Africa facing Chinese and Russian influence
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Loading... - Eric Armah
- 15 Mar 2023
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By multiplying the heavy infrastructure projects in Africa, China, and Russia aim to establish their influence in the countries of the continent, which risk their part to find themselves "trapped", warn experts.
Railway lines, and civil infrastructure: China is multiplying gigantic projects in cooperation with African states, of which it is becoming one of the main donors.
"One in three major infrastructure projects in Africa is built by Chinese state-owned companies, one in five is financed by a Chinese institutional bank," says Paul Nantulya, of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, who report of the US Department of Defense.
Beijing is taking advantage of the void left by the withdrawal of Western countries, which are more hesitant to finance these projects. "The Chinese saw this void and decided to invest in infrastructure," remarks Mr. Nantulya.
But at what cost? Anna Borshchevskaya , of the Washington Institute, think tank, points to a "debt trap" for African countries. “China offers loans for expensive infrastructure projects” and “when a country cannot repay its loan, China takes control of its strategic assets,” she says.
During her visit to Senegal in January, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called on African countries to _"be careful about tempting deals."_These can "be opaque and ultimately fail to help the people they were meant to help," she said, referring to deals China has made in Africa.
Many of the poorest states are heading towards over-indebtedness, or even default, UN agencies said at the conference of least developed countries organized by the United Nations in Qatar in early March.
“China should be the last to be accused (of using) the debt trap,” Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang retorted on March 7 at a press conference. "China has worked hard to help troubled countries and is the main contributor to the G20 debt service suspension initiative," he added. Read More…
