Patrick Smith 2022 speaker

Editorial Director

Africa Confidential

Biography

Patrick Smith is Editorial Director of Africa Confidential, the premier news and analysis service on economic, political and security developments in Africa, owned by UK-based Asempa Ltd. He was a founding editor of the Paris-based The Africa Report owned by the Jeune Afrique Media Group. In 2021 he co-organised a conference with the International Crisis Group and the Royal Africa Society on Demography, Climate Change and Security in Africa. His work on political and economic risk in Africa has been published widely.
His other work includes: Associate Producer of the Channel 4 documentary “My Friend the Mercenary”, on an attempted coup in Equatorial Guinea; Technical Advisor to the UN panel on the exploitation of mineral and other resources in the Democratic Republic of Congo; and expert witness to the UN Security Council on conflict in the Mano River region (Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea). His publications include: Who’s Who in Southern Africa (Blackwell Publishing 1997) and Africa 2000 (Blackwell Publishing 2000). He contributed to a collection of short stories about Ghana published as “Accra Noir” by Akashic Books, New York, in 2020.