Russia-Ukraine war takes eyes off Africa’s hotbed of conflict

While the past few weeks have seen the world’s attention firmly focused on the war in Ukraine, Africa – the hotbed of extremism and the chest board of foreign interests – continues to be ravaged by wars, with the international community not saying much, according to an intelligence and military expert.

The latest African Union (AU) Peace and Security Council report included countries deemed unstable due to war. These included Libya, South Sudan, the Central African Republic (CAR), northern Mozambique, Ethiopia and Cameroon’s northwest and south-west regions.

These were described as “six African conflict hotbeds to watch in 2022”.

Commenting on why African conflicts – despite having led to brutal slayings of villagers by mercenaries and insurgents – have failed to grab international attention, Jasmine Opperman, an analyst with the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, said: “Ukraine presents interest directly to Europe, Russia, other East European states and to the US, which is aligned to Nato.

“We are sitting here in Africa with internal wars that have been going on for a substantial period of time – Mozambique, South Sudan, Ethiopia and other countries – without any major peace breakthroughs.

“As much as Africa is a hotbed for extremism, it is a chest board of foreign interests – foreign economic competition being exploited by bigger powers. International attention on African crises and solving problems will never gain similar priority as people would like to see it as a devastation.

“In Libya, we have seen the Nato interests and in CAR we have seen Russian interests at play.”

Opperman said the Ukraine crisis has shown “how the Cold War mentality is still at play in Europe”.

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“The coming down of the Berlin wall might have been tangible, but psychological damage is still there in Europe,” she added.

“Hotbeds to watch is a complex issue, because we are dealing with internal insurgencies.

“I am not implying there are no external influences to keep in mind.

“We don’t only need to watch these hotbeds, but we need see some definite intervention in countering the involvement of insurgencies in the long term.

“The question is, are such interventions likely to move beyond political intent and political interests, which play a role in all the hotbeds listed by the Peace and Security Council?

“These hotbeds are areas of concern requiring intervention beyond domestic level.

“What we have seen at AU, Southern Africa Development Community and Economic Community of West African States level is that such interventions have had some success at regional level – without long-term stability.”

– brians@citizen.co.za