• Foreign & Public Diplomacy
• Nosmot Gbadamosi

Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.

The highlights this week: a shortage of mpox vaccines across Africa, an asset seizure dispute between China and Nigeria, and a lawsuit against X from Algerian Olympic boxing champ Imane Khelif.

If you would like to receive Africa Brief in your inbox every Wednesday, please sign up here.

A second round of Turkish-led indirect talks between Somalia and Ethiopia ended last Tuesday without an agreement.

Relations between the two countries broke down in January, when Addis Ababa announced a port deal with Somaliland—a breakaway region that claims independence from Somalia. Landlocked Ethiopia agreed to lease 20 km (12 miles) of coastline from Somaliland in exchange for recognition of the region’s independence. Mogadishu has said that the agreement infringed on Somalia’s territorial integrity.

Turkey, which has trade and defense ties with both nations and is vying for increased influence in the Horn of Africa, was reportedly asked to intervene by Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. In a call with the Turkish president, Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud said his country was ready to “engage in economic and development cooperation with Ethiopia” but insisted that “such partnerships must always respect Somalia’s sovereignty, unity, and territorial integrity, and adhere to international law and norms.”

Turkish Foreign Affairs Minister Hakan Fidan separately met his counterparts, Ahmed Moallim Fiqi from Somalia and Taye Atske Selassie from Ethiopia, on Aug. 13 in Turkey’s capital, Ankara. Fidan told a news conference that there was now “convergence on some major principles.”

The tensions have compounded security cooperation against terrorist group al-Shabab. According to local media reports, Somalia’s government has asked that Ethiopian troops in the country be replaced with Egyptian soldiers serving within an updated African Union peacekeeping mission. Cairo has a separate conflict with Ethiopia over a controversial mega dam and has offered Somalia troop support. Abiy’s bid for sea access has also unsettled neighboring Djibouti, which also offered to contribute troops to Somalia’s new peacekeeping force.

The mission in Somalia targeting al-Shabab is set to begin in 2025, and a list of nations contributing military personnel is slated for release next month.

Abukar Osman, Somalia’s permanent representative to the United Nations, accused Ethiopia last week of smuggling weapons into Somalia and said the arms proliferation has fueled clan conflicts and strengthened al-Shabab. “While we welcome input for the next security arrangements post-ATMIS [African Union Transition Mission in Somalia] from key partners, we also want to underscore that the formation of the next mission should be guided by needs and aspirations of the Somali people,” he said during a U.N. Security Council session on Thursday.

The prospect of Egyptian troops near its borders is something Ethiopia opposes, and there are fears that this dispute could escalate into a proxy conflict in the Horn of Africa involving various Gulf allies competing for Red Sea control.

Ethiopia borders Somalia, and its foreign ministry responded that the country has the right to defend itself. “There is no power that can stop Ethiopia from taking necessary action without asking permission from anyone,” said Nebiyu Tedla, a ministry spokesperson, during a press briefing on Thursday. “Ethiopia has been contributing troops to Somalia for over a decade. Ethiopia has security concerns arising from Al-Shabaab. Therefore, Ethiopia is following the issue closely,” Nebiyu added.

Fidan told reporters last week that he had proposed an arrangement that would ensure Ethiopia’s sea access via Somalia. In return, he said that Ethiopia would acknowledge Somalia’s territorial integrity and political sovereignty. A third round of talks will be held on Sept. 17.

Friday, Aug. 23: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier receives Malawian President Lazarus Chakwera with military honors in Berlin.

Ratings agency S&P Global updates Kenya’s credit rating assessment following the withdrawal of a controversial finance bill.

Saturday Aug, 24–Sunday Aug. 25: Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs hosts the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD) Ministerial Meeting.

Sudan peace talks. U.S. special envoy for Sudan Tom Perriello said on Monday that humanitarian negotiations will continue in Geneva without the Sudanese army’s presence at talks that began on Aug. 14. “We have worked virtually through phones with the army to accelerate progress that saves lives of the Sudanese,” Perriello told a news briefing.

The Sudanese army refused to attend Geneva talks because it wanted implementation of the Jeddah agreement, signed in May last year, in which the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) would vacate all public facilities; meanwhile, the United States—led by Perriello—wants to achieve a cease-fire and the opening of humanitarian corridors.

A delegation from the RSF was in Geneva but didn’t join the meetings. Meanwhile, RSF soldiers reportedly rampaged through a village in central Sudan, killing at least 85 people, including women and children, local authorities and residents said on Saturday.

Some positive steps have been taken. Sudan’s Sovereign Council announced that it will open the Adre crossing, located on the country’s border with Chad, for a period of three months after negotiations thought to have been brokered by the U.S. government. The crossing was closed in February by Sudan’s army, which alleged that it was being used to move weapons for the RSF. The war has displaced more than 10 million people, and last week, Sudanese authorities declared a cholera outbreak.

