 December, with details to be announced subsequently.
The authorities had previously announced a subsidy programme running up to the end of April.
The continuation of the programme for the whole of 2025 suggests the upcoming harvest will be insufficient to replenish supply. In the past, Morocco shut its market to imports at times during good crop years to protect domestic supply.
Morocco has imported wheat heavily in the past two years after prolonged drought led to successive poor crops. Last year, Morocco’s output of soft wheat, durum and barley was 3.1 million tonnes, down by 43% compared with the previous crop.
The country has become a major wheat export outlet for the European Union and, increasingly, Russia.
ONICL also said the authorities would provide subsidies between 1 April and 31 December for importers to hold stocks of soft wheat. DM