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WASHINGTON DC, Sep 25 (IPS) – When the heads of state of all members of the United Nations spoke before the UN General Assembly last week, a number of African leaders were unable to attend because they had been removed from military office. led coups.
On the surface, these countries do not have many similarities beyond geographic and colonial history. Consider Gabon and Niger, the most recent countries to experience “regime change.” Gabon is a small, biodiverse nation; the president under house arrest and his father before him have been in power since 1967. Niger is a much larger, largely desert country; the president under house arrest had been elected in 2021.
This instability, which is taking place across West and Central Africa, has attracted considerable attention, both regionally and internationally. But what is missing from the debates about whether international power is behind every coup and whether it should be tolerated is the much more fundamental question of means.
While France, the US, Russia and China have condemned or expressed concern about the wave of coups, they have focused on the need to restore “constitutional order” and democracy. The root cause of coups and conflicts in Africa concerns resource extraction that fuels poverty and human rights violations.
There are now seven African countries whose armies have ousted national governments, and all their economies are largely dependent on resource extraction. Mali and Burkina Faso are among the largest gold producers in the world. Chad and Sudan depend on oil extraction. Niger is the fourth largest producer of uranium in the world. Guinea has between a quarter and a half of the world’s bauxite reserves, the main source of aluminum. Gabon is Africa’s second-largest producer of manganese and its economy is also dependent on oil and gas extraction, while the government was exploring ways to tap emerging markets for carbon credits for the tropical forests that make up almost 90% of the country’s cover land.
The land required for resource extraction and the labor required for the mines, drilling operations or refineries – this economic activity comes at a cost. Families who have to earn a living from agricultural or forestry products have few options when larger economic interests arise and take their land and resources.
In these countries, rural communities have lived and maintained the land for generations – far longer than governments have been in power. Land and real estate ownership is the basis of individual prosperity in the Global North. But in the Global South, legal systems that disenfranchise rural communities are accepted for the resources their lands contain.
The resource extraction sector does not provide an adequate substitute for the livelihoods that community members lose when their land is taken. We have yet to see an example where miners, for example, are adequately compensated and protected from workplace hazards.
In the Sahel, Niger is often praised for its recognition of customary property rights. Niger has a progressive rural code adopted in 1993 that establishes innovative land management systems, legislation and institutions.
In 2021, a national land policy was adopted with provisions to recognize rights and prevent land conflicts. Niger also has the most progressive pastoral law in the Sahel, passed in 2010, which recognizes the rights of nomadic communities dependent on livestock. Burkina Faso and Mali also have strong protection of community rights, but enforcement of these rights was lacking in all three countries.
Foreign investors are always willing to exploit the resources of these countries; enforcing community rights is never their priority. A fair distribution of benefits from the extractive sector, to provide local youth with paid employment or land ownership, and respect for land ownership arrangements in rural areas are rarely on the table.
I look at Senegal, where I was born and raised, and all the ingredients are there for the country to participate in this series of coups. Government revenues depend on resource extraction; phosphate mines power most of the economy.
Natural gas and oil have been discovered off the coast and the government has the ambition to turn Senegal into an oil, gas and hydrocarbon giant. Although Senegal has been the most stable country in the Sahel, we are seeing a decline in democracy with arrests of political leaders and opposition citizens, sparking massive street protests.
And Senegal’s legal system does not protect the land rights of rural communities, leaving them without a basis for prosperity. Senegal has struggled to come up with a new land policy and law that takes into account the current political and economic context and gives property rights to communities. The current land law is the ‘Loi du Domaine National’, passed immediately after we gained independence from France in 1964.
Ultimately, it is not about who is in power and is certainly not limited to former French colonies. This is all about how resource extraction is prioritized. What Africa needs are deep systematic changes in land management. Communities must control the disposition of their territories; There will never be peace if the population is mired in economic instability.
“Africa is a beggar sitting on a gold mine,” says Birago Diop, in her twentiese century Senegalese poet and storyteller. Despite their natural resources, four of these seven countries – Mali, Niger, Sudan and Chad – ranked in the bottom tenth of the global ‘Prosperity Index’; the other three score in the bottom 40%.
The challenge we all face – for African regional bodies like ECOWAS and the African Union, and for global institutions like the UN – is how to leave these outdated economic models alive in the 20th century.e century. Twenty years into this century, we still have not embraced the need for a more equitable approach to natural resources. Until we do that, no government is safe.
Dr. Solange Bandiaky-Badji, PhD is coordinator of the Rights and Resources Initiative (RRI). She holds a PhD in women and gender studies from Clark University, Massachusetts, and an MA in environmental science and philosophy from Cheikh Anta Diop University, Senegal.
© Inter Press Service (2023) — All rights reservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service