Africa

Russia Needs To Go Beyond Signing Agreements With Sub-Saharan African Countries – OpEd

Russia plans to hold the second Russia-Africa summit in July 2023. Sergey Lavrov, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, indicated in a message mid-June last year, a few months after starting the ‘special military operation’ in neighbouring Ukraine, that “in these difficult and crucial times the strategic partnership …

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Morocco’s economy to benefit as EU drops it from money laundering list

The North African country was removed from the list of high-risk countries for money laundering and terrorism financing in a decision announced by the European Commission on Wednesday. Morocco’s removal from the European Union’s watchlist of countries under surveillance for money laundering and terrorist financing will benefit the country’s economy …

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The Global Economy’s Future Depends on Africa

In recent decades, the engine of the world economy has been the spectacular growth of China. From 1980 to 2020, fully one-quarter of the increase in global GDP was due to China’s growth, outstripping the contributions of the United States (22 percent), the European Union (12 percent), and Japan (4 …

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Sudan’s capital rocked by airstrikes, artillery fire

Airstrikes and artillery fire intensified sharply across Sudan’s capital early on Tuesday, residents said, as the army sought to defend key bases from paramilitary rivals it has been fighting for more than a month. The airstrikes, explosions and clashes could be heard in the south of Khartoum, and there was …

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Sudan war complicates Russia’s port plans, strains Wagner ties in Libya

Events in Sudan would have perhaps gone unnoticed in Russian society, including by politicians and the media, if Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov had not visited Khartoum two months before fighting broke out last week between Gen. Abdel-Fattah al-Burhan’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Mohammed Hamdan …

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Iran, Egypt to Soon Restore Ties, Reopen Embassies

An Iranian lawmaker unveiled plans for the restoration of relations between Iran and Egypt, which are engaged in negotiation in Iraq, saying the embassies in Tehran and Cairo will reopen in the near future. In an interview with Tasnim, member of the Iranian Parliament’s National Security and Foreign Policy Commission …

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Russia’s Tatneft makes new oil discovery in Libya

Russia and the controversial military contractor Wagner Group have longstanding interests in Libya’s oil, but instability has hurt the ability of Russian oil companies to operate in the North African country. Libya and a Russian oil company announced a new discovery on Thursday. Libya’s state-owned National Oil Corporation and Tatneft …

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Can Italy play an effective role in helping stabilize the Mediterranean region?

Since the beginning of the Ukraine war, Europe has struggled to reorient its natural gas supply away from Russia. It has also made efforts to decouple from Russian imports and strengthen cooperation with energy-endowed North African countries in 2022. Thanks to its central geographical position in the Mediterranean Sea and …

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Egypt-Turkey normalization: Ankara’s perspective

On March 18, Turkey’s Foreign Minister Mavlut Cavusoglu paid the first visit of its kind to Cairo in a decade. This move reciprocates a recent visit by his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukri, to the Turkish city of Mersin on February 27, which was in response to the devastating earthquake that …

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Blame Putin for Stoking Violence in Sudan

Recent documents published by the Dossier Center, an investigative project set up by Russian dissident Mikhail Khodorkovsky, demonstrate unequivocally that the Wagner Group is funded and run by Yevgeny Prigozhin, who in turn answers directly to Putin. In recent years, the Wagner Group has been particularly busy in the Middle …

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