In the south east, with Dan, going to an African republic (5)
I believe the answer is:
sedan
'an african republic' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I don't understand how they can define each other.
'in the south east with dan' is the wordplay.
'in the south' becomes 's' (I am not sure about this - if you are sure you should believe this answer much more).
'east' becomes 'e' (abbreviation).
'with' says to put letters next to each other.
's'+'e'+'dan'='SEDAN'
'going to' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for sedan that I've seen before include "Chair used as transport" , "Where Prussians defeated French" , "Four-door car" , "Saloon car (US)" , "Saloon-car" .)