Africa: A Roadmap for Reversing the Resource Curse

analysis

For many African countries, Covid-19 has provided a useful cover for leaders to advance authoritarian ends, consolidate their autocracies and undermine whatever rule of law existed before. This seems especially true for ruling coalitions in countries with access to mineral or hydrocarbon wealth.

Mozambique is a desperate case in point. While Angola and Nigeria have historically been the empirical poster children for the existence of a 'resource curse', Mozambique is fast becoming the most frightening expression of it. The country is rich in minerals and has recently discovered massive quantities of offshore high-quality liquefied natural gas, resulting in the single-largest dose of Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) on the African continent. But the quality of its governing institutions leaves much to be desired. In the forgotten province of Cabo Delgado, for instance, an utter lack of governance and service delivery, combined with the arrival of commercial oil extractors and local grievances, has proved an explosive cocktail for extremist insurgency and shocking violence. (See our latest multimedia story for in-depth insight into the Cabo Delgado tragedy: http://gga.org/multimedia/aif-57/)

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