In the 2026 media study, “Enabling Atrocity in the MENA (Middle East, North Africa) and Sudan: Sockpuppets, Bots and Digital Information Harm in Wartime,” Marc Owens Jones, an associate professor of media analytics at Northwestern University, who specializes in disinformation and digital authoritarianism, especially as it pertains to the Middle East, examined three distinct yet interconnected influence networks comprising thousands of fake social media accounts operating throughout Sudan and the wider MENA region.

Bots are computerized and sock puppets are people, but they serve basically the same purpose. They falsely inflate numbers and manipulate algorithms to make something, in this case war in Sudan, appear more or less popular than the conflict between rival factions actually is.

According to experts and observers who study content creators, reasons for developing content focuses in many cases, “by any means necessary,” to garner large numbers in order to get advertising deals and increase search algorithms. Add to that, political organizations want to drive voters and encourage or suppress certain viewpoints. Corporations want to drive their own advertising and media up the search results. Additionally, the external and internal political opponents want to sow division and propaganda. Ultimately, it’s all doing the same thing: manipulating the “algorithm” with fake accounts posing as real people to push some agenda.

Produced under the auspices of the UNESCO Chair on Data, Media and Society at the University of South Carolina, Professor Jones’ study notes that, “Rather than examining misinformation as isolated content, the report analyses how networked architectures of distribution, sock puppet networks, automated amplification, and platform affordances reshape what becomes visible in times of war.”

A perfect example of this was reported by the London-based Middle East Eye (MEE), which often frames stories from the perspective that is critical of official Western and Western-allied or slanted narratives.

For example, the host of MEE’s YouTube channel recently posed the question: “Why are United Arab Emirates (UAE) targeting Sudan online?”

Footage MEE shared included showing the taunting of Sudanese civilians by a RSF militia commander, who in a video clip is seen bragging about killing over 2,000 Sudanese civilians. What is horrifying, is that after his announcement, he’s seen in a subsequent video clip executing “civilians.”

In still another video clip a UAE citizen, speaking into the camera speaking of the consequences facing those who “do not respect” Mohammed bin Zayed, (President of the UAE).

And it’s not just the United Arab Emirates. Many Israeli accounts were also quick to chime in regarding Sudan having spent a long time pointing the finger at the African nation in order to deflect attention away from Israel’s own horrific actions in Gaza.

Accusations and evidence of the beginning of the RSF massacres in the capital city of El Fasher, in North Darfur state, emerged in October of 2025. And as UAE support for the paramilitary group received considerable media coverage, these media influencers and seemingly bots have tried shifting the blame to the SAF, and away from the RSF, and its mounting slaughter of Sudanese civilians.

And although the report doesn’t absolve the SAF of atrocities, in February of 2026, according to UN News: “the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan concluded that RSF operations during the late-October 2025 takeover of El Fasher bore the ‘hallmarks of genocide.’ The mission documented ethnically targeted killings, widespread sexual violence, enforced disappearances, and the deliberate imposition of life-threatening conditions against the Zaghawa and Fur communities, finding that genocidal intent was the only reasonable inference from the pattern, scale, and rhetoric of the violence.”

According to Jones’s report, more than 27,000 coordinated fake accounts have produced hundreds of thousands of posts in Arabic, English, Persian, Turkish and French. According to Jones, they have largely been promoting “anti-Islamist,” pro-RSF, and UAE- aligned political propaganda during Sudan’s civil and proxy war, helping misinform the public about atrocities and the humanitarian catastrophe in Sudan.

“These influence networks function as tools of digital authoritarianism, deployed to manipulate perception, manufacture legitimacy, and overwhelm and confuse public discourse. Their harm lies both in the content they promote as well the deceptive means of distribution itself: coordinated sock puppet architectures that simulate authentic civic debate while operating in service of political agendas that run counter to human rights and the social good. They fundamentally undermine the free flow of credible information by crowding out legitimate news and also masking their source/agenda,” explained the report.

