Musings From Abroad

South Korea, African nations seal exports, minerals agreement

Published

5 months ago

June 6, 2024

South Korea’s industry ministry announced on Wednesday that around 50 agreements and partnerships had been struck during the country’s first summit with leaders from 48 African nations to collaborate in industries like mining, energy, and manufacturing.

According to a statement from the ministry, Hyosung Corp (004800. KS), a South Korean corporation, inked a $30 million contract to supply electric transformers to Mozambique. To guarantee supplies for sectors like batteries, the industry ministry has inked agreements to collaborate on important minerals with Tanzania and Madagascar.

The statement stated that Korean-African relations, which commenced in the 1950s due to the significant involvement and assistance of several African nations in the Korean War, had evolved into a mutually advantageous partnership.

The fourth-largest economy in Asia signed 47 agreements with 23 African nations during the summit in an attempt to gain access to the continent’s abundant mineral resources and sizable export market.

“Despite its enormous potential, Africa still accounts for only 1-2% of South Korea’s trade and investment..,” South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol told a gathering of about 200 political and industry leaders from African countries and South Korea at a business summit on Wednesday.

“I hope that mutually beneficial resource cooperation will be expanded,” Yoon said.

On Tuesday, Yoon said that South Korea will provide $10 billion in development aid to Africa over the next six years, in addition to offering $14 billion in export finance to encourage trade and investment for Korean businesses operating on the continent.

With world and emerging powers like the United States, France, Russia, China, Italy, Germany, and India hosting African summits recently, the number of international players interested in Africa has increased with South Korea now on the train. However, some pan-African analysts have questioned whether the summit series is in the best interests of the continent as a whole.

The core of the many summit agreements condemns Africa to its long role of being an extractive raw material economy which keeps it handicapped in the global economy against industrialized economies.

Musings From Abroad

Military advisors from Russia arrive Equatorial Guinea

Published

11 hours ago

November 17, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Russian military advisors are in Equatorial Guinea training indigenous soldiers.

Anonymous sources cited by Reuters during the week claim that between 100 and 200 Russian instructors are training with elite guards in charge of guarding the President and the first family.

The males had been seen in Malabo, the country’s capital, and Bata, its second city. Reports of Russian forces stationed in the nation initially appeared in August.

Oil-rich Equatorial Guinea’s President Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo has maintained close relations with Moscow.

Nguema travelled to Moscow in September to attend the Russian Energy Week International Forum.

Russia has strengthened military connections with African countries, sending advisors and combat soldiers to the Central African Republic, Mozambique, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso.

Faced with an Islamist terrorist insurrection, three Sahel countries have turned to Moscow for support, expelling French and American troops.

Musings From Abroad

Russia claims African, ex-Soviet nations want its mpox vaccine

Published

13 hours ago

November 17, 2024

Ifeoluwa Dada

Several African and former Soviet nations have shown interest in purchasing Russia’s smallpox and Mpox virus vaccine, testing equipment, and antiviral medications, according to Russia’s consumer and health watchdog.

The Orthopoxvac vaccine was created by the Siberian Vektor laboratory and approved by Russia’s health ministry in 2022 after clinical testing revealed the vaccine’s efficacy and safety, according to Vektor.

“The countries of the Eurasian Economic Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States, as well as the African countries most affected by the mpox outbreak, have expressed interest in acquiring Russian treatments,” the watchdog told Reuters.

The countries that showed interest were not mentioned. Mpox is a virus that causes flu-like symptoms and pus-filled lesions when it spreads through close contact. The illness can be lethal, although the majority of cases are minor.

An mpox outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) that had spread to neighbouring countries and abroad prompted the World Health Organisation (WHO) to declare a worldwide public health emergency in August.

Requests for comment about the Russian vaccine were not answered by the governments of Rwanda or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

A top public health official in Nigeria and representatives for the health ministries in Burundi and Uganda denied any knowledge of attempts to purchase Russian mpox vaccinations.

According to a top Uzbek public health official, since there had been no mpox cases in the nation, the authorities did not require the vaccination. Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan’s governments did not immediately reply.

To fight the epidemic, several nations, notably the US and France, have committed to donating doses of the two primary vaccines against the virus produced by KM Biologics and Bavarian Nordic (BAVA.CO), which opens new tab.

Vektor researchers’ scientific publications reveal that the lab has been developing the vaccine since at least 2015. It has not yet released trial findings, though, and regulators outside of Russia have not authorised the injection.

Over 42,000 probable instances of Mpox have been recorded throughout the continent, and 1,100 fatalities have been reported so far this year, according to statistics from the Africa CDC.

The monkeypox virus, a species of the genus Orthopoxvirus, is the cause of mpox, formerly known as monkeypox. Clade I, which includes subclades Ia and Ib, and Clade II, which includes subclades IIa and IIb, are the two separate clades of the virus.