How the US lost Africa to China over new disease control centre in Addis Ababa

Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention headquarters in Addis Ababa was once a US-China collaboration project

Loss of US CDC-inspired facility to Chinese influence a tragic error and own goal, says analyst in Washington


Jevans Nyabiage
Published: 13 Aug, 2022

An artist’s impression of the new Africa CDC headquarters south of Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia. Photo: Xinhua

Just south of Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, the US$80 million new African disease control headquarters, built and funded by China, is nearing completion amid disquiet in Washington.

Hu Changchun, China’s newly appointed head of mission to the African Union, inspected the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention construction site last month. The facility, being built by the China Civil Engineering Construction Corporation (CCECC), will be completed at the end of the year.

“This flagship project between China and the AU will significantly improve the capacity for disease prevention and control in Africa,” Hu said.

The site covers an area of 90,000 square metres, with a total construction area of nearly 40,000 square metres.

When finished, the Africa CDC building will include an emergency operation centre, a data centre and a laboratory, resource, training and conference centres and briefing rooms, as well as offices and expatriate flats – all to be built, furnished and equipped by the Chinese government.

The second phase would involve the construction of the Africa CDC’s five regional collaborating centres in Egypt, Gabon, Kenya, Nigeria, and Zambia.

Wu Peng, director general of the Chinese foreign ministry’s African affairs department, said the Africa CDC headquarters was “a major project of China-Africa cooperation” which would “further enhance Africa’s public health capacities and become a new portrayal of China-Africa solidarity”.

After US retreat, China breaks ground on Africa CDC headquarters project
16 Dec 2020


The Africa CDC is modelled in form and function on the US CDC and the idea emerged from the role the US played in responding to the 2015 West Africa Ebola crisis. But what started as a US-China collaboration project to help African countries fight disease turned into a power rivalry under former US president Donald Trump.

In April 2015, the US and AU signed an agreement to create the Africa CDC, where the US agreed to provide technical expertise and seconded a dozen staff members to lead and support the project. It also agreed to support fellowships at the Africa CDC for 10 African epidemiologists.

In June of that year, during a bilateral meeting, a Chinese health official said the US and China planned to work together to support the AU to build the Africa CDC. And during President Xi’s September 2015 visit to the US, the two nations agreed to cooperate with the AU in the construction of the Africa CDC.

A China-AU deal was signed in 2016, where the Chinese side agreed to provide public health expertise.

But the US-China deal was scuttled when the US government moved to cut foreign aid.

As their rivalry escalated during the Trump era, the collaboration between the two superpowers collapsed. It left room for Beijing to offer to construct the building alone, followed by an announcement in June 2020 by President Xi Jinping that “China will start ahead of schedule the construction of the Africa CDC headquarters this year”.

As they sparred over who should build the Africa CDC headquarters, the US accused China of aiming to spy on “Africa’s genomic data”, the Financial Times quoted a US official as saying in February 2020.

The Chinese foreign ministry called the reports “ridiculous”, with spokeswoman Hua Chunying saying they showed how “some people in the US always make presumptions by their own mindsets,” she said.

David Shinn, professor at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs in Washington, and former US ambassador to Addis Ababa, said that the US-China partnership on supporting the Africa CDC came when bilateral relations were more cordial, with the US Centres for Disease Control and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation providing most of the assistance.

In 2018, as US-China relations were deteriorating, the AU and China agreed that the Chinese would build the CDC headquarters.

“Washington strongly opposed this decision but appeared to have been outmanoeuvred by China,” Shinn recalled.

Ethiopian and Chinese officials at the groundbreaking ceremony for the Africa CDC headquarters in Addis Ababa in December 2020. Photo: Xinhua

Tim Zajontz, research fellow at the Centre for International and Comparative Politics at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, said the Covid-19 pandemic had made public health another central domain for China to project its soft power.

“It came as no surprise that the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation at last year’s gathering in Dakar pledged to further step up cooperation in the health sector,” Zajontz said.

He said the CDC headquarters is yet another example of Beijing’s targeted support to the AU. “[It] also shows that not only African governments but also regional organisations choose their partners very pragmatically,” said Zajontz, who is also a lecturer in international relations at the University of Freiburg, Germany.

“The geopolitical competition between China and actors like the US and the European Union, which have for a long time funded African regional organisations, has long reached the supranational level.”

US envoy to UN says Africa trip isn’t to catch up with China and Russia
4 Aug 2022


Cameron Hudson, a former US official who is now a senior associate at the CSIS Africa think tank, said: “Even though we tried to win this contract, Washington can’t compete with Chinese infrastructure construction in Africa.”

Hudson said the Africa CDC was seen as an exceptional case because an institution in Washington had already invested a great deal of time, attention, financing and even staffing.

It is also a challenge from a security perspective, because many of the staff are US government employees on loan to the African CDC.

“Having them work in a Chinese-built building, where the Chinese have a history of installing surveillance devices, as they did in the AU headquarters, calls into question whether Washington will be able to continue its close operational relationship with the institution,” Hudson said.

“Washington has been telling its African partners that they don’t have to choose between working with China and working with the US. That our engagement is not a zero-sum competition, but this will test that.”

Lawrence Gostin, director of the O’Neill Institute for National and Global Health Law at Georgetown University in Washington, pointed to how China has been funding infrastructure in Africa as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.

“It has tried to curry favour in Africa, using health infrastructure projects to push its geostrategic interests in Africa,” Gostin said.

“The US has a deep history of transformative public health engagement in Africa. Having inspired and conceptualised the Africa CDC, it was a tragic error to allow China to build its headquarters and to brag about its cooperation with Africa. For the US, it was an own goal.”

Greener Africa: Time for ‘free trade but also fair trade with Europe’

IN DEPTH
This article is part of the dossier: Greener Africa
Posted October 2020


Africa’s summit meeting with the European Union (EU) in 2021 is a critical opportunity to assert that the relationship is mutually beneficial only if Africa produces what it consumes.

This is part 4 of a series.

Africa’s summit meeting with the European Union (EU) in 2021 is a critical opportunity to assert that the relationship is mutually beneficial only if Africa produces what it consumes.

Europe should in turn practice the solidarity it preaches in principle, by supporting capacity building in Africa for self-sufficiency. Africa needs to stand firm, with a clear, long-term vision, in order to forge with the EU a common and equitable path to prosperity.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the climate emergency have exposed afresh Africa’s various shortcomings, notably in the health and education sectors that are the foundation for capacity building.

Yet, the crises also set the stage for Africa to put unprecedented emphasis on human development, which is one of the pillars for the structural transformation discussed for the past 60 years.

Fundamental change needed

Another pillar is economic diversification. Africa has long been merely a supplier of raw materials and recipient of finished products. This role has been codified in the Lomé and Cotonou conventions and the EU/African, Caribbean and Pacific framework such that African raw materials get EU customs exemptions but processed African exports are greeted with heavy taxes.

An equitable partnership requires a fundamental change in this relationship. This is why the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) is an excellent platform for genuinely African products to feed African markets based on strict rules of origin and local content.