The report’s findings underscore the urgency for increased transparency, stronger platform accountability, multilingual enforcement capacity and sustained independent research when it comes to the continuing tragedy and atrocities facing the people of Sudan.

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Africa held continent-wide celebrations on May 25 to mark Africa Day 2026—the 63rd anniversary of an occasion dedicated to “unity, integration, and development.” 

It is a time of celebration, but as African Union Commission Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf stated on May 21 during a high-level security dialogue in Gabon, the continent must also adapt with unity and strategic clarity amid the shortcomings of multilateralism and an increasingly polarized global order.

Here, RT looks at the importance of Africa Day as well as the current context for this year’s festivities.

What happened on May 25?

For more than six decades, May 25 has been a day of reflection and commemoration. Each year, Africa Day celebrates independence and unity—but beneath the festivities lie unresolved questions about colonialism, slavery, and justice.

The continent reflects on both victories and ongoing struggles, including debates over reparations, and a spotlight on Africa’s role in a changing world order.

On May 25, 1963, 32 African leaders gathered in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to establish the Organization of African Unity (OAU)—a landmark institution born from the struggle against colonialism and racial oppression.

Among those who helped lead the creation were Kwame Nkrumah of Ghana, Ethiopia’s Haile Selassie, who was elected the OAU’s first chairman at the founding summit, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Leopold Sedar Senghor of Senegal, Julius Nyerere of Tanzania, Jomo Kenyatta of Kenya, and Ahmed Sekou Toure of Guinea.

Their stated mission was to defend sovereignty, promote unity, and support nations still under colonial or minority rule.  While the OAU was succeeded by the African Union (AU) in 2002, Africa Day remains an annual marker of both independence and intercontinental solidarity.

Why does it matter today?

Today, the AU frames Africa Day with forward-looking themes—each year’s focus is a statement of political intent.

In 2026, the continent is marking the “Year of Assuring Sustainable Water Availability and Safe Sanitation Systems to Achieve the Goals of  Agenda 2063.” According to the 55-member organization, millions across the continent still lack access to safe water and basic sanitation—a crisis that it said drains productivity and threatens food security and regional stability.

The continent faces escalating conflicts, including in Sudan, where a civil war that erupted in 2023 has killed thousands of civilians, ongoing violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and a sprawling jihadist insurgency across the Sahel—all of which worsen humanitarian strains.

Last year, the AU highlighted “Justice for Africans and People of African Descent through Reparations,” a theme that forced global institutions to confront centuries of slavery and colonial exploitation. In March 2026, the UN formally declared the Transatlantic Slave Trade as “the gravest crime against humanity,” in a Ghana-led resolution backed by the AU.

How is Africa Day celebrated?

Across the continent, governments stage official ceremonies, policy announcements, and diplomatic meetings. Communities mark the day with music, dance, fashion, and food. Schools and universities host debates and exhibitions that connect Pan-African ideals to the AU’s long-term plans, including Agenda 2063.

In countries such as Gambia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho, Mali, Mauritania, Namibia, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, the day is legally marked as a national public holiday. 

According to an AU program, this year’s commemoration—the 63rd anniversary of the OAU-AU—is being marked at the organization’s headquarters in Addis Ababa over three days, with sports events, cultural showcases, exhibitions, an official ceremony, and statements from dignitaries including the AU chairperson, Ethiopian representatives, and the dean of the diplomatic corps in Ethiopia.

Beyond the continent, Moscow has been holding official Africa Day receptions for at least the past two decades, amid Russia’s growing relations with African nations.

At last year’s event, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the date held “profound significance” not only for Africans, but “for all humanity,” describing it as a symbol of the continent’s struggle to overcome its colonial past and pursue freedom and justice.

What are the challenges that lie ahead?

