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Borr Drilling's Prospector 5 jack-up rig sank on 24 October at the Dussafu Marin oil permit off Mayumba, Gabon, with 115 people aboard. The government said 110 were rescued and five are missing; Reuters reported that one of them, an Indian worker, had been found dead. The rig was preparing a drilling campaign for operator BW Energy, which holds 73.5% of the permit, and Borr's preliminary findings point to the seabed giving way under a leg during preloading. Output from the permit's MaBoMo platform, shut as a precaution during the drilling preparations, remains halted, and the loss of the rig delays BW Energy's new wells. Officials report no pollution, though 280 cubic metres of diesel remain aboard.
Algeria's upper house unanimously approved sending army units to Niger on 25 October, and the Nigerien news site ActuNiger reported that the lower house also approved it that day. The Algerian daily El Khabar reported that a detachment will be based in northern Niger to protect investments of the state oil company Sonatrach, which works the Kafra oil field with Niger's Sonidep; troop numbers have not been published. The vote follows a military cooperation protocol signed in Algiers on 20 October and the dispatch of Algerian fighter jets to Niamey during an attempted coup in August. It would be Algeria's first deployment abroad since 1973 and ties security in northern Niger to Algerian energy interests.
Guinea's finance minister, Mariama Ciré Sylla, presented a supplementary 2026 budget to the National Assembly on 24 October that keeps the pump price of fuel at 12,000 Guinean francs a litre. Holding the price will cost about 5,490 billion francs (about $625 million) in forgone revenue and a price-stabilisation fund, roughly 10% of expected tax revenue. To make room, the government cuts capital spending by 2,729 billion francs (about $310 million), mainly by reviewing projects under its Simandou 2040 programme, and expects mining revenue 9.5% below the original budget. The choice shields consumers from higher world oil prices but delays part of the public investment meant to turn Simandou iron ore into wider development.
Zimbabwe's road agency, the Zimbabwe National Road Administration (Zinara), has secured $400 million from an infrastructure bond arranged by CBZ Holdings to rehabilitate three highways, the state-owned Herald reported on 25 October. The money covers the Beitbridge–Harare and Harare–Chirundu roads, both on the North–South Corridor, and the Bulawayo–Victoria Falls highway, where all eight contractors are back on site after months of inactivity. In August CBZ announced a plan to raise $600 million for these roads through bonds backed by Zinara's ring-fenced road revenue. Funding from the local capital market rather than foreign lenders could speed up repairs on the main road link between South Africa's ports and Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Uganda's Ministry of Finance has cut planned operational spending for the October–December quarter by nearly 3 trillion shillings (about $680 million), the Daily Monitor and Pulse Uganda reported on 25 October. All ministries, departments and agencies must halve spending on fuel, travel, workshops and consumables, according to the Monitor, out of total quarterly releases of 21.82 trillion shillings. The cut follows the Bank of Uganda's emergency rise in its policy rate to 12% on 14 October, which failed to stop the shilling falling past 4,400 to the dollar on 23 October, a 33-year low. Lower state demand for fuel and imports eases pressure on the currency, but delayed spending will slow payments to suppliers already facing dearer credit.
Côte d'Ivoire's energy minister, Mamadou Sangafowa-Coulibaly, laid the first stone on 24 October of a 50-megawatt-peak solar plant at Binguébougou, near Korhogo in the northern Poro region. Korhogo Solaire, a company of the Emirati group AMEA Power, is developing the plant entirely with private money, at a cost it puts at several tens of billions of CFA francs; the plant is meant to supply more than 300,000 people. It is one of more than 15 solar plants, totalling 1,262 MW, that the government plans by 2030 to raise renewables to 45% of the power mix. Private funding adds capacity without new public debt, and the 2030 target depends on more developers raising money on similar terms.
