Day: August 5, 2020
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There Are Valuable Lessons For African Policymakers in the China-Australia Feud
The Guardian this week published a fascinating analysis of how the increasing diplomatic tensions between China and Australia could impact Africa. There are fears that recent Chinese crackdowns on Australian wine, barley, coal, and other commodities could be visited on the country’s exports of iron ...
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How’s the Belt & Road Doing During the Pandemic? Well, the Answer Depends on Who You Ask
There are conflicting assessments of the health of China's Belt and Road Initiative and how it's fared during the past 7-8 months amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. A new report from the London-based analytics and consulting firm ...
Kenyan Newspaper Pleads With Government to Stop Borrowing Money
The influential financial newspaper Business Daily published a sharply-worded editorial on Wednesday that blasted the government for taking on more debt amid the country's worsening economic crisis. "The implications of the rapid accumulation of debt are stark. The rising repayments are ...
China’s Decision To Hold on To Its Oil Assets in Sudan May Now Start To Pay Off
Sudan's oil industry is starting to rumble back to life, following this year's landmark peace agreement with rival South Sudan and a dramatic improvement in ties with the United States, which recently took Khartoum off its list of state sponsors of terrorism.
Port Competition Along Africa’s East Coast Intensifies With China as a Central Player
After the Dubai-based ports operator DP World was effectively pushed out of Djibouti by China Merchants Port Holdings (CMPH), the Emiratis packed up and headed a few hundred kilometers down the coast to set up shop at the Port of Berbera in the self-declared ...
Iranian women hold portraits of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei during the funerals of security forces personnel killed in recent protests in Tehran on January 14, 2026. Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP
By Andrea Ghiselli More than a hundred children at a girls’ primary school in Minab, in southern Iran, are reported dead. Missiles and drones are striking targets across Israel as well as the Gulf, from Kuwait to Oman, with the barrage not limited to military ...
The China-Funded Mobile Browser That’s Zeroing in on the African Market
Four years ago, Opera was most famous for Opera Mini, a simple data compression browser, gaining traction in African countries with high data costs. Today, Opera’s software holdings have developed into an interconnected nexus spanning file sharing, news, digital payments, ride hailing, food delivery and news.
Finally, Some Straight Talk on Chinese Loans to Africa
Seemingly fed up with the past week of overheated controversy in Nigeria over Chinese loans, Transportation Minister Rotimi Amaechi is telling it like it is. People may not like the Chinese, they may not like the terms of Chinese loans and they may not like the debt they're ...
Nigeria’s Conversation About Chinese Debt
The first thing to say about the ongoing controversy about Chinese loans purportedly compromising Nigerian sovereignty is that it's based on a misreading of standard language found in loan contracts. Rather than stating that, in the case of a default, China will have the right to seize ...
The Chinese Foreign Ministry’s Tepid Response to the Escalating Loan Controversy in Nigeria
The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Monday issued a statement in response to the escalating "sovereign immunity controversy" in Nigeria. The ministry did not specifically address "clause 8(1)" which stipulates that Nigeria will waive its sovereign immunity in the event of a default on ...
Hunting for Illegal Chinese Miners With Nigeria’s Amotekun Patrols
Operation Amotekun (Leopard) is a pioneering new joint task force that launched in January and now operates throughout six southwestern Nigerian states. These well-equipped forces are intended to support to local police and traditional rulers in combatting regular terrorism, banditry, and kidnapping in the country's ...
China Shakes Up the Leadership of Its Sub-Saharan African Diplomacy
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has made leadership changes in its African policy team. Dai Bing, who was the Director-General of the African Affairs Department (a role comparable to that of the Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs) is now in New York where he's ...
Africa’s Endangered Rhinos Are Getting a Reprieve Thanks to COVID-19. It May Not Last Much Longer Though.
South Africa's endangered rhinos are among the world's only beneficiaries of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Poaching rates have plunged by 53% so far this year, according to new data from Barbara Creecy, the minister of environment, forestry, and fisheries. The minister explained that lockdowns and ...