A subsidiary of Emirati logistics group DP World has applied to a US court to enforce LCIA awards totalling more than US$485 million against the east African state of Djibouti arising from a bitter dispute over a strategic port facility on the Red Sea.

Doraleh Container Terminal (DCT) filed its enforcement petition yesterday in the District of Columbia. The company is using Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan in New York, the same firm that advised it in the arbitration.

A London-seated LCIA tribunal chaired by Sir Richard Aikens of Brick Court Chambers and including Lord Hoffmann and Peter Leaver QC issued the awards last year, ordering Djibouti to compensate DCT for unpaid royalties and breach of exclusivity rights relating to a concession for a container terminal.

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Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, SAN has stated that the Federal Government is preparing a National Arbitration Policy to enable the country to host major arbitral proceedings which hitherto were domesticated abroad.

Malami speaking on this in Abuja last week, said: “It is our intention to look at the existing legislations, with the possibility of enhancing them for the purpose of establishing the national interest as the major enabler of, perhaps, amendment to the existing legislations if the need for doing so arises.

“We are not ruling out the possibility of bringing about Executive Orders to complement same if the need arises. So, indeed we are looking at the possibility of having in place effective legal framework, national policy and associated legislations that will assist the process.”

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Nigeria has cleared a major procedural hurdle in a London court that will allow it to challenge a $10bn arbitration award that had threatened to grant roughly a quarter of the foreign reserves of Africa’s biggest economy to an obscure gas company.

In a decision on Friday, English High Court judge Ross Cranston said Nigeria had “established a strong prima facie case” that a 2010 gas project agreement between the government and Process and Industrial Developments (P&ID) “was procured by bribes paid to insiders as part of a larger scheme to defraud Nigeria”.

The court granted Nigeria more time to appeal against the arbitration award and to investigate further what it alleges is fraud by P&ID and past government officials.

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The Kigali International Arbitration Centre (KIAC) received 33 cases from July 2019 to June this year, highlighting yet another milestone for the dispute settlement institution. The record included three emergency arbitration cases, according to KIAC.

Beyond Rwanda, the cases registered in the year 2019/20 came from eight countries including India, Singapore, Egypt, China, Kenya and France. Overall, 67 per cent of the new cases were domestic in nature while 33 per cent were international. KIAC says the increase in international cases is a statement of confidence that Rwanda is playing a key role in positioning Africa on the market of international arbitration, as well as its global appeal to users from diverse legal systems and cultures.

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Relations between Cell C and its soon-to-be-former client Huge Group have reached rock bottom, with the former claiming it is owed R60-million by the latter and the latter saying it’s actually the one that’s owed money “morally”.

The two parties have now entered a second phase of arbitration to resolve the acrimonious dispute, with both sides accusing each other of acting in bad faith.

The latest developments in the long-running saga, which has been dragging on since early 2019, come after the high court in Johannesburg last week handed down judgment against Huge Group subsidiary Huge Cellular’s attempt to seek an urgent interdict against the Cell C Service Provider Company from cutting off services, potentially affecting more than 20 000 mainly small and medium enterprise customers.

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The biennial 2020 Arbitration in Africa Survey Report (2020 Survey), which is the second in the series, is focused on top African arbitral centres and seats. It identifies the top and busiest arbitral centres in Africa. The survey was commissioned by the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and sponsored by the law firm of Broderick Bozimo & Co, Abuja and the African Legal Support Facility (ALSF). An online questionnaire composed of a combination of 27 closed and open questions was circulated broadly within the international arbitration community for completion. The questionnaire was supplemented by a very short focused quantitative analysis based on three broad questions targeted only at arbitration centres operating in Africa. With the maiden edition of the survey confirming that African arbitrators are skilled and possess sufficient expertise, this survey sought to investigate the suitability of African arbitral institutions as well as Africa cities as seats of arbitration. This was in consideration of previous suggestions that African parties prefer arbitral institutions outside the continent.

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Zambia says it has prevailed in a London arbitration brought by a US company under a contract to build a housing facility for the country’s police force – with a tribunal rejecting allegations the state corruptly reassigned the project to a Chinese competitor.

The country’s home affairs minister Stephen Kampyongo said in a media briefing on 22 August that the tribunal had rejected the claim by Lodestar International – ordering the company to pay around US$2.9 million in costs. 

He indicated the case was heard at the London Court of International Arbitration. GAR understands the case was governed by UNCITRAL rules and seated in London.

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South African casino hotel chain Sun International has agreed to settle a dispute with its Chilean joint venture partner that gave rise to an ICC arbitration and sell its stake in the venture for US$160 million.

Sun International announced today that it had agreed to settle the dispute with Nueva Inversiones Pacifico Sur (Pacifico) over their joint venture Sun Dreams – a Chilean casino business that also operates in Peru, Argentina and Panama.

The deal will see the South African company (via its subsidiary Sun Latam) sell its entire 65% stake in the venture to Pacifico, an investment vehicle owned by Chilean brothers Claudio and Humberto Fischer, for US$160 million.

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The first ever ICSID claim against Sudan, brought by a Jordanian-Lebanese telecoms investor, has been discontinued by agreement of the parties. 

The tribunal issued an order taking note of the discontinuance on 3 August in the claim brought by Michael Dagher.

The parties have agreed to withdraw their claims and counterclaims without prejudice. No formal settlement has yet been reached. 

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