READ MORE Now is the time for Africa to implement AfCFTA, not later

However, before the AfCFTA can restructure production and distribution patterns, there are constraints to overcome. 

These include:
Africa’s internal coordination
Policy space
Governance

“Africa’s far smaller margin for monetary manoeuvre”

Negotiations are on-going between Africa’s 33 least developed countries (LDCs) and the remaining low and middle-income countries which are more interested in a common African position.

Currently, the latter have relatively limited access to EU markets under the Standard Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) while the LDCs have largely free access under the GSP Everything but Arms initiative.

Such differences also have repercussions on AfCFTA discussions on tariffs among economies that range in size from tiny to giant. Given Africa’s greater vulnerability to global warming and its need for international support, better coordination is also needed for a collective response to climate effects that do not respect borders.

In terms of policy space, Africa’s injection of about 5% of GDP in response to the economic impact of COVID-19 seems timid when the rest of the world injected about 20% of GDP. The reason is Africa’s far smaller margin for monetary manoeuvre; another indicator of our need to reconquer economic sovereignty in terms of currency and budget. A related problem is the tendency to think at the macro level in the wake of our Bretton Woods partners.

READ MORE The G20’s action on debt is an important first step; now for the hard part

One example is the call for almost $100bn in international COVID support by Africa’s finance ministers which is more a macro-level than a sectoral response when Africa needs to come down to the micro level of the vast majority of our economic actors in order to build their capacity and responsiveness to current crises and emerging frameworks.

“Quality of governance”

Another constraint is the quality of governance, which plays an important role in what may be called “the dictatorship of emergencies”, or constant fire-fighting.

Besides reflecting the presence or absence of a capable state providing amenities and economic prospects for citizens, political instability and insecurity also discourage foreign direct investment. ECOWAS leaders in October 2019 decided, problematically, to classify military spending as public investment expenditure, meaning that all types of resources including development aid could be diverted to military spending at the expense of schools, clinics, feeder roads and potable water.

READ MORE Egypt VS Coronavirus: Military’s excuse to extend economic control?

This illustrates the short-term thinking that for 60 years has exposed Africa to many supposedly exogenous shocks that in fact only reveal our failed approach to structural transformation.

Time is right for Africa to deploy pragmatic and long-term vision

Local processing begins with choosing the appropriate product and working out the factors for success. The frequent mistake is one of scale, aiming too high to start with. If we identify the target market and use small-scale hydro and solar energy, we can create successful enterprises and then work on upscaling, with no need for big dams or fossil fuel.

Developing a textile industry would clearly be easier and more broadly and immediately beneficial than processing uranium.

African cotton is already highly prized abroad. With a market of 400 million people in West Africa alone, and further cooperation among nations and regional institutions, textile industries could take off and Africa could establish its own international brand.

However, for at least 20 years the World Bank and International Monetary Fund have forced us to allow second-hand clothes imports to swamp our markets. We need enlightened protectionism to build competitive industries.

This entails radical policy changes to end the colonial structure of dependence that privileges raw material exports for foreign revenue while discouraging bank finance for local processing and extended local markets. It implies avoiding the resource curse, boosting local content, transforming value chains and attaining agricultural self-sufficiency.

The pandemic revealed the responsiveness of local production and distribution networks linking urban, peri-urban and rural areas to meet demand as food imports shrank. Promoting these local networks boosts rural and urban incomes, with a very small carbon footprint. Such promotion also shortens the linkages from local to continental value chains, illustrating the importance of the AfCFTA and genuinely free movement of people, goods, services and capital across Africa.

READ MORE COVID-19: When ‘local sourcing’ is more than buzz words, but a reality

Africa must reduce transport and energy costs which discourage rural producers as well as industrialists. Better roads and active development of solar and small-scale hydroelectricity can rapidly improve production and marketing prospects. The final requirement is high-quality governance and management at both national and firm level, such that capital is never mistaken for profit.

Bottom line

Europe has launched a “Green Deal” which aims to halve its carbon emissions by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. It has also committed to a new Africa strategy which recognises respective and mutual interests and responsibilities and promotes green growth.

Africa must therefore meet Europe with its own strong vision of a green and industrialised future. It aims to change the continent’s role as a reservoir of raw materials and recipient of manufactured goods. It rejects the neo-liberalism that protects European markets and forces African markets open. Africa wants free trade but also fair trade and well-targeted support for a win-win partnership with Europe.

*This Op-Ed is part of a series of pieces produced for a United Nations University Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) project on Green Transformation in the wake of Covid-19 recovery, in collaboration with the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), the African Union Commission (AUC), United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) and other partners. The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of the institutions involved in the project.

Also in this in Depth:

PART 1
Greener Africa: Powering the Sahel with renewable electricity
Ahead of the coronavirus outbreak, the issue of a greener Africa was getting underway. But while many think the COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench into those efforts, others say it might just be the right catalyst to push forward greener energy. In this first part of our series of exclusive opinion pieces, we look at the Sahel and the quest for solar energy.

PART 2
Greener Africa: Women – The face of a digital and green revolution?
In this second part of our series, we look at the indispensable role Africa's digital revolution plays in attaining a greener continent, but women remain the missing ingredient in maximising this technology.

PART 3
Greener Africa : ‘It is scandalous that Africa has the world’s highest prevalence of hungry people’
In this third part of our series, we look at the central role agriculture must and can have in achieving sustainable and profitable development across the continent.

By Kako Nubukpo

Economist, former minister for long-term strategy and public policy evaluation of Togo and former economic and digital director of the International Organisation of La Francophonie. Author of 'L’Urgence africaine: Changeons de modèle de croissance' (The African Emergency: Let’s change the growth model).

UN vote on Russia invasion shows a changing Africa

Despite Russia’s growing engagement across Africa, the UN vote shows there is lower tolerance now from that continent for such an aggressive invasion of Ukraine.

EXPERT COMMENT
7 MARCH 2022 

South African sand sculptor Sithembiso Buthelezi puts the final touches on a message for peace between Ukraine and Russia on the North beach in Durban. Photo by RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP via Getty Images.

Aanu Adeoye
Mo Ibrahim Foundation Academy Fellow, Russia-Eurasia Programme

Email Aanu

Africa’s diplomatic response to Ukraine has been closely watched, as the invasion is pitting Russia – and Belarus – against not just Ukraine but also its allies, from as close as Poland and as far as Australia. And the United Nations (UN) has become the stage to platform every member nation’s position.

Africa’s three non-permanent members on the UN Security Council – Ghana, Kenya, and Gabon – had already condemned Russia’s actions in the lead-up to the invasion, with Kenya’s strongly-worded rebuke focusing on the inviolability of borders and the need for every sovereign nation to control its own fate.

The UN General Assembly vote of 141-5 highlights Russia’s isolation because so many countries from around the world have registered their displeasure with Russia’s assault on Ukraine. And this vote goes much further than the similar one following the annexation of Crimea in 2014 when only 100 members supported the resolution.

