Month: September 2024

Beijing — China has vowed to beef up its vast Belt and Road global infrastructure initiative, promising “high-quality cooperation” ahead of a summit with African leaders in Beijing starting Wednesday.

Africa is already a key Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) region, with Chinese companies signing contracts there worth more than $700 billion between 2013 and 2023, according to Beijing’s commerce ministry.

However, China’s investment in the continent has been slammed by critics who accuse the BRI of saddling countries with exorbitant debt or funding projects that damage the environment.

AFP looks at five key BRI projects in Africa:

Kenya’s incomplete railway

Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway — built with financing from Exim Bank of China — connects the capital Nairobi with the port city of Mombasa. It has cut journey times from 10 hours to four since opening in 2017.

At $5 billion, it is the country’s most expensive infrastructure project since it won independence more than 60 years ago.

But a second phase meant to continue the line to Uganda never materialized as both countries struggled to pay down BRI debts.

The project was also beset with corruption allegations, and environmental campaigners have taken issue with the route, which cuts through a wildlife park.

Kenya’s President William Ruto last year asked China for a $1 billion loan and the restructuring of existing debt to complete other stalled BRI construction projects.  

The country now owes China more than $8 billion.

Port facilities in Djibouti  

After China established its first permanent overseas naval base in Djibouti in 2016, it helped develop the east African country’s nearby Doraleh multi-purpose port.

The reportedly $590 million military base is strategically placed between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden.

Beijing has said the base is used to resupply navy ships, support regional peacekeeping and humanitarian operations, and combat piracy, though its proximity to a U.S. military base has raised concerns of espionage.

Doraleh, meanwhile, is partly owned by China Merchants Port Holdings, but the conglomerate’s 23.5% stake raised eyebrows when it was awarded after the Djiboutian government seized control of the container terminal from UAE-based DP World.

DP World claims it was forced out to allow China Merchants to take over.

Africa’s longest suspension bridge

According to state broadcaster CCTV, BRI investment in Africa has helped build over 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles) of road and railway track, around 20 ports, and more than 80 power facilities.

In Mozambique, China Road and Bridge Corporation built Africa’s longest suspension bridge, connecting the capital Maputo with its suburb of Katembe.

Previously, the quickest way across the Bay of Maputo was by ferry. Road travel required driving 160 kilometers (99.4 miles) on unpaved roads susceptible to flooding.

The bridge, which opened in 2018, cost an estimated $786 million, 95% of which was financed by Chinese loans.

But critics have suggested the project was overpriced and that interest rates on loans are excessive.

Minerals in Botswana and beyond

In recent years, BRI investment in Africa has shifted to mining the minerals needed to fuel China’s high-tech and green industries, such as electric vehicles.

In 2023, China invested $7.8 billion in mining in Africa, according to U.S.-based think tank the American Enterprise Institute.

That includes a $1.9 billion deal, reached last year, by state-owned MMG to buy the Khoemacau mine in Botswana, one of the world’s largest copper mines.

In July, Chinese firm JCHX Mining Management agreed to buy Zambia’s indebted Lubambe copper mine for just $2.

China has invested in cobalt and lithium mines in Zambia, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

But regional conflicts have proved an occasional barrier to Chinese investments. In July this year, authorities suspended all mining in part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, including where Chinese companies operate, to “restore order” there.

Coal and clean power

Chinese funding in Africa has included dozens of investments in power generation, leading to criticism of the BRI’s environmental impact.

In Kenya, Chinese companies were contracted in 2015 to build a coal-fired power plant close to the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Lamu old town.

But Kenya’s government cancelled the project in 2020 after protests and opposition to its environmental impact.

In 2021, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced China would no longer support the construction of coal power plants abroad.

In July that year, Chinese funders pulled support from the $3 billion Sengwa coal project in Zimbabwe.

Instead, Chinese backers have funded the expansion of the country’s Kariba Hydroelectric Power Station, for $533 million.   

Chinese firms have accelerated investments in renewable energy projects. In Nigeria, Chinese loans are part-funding the $4.9 billion construction of the Mambilla hydroelectric plant, which will be the country’s largest power station.

A white paper issued by China’s State Council Information Office says the country will focus on using the BRI to support green transition projects.
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Niamey, — Torrential rains in Niger have killed at least 15 more people, regional authorities said on Sunday, the latest casualties of the downpours lashing the African nation.