Despite the festive trappings, Africa Day exposes fault lines, with the continent’s demands for global representation and historical redress still deeply contested. Its longstanding push for a permanent seat at the UN Security Council has yet to produce the reform African leaders have demanded.

AUC Chairperson Mahmoud Ali Youssouf said last week that Africa was “not asking for a favor,” but demanding the correction of a “historical injustice,” arguing that the council’s credibility depends on whether it reflects today’s world rather than the geopolitical order of 1945.

Disagreements also persist over the practicality of reparations, the responsibility of modern states, and the lingering global inequities rooted in centuries of exploitation.

The U.S. has said it does not recognize a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs, while Britain and several other European states have resisted compensation demands over slavery and colonial-era abuses, arguing that present-day governments cannot be held legally liable for actions committed centuries ago.

Across the continent, leaders have continued to denounce neocolonial pressure, pointing to foreign military footprints, unequal financial structures, debt burdens, and external control over strategic resources as obstacles to full sovereignty.

In Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, France has lost its military presence amid allegations that it has been sponsoring militants behind the long-running jihadist insurgency in the Sahel. (RT.com)

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On November 18, 2012, Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) President Sidumo Dlamini said, “greed,” or the wealth of the world being controlled by a few, is the root cause of the world’s economic instability. He said this while addressing the 47th National African Federated Chamber of Commerce Conference in Johannesburg. His 14-year-old remarks still ring true today.

“The current dominant world political and economic system is predicated on greed and is constructed by and on behalf of a tiny minority,” said the president of South Africa’s largest union. “Its primary purpose is to deliver profit for them.”

Dlamini explained that the vicious nature of the capitalist system scraps all “proposed alternatives” that take humanity into consideration, “in favor of those who present an opportunity to have capital continue to maximize profit even during the [world’s] worsening crisis.”

“Greed, for a lack of a better term, is good,” said the unscrupulous corporate raider played by Michael Douglas in the 1987 Oliver Stone movie “Wall Street.” What that fictional character did not say is that countless lives are sacrificed to make greed good for the few.

To provide insight into the above, we need only revisit the 2008 economic crisis, which led to the collapse of the U.S. subprime mortgage market and the reversal of the housing boom in other industrialized economies. According to Dlamini, “when we could see levels of poverty increasing, people being retrenched, and when all of us were made to carry our hands on our heads about the big economic crisis, evidence shows that during that period the world’s billionaires saw their wealth grow by 50 percent, and their ranks swell to 1,011 from 793.”

During the same period, the number of U.S. billionaires grew from 359 to 403.

The 1,011 billionaires’ combined net worth increased to $3.6 trillion, “up,” Dlamini explained, adding “$1.2 trillion from the year before.” Each billionaire, on average, had his or her wealth increased by $500 million. According to Dlamini, “The wealth of the 403 U.S. billionaires [could have] more than cover[ed] the 2008 U.S. federal deficit, with money left over for the states.”

As of March 2026, the world community includes a record 3,428 billionaires, according to the 2026 Forbes World’s Billionaires List. This marks a significant increase from previous years, with these individuals residing in over 80 countries. More than enough to pay off the economic costs being incurred by the consequences of U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s war against Iran.

This global greed, particularly by Global North countries, has also impacted the African continent.

“When African countries got independence, they inherited the colonial power structures of the colonizers without fundamentally altering them, thus perpetuating the dominance of capitalism to the detriment of the masses: the urban poor and peasantry,” explained Takudzwa Hillary Chiwanza, a barrister, journalist and social media content professional in his 2023 commentary “Africa Shouldn’t Listen to the International Community.”

Economist, Dr. Ndongo Samba Sylla, the Senegalese head of research and policy for Africa at International Development Economics Associates, has often analyzed “greed” not merely as a personal vice, but as a structural, institutionalized component of the global financial system that perpetuates inequality and colonial-style exploitation.

