The United Arab Emirates is stepping up its strategic presence in West Africa, with its latest moves focusing on the Alliance of the Sahel States, which includes Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.

Mauritanian miners accused authorities of collusion with the foreign company Emiral Mining, alleging it was granted mining areas previously allocated to them, monopolizing extensive gold-rich regions.

Analysts were expecting an exceptional meeting for the Egyptian central bank on 8 May, after the rise of the interest rate of the U.S. dollar, but the central bank did not seem to care.