Heavy rains have been drenching Africa’s Sahel region since June and the latest victims in Niger come on top of at least 217 people who have died across the country in that time, according to authorities.

More than 350,000 people have been affected and last week rising floodwaters nearly cut off the capital Niamey from the rest of the country before retreating.

The latest deaths occurred on Friday in the city of Maradi, the country’s economic capital whose eponymous region that has been one of the areas most affected by the rains.

“We have registered 15 human lives lost, we have also registered injured and heavy material damage”, regional governor Issoufou Mamane told public television.

Friday saw 150 millimeters (six inches) of water fall on the city in the space of 90 minutes, local television said.

Images broadcast on television showed water racing through the streets, touching off landslides and collapsing homes as it carried off cars, motorcycles and trees.

Drinking water and electricity supplies have been affected in some areas, according to broadcasters.

The downpours have also disturbed traffic on the main route linking Maradi to the city of Zinder.

Niger’s rainy season normally lasts from June to September and consistently brings a heavy death toll.

In 2022 there were 195 deaths and 400,000 people affected.

 
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Algiers — Algeria has been approved for membership in the BRICS New Development Bank (NDB), the country’s finance ministry has  announced.

The decision was taken on Saturday and announced by NDB chief Dilma Roussef at a meeting in Cape Town, South Africa.

By joining “this important development institution, the financial arm of the BRICS group, Algeria is taking a major step in its process of integration into the global financial system,” the Algerian finance ministry said in a statement.

The bank of the BRICS group of nations — whose name derives from the initials of founding members Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — is  aimed at offering an alternative to international financial institutions like the World Bank and IMF.

Algeria’s membership was secured thanks to “the strength of the country’s macroeconomic indicators” which have recorded “remarkable performances in recent years” and allowed the North African country to be classified as an “upper-tier emerging economy,” the finance ministry said.

Membership in the BRICS bank will offer Algeria — Africa’s leading exporter of natural gas — “new prospects to support and strengthen its economic growth in the medium and long term,” it added.

Created in 2015, the NDB’s main mission is to mobilize resources for projects in emerging markets and developing countries.

It has welcomed several country as new members, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Iran and Saudi Arabia. 
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Beijing — African leaders descend on China’s capital this week, seeking funds for big-ticket infrastructure projects as they eye mounting great power competition over resources and influence on the continent.

China has expanded ties with African nations in the past decade, furnishing them with billions in loans that have helped build infrastructure but also sometimes stoked controversy by saddling countries with huge debts.

China has sent hundreds of thousands of workers to Africa to build its megaprojects, while tapping the continent’s vast natural resources, including copper, gold, lithium and rare earth minerals.

Beijing has said this week’s China-Africa forum will be its largest diplomatic event since the COVID-19 pandemic, with leaders of South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and other nations confirmed to attend and dozens of delegations expected.

African countries were “looking to tap the opportunities in China for growth,” Ovigwe Eguegu, a policy analyst at consultancy Development Reimagined, told AFP.

China, the world’s No. 2 economy, is Africa’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade hitting $167.8 billion in the first half of this year, according to Chinese state media.

Beijing’s loans to African nations last year were their highest in five years, research by the Chinese Loans to Africa Database found. Top borrowers were Angola, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria and Kenya.

But analysts said an economic slowdown in China has made Beijing increasingly reluctant to shell out big sums.

China has also resisted offering debt relief, even as some African nations have struggled to repay their loans — in some cases being forced to slash spending on vital public services.

Since the last China-Africa forum six years ago, “the world experienced a lot of changes, including COVID, geopolitical tension and now these economic challenges,” Tang Xiaoyang of Beijing’s Tsinghua University told AFP.

The “old model” of loans for “large infrastructure and very rapid industrialization” is simply no longer feasible, he said.

Stalled megaprojects

The continent is a key node in Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative, a massive infrastructure project and central pillar of Xi Jinping’s bid to expand China’s clout overseas.

The BRI has channeled much-needed investment to African countries for projects like railways, ports and hydroelectric plants.

But critics charge Beijing with saddling nations with debt and funding infrastructure projects that damage the environment.