In his book, “Africa’s Last Colonial Currency: The CFA Franc Story,” co-authored with journalist Fanny Pigeaud, they argue that the CFA Franc acts as a neocolonial tool that extracts wealth from so-called Francophone Africa. They outline how this monetary arrangement hinders economic sovereignty, perpetuates underdevelopment, and subordinates African nation-states to European financial policies and French geopolitical interests.

“Over forty years after the formal end of colonialism, suffocating ties to Western financial systems continue to prevent African countries from achieving any meaningful monetary sovereignty,” Sylla writes.

According to Tricontinental: Institute for Social Research, in an article headlined, “How Neoliberalism Has Wielded ‘Corruption’ to Privatize Life in Africa,” the most “referenced” socio-psychological reasons for corruption are “greed.”

“But greed is not a transhistorical concept or emotion; rather, it is shaped by the social formation in which it is allowed to grow. Capitalism has a special relationship to greed, since it fosters the ‘animal spirits’ (as the economist John Maynard Keynes put it) to reduce all human life to commodities and to centralize the profit motive as the economic motor,” the article noted.

The film “Wall Street” and Douglas’ character’s explanation of the term “greed” to justify his drive to accumulate wealth have come to be seen as the archetypal portrayal of the excesses of financial institutions. The movie, which won Douglas an Academy Award, reportedly inspired many to work on Wall Street. The lead characters, portrayed by Douglas and Charlie Sheen, and the film’s director, Oliver Stone, have previously remarked that people still approach them to say they owe their careers in the financial industry to having seen the film.

That the movie has influenced so many possible careers is a testament to how ingrained in this culture of receiving financial dividends at the expense of others it is.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan said it best in his 1993 book, “A Torchlight for America.” In chapter three, “Greed and Leadership’s State of Mind,” Minister Farrakhan writes: “The fundamental motivation in this society is greed and the preying upon the weak of the country and the weak of the world, versus sharing the wealth in cooperation with the weak and the poor. Greed is defined as a selfish desire for possessions and wealth beyond reason. When greed is exercised in the society, it is reflected by division among the people.”

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Speaking at a ministerial meeting on UNSC reform on the sidelines of the Africa-France Summit in Kenyan capital Nairobi on May 11, Youssouf said the continent’s demand is not a request for special treatment but a response to a long-standing imbalance in global governance.

“Africa is not asking for a favor; Africa is demanding the correction of a historical injustice,” he said, according to an AU statement. He added that the Security Council’s “credibility and legitimacy” depend on whether it reflects the realities of the present world rather than “the geopolitical order of 1945.” 

The AU’s position is based on the 2005 Ezulwini Consensus and Sirte Declaration. It calls for at least two permanent African seats with all the powers held by existing permanent members, including veto rights while the veto remains, as well as five additional non-permanent seats.

The Security Council currently has five permanent members—China, France, Russia, the UK, and the U.S.—and ten elected members serving two-year terms. Africa, despite having 54 UN member states, has no permanent seat on the body.

Several African leaders have renewed calls for reform in recent months. Republic of the Congo President Denis Sassou Nguesso said last year that the council no longer reflects the world’s geopolitical balance, while Kenyan President William Ruto urged at least two permanent African seats with veto power.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly called for Africa to be given a permanent voice on the council, saying the institution has failed to keep pace with global changes since 1945. Russia has also backed expanding the Security Council to include more African, Asian, and Latin American states.

Moscow’s deputy envoy to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, told an African Union Committee of Ten summit in New York in September that the council should reflect the “multipolar nature of the world” rather than “the global colonial past.” 

Polyansky said Russia supports Africa’s push for greater representation, while warning against increasing Western representation on the council.(RT.com)

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The ministry said the North African nation will continue to support collective coordination between oil-producing countries, arguing that the OPEC framework and the wider OPEC+ mechanism remain essential to balancing supply and demand and limiting market volatility.

The statement comes after the UAE announced on April 28, that it would leave OPEC and OPEC+ effective May 1, citing its national energy strategy and the need for greater policy flexibility.

