Madagascar has opened a safeguard investigation into imports of sugar confectionery, chocolate, and cocoa-based products, examining whether rising imports are causing serious harm to domestic producers. The probe could lead to temporary trade measures if authorities determine that local industry is being injured.

A planned $300 million power line linking Zambia and the DRC could deliver up to 550 MW to the Congo’s mining-intensive Copperbelt. The project aims to ease electricity shortages, support industrial activity, and open a new route for regional power trade.

Dangote Refinery has extended its IPO to October 27, giving investors across Africa more time to participate in a share sale that could raise up to $2.1 billion. The offering is also testing whether the continent can turn retail investor interest into deeper capital markets and funding for major industrial projects.

South African jurist Navi Pillay has won the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize for advancing peace and international law, recognising a career spanning the defence of anti-apartheid activists, landmark genocide rulings and leadership of the UN human rights office.

Apart from climate change and artificial intelligence, the world has a third momentous issue which needs to be addressed urgently. The debt crisis has crept up stealthily, but inexorably. The scale is enormous: developing countries’ aggregate external sovereign debt reached $12.3 trillion in 2025. Their borrowings are supposed to finance social and economic upliftment, infrastructure and climate resilience. Yet for many countries, financing intended to develop capacity ends