Mnangagwa says US is trying to use legislation to monitor natural resources in Africa

Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa says the United States is trying to use legislation to intrude into Africa’s affairs including monitoring Africa’s natural resources and extractive industries.

The United States has been losing its grip on Africa to China and Russia and has passed a law called Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act which Mnangagwa said seeks to empower America to employ intrusive and coercive diplomacy and policing in Africa.

The Zimbabwe President said worst of all, the act seeks to allow the US to “monitor natural resources and extractive industries” in Africa.

Writing in his weekly column in the Sunday Mail Mnangagwa said: “This is unprecedented.”

“Further, the Act gives the US government power ‘to hold accountable the Russian Federation and African governments and their officials who are complicit in aiding what, in the view of the United States government, passes for ‘malign influence and activities’ of Russia in Africa.

“Such ‘malign activities’ include anything that the US government interprets as attempts to:

(i) “manipulate African governments and their policies, as well as the public opinions and voting preferences of African populations and diaspora groups, including those in the US; and

(ii) invest in, engage, or otherwise control strategic sectors in Africa, such as mining and other forms of natural resource extraction and exploitation, military basing and other security cooperation agreements, and information and communications technology. 

“Both provisions are exceedingly patronising and vitiate against the notion of equality of sovereign nations, regardless of size or hemispheric placement,” he said.
Below is the full article:

The world is fast reconfiguring and realigning towards a new, multipolar global political order. To this end, all instruments — including war, intrusive extra-territorial legislation, coercive diplomacy and outright destabilisation — are being employed. Africa is at great risk from all these, as this order evolves amidst the fog of war, and the growing threats of a nuclear holocaust.

Our recent African Union Summit held in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, addressed this dangerous turn in global affairs, including the ensuing conflict in Eastern Europe, which increasingly threatens global peace and security. The Summit also discussed United States of America’s gross attempts to control our continent through extraterritorial legislation.

The US “Countering Malign Russian Activities in Africa Act” seeks to empower America to employ intrusive and coercive diplomacy and policing in Africa and, worst of all, to allow it to “monitor natural resources and extractive industries” on our continent. This is unprecedented.

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