Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney’s speech in Davos marked a new era in how the West talks about itself. One could say he was the first Global North leader to frame the rules-based international order (RIP) in Global South terms:
“We knew the story of the international rules-based order was partially false, that the strongest would exempt themselves when convenient, that trade rules were enforced asymmetrically. And we knew ...
Category: Africa
Africa and the New World Order: U.S. Pulls Back and China Moves Forward
The collapse of the post-war international system now underway will have a disproportionate impact on African countries that rely heavily on multilateral bodies like the UN. Beyond a pull-back of aid and humanitarian assistance, African countries must also contend with an ...
Analysis from Cobus van Staden
Africa’s Mining Crackdown Signals a Strategic Shift for Chinese Operators
Citing the Portuguese news site Jornal Notícias, Cape of Good Hope Observations 好望观察, a WeChat public account that tracks African industry, recently drew the attention of Chinese readers to a small incident in Mozambique that went largely unnoticed in English-language media. ...
Guinea’s Bauxite Exports Jump 25% to 183 Million Tons in 2025 on Chinese Demand
By Maxwell Akalaare Adombila Guinea's bauxite exports rose 25% in 2025 to 182.8 million metric tons, official data seen by Reuters showed, cementing its dominance in aluminum ore supply. A record 74% of shipments went ...
China’s Evolving Lending Footprint in Africa: Selective Engagement and Strategic Retooling
By Mengdi Yue and Yiyuan Qi Chinese loans to Africa are down once again, but not out. Boston University Global Development Policy Center’s newly updated Chinese Loans to Africa (CLA) Database shows that, despite a slight rise in 2023, Chinese ...
China’s Africa Lending Nearly Halved in 2024, Shifts to Yuan
By Colleen Goko Chinese lending to Africa nearly halved to $2.1 billion in 2024, the first annual decline since the COVID-19 pandemic, as the country shifts to selective, strategic projects, according to data released on Wednesday by Boston University. ...
Congo Invites U.S. Investors Into Key Mineral Projects, Amid Global Push to Diversify From China
By Ange Kasongo The Democratic Republic of Congo has sent Washington a shortlist of state-owned assets - including manganese, copper-cobalt, gold, and lithium projects - for U.S. investors to consider as part of a minerals partnership, two senior Congolese officials said. ...
China Offers Extensive Free-Trade Deal to Kenya
Kenya has secured zero-duty access for almost all its exports to China in a preliminary deal, its trade minister said Thursday, as Nairobi seeks to offset the impact of higher U.S. tariffs. The Kenya-China deal aims to diversify the East African ...
China Opposes Foreign Interference in Tanzania: Ministry
China's top diplomat on Saturday warned against foreign interference in Tanzania as he concluded a visit during which he made no mention of the political violence that has soured the East African country's relations with the West. Wang Yi is the ...
China FM Skips Historic Somalia Visit, Lands in Tanzania
China's top diplomat Wang Yi skipped what would have been a historic visit to Somalia on Friday, instead proceeding straight to Tanzania on his tour of African countries. The visit would have been the first by a Chinese foreign minister to ...
Why Wang Yi Chose Somalia, Ethiopia, Tanzania & Lesotho for His 2026 Africa Tour
China's Wang Yi kicked off a four-nation, week-long Africa tour this week, marking a signature tradition for Beijing: making the continent the foreign minister's first overseas trip of the new year. Wang visited Ethiopia and ...
China’s Xi Congratulates Guinea Junta Chief on Election Win
Chinese President Xi Jinping has congratulated Guinea's junta chief on his presidential election victory, state media reported Monday, a day after the African country's supreme court validated his landslide result. Mamady Doumbouya was credited with 86.72 percent of votes cast in ...
China’s Long Bet on Sudanese Oil Comes to an End
China and Sudan’s three-decade-long “oil diplomacy” has completely collapsed, a Chinese think tank said, after the leading state-owned oil firm China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) officially withdrew from its final complex in the African oil-rich but war-torn nation. The think tank ...
Cameroon Goes All in on Chinese Safe Cities, but at What Cost?
In 2014, the Cameroonian government launched the “Cameroon Intelligent City Project,” where 70 Huawei-supplied CCTV cameras were installed across six localities. The project expanded through several phases, with some sources noting that the government hopes to install 24,000 cameras nationwide. By December 2025, government borrowing for these initiatives had ...