SPEAKING
FREELY Europe enters the new scramble for
Africa By Emanuele Scimia
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While war drums keep
on beating along the disputed inter-Sudanese
border, Europe's engagement in Central and East
Africa is intensifying. Over the past months, by
emulating the United States, the European Union
(EU) has multiplied its political, strategic and
economic efforts in a huge swathe of Africa, from
northern Tanzania to Ethiopia: an open challenge
to China's steady penetration in that region,
according to several sources.
The ongoing
"geopolitical risk" in Africa, whose flashpoint is the
newly-independent state
of South Sudan, brings the Fashoda Incident to
mind. Fashoda (presently the South Sudanese city
of Kodok) is where the colonial designs of France
and the United Kingdom materially collided in
1898, during the so-called Scramble for Africa.
Now Paris and London join forces as part of an
Euro-American bid to carve out a new Western
sphere of influence in Africa: the question is
whether or not it will be at the expense of
China's vested interests.
Military
involvement The participation in military
operations is what really distinguishes the
African policy of Europe and the United States
from that of China. There is a widespread
conviction that the US military campaign against
the weakened rebel group of Lord's Resistance Army
(LRA) is in reality a Trojan horse for American
strategic interests in the Great Lakes region.
Since October 2011, Washington has
deployed 100 special operations units in Uganda,
South Sudan, Central African Republic and the
Democratic Republic of Congo to fight the LRA. On
the contrary, China is sticking to its policy of
"non-interference" in the internal affairs of
African countries, at least as far as the military
point of view is concerned.
Within the
United Nations and African Union-backed joint
military actions against the LRA, the EU has
earmarked US$12 million for humanitarian
assistance to people who have suffered violence by
the Joseph Kony-led militias over the past 25
years. In December 2011, the EU teamed up with the
coalition fighting the LRA, financing the
construction of logistical facilities.
The
EU and US have also trained the forces of the
African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Under
the United Nations' mandate, the AMISOM is
conducting armed operations in the war-torn
Somalia, helping the UN-backed Transitional
government to defeat the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabab
militants. In February, AMISOM announced that it
would strengthen its contingent with 5,000
soldiers thanks to funding from the EU and United
Nations Security Council.
As for Somalia's
age-old crisis, Brussels has decided to expand its
maritime mission "ATALANTA" against Somali
pirates, allowing European warships to attack both
sea and land targets. The EU anti-piracy mission
in the Indian Ocean, which started in 2008 to
patrol shipping lane and protect humanitarian
convoys, is extended to at least December 2014 and
its two-year prolongation has a budget of $19.7
million.
In addition, in February the EU
also ushered in - along with Turkey - a Horn of
Africa's Working Group within the Global Counter
Terrorism Forum (GCTF). The GCTF, which was
launched in September 2011, is an initiative to
enhance anti-terrorism cooperation and is
co-chaired by Washington and Ankara.
Over
and above the US special operations across Somalia
against the armed Islamist and Washington's rooted
standing in the Horn of Africa, it is worth
highlighting the French and British military
presence in this region. Out of about 8,000
soldiers that France has deployed throughout
Africa, 2,850 units are stationed in Djibouti
(which also hosts an important American military
base), while the anti-terrorism collaboration
between the United Kingdom and Kenya is becoming
tighter than ever.
Scent of
oil The battle for handling oil resources
is the big drama produced by Sudan's break-up and
resulting birth of South Sudan in July 2011, after
decades of civil war. In 2011, Sudan and South
Sudan's combined crude exports averaged 330,000
barrels per day, mostly to Asian markets. China
imported around 220,000 barrels per day: 5% of its
total oil imports. The problem is that while most
of the oil fields are now situated in landlocked
South Sudan, all the pipelines go through Sudan to
the northern export terminal in Port Sudan.
That situation has led to explosive
disputes on borders' demarcation between the two
neighboring countries, which have resulted in
frequent skirmishes. In January, the government of
South Sudan in Juba decided to stop oil's
extraction and exportation toward Port of Sudan,
in a controversy over the fee that Sudan demands
for the crude's transit.
