Musings From Abroad

Minerals, export market in view as South Korea’s Yoon hosts Africa summit

Published

3 months ago

June 4, 2024

South Korea is hosting a meeting this week with the presidents of 48 countries, and at the top of its agenda is aiding Africa’s industrial infrastructure and digital transformation, citing the continent’s abundant mineral riches and potential as a massive export market.

According to Kim Tae-hyo, deputy national security adviser to President Yoon Suk Yeol, “cooperation with Africa is not a choice but a necessity” and Africa is a “crucial partner” for South Korea to develop its economic advancements.

There are 48 national delegations present at the summit on Tuesday, including at least 30 heads of state. According to Yoon’s office, a joint statement will be released by Yoon and President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania, who is the chair of the African Union.

Business leaders from South Korea are organizing a business forum on investment, industrial development, and food security this Wednesday. “Africa’s strategic importance has never been greater,” Kim said.

Leading semiconductor manufacturers and the world’s fifth-largest automaker, which is pushing for electrification, are based in South Korea, which is also one of the biggest energy consumers in the world. According to Yoon’s office, collaboration with Africa is essential since it provides 30% of the world’s essential minerals, such as manganese, cobalt, and chrome.

Yoon has been meeting with the leaders of Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Sierra Leone since Friday. On Monday, he is expected to meet individually with the leaders of Zimbabwe, Togo, Rwanda, and Mozambique.

In the meantime, Ethiopia inked a $1 billion finance agreement over four years for infrastructure, science and technology, health, and urban development, while Tanzania announced that it would borrow $2.5 billion through concessional loans from South Korea over the next five years.

Reaching out with offers to assist with digital transformation and industrial infrastructure, South Korea is attempting to get a foothold in a massive and rapidly expanding market that is home to 1.4 billion people, most of whom are under 25.

Several nations are anticipated to sign agreements meant to create the framework for trade and investment, which will assist in creating the administrative framework for increased trade freedom and sophisticated customs administration, according to Kim.

Plans for collaboration on climate change measures and assistance with agricultural technologies are also on the table.

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Musings From Abroad

UN indicts warring parties in Sudan, calls for peacekeepers

Published

1 day ago

September 6, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

A United Nations-mandated panel stated on Friday that both sides in Sudan’s civil war had engaged in acts that may qualify as war crimes, and proposed that to protect civilians, international powers must expand the arms embargo and send in peacekeepers.

The report claimed to be based on 182 interviews with survivors, families, and witnesses. It detailed the rape, attacks, use of torture, and arbitrary arrests committed by Sudan’s army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against civilians.

“The gravity of our findings and failure of the warring parties to protect civilians underscores the need for urgent and immediate intervention,” the U.N. fact-finding mission’s chair, Mohamed Chande Othman, told reporters.

Both parties have denied previous allegations by rights organisations and the United States and accused one another of abusing power. Neither stated in reaction to the allegations or answered enquiries for comment on Friday right away.

Othman and the other two mission members demanded the immediate deployment of an independent force.

“We cannot continue to have people dying before our eyes and do nothing about it,” mission member Mona Rishmawi said. A U.N.-mandated peacekeeping force was a possibility, she added.

The mission advocated for the extension of an arms embargo now in place by the United Nations, which only covers the western part of Darfur and the thousands of documented ethnic killings there. Fourteen of the eighteen states in the country have been affected by the conflict that began in Khartoum in April of last year.

According to the mission, there were also good reasons to suspect that the RSF and its affiliated militias had perpetrated other war crimes, including kidnapping women forcing them into prostitution and recruiting minors as fighters.

Unnamed support groups had received allegations of over 400 rapes in the first year of the war, but mission member Joy Ngozi Ezeilo said the actual number was likely considerably higher.

Musings From Abroad

Chinese investments in Africa mutually beneficial, South Africa’s Ramaphosa insists

Published

2 days ago

September 5, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa, said Thursday that Chinese investments in Africa were mutually beneficial and not a “debt trap” for the continent.

Ramaphosa stated this on the sidelines of a China-Africa meeting in Beijing, with delegations from over 50 African states.

“I don’t necessarily buy the notion that when China (invests), it is with the intention of, in the end, ensuring that those countries end up in a debt trap or a debt crisis,” Ramaphosa said when asked by reporters about China’s pledge at the summit of $51 billion in new funding for Africa.

China pledged to launch three times more infrastructure projects in resource-rich Africa, a region of significant geopolitical conflict between China, Europe, and the US, and to provide financial support over three years.

Ramaphosa also said, without providing details, that South Africa and China have secured an energy security pact. He claimed South Africa could learn energy sector reform from China.

“They already have done exactly what we are seeking to do. So there are lessons for us to learn from China and how to do it,” he said.

Power outages have slowed economic progress in South Africa in recent years. The country plans to pursue China’s largest electric vehicle producers, Ramaphosa added.

“We had good exchanges with BYD, which has shown a great interest to come and invest in South Africa,” he said.

Africa and China have strengthened commercial and political ties in recent decades. China is a major trading partner and lender. Additionally, Chinese companies invested heavily in Africa, making it a major investor in the continent.