Mpox vaccines for Africa? Shares of mpox vaccine maker Bavarian Nordic climbed by nearly 20 percent briefly last week after the World Health Organization declared mpox a public health emergency amid an outbreak in East and Central Africa. A new variant called Clade 1b has caused more than 15,000 cases and some 540 deaths in the Democratic Republic of the Congo alone. And Ivory Coast, Kenya, Rwanda, and Uganda are reporting cases of mpox for the first time.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control issued an alert that travelers visiting affected areas in Africa should consider getting vaccinated against mpox. Yet health care experts worry that the lessons of COVID-19 have not been learned, both in Africa and elsewhere. Many African governments in affected areas haven’t put in vaccine orders. At around $100 per dose, they can’t afford them.

“Countries that are in possession of substantial stockpiles of MVA-BN vaccines [mpox vaccines] —and that are not experiencing any active outbreaks—must donate as many doses as possible to affected countries in Africa,” urged Doctors Without Borders.

Nigeria-China asset seizure. A French court has seized three presidential jets owned by the Nigerian government in connection with a decadeslong dispute with a Chinese company. It relates to a deal struck in 2007 between the Ogun state government in Nigeria’s Southwestern region and a Chinese company called Zhongshan Fucheng Industrial Investment. Zhongshan was supposed to build a free trade zone (that is, an industrial park to attract foreign investors). The Nigerian government claimed Zhongshan only erected a perimeter fence, and the deal was terminated in 2015. Court documents suggest Ogun State briefly switched contract to Zhongshan. It then went back to a consortium of state-owned Chinese companies, the original contractors, who later built the park and own about 80 percent. In March 2021, an arbitration tribunal—chaired by the president of the U.K. Supreme Court—awarded Zhongshan $74.5 million for breach of contract.

In a statement, Bayo Onanuga, a spokesperson from Nigeria’s presidential office, accused Zhongshan of “arm-twisting” through foreign jurisdictions and compared the ordeal with the Chinese firm to a case that Nigeria won last year against Process & Industrial Developments (P&ID), an offshore company based in the British Virgin Islands that had wanted Nigeria to pay $11 billion for a gas plant that it never built.

“The material facts in the transaction between the Ogun State Government and Zhongshan point to another P&ID case in which unscrupulous and questionable individuals falsely present themselves as investors with the sole objective of undercutting and scamming governments in Africa,” the statement read. The three presidential jets were in Paris while they were being serviced. Following the Nigerian comments, Zhongshan said on Friday that it had released one of the jets as a “gesture of goodwill” to allow for talks to continue.

Champion of African soccer dies. The funeral of former president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Issa Hayatou, was held on Aug. 16 in his home city of Garoua, Cameroon. A staunch defender of African soccer on the world stage, Hayatou served as CAF [resident for 29 years from 1988 to 2017.

He died aged 77 in Paris, where he had been receiving dialysis for kidney problems. Under his leadership, CAF—the governing body of African soccer—increased its revenue. Hayatou’s reputation was later stained by allegations that he had accepted $1.5 million in bribes from Qatar in its successful bid to host the 2022 Men’s World Cup. Hayatou denied any wrongdoing.

Despite accusations that he clung to power for too long, many African football fans believed he defended African interests over Europe better than those before or after him. He refused to move the African Cup of Nations (AFCON) from its January and February window despite increased pressure from FIFA and European leagues. His successor, however, immediately moved the AFCON 2019 tournament, held in Egypt, to the June and July window favored by European clubs—a decision that was widely panned by sports commentators. At least one player collapsed from heat exhaustion during that competition. Next year’s tournament is to be held during the holiday season, in December 2025 and January 2026. FIFA may yet get its way for AFCON to be held every four years instead of every two years.

“As a confederation, we are second only to Europe,” Hayatou once said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times in the run-up to the 1994 Men’s World Cup. “As far as South America is concerned, there are only two countries, Argentina and Brazil, that are strong. The others are at the same level as those in Africa.”

Algerian boxer files lawsuit. Olympic gold medalist Imane Khelif has filed a lawsuit in France against X (formerly Twitter) for online harassment. The Algerian boxer and a fellow gold medalist boxer, Taiwan’s Lin Yu-ting, became the center of a gender eligibility test row that was marred by misinformation about their gender. French authorities have now opened an investigation that could implicate Elon Musk—the billionaire owner of X—as well as former U.S. President Donald Trump and Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling over remarks that they made about Khelif on the social media platform.

• The Island Stuck in Limbo by Richard Morgan
• In Russia, Ukraine’s Invasion Pops Putin’s Bubbles by Alexey Kovalev
• Ukraine’s Kursk Offensive Is a Turning Point in the War by Carl Bildt

Perilous status for Egypt’s Palestinian refugees. In Foreign Policy, Azza Guergues reports from Cairo on Palestinians who have managed to flee to neighboring Egypt on medical grounds or due to holding a foreign passport. But under Egyptian rules, they are not technically refugees and cannot enroll their children in public schools, apply for jobs, or receive health care and most international aid for refugees. Egypt fears being left responsible for Palestinian refugees if Israel refuses to let them back into Gaza.

Zambia’s rising soccer stars. Zambians Racheal Kundananji and Barbra Banda became the most expensive women’s soccer players in history this year, smashing record transfer fees. In New Lines Magazine, Ponga Liwewe, the former head of the Football Association of Zambia, argues that increased investment in African women’s soccer can help stars beat the odds stacked against them, including navigating controversial testosterone testing and internal power struggles within the CAF governing body.