China pushes its agenda, exploiting Western vacuum in Africa’s Sahel region — analysts

Amid the upheaval in Sahel in the last decade, characterized by a series of military takeovers, growing insecurity and surging anti-Western sentiment, China has seized on the opportunity to expand its military, geopolitical, and economic presence in this volatile region, analysts say.

Despite the challenges facing the region, the scramble among major powers for the Sahel remains intense. This comes amid rising anti-French sentiment in a region that has been dubbed Africa’s “coup belt” for the number of military takeovers in recent years.

Meanwhile, China, with its mantra of “non-interference” and “respecting sovereignty”, portrays itself as a “partner” and a welcome alternative to the traditional ally (France) of Sahelian countries. Referring to the recent weeklong trip by China’s top diplomat to the region, Darren Olivier, director of the conflict research consultancy African Defense Review, noted that “Wang’s focus on military aid and training, and the choice of countries to be visited, is in line with China’s new focus on defense diplomacy as opposed to the purely economic and diplomatic engagements that used to characterize Chinese engagement with the continent a decade ago.”

The volatile Sahel region is also rich in natural resources such as oil, uranium, natural gas, and lithium. As Western companies continue to lose ground in mining operations in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, Chinese-owned enterprises are capitalizing on the sector’s reorganization to extract valuable commodities, in a trend supported by the ruling military governments in these countries. For example, Mali potentially has one of the largest lithium reserves in the world and China’s Ganfeng Lithium has invested heavily in the country’s mines. The alliance of three junta-ruled Sahel states vowed last year to further strengthen cooperation with China as Beijing pledged more than $50 billion in financing for Africa over the next three years at the Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC).

“China has been a reliable and stable partner for the new military juntas in the Sahel and West Africa,” said Eric Orlander, co-founder of the China-Global South Project. “For the French and US, who see a dilution of Western power in the region, China’s presence is seen as ‘controversial,’ but it’s a very different view from African perspectives.”