July has been an eventful month for Africa with leaders of superpowers descending on the continent in a row. It played host to some of the high-level political leaders in the last week of July such as the French President and the Russian foreign Minister. Looks like the resource rich continent is going to get busy playing host as well as being a guest to many more powers in the days to come.
What is behind these sudden outbursts of passion for Africa?
French President Emmanuel Macron embarked on a three-nation tour of western African states, of Cameroon, Benin and Guinea-Bissau from July 25- 28. Though the proclaimed agenda included common challenges such as the fight against terrorism, combating climate change, food crisis etc, Macron’s first state visit to Africa, is viewed by political experts as part of the French campaign to reboot France’s post-colonial relationship with the continent. Macron, who won re-election in April, had pledged that a new relationship between France and Africa will be a political priority of his Presidency.
France, analysts say, is worried about the emergence of other powers like China, Turkey and Russia in the Francophone region which Paris considers its back yard. Of particular concern is Russia’s moves to rally support of Africa and its military links particularly in Central African Republic and Mali.
Paris is clearly facing certain setbacks in the region. It was pushed out of Mali and its influence in the Sahel region appears to be waning. Last month, two Francophonie members, Gabon and Togo, joined the Commonwealth at its biennial summit in Kigali. They are the first former French colonies with no British ties to join the 54-member Commonwealth group of former British colonies. It seems they did not find any economic benefit from the French credentials while the commonwealth link offered better economic prospects. Rwanda also joined the Commonwealth in 2009 at the height of tensions over France’s role in the 1994 Rwanda genocide.
Apart from France, European countries like Italy, Germany and Belgium also have been courting Africa after the sanctions on Russia forced Europe to diversify oil and gas supplies. Africa has the potential to replace as much as one-fifth of Russian gas exports to Europe by 2030 as per the estimates by the International Energy Agency (IEA). Energy firms are considering projects worth US $100 billion on the continent, according to initial estimates. While Italy’s ENI signed deals with Angola, Algeria, and Gabon to buy gas, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was in Senegal in May, offering help to tap vast gas resources.
Close on the heels of Macron, Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov landed in Africa. Though Russia’s economic and diplomatic investments are less than 1% of the foreign direct investment into Africa, Russia is the biggest supplier of arms to Africa. Political scientists say that Russia wants to woo Africa amidst the global resentment about its invasion of Ukraine. Moreover, 25 of Africa’s 54 states abstained from the voting to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during the UN General Assembly resolution. The message behind Lavrov’s trip to Egypt, the Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia is to prove that it is not isolated internationally. There is political value in connecting with these African leaders who are also facing severe international criticism for violation of democracy and human rights. He also tried to play the grain diplomacy by assuring all possible help to restore export of grains including wheat to the African countries, while putting the blame on the doorstep of the West for blocking the ports both in Russia and Ukraine for grain exports.
While Lavrov continued to tour the continent blaming the West for Africa’s woes, the US President Biden announced that the U.S. Representative to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield will travel to Uganda and Ghana from August 4-6. Already, the U.S.-Africa Leaders’ Summit has been announced to be held in Washington on Dec. 13-15 as a “reflection of the US’ enduring commitment to Africa.
The US has been quite generous to Africa in terms of financial aid too. The US international Development Finance Corporation loan of US $280 million to Nigeria to support small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and USAID $55 million in additional food-security assistance to Ethiopia to deal with its food crisis are the latest announcements.
The Ukraine war has radically changed the global matrix of energy. Africa now has a huge opportunity. It must be leveraged wisely. The momentum should be captured to turn it to the long term and judicious benefit for its economies by ensuring investment, fair share of the revenue, technology transfer, job creation and infrastructure development while eliminating environment damage.