By abstaining, South Africa ignores the power imbalance between the warring parties and Russia’s clear aggression in its invasion of Ukraine

Of the 35 total abstentions this time, 17 were from Africa – compared to 2014 when 26 did – but a few others such as Ethiopia and Cameroon simply walked out instead of making their positions officially known. And a few African countries – such as Mauritania, Kenya, Lesotho, and Mauritius – moved from abstaining in the past to voting in favour.

Russian ties with African countries growing closer

Those events of 2014 and the sanctions which resulted precipitated Moscow’s decision to seek out new international partners, and so Russia cast its eye on Africa. Since then, most of Russia’s efforts in Africa have focused on security and defensive alliances, supplying weapons to buyers with no strings attached and presenting itself as a bulwark against armed insurgents.

Among Russia’s foreign policy elite, 2022 has even been dubbed the ‘Year of Africa’ with the second Russia-Africa summit slated for St. Petersburg later in the year. And Russian ties with certain countries in Africa have become much closer since this pivot.

Following two coups which toppled both a democratically-elected government and its successor, Mali became isolated from its traditional allies in West Africa and a diplomatic rupture with France led to the withdrawal of the latter’s troops from the country. But Russia stood by Mali, voting against a UN Security Council measure seeking to support ECOWAS sanctions on Mali, and it is now probably Mali’s closest foreign ally.

As it did in 2014, Mali abstained this time along with the Central African Republic (CAR) which had voted in favour of the 2014 resolution but – eight years and a full-on invasion later – its unequivocal support then has turned to neutrality now as a sign of its new relationship with Russia and the enormous influence wielded by Moscow’s emissaries there.

Meanwhile Eritrea, a hermit nation in East Africa, was one of the five countries supporting Russia’s position while Nigeria voted for the resolution, not necessarily in support of Ukraine but in support of the spirit of respecting international law and that the fairly peaceful resolution of its own territorial dispute with Cameroon over Bakassi should serve as a model.

Although South Africa’s abstention was all but certain, its vote was closely watched as it was joined by the five other Nation Liberation Movement nations in southern Africa, whose default position is non-alignment. Explaining its abstention, South Africa said the resolution does not ‘create an environment conducive for diplomacy’ and called for dialogue to address ‘security concerns’ of the parties involved.

When Russian tanks first rolled into Ukraine, South Africa had urged Russia to withdraw in an initial condemnation which should be seen within the context of its foreign minister Naledi Pandor seeking to launch her country’s bid for membership of the UN Human Rights Council for the 2023-25 cycle.

But those remarks split the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and Pretoria forced the ministry to fall back in line. Since then, South Africa has been rather ambiguous in its statements about the conflict. If South Africa felt so strongly about the failures of the resolution as it was written, it should have voted against.

By abstaining, South Africa ignores the power imbalance between the warring parties and Russia’s clear aggression in its invasion of Ukraine, and its blanket call for dialogue can be interpreted as a tacit endorsement of Russia’s actions.

Most of Russia’s efforts in Africa have focused on security and defensive alliances, supplying weapons to buyers with no strings attached and presenting itself as a bulwark against armed insurgents

Another indication of South Africa’s true position beyond its abstention is that the Ukrainian ambassador to Pretoria failed to secure a meeting with South Africa’s foreign ministry officials in the days leading to the invasion. This was despite South Africa being the only sub-Saharan African country to maintain a resident ambassador in Kyiev.
South Africa’s preference for non-alignment

South Africa’s abstention appears at odds with its official position on other interventions. It is a vocal critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestine – often noting that power imbalance – and it opposed the NATO intervention in Libya. As a nation whose troops are ever rarely deployed to other sovereign nations outside of multi-party delegations, South Africa’s rather convoluted position on Ukraine is intriguing.

Two factors may explain what South Africa is trying to achieve. As a member of the BRICS alliance, South Africa – and the other members – see themselves as the world’s rising powers providing an alternative to the traditional dominant powers and, of the five BRICS members, only Brazil voted in favour of the UN resolution.

South Africa also has positive memories of warm relations forged during the Soviet era used its own fight against apartheid. Jacob Zuma’s presidency from 2009 to 2018 was the pinnacle of the relationship when interpersonal ties in both governments formed a strong basis for cooperation. Although Zuma’s exit has cooled those relations and improperly awarded contracts have been rescinded, South Africa still sees itself as a partner Russia can work with.

By choosing to remain neutral, South Africa is allowing memories of the ‘good old days’ to trump its support for human rights and the primacy of self-determination – values which it so often trumpets. And as the UN vote shows, it could find itself increasingly out of step with a continent clearly becoming less comfortable with full-scale multi-pronged assaults on an entire nation.

INTER IMPERIALIST RIVALRY FOR HEGEMONY

In Africa, Trump saw 'huts.' Biden sees opportunity to curb President Xi's growing influence


Michael Collins, USA TODAY
Sun, November 19, 2023 

WASHINGTON – When Donald Trump looked at Africa, he crudely dismissed its significance and fretted African immigrants would never “go back to their huts” once they entered the United States.

When Joe Biden looks at Africa, he sees opportunities to curb China’s growing influence in the world.

Biden has sought to move beyond Trump’s dismissive, sometimes confrontational approach and focus instead on deepening ties with a continent that is home to a rapidly growing population and stands as a potentially important geopolitical partner.

“Our eyes are fixed squarely on the future,” Biden told a small group of African leaders in Washington last year.

But beneath the promissory oratory lies a more strategic reason for the shift in attitude and approach to U.S.-Africa policy.

“It’s about China,” said Mark Green, former ambassador to Tanzania and president of the Wilson Center, a nonpartisan think tank that focuses on global affairs. “It’s about great power, competition.”

On Wednesday, Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in person for the second time since Biden became president. The four-hour meeting, held on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperative conference in San Francisco, comes as the two leaders work to repair relations deeply strained by a trade war that started when Trump was in office and by clashes over technology, China’s aggression against Taiwan and a Chinese spy balloon that flew over the United States earlier this year until a U.S. fighter jet shot it down.

In his opening remarks, Biden told Xi the two leaders must ensure that competition between their countries “does not veer into conflict.”

“We have to manage it responsibly – that competition,” Biden said. “That’s what the United States want and what we intend to do. I also believe that's what the world wants from both of us: candid exchange.”

Xi said that while the China-U.S. relationship has never been smoothing sailing, “it has kept moving forward amid twists and turns.”

“Planet Earth is big enough for the two countries to succeed, and one country’s success is an opportunity for the other,” he said.

Neither leader acknowledged, at least not publicly, the newest arena in the competition between the two economic giants: Africa.

'You're going to be seeing a lot of us': China has far surpassed the US as an economic player in Africa. Can Biden change that?

President Joe Biden greets Senegalese President Macky Sall during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington last December.

'New kid on the block in Africa'

China, an economic and military rival of the United States, has made significant gains in Africa over the past two decades, setting off alarms in the U.S. and among European countries who fear Beijing’s growing influence in the world.

“China in the 2000s became the new kid on the block in Africa,” said Amaka Anku, who heads the Africa practice for the Eurasia Group, a global political risk consulting firm based in New York City.

