Cocoa’s stunning rise and its equally remarkable slump are beginning to shake up the longstanding way of doing business in West Africa, the region that supplies the bulk of the world’s beans.

On this week’s episode of the Next Africa Podcast, Bloomberg softcommodities reporter Mumbi Gitau joins Jennifer Zabasajja to discuss why cocoa prices have seen such a dramatic fall, how it’s changing the way cocoa regulators have to operate and why it’s leaving farmers in the world’s biggest cocoa producing countries worried.

You can read Mumbi Gitau’s reporting on cocoa here, and for more stories from the region, subscribe to the Next Africa newsletter here.

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Ethiopia and Eritrea are deploying troops and military equipment to the northern Tigray region, according to regional diplomats, raising the risk of renewed conflict in the Horn of Africa.

On this week’s episode of the Next Africa podcast, Jennifer Zabasajja is joined by Bloomberg’s Simon Marks and Professor Kjetil Tronvoll from Oslo New University College to discuss how tensions have been rising over recent weeks, how likely a conflict could now be, and what repercussions of wider war in the Horn of Africa could look like.

You can read Simon’s latest report here, and for more stories from the region, subscribe to the Next Africa newsletter here

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The mood at Africa’s biggest mining conference, the Mining Indaba in Cape Town, is buoyant - as increased demand for critical minerals around the world is supporting more investment in projects across the continent.

On this week’s episode — recorded at the Mining Indaba — Jennifer Zabasajja speaks with Bloomberg’s Matthew Hill and William Clowes about who’s attending, why international collaboration is high on the agenda, and how African nations are pushing to avoid being short-changed as global demand for their natural resources grows.

For more stories from the region, subscribe to the Next Africa newsletter here

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