Juba has also
triggered a row with the Chinese oil companies
working within its boundaries (notably with
Petrodar, a Sino-Malaysian consortium), declaring
its intention to review all oil contracts signed
by the government of Sudan in Khartoum before the
secession. Speaking to the daily Sudan Tribune on
February 22, some Sudanese officials argued that
"South Sudan's threats against Chinese companies
are part of a conspiracy to replace them with
Western companies".
In effect, European
companies are showing interest in the oil
development of the Great African Rift Valley. For
instance, the Anglo-Irish Tullow Oil has recently
discovered oil deposits in Kenya, in the country's
north-western region of Turkana.
Such a
discover has a great geopolitical importance,
since the Turkana Lake is right in the middle of
the projected "Lamu Port South Sudan Ethiopia
Transport" (LAPPSET) corridor, which foresees a
2,000 kilometer pipeline connecting South Sudan's
oil fields to the Kenyan coastal town of Lamu. The
project includes a connection to Ethiopia if oil
were to be discovered in its south-eastern region
of Ogaden.
The Juba-Lamu pipeline offers
South Sudan an alternative to the route going to
Port Sudan. The problem for the three African
countries involved in the project is to attract
investments, and up to now neither the EU nor the
US, as well as China, seem to be eager to fund the
LAPPSET corridor in light of the permanent
instability in the area.
Tullow Oil has
also extracted crude in Uganda and is leading
exploration campaigns in Ethiopia. The recent
discovery of oil reserves around the Lake Albert
might turn Uganda into a regional energy and trade
hub. In this regard, the Ugandan government in
Kampala has struck a deal with Tanzania, Burundi
and Rwanda to realize a railway network that would
stretch all the way to South Sudan.
Kampala is generally considered to be an
American ally in Central and East Africa, and the
fact that the operator expected to complete this
project by 2015 is a Chinese company (China Civil
Engineering Construction Corporation) proves that
even small or medium African countries have learnt
to act with strategic flexibility.
Aggressive commercial stance China's trade with Africa touched $127 billion
in 2010. Beijing is often accused of exploiting
its African partner on the grounds of a
well-tested scheme: inundating the African
countries with its cheap products - as well as
granting loans for project of developments and
infrastructural investments - in return for oil
and raw materials.
On the other hand, the
EU is supposed to be pursuing a different approach
in dealing with African countries, focused on
cooperation and assistance for development. The
latest move in this direction is Brussels'
commitment to provide $380 million for projects
about food security, education and healthcare in
South Sudan.
On March 20, during a meeting
in Brussels with South Sudanese President Salva
Kiir, EU high representative for foreign affairs
Catherine Ashton praised Juba's intention to join
the Cotonou Partnership Agreement between the EU
and Africa, Caribbean, Pacific (ACP) countries.
Under this agreement, South Sudan can obtain
assistance for development and market access for
its goods.
But many African countries, and
the same ACP leadership, have complained about the
European Commission's proposal to prevent
countries that do not conclude an Economic
Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the EU from free
market access to Europe as of January 1, 2014 -
the European Parliament is expected to take a
decision with regard to this issue by June.
Plainly put, the truth is that both Europe
and the United States are back to the old rules of
geopolitics, in which humanitarian preoccupations
are shelved and economic leverage gains momentum.
The point is that the two "belligerent"
side would have room to settle disputes in East
Africa, just as China is trying to devise a
diplomatic line going beyond its policy of
non-interference. At bottom, it would be in the
interest of all players - Europe, United States
and China - to avert a Somalia-style war in North
and South Sudan, when from Nigeria to the Horn of
Africa, through the Sahel region, large part of
the continent is sliding into a spiral of chaos.
Emanuele Scimia is a journalist
and geopolitical analyst based in Rome.
(Copyright 2012 Asia Times Online
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Speaking Freely is an
Asia Times Online feature that allows guest
writers to have their say. Please
click hereif you are interested in
contributing.
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