China has far surpassed the U.S. as an economic player in Africa. Trade between China and Africa hit $254 billion in 2021 – four times the trade between the U.S. and Africa, according to the United States Institute of Peace, a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization founded by Congress.

China is the largest provider of foreign direct investment in Africa, supporting hundreds of thousands of African jobs – roughly double the level of U.S. foreign direct investment on the continent. China is also by far the largest lender to African countries, often providing loans that come with much more favorable terms than those offered by U.S. lenders.

What’s more, the Chinese have been pushing to establish a military base on Africa’s western coast – a particular concern for the Biden administration, which sees China as the most consequential threat to U.S. national security.

“This is a crossroads moment for U.S.-Africa relations,” Green said. “And I think it’s important that we continue to build relationships.”

The best way to do that, he said, is for the president to set foot in Africa – “quite frankly, the sooner, the better.”

'All in on Africa's future': Biden announces trade, infrastructure investments in Africa

Biden has said he plans to visit Africa this year, although no plans have been announced, and with just six weeks left in 2023, a trip there this year seems unlikely. The White House, pressed by reporters on whether Biden plans to keep his promise to visit before the end of the year, has simply said that it has no update on his travel schedule.

Biden insists his goal is not to contain China, and his administration has downplayed suggestions that his interest in Africa is tied to a desire to curb Chinese influence there.

Besides the economy, analysts say there are multiple reasons for the U.S. to engage with Africa, not the least of which is the rise of authoritarianism on the continent – a concern for the U.S. and other democracies. Africa also has the world’s youngest population. The top 10 countries with the lowest median age are there, according to the Wilson Center.

The African Union, which represents the continent’s 54 countries, is pushing for a permanent seat or seats on the U.N. National Security Council, which would provide some of the respect the continent has long sought on the world stage.

Biden has publicly supported not only giving Africa a permanent seat at the U.N. but adding the African Union to the Group of 20 nations. South Africa is currently the only African member of the G-20, a governmental forum made up of the world’s major industrial and emerging countries.

'Well, look, he is': Biden calls China's Xi a dictator again, upsetting Beijing after high-stakes meeting
'African leaders don't want to be chess pieces'

Trump didn’t exactly endear himself to Africans during the four years he was in office. He never visited Africa during his presidency, making him the first president since Ronald Reagan to never set foot on the continent while in office.

Trump’s incendiary language didn’t help, either.

During an Oval Office meeting with lawmakers about immigration, he questioned why the U.S. would accept more migrants from Haiti and “sh**hole countries” in Africa rather than places like Norway. In a separate meeting a few months earlier, he reportedly groused that thousands of Haitians who’d entered the United States had AIDS and that Nigerian visitors would never “go back to their huts” in Africa. Critics called his remarks derogatory and racist.

Biden sought to reset relations with Africa upon taking office. Last December, the administration hosted the first U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit since 2014. Heads of state from 49 African nations and the African Union were invited to Washington for an opportunity to re-engage with the Biden administration.

To underscore its commitment to Africa, the U.S. has promised to send $55 billion to Africa over the next three years for initiatives to improve health care, mitigate the dangers of climate change, boost trade and investment and set up programs to help women entrepreneurs.

And while Biden has yet to visit, first lady Jill Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and other administration officials have traveled to the continent over the past year, promising the U.S. is serious about deepening its ties to Africa.

Whenever Biden makes the trip, African leaders will be looking for more than promises from the administration, analysts said.

They will be looking for a signal that the U.S. considers the region important – and not just as a buffer against China, Green said.

“African leaders don’t want to be chess pieces,” he said.

African countries need funding to help them finance critical development initiatives, infrastructure projects and climate change mitigation, said Rama Yade, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center.

“They have development needs of $200 billion per year, and that is absolutely key,” she said. “Six hundred million people suffer from a lack of electricity, not to mention food insecurity, problems of housing, of transportation, of infrastructure. Those are critical.”

African leaders are willing to work so closely with China, Yade said, “because the Chinese – they bring money.”

The U.S. government’s announcement of funding programs for Africa in the past has always come with the promise of millions of dollars in accompanying investments from the private sector. But the private sector funding seldom materializes, Anku said.

For now, “I think what African countries would like to see is ‘show me the money,’” she said.

While Africa has many big-ticket needs, smaller projects or those that directly benefit communities can sometimes have the most lasting impact, Green said.

Green came to realize that soon after he was named ambassador to Tanzania and landed in Dar es Salaam to present his credentials. The arrival of a new ambassador is a big deal, with lots of limousines and a ceremony filled with pomp and circumstance. But what Green remembers most about that day is his cab driver.

“Before we took off, he turned around, leaned (over) to me and he said, ‘I was taught by a Peace Corps teacher,’ and he returned to the wheel,” Green said. “For him, that was the big deal, not the formalities. It was American compassion and action.”

“That, to me,” Green added, “is how you make a difference.”

Michael Collins covers the White House. Follow him on Twitter @mcollinsNEWS.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Why Biden sees Africa as opportunity to curb China's influence

Africa Climate Summit adopts 'Nairobi Declaration'

WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 06 2023
The East African


President William Ruto (C) surrounded by other African leaders delivers his closing speech during the closure of the Africa Climate Summit 2023 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya on September 6, 2023. 

PHOTO | LUIS TATO | AFP

By NATION AFRICA
More by this Author


The Africa Climate Summit 2023 has culminated in the Nairobi Declaration, with the continent’s leaders asking developed nations to honour their commitments to provide $100 billion in annual climate finance.

African heads of state and governments on Wednesday also called for urgent reform of multilateral financial system in their bid to secure funding for climate mitigation and climate adaptation projects.

The declaration calls for "a new financing architecture that is responsive to Africa's needs including debt restructuring and relief", as frustration mounts over the high cost of financing on the continent.

Read: Ruto urges global lenders to be fair to Africa

It also asks rich carbon polluters to honour long-standing climate pledges to poorer nations and urges world leaders to back a proposed "carbon tax on fossil fuel trade, maritime transport and aviation".

The 54-nation continent is acutely vulnerable to the growing impacts of climate change, but the summit largely focused on calls to unlock investment in clean energy.

Related

Ruto: Don't kill us with debt

Why Africa can be the lungs of the world

"A new Africa is there, and it means business," Kenyan President William Ruto said.

The summit saw funding pledges worth $23 billion "for green growth, mitigation and adaptation efforts" across the continent.

Ruto: Africa has the power to decarbonise the world


TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 05 2023

President William Ruto delivers his opening remarks during the Africa Climate Summit 2023 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Kenya on September 4, 2023. 

PHOTO | LUIS TATO | 

By HELLEN SHIKANDA
More by this Author

Kenya's President William Ruto, speaking at the opening ceremony of the inaugural Africa Climate Summit, said Africa has the power to decarbonise the world and boost investment for the continent.

Dr Ruto told the three-day summit at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) that Africa should seize the opportunity to transform Africa's climate dialogue.

More than three decades after climate talks gained momentum on the global stage, this is the first time African countries have convened a regional meeting exclusively to discuss their agenda.

