Fwd- Think Africa Press Weekly Newsletter April 16, 2012

The military forces that staged a coup in Guinea-Bissau last week have agreed to set up a transitional body with some opposition parties to run the country. The soldiers were thought to have been motivated to take power, just two weeks before a presidential election run-off, by Prime Minister Carlos Gomes Junior’s use of Angolan military to bolster his position and weaken the army.

There has been further controversy in Egypt after the supreme election commission barred ten candidates from running in the May presidential elections, including the Muslim Brotherhood’s Khairat al-Shater, the Salafi Sheikh Hazem Abu Ismail and former intelligence chief Omar Suleiman. Tensions between political groupings had been rising already over the presidential nominations with numerous protests planned.

The World Bank is poised to announce its new president. The next head will be either US nominee Jim Yong Kim or Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala whose victory, though unlikely, would be hugely symbolic of the developing world’s growing power.

Meanwhile, in light of Viktor Bout’s 25-year sentence for international arms-dealing by a US federal court, Think Africa Press analyses the practical and political dynamics behind illegal gun-running and asks how and why dealers like Bout operate.

North: Britain: Libya’s Unreliable Partner

West: Guinea-Bissau Coup Puts Angolan Investments at Risk

Central:  Congo-Kinshasa: Military Reform Urgently Needed

East: Reducing Maternal Mortality in Kenya

South: Zimbabwe’s Marange Diamonds Push Kimberley to the Brink

Below are a few highlights from the past week: