Trouble looms at the polls
Foreign reserves are dropping due to weak production of coffee and cotton. A boost in tea harvests will not make up for the shortfall. 

Winning some, losing some
Competition for the 2011 election is already heating up as President Sambi holds on to power for an extra year and tries to put the local and federal bureaucracies on more stable footings. 

Master of the house
The US military base in Djibouti remains strategically important to contain Islamic militancy, but the building of a French base in Abu Dhabi signals a decline in Djibouti's importance to Paris.

Not-so-splendid isolation
Conflicts with neighbouring states continue without a resolution in sight, and the regime in Asmara will only be strengthened by the cash that new foreign mining companies will bring. 

The immovable Premier Meles
Ethiopia's large potential for energy exports is being explored as large new hydro-electric dams are completed in the next couple of years to supplement trade in coffee and other commodities. 

Still not a happy marriage
Weak seasonal rains have damaged agricultural production prospects and disrupted electricity production, undermining economic performance throughout 2009; 2010 remains uncertain.

Another poll, another win, for Kagame

A donor darling, President Paul Kagame continues to postpone a true test of post-conflict reconciliation by refusing to allow all political parties to be represented in free and fair elections. 

Optimism’s graveyard
Under President Sheikh Sharif's Transitional Federal Government (TFG), Somalia's chronic instability has continued. Islamist rebels and the TFG have roughly the same strength and UN intervention is not on the horizon. 

Tearing apart at the seams
National elections in early 2010 and the referendum on southern independence in 2011 provide the backdrop for continuing conflicts in the west, in the Darfur region, and in the south. 

Navigating the path to prosperity
The CCM, after 32 years in power, is promising voters that it will extract more revenue from mining companies and expand agricultural production to improve people's livelihoods.

Change a long time coming
The return of a key exile figure and dissatisfaction with President Museveni's policies in the Buganda kingdom promise a year of political intrigue for the long-ruling National Resistance Movement.