Read: ‘Common agenda’ calls intensify ahead of Africa Climate Summit

Over the years, Africa has raised its concerns at global climate conferences through its regional groups that are parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), such as the African Group of Negotiators and the Group of 77 (G-77).

Although the continent contributes a negligible 4 percent of total greenhouse gas emissions, its grievances are often sidelined by promises made by high-emitting countries that are often not kept.

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For this reason, Dr Ruto said it was time for Africa to change the way it deals with climate issues.

"We come together with a clear understanding of the inadequacy of our climate finance needs, but we will not shy away from the realities that must bring about positive change," he said.

"Climate change is not just an abstract concept; it is proven by science and emerging experience. That is why we are not here to catalogue grievances and lease problems. We are here to talk about solutions," he added.

On decarbonising the world, President Ruto said Africa should harness its rich potential in renewable energy as it could benefit other people outside the continent and bring in development funds.

Read: Kenya seeks Swedish support ahead of Climate Summit

"Our assets must be in the form of partnerships. The reason we have not made so much progress is because Africa has not consolidated and brought its ideas to the table. The day we do that, we will be a wealthy continent," he said.

"It is not just the volume of our renewable resources that stands out, but also their non-seasonality. We will always have the sun," Dr Ruto said.

Dr Ruto subtly called out Africa's lenders for their inequitable payment of loans, in line with one of the key agendas of the summit, which is to restructure new ways of paying debts, as their plight is derailing the continent, which is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

"It is no secret that we pay at least five times more on our loans than the advanced economies. I see this as an opportunity to unleash the creativity of local investment. My call to everyone at this summit is to have African priorities. This is a moment to imagine a bold and radically positive African future," he said.

"The future is not something to be hoped for or wished for, it is for us to realise and imagine now. That is what we have come to do at the Africa Climate Summit," he added.

Other delegates at the event backed the African agenda, despite the furore in the weeks before the event that suggested outsiders had hijacked the summit with their ideas. Environment Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya said the overarching goal of the summit was to chart a green growth path for the African continent.

Read: Experts urge strong climate change action in Africa

"Climate change has entered a new era, it is not just about an environmental or development angle, it is now about climate change in the context of climate justice," she said.

Speaking on behalf of civil society, Mithika Mwenda, Executive Director of the Pan African Climate Justice Alliance (PACJA), said it was time for climate summits to move away from being a battle between the global North and the global South.He warned developed countries against using such summits to escape responsibility for their high emissions, saying the narrative of change should be two-way.

"The outcome of this summit should not only provide solutions for people whose livelihoods are affected by climate change and its false solutions, but also reflect African realities, and adaptation should be at the heart of it," he said.

Josefa Sacko, Commissioner for Agriculture, Rural Development, Blue Economy and Sustainable Environment at the African Union Commission, said climate change was a pandemic in Africa.

"What we are seeing is a situation where governments are abandoning development and spending their money on the climate crisis. Africa needs to move from a donor-recipient relationship to building investment," she said.

Youth and Indigenous Peoples were represented and shared the need for their voices to be at the centre of the climate talks.

President Ruto urges global financial institutions to be fair to Africa

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 05 2023

President William Ruto addressing participants during the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi, Kenya on September 5, 2023. 

By HELLEN SHIKANDA
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By DAN OGETTA
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Africa is calling for a fair financial system that treats all nations equally, according to Kenya's President William Ruto, who also chairs the Heads of State Committee on Climate Change.

Speaking on the second day of the Africa Climate Summit, President Ruto said it was not too much to ask as many African nations were facing debt distress due to climate change.

"This is the continent with the highest investment potential. We are only limited by two things: high interest rates for development capital," President Ruto said, adding that nine countries in Africa are already in debt distress, 13 are at high risk and 17 are at medium risk.

Read: African leaders push for change in global financial structure

He argued that the suffering was global but the African continent was bearing the brunt and that the financial architecture is such that African nations are seen as risky borrowers.

"How do we get Africa to pay five times more?" The president wondered. "We are not asking to be favoured [or] treated differently... We need a conversation."

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"Climate change was destroying the economies of African nations and forcing affected countries to divert their budgets and resources meant for economic growth to dealing with the effects of climate change," Dr Ruto said.

"Africa had lost 2.5 million head of livestock, among other things, due to climate change," he said.

He said the summit was both Africa's climate summit and a global pre-COp28 meeting where Africa would speak, and the world would listen.

"The ACS is an orientation to familiarise us with our journey into the future, driven by African solutions," he explained. "We have gathered here to consult, deliberate, collaborate and share the future of climate action globally and for Africa. This summit is about turning ideas into action and forging transformative partnerships to bring our planet back from the brink of climate change."

Acknowledging that there was still a long way to go to achieve Africa's aspirations, he urged all stakeholders to keep their promises, even in difficult times.

Nevertheless, he said, there was a need to move fast because climate change was an emergency that required a commitment to climate action and green growth.

"This African moment is a global moment, we are there in word and deed. I urge everyone at this summit to show bold leadership in support of African aspirations. We have a long way to go and no time to lose. We have the permission of our ancestors to innovate a way, not only to go fast, but to go together," said Dr Ruto.

Even in the face of adversity, the summit host said, there is opportunity. Climate change and the crisis it brings is Africa's opportunity to unlock the vast resources we have for a green energy transition, he said.

President Ruto said Africa has an unprecedented opportunity to turn away from the well-trodden unsustainable path.

Speaking at the Youth Summit on Sunday, President Ruto said the world had witnessed the immense potential that African youth could unleash.

He added that this underscored the importance of the Youth Commission. Potential and opportunity are all futuristic.

African countries face unique, disproportionate and structural disadvantages that can help them achieve prosperity. And the tragedy of climate change is "relentlessly eating away at this progress", President Ruto lamented, while declaring that the continent will use its capacity to limit its own emissions as a clear pathway to net zero by 2050

"Furthermore, to achieve green growth, Africa has committed to move quickly to develop the necessary instruments and institutions, with Kenya, as an outcome of the summit, offering to host the Global Centre for Adaptation (GCA)," President Ruto said.

"We have been negatively profiled, the continent of disease, war and poverty, but we are stepping out to say that Africa is home to 60 percent of the world's renewable energy assets," he said.

Standing in for US President Joe Biden, US special climate envoy John Kerry said, "My sense is that after this speech, we have no choice but to act."

"Africa has the greatest opportunity in the world to win this (climate change) dialogue," he added.

"I feel that Africa at this moment offers an enormous opportunity. This problem that we face is man-made. Humanity is being threatened by humanity. We need the Loss and Damage Fund in one year, this year, in Dubai. We can win this battle, but we can only win it if we make fundamental choices," he further said.

Yellen seeks to drum up private sector support for South Africa's energy transition




Fri, January 27, 2023 
By Andrea Shalal

EMALAHLENI, South Africa (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Friday visited South Africa's coal mining region of Mpumalanga, pledging America's firm support to ensure the country's transition to renewable energy does not leave its workers behind.

