The most important developments in sub-Saharan Africa. Six days a week.
South Africa's Department of Electricity and Energy said on 28 October that it had appointed no preferred bidders in the first bid window of its gas-to-power procurement programme, which sought 2,000 megawatts (MW). All four bids, totalling 2,830 MW, failed mandatory criteria, mainly because developers could not guarantee long-term gas supply. South Africa imports most of its gas from Mozambique, where output is declining, and has no operating liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal. The result leaves the country without new flexible generation to back up renewables and raises pressure on industrial gas users facing supply deadlines in 2028 and 2030. Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa promised details of a revised process before the end of the year.
South Sudan's finance ministry and the African Development Bank launched South Sudan's part of a 400-kilovolt power interconnection with Uganda in Juba on 27 October. The 299-kilometre line will run from Olwiyo in northern Uganda through Nimule to Gumbo near Juba; the ministry puts its cost at $267 million, and Uganda, which launched its section in September, expects works to run until 2029. South Sudan relies mostly on costly diesel generation, and so far only the border town of Nimule receives Ugandan electricity. The line would connect Juba to the Eastern Africa Power Pool and Ugandan hydropower for the first time, but contractors still have to be hired and land acquired along the route.
The Bank of Mozambique is preparing to buy gold mined in the country to strengthen its foreign reserves, Governor Felisberto Navalha said in Tete on 28 October. The bank is drafting a work plan with the mining ministry and has given no volumes or start date. It held about 126,600 ounces of gold at the end of 2025, and the government's 2027 budget proposal forecasts record output of 1,809 kilograms, about 44% above this year's estimate. Domestic purchases would let the bank build reserves from local production, as several other African central banks do, and give miners a local buyer. Their scale depends on certifying the gold's legal origin and on plans for a first domestic refinery.
Togo's energy ministry signed a memorandum on the peaceful use of nuclear energy with Russia's state nuclear corporation Rosatom on 28 October in Moscow, at the Russia–Africa summit. Working groups will assess nuclear power, training and infrastructure, and Rosatom's chief executive, Alexei Likhachev, named Togo among four African countries in advanced talks on its 100-megawatt floating nuclear units. Only one floating nuclear plant operates worldwide, in Russia's Chukotka region since 2020. A plant moored offshore could give Togo's small grid large baseload capacity without a long onshore build, but no site, financing or timeline has been set. Togo's parliament adopted four nuclear-safety bills in June, a first step towards the regulation such a project needs.
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed said on 28 October that Ethiopia had taken delivery of its first 12 Russian Su-35 fighter jets and would receive four S-400 air defence batteries, announcing the purchase as he arrived in Moscow for the third Russia–Africa Summit. Abiy said the jets arrived a year ahead of schedule; he gave no date for the S-400 systems. The jets reinforce the air force while government forces fight in Tigray, now under a federal caretaker administration, and against Fano militias in Amhara. The announcement came on the day Sudan accused Ethiopia of letting drones that struck Sudanese power stations take off from its territory, raising the stakes of any border confrontation.
Madagascar launched the third phase of its Corridor Development and Trade Facilitation Project in Antananarivo on 28 October, a $229.47 million programme for the south-west. It will pave 78 kilometres of road between Bevoay and Morombe, build a 22-kilometre flood-protection road for Toliara and rebuild bridges at Manombo and Belalanda. The African Development Bank approved a $165 million loan for this phase in December 2024; the programme also funds a single maritime window and a customs laboratory to speed trade between Toliara and the Mozambican port of Beira. Better roads and faster port clearance would lower transport costs for crop, livestock and fish producers in Atsimo-Andrefana, one of the country's most isolated regions.
