The Washington Examiner published on 31 August 2026 an article titled "America Saw No More Oil. China Saw an Atlantic Military Fortress" by Yagiz Sullu.
After oil production in Equatorial Guinea peaked and began to decline, American oil companies began their departure. China remained and began helping Malabo diversify its economy. Beijing may have in mind longer term security interests and possibly even a military base in the Atlantic.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies published on 6 August 2026 an analysis titled "Countering Terrorism Financing in East Africa" by Daisy Muibu and Nicole Mazurova.
Al-Shabaab in Somalia has established a sophisticated revenue-generation capacity that includes criminal activities, illicit trade, smuggling, and money laundering. Al-Shahaab obtains annual revenue of up to $200 million annually. The Islamic State in Somalia generates between $100,000 and $360,000 monthly through extortion and illicit taxation.
Defeating these terrorist organizations will require degrading their revenue generation capacities through strengthened national and regional coordination.
The Global South Policy Hub, a Washington-based nonpartisan think tank, published on 17 August 2026 a paper titled "Aligning U.S. Critical Minerals Policy with Africa's Development Agenda" by Alaka Lugonzo.
Africa holds about 30 percent of the world's critical minerals that power renewable energy technology. Africa's critical mineral wealth is rapidly reshaping its relationship with the United States. The author argues that current US mineral partnerships remain heavily tilted toward securing supply chains rather than delivering shared economic benefits.
The United States has an opportunity to rethink its approach by moving away from extractive relationships toward transparent industrial partnerships along the lines of the African Union's African Green Mineral Strategy (AGMS). A more sustainable approach would align US strategic interests with Africa's development agenda.
Comment: While this is sound advice, China is a much larger importer of Africa's critical minerals than the United States. It would be useful if some organization, particularly one in Africa, could offer similar advice for Beijing.
The BBC posted on 5 July 2026 an article titled "The African Fishermen Who Blame Chinese Trawlers for Their Woes" by Ed Butler.
Illegal fishing is a major problem in the waters off Sierra Leone. Local fisherman charge that Chinese trawlers are responsible for most of it and assert it is exacerbated by collusion with corrupt local officials.
The International Crisis Group published on 30 June 2026 an analysis titled "New Chapter, Same Stalemate: Somalia's War with Al-Shabaab."
This analysis describes the ebb and flow of al-Shabaab's war with the Somali government since 2022. It concludes that while Mogadishu faces several big challenges, it retains the military capability, in terms of personnel and resources, to hold the line, provided that external support does not abruptly disappear.
Meanwhile, despite al-Shabaab's pragmatic shifts in its approach to ruling areas under its control, its unpopularity among those it governs remains a roadblock for its attempts to supplant the Somali government.
With neither side able to defeat the other, the war in Somalia is fundamentally at a stalemate with no end in sight.
Brookings published on 6 May 2026 a study titled "Foreign Investment Is Not Making Friends for China--or the US" by John F. McCauley, University of Maryland, Margaret M. Pearson, John L. Thornton China Center, and Xiaonan Wang, City University of New York - Baruch College.
Drawing on over 750 Chinese and American foreign direct investment (FDI) projects in 23 African countries, the research challenges the assumption that it generates not only economic returns but also goodwill in the local community. While proximity to a major power's investment increases its perceived influence in local communities and undermines that of its adversary, it also decreases affinity for the investing power.
This reputational cost is not unique to China; U.S. investment triggers a strikingly similar backlash. Unmet expectations around jobs and local economic benefits, heightened perceptions of corruption among local officials, and concerns about external influence erode the soft power dividends that both powers anticipate. China and the United States must recognize that investing abroad can sabotage goodwill if projects are not constructed with local economic development in mind.
Comment: While the study offers a useful cautionary note about the impact of FDI, it is based on a narrow definition of the value of investment. FDI can have positive effects on the economy that go well beyond the impact on the community in close proximity to the investment project. FDI can add to a country's GDP, increase tax revenue, and have downstream economic benefits not captured in the nearby community. While the negative results on reverse model preference identified in the study are revelatory, they are modest and probably skewed by a small number of egregiously flawed investment projects.
Aljazeera published on 5 March 2026 an article titled "'Our Children Were Sold Off': The South Africans Sent to Fight Russia's War" by Chris Makhaye.
Russia recruited South Africans to become VIP bodyguards who were then given brief military training and conscripted by a paramilitary group to fight in Ukraine. Most of the South Africans became cannon fodder on the Russian front lines. An appeal by South Africa's president to Vladimir Putin managed to get their return to their families.
ZNetwork published on 28 December 2025 an analysis titled "Africa Deindustrializes Due to China's Overproduction and Trump Tariffs" by Patrick Bond.
African industrialization has struggled for decades but is now further hindered by China's overproduction and massive exports to Africa and Trump's new tariffs on African exports and the end of the Africa Growth and Opportunity Act.
The National Interest published on 19 December 2025 an article titled "How to Reset US-China Competition in Africa" by Dan M. Ford and Wenjing Wang, both at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.
The authors argue that the United States can compete more effectively with Chinese engagement in Africa if it sheds its security-focused, all-or-nothing mindset.
The Committee to Protect Journalists published on 10 December 2025 a press release titled "Ethiopian TikTok Journalist Eyob Shimelis Detained after Corruption Reporting."
