Somalia: Internal Fights Over a Small Pie

The Institute for Security Studies published on 23 October 2018 an analysis titled "Somalia's Zero-sum Politics Will See No Winners" by Omar S. Mahmood.

Somalia's federal partners continue to fight over limited resources. The author argues that the solution is to work together to expand the size of the pie rather than fight over the small one that currently defines Somalia.

Somali-Oromo Clashes in Ethiopia

The Institute for Defense Analyses Africa Watch published on 21 December 2017 a brief analysis titled "What Does Unrest in Oromia Signify?" by Stephanie Burchard.

The author comments on ethnic clashes between Somalis and Oromos in northern Oromia. Traditionally, conflict between these two ethnic groups has been attributed to access to land and scarce resources.

China's Nationals and Assets Face Risk in Angola and Venezuela

The German Marshall Fund of the United States published a report in March 2016 titled "China's Risk Map in the South Atlantic" by Jonas Parello-Plesner. 

The report evaluates China's growing problem of protecting its nationals and assets in the South Atlantic region.  It looks particularly at the situation in Angola and Venezuela. 

China's Infrastructure for Resources Deals

The Diplomat published on 13 September 2013 an analysis titled "China's Developing World Edge." It focuses on China's offer to build large infrastructure projects, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa and Central Asia in exchange for oil, minerals and other products.

REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra. Via The Diplomat

The article was written by Stephan Mothe, who writes for the Shandong Academy of Social Sciences, Frances Pontemayor, liaison for Chinese SOE MCC--Guam strategic investments, and Richard Ghiasy, research fellow at the Afghan Institute for Strategic Studies.

The authors explain that China offers "concessionary loans or grants to resource-rich countries such as Angola, Ghana, Nigeria and Kazakhstan, to be used for infrastructure projects." The model was popularized in Angola and is now widely used throughout the world. Chinese companies, usually state-owned, almost always build the projects.

While the analysis is generally on target, very few of these projects are financed by grants. The exceptions are the the $200 million African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa and generally smaller prestige projects such as football stadiums, clinics and presidential palaces. The large infrastructure projects are based on concessionary loans, which means the principal and modest interest is intended to be repaid to the Chinese lending authority.

Because Chinese companies build the projects, much of the loan never leaves China. There is also often a component of Chinese labor in the projects. China is usually repaid as the African country ships oil, minerals or agricultural products to China at the market price. These are really commercial deals, albeit generally good ones for the recipient country. The resource for infrastructure deals are not, however, aid projects except where the concessionary financing component meets OECD definitions.