Africa needs its own military industry

We all, by now anyway, should be only too aware of the impacts on the world of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Fuel prices have gone through the roof, as have those for food.

Prophets of doom are predicting the global economy could even be pushed into recession. But there could be even more far-reaching effects on Africa, on its relations with the global superpowers and on the structure, training and deployment of its own military forces.

As seasoned African military expert Eeben Barlow writes on our pages today, the first – and most notable – impact of the conflict on Africa will be the fact that armies on the continent which rely on Russian, Ukrainian and former Soviet arms and weapons systems, will find themselves running short, as the combatants and their respective arms industries supply the conflict.

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This, in turn, will leave the sort of vacuum which might be filled by the West – or even China. That vulnerability to pressure by outsiders has characterised Africa since the first days of independence in the 1960s and has seen countries on the continent used as a political football by the big players and as proxy forces during the dark days of the Cold War between the West and the Soviet Union.

As in all arms deals worldwide, the big players are not averse to bribing their way to contracts – and many are the times when African armies have bought wholly inappropriate weapons.

There have also been cases when such armies have been offered inappropriate training by foreigners with agendas which are more about access to resources than justice and democracy for ordinary Africans.

Unless this continent wants to fall victim to the “Second Colonisation”, it needs to develop its own military industry and its own training and doctrines. Otherwise, we will forever be the puppets of outsiders.