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David Pilling

Africa Editor

David Pilling is the Africa editor and a columnist at the Financial Times. He covers business, politics and development on the continent and writes a regular column on topics from Africa. Before that he was the Asia editor and assistant editor. Previous roles include Tokyo bureau chief, pharmaceuticals correspondent, deputy features editor and correspondent in Buenos Aires and Santiago.

He is the author of two books - The Growth Delusion (2018), shortlisted for the Orwell Prize, and the highly acclaimed Bending Adversity: Japan and the Art of Survival (2016).

He is a regular moderator and speaker both for the FT and for organisations including the World Bank, OECD and ADB. In 2023 he briefed a G7 meeting in Kamakura, Japan on the ideas behind his book, The Growth Delusion.

Email David Pilling @davidpilling  on Twitter (link opens in a new browser window)
  • Friday, 18 April, 2025
    Climate change
    US climate philanthropies fear Trump blow from loss of tax-free status

    Chilling effect on charitable organisations comes as need for funding rises amid Trump cuts

    1 hour ago
  • Tuesday, 15 April, 2025
    Sudan
    Sudan paramilitaries massacre hundreds of refugees in Darfur

    Activists warn of unfolding genocide as UK and others host peace conference in London

    People who fled a camp for the internally displaced after it fell under RSF control queue for food rations near the town of Tawila in war-torn Sudan’s western Darfur region
  • Sunday, 6 April, 2025
    African economy
    ‘Land grabs’ in Africa replaced by ‘carbon grabs’, says bank chief

    AfDB president Akinwumi Adesina says foreign companies paying derisory prices for carbon sequestration

    Akinwumi Adesina,
  • Friday, 4 April, 2025
    South African economy
    South Africa minister says US trade deal ‘nullified’ by Trump tariffs

    Parks Tau backs pivot to China in face of high levies from Donald Trump administration

    Parks Tau
  • Thursday, 3 April, 2025
    News in-depthUS trade
    The world’s tiniest nations targeted in Trump’s trade war

    The ‘mountain kingdom’ of Lesotho joins Pacific island Nauru on list of countries hit with punishing US tariffs

    Montage of Donald Trump holding a ‘Foreign Trade Barriers’ report in front of a world map highlighting Africa, with Lesotho marked in red
  • Sunday, 30 March, 2025
    News in-depthUS foreign policy
    Autocrats behaving badly: Trump emboldens global strongmen

    From Turkey to Israel, leaders make the most of a world without US censure

    Composite image of Benjamin Netanyahu, Paul Kagame, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Donald Trump
  • Friday, 21 March, 2025
    Special ReportFuture of Water
    Mismanagement turns up pressure on South Africa’s water system

    Reservoirs may be full but poor maintenance, lack of investment and criminality are disrupting supplies

    A person collects water from an outdoor tap, filling a yellow bucket while a blue bucket sits below
  • Sunday, 16 March, 2025
    African politics
    Ethiopia fighting threatens return to civil and regional war

    Security concerns for Africa’s second most populous country and neighbouring Eritrea as fragile peace looks set to unravel

    Tigray People’s Liberation Front fighters arriving in the regional capital Mekelle
  • Friday, 14 March, 2025
    Israel-Hamas war
    US and Israel approach African countries to resettle Gazans

    Idea of displacing Palestinian population has been widely opposed, including by countries being approached

    A boy stands on a hill, looking over a large tent camp for displaced Palestinians
  • Tuesday, 4 March, 2025
    The Future of Aid
    Can international aid survive in a crumbling world order?