Yellen met with South African officials after touring a U.S.-funded facility where workers are training for jobs in the solar industry and other renewable energy.

She said she would meet later Friday with philanthropists and private sector officials and hoped Washington's focus on a just transition would underpin their interest in backing the massive project aimed at supporting South Africa's gradual phasing out of fossil fuels.

The United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union backed South Africa's "Just Energy Transition Partnership," or JETP, in late 2021 with a combined $8.5 billion, but the total cost could be ten times that high.

"The financial package of $8.5 billion is a substantial down payment," Yellen said at the U.S.-funded Top of the World Training Center.

"Importantly, it is designed to mobilize additional money from the private sector and philanthropies, and I will meet with representatives from both groups later today," she said.

Yellen told reporters she had no specific sums in mind for how much donors and the private sector could contribute, but said she believed that focusing on "the just part" would be "extremely important" in leveraging additional funds.

She said U.S. officials also discussed anti-corruption efforts in great detail with South African officials, and were looking to help Pretoria strengthen its rules and enforcement.

"We agree that it's really critical to address corruption in order to have an effective government that South Africans can have confidence in, and it's a critical part of the business environment," she said, when asked if corruption concerns could dampen interest by donors and the private sector.

South Africa's plan calls for job retraining and reskilling, cash payments to support displaced workers, redevelopment of former coal mines and coal power plants as clean energy production sites and other productive uses, as well as investment in roads, rail, ports, and digital infrastructure.

"The United States' commitment to the energy transition being 'just' is firm. That is why President Biden made an additional commitment to President Ramaphosa of $45 million in grant funding to support South Africa’s efforts," Yellen said.

Owing to its reliance on coal for electricity, South Africa is the world's 14th biggest carbon emitter, three places ahead of Britain, an economy seven and a half times the size, according to data from the Global Carbon Atlas.

But President Cyril Ramaphosa's plan to transition South Africa away from coal and towards renewable energy has divided the governing African National Congress (ANC). Union leaders allied to the party fear massive job losses in the coal belt that they doubt the renewables business will be able to plug.

The Treasury secretary had a "frank" exchange of views with both Ramaphosa and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe - a vocal defender of keeping South Africa's coal mines and power stations open - about the partnership, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, told reporters on Thursday.

They agreed on the need to transition to a low-carbon-emission economy, but raised questions about how they could get there and on what timetable, he said.

Yellen is wrapping up a three-country visit to Africa, with stops in Senegal and Zambia, that is aimed at deepening U.S. economic ties with the continent and countering China's long dominance of trade and lending with many African nations.

(Reporting by Andrea ShalalEditing by Tim Cocks, Toby Chopra and Mark Potter)

Yellen welcomes South Africa's energy transition, steers clear of Russia mention





Thu, January 26, 2023 
By Andrea Shalal and Kopano Gumbi

PRETORIA (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday lauded South Africa's "bold" participation in an energy transition partnership backed by the United States and other Western nations but steered clear of mentioning U.S. concerns about Pretoria's planned military drills with China and Russia.

Yellen spoke to reporters alongside South African Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana in Pretoria on the third leg of her nearly two-week tour of Africa, and just days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov visited South Africa.

She welcomed Godongwana's "cooperation and insightful views" in their previous discussions, and said she would raise several issues, including Zambia's stalled sovereign debt restructuring effort, given South Africa's key role on the country's creditor committee.


"The United States strongly values our relationship with South Africa," Yellen said in remarks that included no mention of Russia or China, or White House concerns about Pretoria's plans to hold joint military drills with both countries.

Washington was not asking countries to choose sides, focusing instead on America's plans in South Africa and beyond, a senior Treasury official said.

U.S. officials did brief the South Africans on U.S. sanctions imposed on Russia over its war in Ukraine to avoid possible misunderstandings, the official told reporters.

Godongwana said the two would discuss countering the financing of terrorism, climate financing, resolving sovereign debt crises in Africa and global topics that will form part of a meeting of the G20 group of major economies next month.

He said Yellen's visit was a "momentous" occasion, noting that the previous visit by a U.S. Treasury secretary was in 2014, and praised Yellen's announcement on Wednesday that the United States and South Africa were setting up a joint task force on combating the financing of wildlife trafficking.

South Africa has remained one of Moscow's most important allies on a continent divided over Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24.

Yellen's trip has kicked off a yearlong charm offensive of U.S. top leader visits to Africa aimed at deepening U.S. economic ties with the continent and countering China's long dominance of trade and lending with many African nations.

Throughout her visit, Yellen has emphasized the right of countries to choose their trading partners while pitching the greater transparency and lasting nature of engagement with the United States.

The Treasury secretary, who met with South Africa Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe later on Thursday, singled out South Africa's "Just Energy Transition Partnership," backed in late 2021 by the United States, Britain, France, Germany and the European Union, as a key to future growth.

They pledged a combined $8.5 billion to accelerate South Africa's transition away from fossil fuels to renewable energy, but South Africa's plan could cost five times that much.

"This partnership represents South Africa's bold first step toward expanding electricity access and reliability and creating a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy," Yellen said, adding that it would "alleviate the deep fiscal strain the energy sector is putting on South Africa's economy."

Yellen had a "frank" exchange of views with both Ramaphosa and Mantashe about the partnership, the U.S. ambassador to South Africa, Reuben Brigety, told reporters.

The need to transition to a low-carbon-emission economy was not in dispute, but South African officials questioned how they could get there and on what timetable, he said.

Yellen assured them that the partners would continue to support South Africa's transition and work with them on their plans, Brigety said.

(Reporting by Andrea Shalal and Kopano Gumbi in Pretoria; Editing by Matthew Lewis, Alexander Winning, Toby Chopra and Mark Porter)

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)

Africa CDC Launches Groundbreaking Initiative to Tackle AMR Crisis: Strengthening Workforce and Implementing Homegrown Solutions for Enhanced Surveillance

June 03, 2023



Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a growing and urgent threat in Africa. With nearly 1.3 million deaths attributed to AMR in 2019, Inadequate monitoring and control measures by governments have worsened the situation, hindering the prevention of resistant micro-organisms. If immediate action is not taken, millions of Africans are estimated to lose their lives to antimicrobial resistance by 2050.

AMR stands as one of the leading public health challenges of the 21st century, with Africa having the world's highest mortality rate from AMR infections, resulting in 27.3 deaths per 100,000 attributable to AMR.

The Africa Union Framework for Antimicrobial Resistance Control, 2020-2025 describes strategies for Africa CDC to improve surveillance, delay emergence, limit transmission, and mitigate harm from AMR pathogens.

Recent findings, paints the dire reality of the AMR surveillance situation across the continent and the urgent need for improved AMR surveillance in AU member states. The findings of the multi-country study are particularly concerning as most laboratories across Africa do not have the resources for AMR testing and surveillance. The continuous lack of surveillance data has hindered our understanding of Antimicrobial Resistance, antimicrobial use (AMU) and drivers of resistance on the continent. In response to this growing public health threat, Africa CDC has launched an international exchange study visits between Africa Union Member States for sharing knowledge and best practices on Antimicrobial Resistance surveillance system implementation and AMR control.