Ethiopian authorities arrested on December 1 the founder and reporter of TikTok-based Sidama News, which reports on corruption in Ethiopia's southern Sidama state.
SwissAid published on 21 November 2025 a document titled "Africa Gold Report: South Sudan."
Gold mining in South Sudan, a medium-size gold producer by African standards, is highly informal and illegal. Gold production is done exclusively by artisanal and small-scale mining methods. All the gold is exported outside formal channels. National and foreign armed groups are involved in its movement. South Sudanese authorities have failed to govern the sector effectively.
The Africa Center for Strategic Studies published on 17 November 2025 an analysis titled "Somalia at Risk of Becoming a Jihadist State" by Matt Bryden, founder of Sahan, a policy and research center focused on the Horn of Africa.
The author has extensive experience in Somalia and Somaliland. He says al-Shabaab now controls about 30 percent of Somalia's territory, far more than the federal government in Mogadishu, and poses a serious threat of taking the capital. The federal government is heavily reliant on the African Union Support and Stabilization Mission for security.
Somalia's economy is fractured and heavily dependent on three major ports of Kismayo, Mogadishu, and Bossaso while Berbera supports Somaliland. The ports, in turn, empower different federal states that often defy central government authority. The author concludes that Somalia faces a prospect that it may become an illiberal Islamist state.
The Sentry published in November 2025 a report titled "Inside Job: Libya's Fuel Smuggling Escalation."
Fuel smuggling in Libya has escalated into a national crisis costing the country about $6.7 billion annually. The smuggling enables Moscow's military activities in sub-Saharan Africa and the Rapid Support Forces genocidal war in Sudan's Darfur region.
The Heritage Institute for Policy Studies published in November 2025 a study titled "The Formation of Hirshabelle State: Challenges and Opportunities."
Established in 2016 as the fifth federal member of Somalia, Hirshabelle State represented a pivotal yet contentious milestone in the country's governance process, which was widely criticized for its rushed and exclusionary decision-making. The process exacerbated unresolved grievances among key stakeholders.
Daily Caller News Foundation published on 4 November 2025 an article titled "It's Time to Wake Up--China Is Taking Over Africa but It's Not Too Late" by Jacob Choe, Eurasia Center's Asia Program director, and James Carter, Navigators Global.
China is engaging in proxy investment through Dubai, Hong Kong, Mauritius, and Singapore in order to obscure its investing footprint in Africa. There is no coordinated US effort to track Chinese proxy flows. The authors call for creation of a US-Africa transparency task force to monitor these flows.
Ethiopia Insight published on 21 October 2025 a commentary titled "Guns Over Governance: The Militarization of Tigray's Politics" by Gebreselassie Kiros Hailu, Mekelle University and member of the Tigray Independence Party.
The author argues that while Tigray's Defense Forces achieved significant battlefield victories during the war with central government forces, their lack of political and diplomatic engagement undercut broader strategic goals.
Military leaders then dominated the Tigray People's Liberation Front following the Pretoria Agreement that ended the war. Tigray's reconstruction and democratization have stagnated ever since then. The military has been synonymous with corruption and political opportunism. Tigray is at a perilous crossroads; the dream of a peaceful and democratic Tigray risks vanishing altogether.
The Zimbabwe Mail published on 11 October 2025 an article titled "Mutoko Mine Killing Deepens Anger Over Chinese Abuses in Zimbabwe."
Zimbabwean authorities arrested a Chinese national for fatally shooting a Zimbabwean worker at a Chinese mining operation. Chinese managers accused the Zimbabwean of taking part in a robbery. Local villagers disputed the charge and claimed the mining company is exploiting workers and using violence with impunity.
New Zimbabwe published on 14 October 2025 an article titled "China Urges Its Citizens to Adhere to Zimbabwe's Investment Laws after Fatal Mine Shooting."
Following the shooting incident, the Chinese embassy in Harare issued guidance to its nationals to strictly follow all Zimbabwe laws.
Ethiopia Insight published on 11 October 2025 a commentary titled "'National Unity for Survival': From Words to Action" by Abrar Fitwi, Saint Mary's College in Indiana.
The author argues that Tigrayans can achieve unity only if they pursue a path that includes a reformed political program, credible leadership, a non-partisan army, and independent judiciary, media, and other institutions.
Ethiopia Insight published on 30 October 2025 a commentary titled "A Rejoinder to Abrar Fitwi's 'National Unity for Survival'" by Ermias Amare, an Ethiopian-American architect in New Jersey.
The author concludes that the "TPLF is too deformed to be reformed."
New Books Network posted on 8 October 2025 a one hour and 43-minute podcast on "China's Relations with Africa: A New Era of Strategic Engagement."
Kanayo Anthony Nomeh, Florida International University, hosted the podcast with the authors of the book, Joshua Eisenman and me. The podcast covers all aspects of the relationship between Africa and China, although the focus is on security and political issues.
UN News published on 16 September 2025 an article titled "Government Corruption Fuels Human Rights Crisis in South Sudan, Independent Panel Finds."
Two years of independent investigations revealed systemic corruption and the plundering of South Sudan by its government. Little of the country's $25.2 billion in oil revenue since 2011 has gone to essential services. The funds have mostly gone to patronage and private pockets.
