The global run towards a low-carbon economy has brought to the fore the importance of several minerals judged critical to this transition. These minerals include lithium, cobalt, graphite, manganese, and others essential to producing clean energy technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines, rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles (EVs), and grid battery storage. Developing countries hold large reserves of these minerals, about one quarter of them being concentrated in Africa. Among the countries that are rich of such minerals, there is the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which produces about 70 per cent of cobalt ore worldwide, mainly directed to China, that is particularly voracious of such material. According to the UNCTAD technical note on critical minerals, the demand for some of such minerals is expected to increase rapidly. The estimates are a 115 per cent growth for the cobalt and 454 per cent for lithium in the period from 2022 to 2030.

Read more...

The Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the newly-formed Alliance of Sahel States (ALS) recently met on November 30 and 1th December 2023 in Bamako, Burkina Faso, and proposed the establishment of a Confederation between Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger with the creation of a roadmap for the establishment of a monetary union with the adoption of a new currency to replace the CFA franc. The ALS (in French: Alliance des États du Sahel, AES) is a mutual defense pact created by the three States on 16 September 2023 following their suspension from ECOWAS, as a reaction to the threats from this Regional Economic Community to intervene militarily to restore the civilian rule after the coup in Niger of 26 July 2023.

Read more...