This initiative kicked-off with an exchange visit between Ethiopia and South Africa, convening public health experts from the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI) and South Africa National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD), Centre for Health-Associated Infections, Antimicrobial Resistance and Mycoses (CHARM) for a collaborative learning experience on AMR surveillance implementation.

Participants shared their best practices for establishing and operationalising functional laboratory-based Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance systems particularly in resource-limited settings. This meeting took place in Johannesburg, South Africa from 22 – 26 May 2023.

“The Africa CDC is pleased to launch this initiative to strengthen workforce for improved AMR surveillance with homegrown solutions to implement AMR control”, said Yewande Alimi, Africa CDC’s Antimicrobial Resistance & One Health Program Coordinator.

Both countries have documented remarkable progress in AMR Surveillance, the Ethiopian National Public Health Institute begun its laboratory-based AMR surveillance system 2017 and has expanded the participating sentinel sites through strengthening detection and response capacity of priority pathogens guided by WHO/GLASS AMR data reporting, national AMR prevention and containment strategy, EPHI laboratory-based AMR surveillance system guide.

Speaking at meeting, Deputy Director General of the Ethiopian Public Health Institute (EPHI), Dr. Getachew Tollera highlighted the criticality and timeliness of the exercise, stating, "We need standardized approaches to address regional and global shared threats such as Antimicrobial Resistance. Collaboration, partnerships, and networking with institutions like NICD are crucial for EPHI to be prepared and respond effectively to emerging threats."

South Africa's leadership in AMR surveillance across the continent is commendable. the countries participation in key initiatives led by Africa CDC holds great promise. Initiatives such as continental genomic sequencing through the Pathogen Genomics Institute (PGI) and the EQAFRICA regional project, funded by the Fleming Fund, have already made significant contributions to AMR surveillance in 14 African Union countries, with the NICD leading regional EQA reference capacity to enhance laboratory capabilities in detecting and monitoring AMR. In collaboration with Africa CDC, NICD aims to support AMR surveillance capacity-building efforts across the continent. Collaborative efforts such as this, have great potential for advancing AMR surveillance and laboratory improvement in the continent.

“It is a great opportunity for any country on the African continent to get an understanding of how surveillance of AMR surveillance is performed and how we can learn from each other in different settings on implementation of surveillance as the global AMR surveillance system is changing”, says Professor Olga Perovic,, Principal Pathologist, Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory and Culture Collection Centre for Healthcare-Associated Infections, Antimicrobial Resistance and Mycoses (CHARM) during the international exchange visit.

Africa CDC will continue to engage Member States on AMR surveillance and support similar learning opportunities for other countries with the aim of promoting and advocating for excellence in AMR prevention and containment intervention strategies in Africa.

The international exchange visits are part of Africa CDC’s effort to strengthen AMR surveillance in Africa by building capacity and providing technical assistance to support the development and implementation of surveillance systems while leveraging existing resources in AU Member States.

For media inquiry, please contact:

Ms. Ndahafa Nakwafila| Senior Communication Officer| Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention| African Union| email: NakwafilaN@africa-union.org| M: +251 92 99 79 820 | email: africacdc@africaunion.org| Website: www.africacdc.org| Addis Ababa| Ethiopia| Facebook | Twitter

For more information:

Ms. Liolisia Kariko| Risk Communication and Community Engagement(RCCE)| Africa Centres for Disease control and Prevention| Southern Regional Collaborating Centre| African Union| email: KarikoL@africa-union.org| M: +260 96 57 55 944 | email: africacdc@africaunion.org| Website: www.africacdc.org| Addis Ababa| Ethiopia| Facebook | Twitter

Information and Communication Directorate, African Union Commission I E-mail: DIC@africa-union.org

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US Secretary of State came to SA, blinked and left

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, accompanied by South Africa's Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor (not seen), speaks to members of the media after meeting together at the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation in Pretoria.

 Andrew Harnik/POOL/AFP

In yet another “lightning diplomacy” visit, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken (aka Minister of Foreign Affairs), spent about 10 working hours in South Africa on August 8. His mission was to break South Africa’s resistance to joining the US-led economic war on Russia.

Biden’s America wants South Africa to impose total sanctions against Russia and demands that South Africa should condemn Russia’s occupation of the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine. Like German Chancellor Scholz before him, during his visit on May 24, Blinken failed to deliver.

His South African counterpart, Naledi Pandor, reminded Blinken that international law requires conflicts to be resolved peacefully by the means of diplomacy and without the threat or use of force. Funding and arming one side in a military conflict can never end the fighting and the devastation of war.

At the press conference, Blinken looked tired when he referred to his visit to the Hector Pieterson Museum. Maybe he had come to realise that apartheid existed because it was armed and bankrolled by the West.

Sitting next to a stoic but still motherly, bemused Pandor, Blinken asked: “But if we allow a big country to bully a smaller one, to simply invade it and take its territory, then it’s going to be an open season not just in Europe but around the world.” Who doesn’t remember the schoolyard fun when a little guy is induced to insult and kick up dust against a bigger one, to provoke a reaction that can be used to get a teacher to reprimand and punish the unloved big guy?

Blinken’s imagery of an “open season” implies the coming of a “hunting season”. It hints at some stereotype “Russian Slayer” and it is childish and reflective of the “flat” view of the world that is so characteristic of American politicians.

The only “open season” known in Africa is the continually unhindered access to cobalt and other minerals that are critical for all battery-powered phones and vehicles. They are mined in sub-Saharan Africa at near zero cost, with reliance on the worst forms of child labour and exploitation.

Coinciding with Blinken’s visit, the US State Department issued a document titled “US Strategy Towards sub-Saharan Africa. It contains two critical and fundamental statements. First, the document puts on record the Biden administration’s decision to “work with the Congress on the future of Agoa (African Growth and Opportunity Act), which expires in 2025”.

No undertaking is given that the administration will defend the extension of Agoa, let alone make its continuation a cornerstone of future US-Africa relations. Agoa, by giving preferential access to the US markets to goods manufactured in southern Africa, is essential for the continuation of South Africa’s small but vital manufacturing industries, in particular car manufacturing.

By implication, Biden’s Africa Policy document raises the question of “the future of Agoa”. It is thus inviting sub-Saharan Africa to look with great urgency for alternative arrangements within the BRICS. The other key policy direction given in the US Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa document concerns the expansion of the work of Africom, the United States Africa Command.

Says the document: “In line with the 2022 National Defence Strategy, the Department of Defence will engage with African partners to expose and highlight the risks of negative PRC and Russian activities in Africa …. In addition, we will engage the US defence private sector via Prosper Africa to support sustainable technology and energy solutions for African militaries.”

This must be read together with the promise inserted on page 7 to “counter harmful activities by the PRC, Russia, and other foreign actors”. In effect, Biden’s new Africa Policy has added to the usual development aid conditionalities of a particularly American view of democracy, the countering of “harmful activities by China and Russia and others”.

