Although official results have not yet been published, provisional voting counts for the presidential elections show a very clear victory for 57-year-old former entrepreneur Patrice Talon. Estimations give Talon 65% of the votes compared to a 35.2% for outgoing Prime Minister Lionel Zinsou who has already congratulated him with the result. After the first round of voting on the 6th of March, Zinsou won 27.1 percent of the votes with Talon coming in second on 23.5 percent. Since then however, 24 of the 32 other candidates from the first round have come out in support of Talon, including third-placed Sebastien Ajavon, who had won 22 percent of the votes.

The conviction of former Congolese vice-president Jean-Pierre Bemba before the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has been a historic moment for legal proceedings in war crime cases involving sexual violence as a weapon or military strategy. Bemba’s long-running trial was the first at the ICC where a senior politician has been convicted of using sexual violence as a weapon of war. For his actions as leading official of Congolese troops in the Central African Republic between 2002 and 2003, Bemba was convicted of both crimes against humanity in the form of murder and rape as well as internationally legally recognized war crimes of murder, rape and pillaging. More than 5,000 victims were granted the right to participate in the hearings and 77 witnesses were heard. While Bemba’s lawyers say that he had no control over his troops, the ICC’s prosecutors said Bemba knew, or should have known that his soldiers were committing the crimes.

On the 20th of March, the people of Senegal took part in a constitutional referendum, consolidating the already significant progress in democratic governance made by Senegal and making it a model for the West African region. A 62% majority of the Senegalese population voted in favour of constitutional changes although the voter turnout was low (38%). The chances consisted among others of shortening the presidential term from seven years to five years from the next presidential election in 2019 onwards, having constitutional recognition for the Leader of the Opposition, enhanced powers for local authorities, rights to a healthy environment and changes to the rights of land ownership and natural resources.

The final results of the presidential elections which were held on 20 March have become clear following publication by the Congolese Electoral Commission on 24 March 2016. Current President Denis Sassou Nguesso has been elected for a third term, winning over 60% of the vote. The third term for the sitting President was made possible by an earlier referendum, during which the people voted in favour of giving the current President the possibility to run for a third term. The elections were criticized for not being transparent and independent.

Results of Niger’s second round of presidential elections indicate that President Mahamadou Issoufou won his re-election with 92,5% of the votes against former Prime Minister and Parliament speaker Hama Amadou who gained 7,5%. According to Niger’s election commission, the voter turn-out was 59,8% while this figure is challenged by the opposition who claimed it would have been 11%. After the first round of presidential elections on 21 February which hosted 15 candidates, Issoufou had won 48,4% of the votes against 17,7% for Amadou, however during the second round, the opposition coalition COPA 2016 (Coalition for Alternation) called on Amadou supporters to boycott the run-off as it accused the government of fraud in the first round.

The European Union has suspended direct financial support for the Burundian government after concluding that it had not done enough to find a political solution to the conflict that has so far cost more than 400 lives and lead to nearly 240000 people fleeing the country. Burundi's President Pierre Nkurunziza triggered the crisis in April last year when he announced a bid for a third term. He went on to win a disputed election in July, in the face of street protests and violent clashes. The European Council said in a statement on Monday that it had finished talks with Burundi and declared that commitments proposed by Bujumbura were insufficient to address EU concerns.