External players in Africa, particularly China and Russia, are bringing additional complications to Africa, including destabilising influences, the head of the US military’s Africa Command (Africom) has said.
In an exclusive interview with White House Correspondent Pearl Matibe on 17 September, General Michael Langley discussed the challenges facing African peace and security. These are shared challenges, he said, as collaboration with African partners is key to solving the continents “complex, layered threats.”
However, Langley said, “it didn’t take long to realize that the situation wasn’t binary — there are other external players, particularly the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the Russian Federation, who bring additional complications. Both nations have their own aspirations on the continent that often don’t align with the rules-based international order, leading to destabilising influences through misinformation campaigns, unbalanced economic practices, or unfavourable mining concessions. Our African partners face all of these while striving to strengthen their economies and institutionalize governance.”
“When it comes to other influences, like Russia’s activities in CAR [Central African Republic], Burkina Faso, and Mali, they offer help, but it’s not rooted in a rules-based international order. They sow discord and misinformation against the US and its allies. We continue to engage with countries respectfully, asking them what they think the solution is and what they need. This is competition at a strategic level. But on a more granular level, our engagements, like those in Somalia, prove that Africom’s enabling approach works,” Langley said of counter-terrorism and security efforts on the continent.
Talking further about malign influences, particularly cyber/information-related risks, and Africom’s challenges with Russia and China on the continent, Langley said, “yes, you’re seeing signatures of the PRC trying to get into networks across several African countries. Some countries want to protect their networks, but others are investing in untrusted networks, like those from Huawei or other PRC offerings. We caution them about this. We provide a value proposition on how to protect their networks, but sometimes they move forward with integrating PRC-built networks that impact smart cities. Does it protect sovereignty? It’s questionable. So, we offer cautionary tales and overall programs like Digital Africa, which aims to help them build responsible networks that respect privacy.”
In addition to cyber risks, Langley flagged China for being responsible for much of the overfishing in Africa. “African partners, across 10 years, their catch…has reduced substantially. Because they don’t have what it takes to be able to protect their economic exclusive zones, there’s a lot of trawlers out there. It’s not just the PRC, but PRC is the biggest player in it. There are some other players that are doing over-fishing in these regions.” Langley believes that in the maritime domain, the biggest threat to African countries is illegal, unregulated, unreported (IUU) fishing.
Langley said there are 38 countries now in Africa – including the Comoros that have an economic exclusive zone (EEZ) that they can’t see. “They can’t see and protect their fishing industries. The biggest threats that affect the African people; I’m talking about their protein intake and protecting their fishing industries, which is about 50% of their protein intake, but illegal, unregulated, unreported fishing is affecting them vastly.”