Blinken’s visit to South Africa, the DRC and Rwanda happens against the backdrop of visits in May by the new head of Africom, General Stephen Townsend, to Somaliland, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Angola and Rwanda. They all served the objective of expanding the US military footprint and influence in the officer ranks of defence forces throughout Africa.

Townsend is well experienced in underpinning American interests with a military influence, having been posted to Grenada, Panama and Haiti in the 1980s and 1990s and later in Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria. In Somaliland, Townsend secured the return of 500 US special forces to Somali soil, after they had been withdrawn by president Donald Trump in early 2021.

The US contingent will support and train the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (Atmis). In Djibouti, Townsend welcomed Major General Jami Shawley as commander of the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA).

Shawley is a US Air Force helicopter pilot and the first female officer to oversee the 5 000 US forces stationed at Camp Lemonnier, in a continual stand-off with China’s People’s Liberation Army’s naval base in Djibouti. In Kenya, Townsend promoted the deployment of US attack drones from Kenyan soil to hit and “eliminate” (extra-judicially of course), suspected Al-Shabaab followers in Somalia.

In Angola, Townsend’s boosted naval co-operation with the US by assuring President João Lourenço, shortly before the forthcoming August elections, of unwavering US support. To oversee the elections, Congolese-born US Ambassador Tulinabo Mushingi is in Luanda.

A former executive director for Hillary Clinton, Mushingi has been the Democrats’ man in Africa for many years, in Ethiopia, Mozambique, Morocco, Tanzania, Burkina Faso and Senegal. Biden’s Africa policy is presenting itself as a military expansion strategy.

Forgotten is the promise of President Barack Obama, made during his 2013 speech in Cape Town, to bring “light to darkness” by investing a total of $16 billion into the region’s power grids. Instead of more light, southern Africa experienced more power blackouts. America’s new foreign relations with Africa appear more exclusionary and forceful than ever.

* This article was published first in www.theafrican.co.za

** Thomashausen is a German attorney and Professor Emeritus for International Law at Unisa

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Africa: Western Colonialism vs The Legacy of the Soviet Union

Moscow - along with Beijing - is preparing for a long-term geopolitical confrontation in Africa.

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (L) walks with Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni after their press conference at the State House in Entebbe on July 26, 2022. (Photo by BADRU KATUMBA/AFP via Getty Images)

RAMZY BAROUD

August 7, 2022

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov's recent tour in Africa was meant to be a game changer, not only in terms of Russia's relations with the continent, but in the global power struggle involving the US, Europe, China, India, Turkey and others.

Many media reports and analyses placed Lavrov's visit to Egypt, the Republic of Congo, Uganda and Ethiopia within the obvious political context of the Russia-Ukraine war. The British Guardian's Jason Burka summed up Lavrov's visit in these words: “Lavrov is seeking to convince African leaders and, to a much lesser extent, ordinary people that Moscow cannot be blamed either for the conflict or the food crisis.”

Though true, there is more at stake.

Africa’s importance to the geostrategic tug of war is not a new phenomenon. Western governments, think tanks and media reports have, for long, allocated much attention to Africa due to China’s and Russia’s successes in altering the foreign policy map of many African countries. For years, the West has been playing catch up, but with limited success.

The Economist discussed 'the new scramble for Africa' in a May 2019 article, which reported on “governments and businesses from all around the world” who are “rushing” to the continent in search of “vast opportunities” awaiting them there. Between 2010 and 2016, 320 foreign embassies were opened in Africa which, according to the magazine, is “probably the biggest embassy-building boom, anywhere, ever.”

Though China has often been portrayed as a country seeking economic opportunities only, the nature and evolution of Beijing’s relations with Africa prove otherwise. Beijing is reportedly the biggest supplier of arms to sub-Saharan Africa, and its defense technology permeates almost the entire continent. In 2017, China established its first military base in Djibouti in the Horn of Africa.

Russia’s military influence in Africa is also growing exponentially, and Moscow’s power is challenging that of France, the US and others in various strategic spaces, mainly in the East Africa regions.

But, unlike the US and other western states, countries like China, Russia and India have been cautious as they attempt to strike the perfect balance between military engagement, economic development and political language.

‘Quartz Africa’ reported that trade between Africa and China “rose to a record high” in 2021. The jump was massive: 35% between 2020 and 2021, reaching a total of $254 billion.

Now that Covid-19 restrictions have been largely lifted, trade between Africa and China is likely to soar at astronomical levels in the coming years. Keeping in mind the economic slump and potential recession in the West, Beijing’s economic expansion is unlikely to slow down, despite the obvious frustration of Washington, London and Brussels. It ought to be said that China is already Africa’s largest trade partner, and by far.

Russia-China-Africa’s strong ties are paying dividends on the international stage. Nearly half of the abstentions in the vote on United Nations Resolution ES-11/1 on March 2, condemning Russia’s military action in Ukraine, came from Africa alone. Eritrea voted against it. This attests to Russia’s ability to foster new alliances on the continent. It also demonstrates the influence of China - Russia’s main ally in the current geopolitical tussle – as well.

Yet, there is more to Africa’s position than mere interest in military hardware and trade expansion. History is most critical.

In the first 'scramble for Africa', Europe sliced up and divided the continent into colonies and areas of influence. The exploitation and brutalization that followed remain one of the most sordid chapters in modern human history.

What the Economist refers to as the 'second scramble for Africa' during the Cold War era was the Soviet Union’s attempt to demolish the existing colonial and neo-colonial paradigms established by western countries throughout the centuries.

The collapse of the Soviet Union over three decades ago changed this dynamic, resulting in an inevitable Russian retreat and the return to the uncontested western dominance. That status quo did not last for long, however, as China and, eventually, Russia, India, Turkey, Arab countries and others began challenging western supremacy.

Lavrov and his African counterparts fully understand this context. Though Russia is no longer a Communist state, Lavrov was keen on referencing the Soviet era, thus the unique rapport Moscow has with Africa, in his speeches. For example, ahead of his visit to Congo, Lavrov said in an interview that Russia had “long-standing good relations with Africa since the days of the Soviet Union.”

Such language cannot be simply designated as opportunistic or merely compelled by political urgency. It is part of a complex discourse and rooted superstructure, indicating that Moscow - along with Beijing - is preparing for a long-term geopolitical confrontation in Africa.

Considering the West’s harrowing colonial past, and Russia’s historic association with various liberation movements on the continent, many African states, intelligentsias and ordinary people are eager to break free from the grip of western hegemony.

Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.



RAMZY BAROUD is a journalist and the Editor of the Palestine Chronicle. He is the author of five books including: "These Chains Will Be Broken: Palestinian Stories of Struggle and Defiance in Israeli Prisons" (2019), "My Father Was a Freedom Fighter: Gaza's Untold Story" (2010) and "The Second Palestinian Intifada: A Chronicle of a People's Struggle" (2006). Dr. Baroud is a Non-resident Senior Research Fellow at the Center for Islam and Global Affairs (CIGA), Istanbul Zaim University (IZU). His website is www.ramzybaroud.net.