    As western governments dramatically scale back budgets, remaining funding is likely to be a more obvious tool of geopolitical interests

    FT montage of Donald Trump superimposed over pictures of protesters’ placards calling for the USAID agency to be saved
  • Friday, 28 February, 2025
    Lunch with the FT
    Political scientist Bjorn Lomborg: ‘You can’t spend on everything’

    The ‘sceptical environmentalist’ used cost-benefit analysis to argue against emissions cuts. Now he has turned his attention to overseas aid

    A middle-aged white man with floppy blonde hair sits in front of a picture window with docklands behind him. He is wearing a blue jumper
  • Thursday, 13 February, 2025
    South African politics
    South Africa has been blindsided by Donald Trump

    The US president’s attacks on the country might actually unite its people

    Cyril Ramaphosa, seen through ranks of uniformed soldiers, arrives at City Hall for the State of the Nation Address in Cape Town
  • Wednesday, 12 February, 2025
    South Africa
    South Africa vows to pursue Israel genocide case despite Trump pressure

    Foreign minister Ronald Lamola says there is ‘no chance’ country will drop case after US orders halt to aid

    South Africa’s then minister of justice Ronald Lamola and ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela at the International Court of Justice last year
  • Tuesday, 11 February, 2025
    Special ReportThe Future of Cities
    Thwarted ambition triggers dissent among Africa’s urban young

    Gap between education and opportunity is fostering generational frustration and protests as cities expand

    Commuters wait for buses in Nairobi’s Central Business District
  • Sunday, 9 February, 2025
    Namibia
    Namibia’s ‘founding father’ Sam Nujoma dies at 95

    Former guerrilla leader and president fought against apartheid and South African control

    Sam Nujoma
  • Saturday, 8 February, 2025
    ObituaryAga Khan
    The Aga Khan IV, spiritual leader and entrepreneur, 1936-2025

    An urbane but almost mythical figure who saw no contradiction between his life’s religious and secular aspects

    The Aga Khan pictured in west London in 2008
  • Friday, 7 February, 2025
    News in-depthRwanda
    The strongman reshaping central Africa

    A Rwandan-backed campaign in DR Congo exposes how Paul Kagame turned his genocide-scarred country into a belligerent military force

    Paul Kagame
  • Wednesday, 5 February, 2025
    UK foreign policy
    UK says Mauritian premier gave ‘inaccurate’ account of Chagos Islands deal

    Diplomatic intervention came after Ramgoolam said earlier version did not factor in inflation

    Navin Ramgoolam
  • Tuesday, 4 February, 2025
    South Africa
    South Africa’s coalition clashes over Starlink as Musk attacks equality laws

    Government divided over whether to exempt US satellite company from post-apartheid Black empowerment rules

    A montage featuring Elon Musk on the left and South Africa’s trade minister Parks Tau on the right, with the South African flag and a faded Starlink logo in the background
  • Tuesday, 4 February, 2025
    TotalEnergies
    UK takes legal advice over pulling out of $20bn Total LNG project in Mozambique

    Britain has pledged to halt new export finance to oil and gas developments in wake of COP26 in 2021

    Rwandan policemen stand guard near a coastal area at the Total Mozambique LNG Project in Afungi, Cabo Delgado province
  • Sunday, 2 February, 2025
    The Baby Gap
    Kenya — a window into Africa’s demographic future

    The youthful continent is not immune from global trends pushing down fertility rates

  • Saturday, 1 February, 2025
    FT News Briefing podcast15 min listen
    Swamp Notes: Trump redefines America’s global role

    International aid has underpinned US foreign policy for decades. That might be changing.

  • Thursday, 30 January, 2025
    News in-depthForeign aid
    Trump’s foreign aid freeze sparks global funding crisis

    Dramatic repercussions have exposed reach of US assistance and soft power tools disparaged by the president

    Officials from USAID and WFP inspecting food donations in Harare, Zimbabwe in January 2024
  • Thursday, 30 January, 2025
    TotalEnergies
    TotalEnergies failed to convince Biden’s team to back $20bn African project

    LNG development faces paralysis after halt in 2021 following Islamist insurgency

    Rwandan policemen guard the Total Mozambique LNG project in Afungi, in the country’s Cabo Delgado province
  • Monday, 27 January, 2025
    DR Congo
    DR Congo accuses Rwanda of ‘declaration of war’ after rebels enter key city

    Officials warn assault on Goma by Rwandan-backed M23 militia could lead to wider regional conflict

    Rwandan security officers watch as people fleeing the fighting in Goma, DR Congo, cross the border to enter the neighbouring city of Gisenyi in Rwanda on January 27 2025
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