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Is China’s Lending Particularly “Aggressive”?

Amid the ongoing crisis in Ukraine and the bleakest prognosis on climate change yet, you may have missed the ongoing saga of Uganda’s Entebbe Airport. A quick recap: Uganda loaned $325 million from China Exim Bank to upgrade the airport. ...

Kenya’s Weakening Currency is Pushing Up the Cost of Imports and Debt Servicing Costs

The Kenyan shilling is rapidly devaluing against the dollar, breaking a record low of 114 this week and prompting fears that a potentially dangerous economic cycle is gaining momentum. There's growing concern that Kenya is spending more and more ...

Uganda’s Entebbe Contract is Aggressive, But Is It Unique?

Media coverage of the Uganda Entebbe Airport loan is focusing on what the research lead Bradley Parks has called China Exim Bank's "aggressive" loan tactics. Parks' unit at AidData showed that the Entebbe airport won't be seized in the case of ...

Equatorial Guinea’s New Cooperation Agreement with China Could be Sending a Message

Equatorial Guinea and China signed an agreement on Tuesday to promote development cooperation between the two countries. Usually, this kind of announcement doesn't draw much attention. But this one is sure to raise eyebrows in Washington because of ongoing rumors that China is planning to ...

Oil, Terrorism High on the Agenda During Chinese Ambassador’s Meeting With Nigerien President

China's ambassador to Niger Jiang Feng met this week with President Mohamed Bazoum for talks about Monday's release of two Chinese gold miners who had been held captive for the past nine months and the new 1,950 km Niger-Benin pipeline that Chinese ...

Analysis from Cobus van Staden

Weighing the Value of “Values”

I was in Berlin this week for a conference on the EU’s relationship with Africa in the context of the continent’s growing ties with external actors, many of whom Europe finds acutely worrying.
The conference eerily landed on the second anniversary of the October 7 attack in Israel. I was in Berlin two years ago as well. In the weeks after the attack, one could see how Western powers’ ...

China’s New Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa Meets Regional Ambassadors

Ethiopia's ambassador to China, Teshome Toga Chanaka, hosted a lunch of Horn of Africa ambassadors at Ethiopia House in Beijing. Also invited was Xue Bing, China's new Special Envoy to the Horn of Africa, and Wu Peng, the PRC's top diplomat to Africa.  ...

Museveni’s “OK Boomer” View of World Politics

Uganda President Yoweri Museveni's office published a quote from the septuagenarian leader that revealed an outdated view of world affairs where major global powers have what he terms "centers of gravity." While it's not entirely clear what he meant by "USA for ...