One controversial project in Kenya, a $5 billion railway — built with finance from Exim Bank of China — connects the capital Nairobi with the port city of Mombasa.

But a second phase meant to continue the line to Uganda never materialized, as both countries struggled to repay BRI debts.

Kenya’s President William Ruto last year asked China for a $1 billion loan and the restructuring of existing debt to complete other stalled BRI projects.

The country now owes China more than $8 billion.

Recent deadly protests in Kenya were triggered by the government’s need “to service its debt burden to international creditors, including China,” said Alex Vines, head of the Africa Program at London’s Chatham House.

In light of such events, Vines and other analysts expect African leaders at this week’s forum to seek not only more Chinese investment but also more favorable loans.

‘Lack leverage’

In central Africa, Western and Chinese firms are racing to secure access to rare minerals.

The continent has rich deposits of manganese, cobalt, nickel and lithium — crucial for renewable energy technology.

The Moanda region of Gabon alone contains as much as a quarter of known global reserves of manganese, and South Africa accounts for 37% of global output of the metal.

Cobalt mining is dominated by the Democratic Republic of Congo, which accounts for 70% of the world total. But in terms of processing, China is the leader, at 50%.

Mounting geopolitical tensions between the United States and China, which are clashing over everything from the status of self-ruled Taiwan to trade, also weigh on Africa.

Washington has warned against what it sees as Beijing’s malign influence.

In 2022, the White House said China sought to “advance its own narrow commercial and geopolitical interests [and] undermine transparency and openness.”

Beijing insists it does not want a new cold war with Washington but rather seeks “win-win” cooperation, promoting development while profiting from boosted trade.

“We do not just give aid, give them help,” Tsinghua University’s Tang said. 

 

“We are just partners with you while you are developing. We are also benefiting from it.”

But analysts fear African nations could be forced to pick sides.

“African countries lack leverage against China,” Development Reimagined’s Eguegu said.

“Some people … think you can use the U.S. to balance China,” he said. “You cannot.”
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Blantyre, Malawi — A 72-year-old woman has shot to music stardom in Malawi, challenging societal norms in a country where elderly people are often abused, tortured or even killed over false accusations of witchcraft.

Christina Malaya, now popularly known by her stage name, Jetu, is breaking the internet with her amapiano-style tracks.

Jetu started her music career last year, at the age of 71 — soon after the death of her husband, in central Malawi, where she was staying.

Relatives suggested she go to Blantyre to stay with grandchildren. Those grandchildren were “doing music,” she said, and asked her to join them as a way to overcome her loneliness and boredom.

Under the management of her grandson, musician Blessings Kazembe, popularly known as Emmu Dee, Jetu has released three powerful singles: “Wakalamba Wafuna,” “Chakwaza” and “Simunatchene.”

Her fans and admirers have crowned her the Malawian queen of amapiano — a subgenre of South African house music — which dominates the music scene in Malawi.

Jetu is excited that music has allowed her to go places she never dreamed of visiting, including Johannesburg and Cape Town when she performed in South Africa in June.

Her talent has earned her recognition as an ambassador for elderly people in Malawi, helping to reduce attacks and killings. Older people in Malawi are faced with attacks and killings on suspicion of practicing witchcraft even though Malawi law does not recognize witchcraft.

Andrew Kavala, executive director of the Malawi Network of Older Persons’ Organizations, told VOA that in 2023, his organization recorded 25 killings and 87 cases of violence, including setting fire to homes and assault. That was up from 2022’s 17 deaths.

So far in 2024, he said, 17 elderly people have been killed and 89 have been abused.

Kavala said his organization chose Jetu as an ambassador for elderly Malawians because of her strong appeal to youth, who studies show make 86% of the witchcraft accusations.

“We are trying to explore means through which Jetu can use her platform to convey the message to the youth, ‘Stop bullying, stop abusing elderly persons,’” he said.

Malawi’s youthful and renowned fashion designer Xandria Kawanga, owner of the House of Xandria fashion brand, has started to dress Jetu for events.

“Most people at her age have already given up or they feel they cannot do anything, entertainment or arts, because they are old now,” Kawanga said “So, I thought one of the best ways [to help] is to complement her art and to give her that push.”

Jetu and her grandson/manager, Emmu Dee, are working to promote their new song, which has a video that was was produced this month.
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