Countries
like Yemen, Chad and South Sudan have been devastated by famine and
starvation in recent years, with millions of people suffering despite
a global surplus of food. But the problem is not a lack of resources
- they are starving due to the effects of unending Western
imperialism.
by
Eric Draitser
Part
3 - West Africa: Terror, famine and the “New Great Game”
Today,
the area around Lake Chad – including parts of Nigeria, Cameroon,
Niger and Chad – has become ground zero for a humanitarian
disaster that threatens the lives of millions. According to the UN
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, there are at
least 7.1 million people facing hunger, with 120,000 directly
threatened by famine. Additionally, there are 515,000 severely
malnourished children, 80,000 of whom are at risk of death from
malnutrition.
What
little coverage this unfolding humanitarian disaster has gotten has
been dominated by talk of Boko Haram, the Nigeria-based terrorist
organization that gained infamy for its mass kidnapping of the Chibok
girls in 2014, a high-profile action that catapulted the terror group
into the global spotlight. While it is understandable that the
corporate media would focus on the good vs. evil storyline where the
big, bad terrorists attack defenseless girls, the real context of the
story is almost completely ignored.
As
is par for the course when it comes to Africa and the former colonial
powers of the West, the underlying factors are money, resources and
profit. Lake Chad and West Africa are no different.
Indeed,
while black Muslims sporting masks and AK-47s might be good for
ratings, it is the black gold beneath Lake Chad that really sits at
the center of the story.
Recent
oil discoveries in and around the Lake Chad Basin have greatly
altered how leaders of West African nations view their economic
future. Put another way, West African leaders are scrambling to line
their state coffers (and their pockets) with petrodollars.
A
2010 assessment from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) noted that the
Lake Chad Basin has “estimated mean volumes of 2.32 billion
barrels of oil, 14.65 trillion cubic feet of natural gas and 391
million barrels of natural gas liquids.” The potential size of
these resources has likely attracted the attention of political and
business leaders, both within the region and internationally.
These
discoveries have touched off something of a mini-scramble for
resources among Lake Chad littoral countries, a competition that
could potentially threaten regional stability as countries like
Cameroon make progress in exploiting energy reserves while Nigeria
continues to deal with the Boko Haram insurgency, preventing it from
keeping pace.
But
as with all things Africa, it is the former colonial powers that
continue to wield influence and strength. And with the discovery of
massive riches in West Africa, those same powers have rushed into the
region to extract their pound of flesh.
In
Francophone West Africa, France remains the dominant economic player,
as it remains the primary trading partner for its former colonies in
Niger, Cameroon and Chad. The French military has permanently
stationed military forces throughout the region, ostensibly to fight
terrorism and instability in the wake of the 2012 coup in Mali and
the subsequent terrorist insurgency there. The ongoing Operation
Barkhane has at least 3,000 French troops spread across the Sahel
region, including in Niger and Chad.
With
French troops on the ground and French corporations eyeing oil and
gas, as well as other lucrative mining products, it’s plain to see
that Paris is primarily interested in good old-fashioned
colonial-style economic parasitism and competition with foreign
rivals, rather than any humanitarian concerns, which are chief
concerns for the French people.
As
French industry minister Arnaud Montebourg stated while announcing
the creation of the new venture, “Francophone African countries,
notably, would like to work with us, rather than do business with
foreign multinationals.” That sounds an awful lot like colonial
hegemony – notice the implication that France is not “foreign”
in West Africa – veiled behind the façade of free market choice.
Consider
also that France is heavily dependent on nuclear power, with nearly
80 percent of its electricity derived from nuclear energy. This would
certainly explain why France has put such an emphasis on West Africa.
As Think Africa Press noted in 2014, “France currently sources
over 75 percent of its electricity from nuclear energy and is
dependent on Niger for much of its immediate and future uranium
supply.”
Like
France, the U.S. is now heavily involved on the ground in West Africa
– around the Lake Chad Basin, specifically. Washington dominates
the skies over the region with its far-flung network of drone bases.
In Chad, the U.S. has permanently stationed military personnel,
ostensibly to search for the Chibok girls. However, the Obama White
House’s own press statement betrayed a much more imperialistic
objective: “These personnel will support the operation of
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft for missions
over Northern Nigeria and the surrounding area.”
Add
to this the fact that the U.S. now operates two critical drone bases
in the region, with one base in Cameroon’s city of Garoua and
another in the Nigerien city of Agadez, and it becomes clear that the
US, in fact, has drones and other surveillance covering the entire
Lake Chad Basin.
This
begs the question: how could we possibly be seeing a famine and
humanitarian disaster unfolding quite literally at the feet of U.S.
and French military personnel if those forces are there purely for
humanitarian reason? Surely nothing could be more appropriate for a
humanitarian mission than to save men, women, and children from the
ghastly fate of starvation and malnutrition.
But
the sad truth is that the empire has little interest in saving the
lives of millions of Nigerians, Cameroonians, and Nigeriens. Its
focus is in extracting resources and preventing its Chinese rival
from horning in on the action as it has elsewhere on the continent.
And
in the midst of Washington’s “New Great Game” with Beijing,
millions of Africans are paying with their lives.
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