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We hope you enjoyed the latest piece on Morocco’s burgeoning battery market. If you have not already done so, do give give it a read — Moroccan Batteries and China in North Africa.

• Asian Development Bank (AIB). AIB announced new capital reforms, unlocking US$100 billion in financing capacity over the next ten years (Reuters). The World Bank responded announcing its intention to increase lending by the same figure, US$100 billion, over the next ten years via hybrid capital and new portfolio guarantees (Reuters).

• Burkina Faso. The country’s military junta said it foiled an attempted coup against the transitional government on Tuesday (AfricaNews). Meanwhile, UNICEF reported that over 1,000,000 children and 31,000 teachers in Burkina Faso remain unable to return to classrooms due to ongoing violence and lack of security (UNICEF).

• Central Banks. Kenya and Uganda’s central banks left their benchmark rates unchanged at 10.5% and 9.5% respectively.

• Copper. Mining company Barrick Gold announced a US$2 billion expected annual spend to turn its Lumwana mine into a copper “super pit” project in Zambia (Bloomberg).

• Ethiopia. The European Union and Ethiopia sealed a €650 million development deal aimed to improve their ties following the resolution of a two-year war in the country’s Tigray region (AFP News).

• Inflation. The International Monetary Fund has issued a warning that fragmented commodities markets, primarily driven by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, pose a renewed threat to food security and could lead to higher prices for cleaner energy (Bloomberg).

• Kenya. The UN Security Council approved a Kenyan plan to deploy a mission to Haiti to quell gang violence. Kenya, which will send about 1,000 police, will lead a coalition effort to bring stability to the country. Gang violence has consistently overwhelmed the Caribbean nation (AP News).

• Mali. Tuareg rebels captured a town in northern Mali and killed over 80 soldiers. The ongoing conflict is in part precipitated by the withdrawal of UN peacekeepers, who were ordered to leave the country by the military junta (The Economist).

• Niger. Niger’s government banned all exports of liquefied petroleum gas until further notice. The government said that national production should supply the domestic market, with exports only allowed under special authorisation. Niger usually exports its surplus LPG to its neighbour Nigeria (Reuters).

• Seychelles. Authorities indicted the 2025 main opposition party candidate, Patrick Herminie, in connection to supposed "witchcraft". His party says the move is politically motivated (AfricaNews).

• South Sudan. President Salva Kiir met his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow late last week for discussions on a range of topics, including energy cooperation. The country has oil reserves amounting to 3.5 billion barrels, though production has stalled in recent years (Associated Press).

• Sudan. Aid workers are left trying to “plan for the apocalypse” in Sudan as aid supply routes are disrupted and a growing number of people are displaced internally and across borders (The Guardian)

• Tuna-bond. UBS agreed to a settlement with Mozambique to resolve Credit Suisse’s infamous ‘tuna bond’ scandal. The scandal saw Credit Suisse loaning Mozambique US$2.4B in 2013 to purchase a fleet of coast guard ships and fishing vessels. But the lending program was faulty and plagued by corruption among both bankers and shipbuilders. In 2016, and discovering the extent of the corruption, the IMF and other DFIs halted their own lending and the country’s economy collapsed (The Guardian).

• Tunisia. President Kais Saied turned down €127 million in financial aid from the EU because it conflicts with a July-signed deal that included a €1 billion pledge to address the country's state finances and an ongoing migration crisis (France 24).

• Zambia. Zambia’s official creditor committee plans to sign a memorandum of understanding to restructure US$6.3 billion of debt by the end of the anticipated October IMF gathering in Marrakech (Bloomberg).