The ‘terrifying’ crackdown on mining companies in Africa’s coup belt
www.ft.com
Military regimes in the Sahel have turned to tactics including arrests to assert control over critical mineral supplies

I’m not informed enough about any of these countries to have a stance on them (other than good on them for kicking out imperialists) but this all reads like, erm-this-you .

  • someone [comrade/them, they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    39·
    1 month ago

    Oh my god, the “leaders” of the local “regimes” ( us-foreign-policy ) are committing the worst crime possible: they’re bringing uncertainty to the business environment!

    The three countries are part of what is known as Africa’s “coup belt”

    The cope. The cope.

    These countries, part of the semi-arid strip south of the Sahara known as the Sahel, are among the world’s poorest but are rich in mineral resources.

    thinkin-lenin

    Their more interventionist stance, according to people familiar with the regimes’ thinking, stems from a desire to assert national sovereignty after decades under the thumb of western miners and subject to contracts the new rulers view as tilted in favour of the companies.

    And some paragraphs later…

    But as a company whose largest shareholder is the French government, Orano’s plight encapsulates the entanglement of big business and geopolitics in the Sahel.

    Masterful propaganda piece, FT.

    Oh, and one of the article’s writers, Aanu Adeoye:

    He joined the FT in 2022 after completing a fellowship at Chatham House, where he researched Russia-Africa relations.

    I can envision his whole cover letter in my mind.