West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

CONTRADICTIONS AND CONTRASTS marked major events drawing attention on Africa in this month of September. Within four days, two remarkable weather events that tested the resilience of the continent occurred. They were going to lead to disasters of such a scale as to involve death tolls in excess of 14,000. This was just a conservative […]

America’s 9/11, Africa’s prosperity and the West’s sadism

West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

SEPTEMBER 11 has become a date of global relevance, based on two significant events that took place in the Americas – one in South America and the other in North America. The latter was in the aftermath of the daring murder-suicide and brutal, coordinated terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. An estimated 3,000 […]

How new anti-French sentiments from Africa may hurt EU

West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

WESTERN EUROPE now has every reason to feel apprehensive about the recent wave of coups in Africa. In particular, there has not been a worse period for France than this because almost all the coups have happened in francophone countries. The only exception in the past four years was that of Sudan that saw to […]

Role of UN, West in Africa’s failed leadership

West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

THE UNITED NATIONS General Assembly for the year 2023 commences in a fortnight. The global gathering tagged UNGA 78, an event which will bring leaders from various parts of the world together from September 18 to 26, will entail a lot of speechmaking by world leaders and country representatives as heads of governments. This annual […]

The place of Africa in BRICS expansion

West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

MULTILATERAL COOPERATION got another boost last Wednesday at the end of the 15th BRICS Summit in South Africa. Described as “Johannesburg II Declaration,” with a broad theme of “BRICS and Africa: Partnership for Mutually Accelerated Growth, Sustainable Development and Inclusive Multilateralism,” the report at the end of the meeting in Sandton, Gauteng, laid out 94 […]

Africa’s resources, phantom democracy and West’s meddling

West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

LAST WEEKEND MARKED the fifth anniversary of the passing away of Kofi Atta Annan, a Ghanaian diplomat, who served as the seventh Secretary General of the United Nations (UN) from January 1997 to December 2006. He was the first from the UN staff to occupy that position. Mr. Annan died on August 18, 2018, at […]

Niger, the West and democracy’s shifting goalposts in Africa

West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

SUBLIME DESCRIPTION of democracy can sometimes be misleading. Those countries purporting to export democracy all over the world have run into crises of some sorts over the past one or two decades. They have exposed their hypocrisy and double standards that easily offend the sensibility of many in other parts of the world and make […]

Niger’s coup and the looming twilight of françafrique in Africa

West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

DIPLOMATIC SHUTTLES BY Emmanuel Macron since he became the president of France in 2017 to countries with historical ties must have taught him some great lessons of real differences between suppositions, assumptions and realities. Apart from the various French outposts in the Caribbean, Latin America and the Oceania where the countries under France’s sphere of […]

With summit, isolated Russia eyes African partners

West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

RUSSIA HAS ONCE AGAIN convened a summit with Africa last week. The summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and African leaders – referred to as Second Russia-Africa Summit or Russia–Africa Economic and Humanitarian Forum for peace, security and development – was held at the Expo Forum in St. Petersburg on Thursday and Friday. This second […]

Sudan’s crisis as Africa’s potential tinderbox

West’s carrot and stick on Africa’s ‘Achilles heel’

POSSIBILITIES OF CREATION of more countries in Africa are becoming more real. Out of the existing countries may emanate new ones. It has happened in the past and may yet happen again anytime soon. The struggle of the Saharawi Arab Republic (SAR) to become a fully independent state – though still hotly contested by Morocco […]