Algeria is one of eight OPEC+ countries, alongside Saudi Arabia, Russia, Iraq, the UAE, Kuwait, Kazakhstan and Oman, taking part in voluntary production changes.

The countries agreed this month to raise output by a combined 206,000 barrels per day in May, while retaining the option to pause or reverse the move depending on market conditions. Algeria’s share is 6,000 barrels per day, taking its output to 983,000 barrels per day, according to official figures.

OPEC said the countries had reaffirmed the need for a cautious approach and full conformity with the Declaration of Cooperation, including compensation for any overproduction since January 2024. It also warned that attacks on energy infrastructure and disruptions to international maritime routes could increase market volatility and undermine supply security, a concern that has centered on chokepoints such as the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea.

Algeria has repeatedly backed coordinated production management within OPEC+. In March, the group agreed to begin unwinding 1.65 million barrels per day in additional voluntary cuts, while stressing that the process could be adjusted in response to market conditions.

OPEC was founded in 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Venezuela. Algeria joined the group in 1969 and has since backed coordinated output decisions while seeking stable energy revenues for its hydrocarbon-dependent economy. (RT.com)

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According to Bloomberg, Beijing has laid down the law for Chinese companies, ordering them to defy American sanctions for the first time, a step that threatens to put its banking sector in the crosshairs of competition between the world’s two largest economies. With this economic move, China has drawn a red line in the sand by wheeling out its “Blocking Rules,” ordering non-compliance with U.S. sanctions.

In response to this bold escalation of trade hostilities, China’s Ministry of Commerce (MOC) issued a formal blocking measure prohibiting domestic entities from complying with U.S. sanctions, several news agencies, including China’s news service Xinhua, reported.

“The move specifically protects five major Chinese petrochemical firms recently targeted by Washington for their alleged involvement in the Iranian oil trade,” reported ndtv.com, the digital platform for New Delhi Television.

The companies named include Hengli Petrochemical (Dalian) Refining Co., Ltd., Shandong Shouguang Luqing Petrochemical Co., Ltd., Shandong Jincheng Petrochemical Group Co., Ltd., Hebei Xinhai Chemical Group Co., Ltd., and Shandong Shengxing Chemical Co., Ltd.

In this unprecedented act that threatens to trap a vast banking sector in the crossfire as tension rises between the world’s largest economies, China has ordered its companies to ignore U.S. sanctions.

“Beijing has often railed against unilateral sanctions and pronounced them illegitimate, but it has also quietly allowed its largest companies to comply with them, in order to avoid blowback on its own economy and to preserve access to the U.S. financial system,” noted Bloomberg.com.

De-dollarization is a trend gaining momentum to reduce the world’s dependence—especially in the Global South—on the U.S. dollar, which has become the backbone of global trade and the dominant currency in global central bank reserves.

Proponents argue that de-dollarizing would free economies outside the U.S. from the risk of U.S. sanctions and give alternative tenders more sway and independence, Business Insider.com explained.

Africa and countries in the Global South need to decouple from the Western Bretton Woods imperialist model, economist Redge Nkosi, the Pretoria-based founder and executive director of First Source Money and Public Banking of South Africa, told Africa Watch. He is also a former member of South African President Nelson Mandela’s administration.

“They ought to be reformed, but reformation is unlikely because the powerful Global North nations benefit from the poverty of the Global South. Abusing its dominant position, the U.S. has done us a great favor,” he said.

The “favor,” explained Nkosi, is that the U.S. has “abused its dominant position by geopolitically weaponizing this position,” thus assuring the Global South, including Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean, and Africa, that their survival depends on decoupling from Europe and the U.S.

Today’s dominant reserve currency is the U.S. dollar and, to a lesser extent, the Euro. This means all invoicing of international trade is done mostly in U.S. dollars. According to Nkosi, foreign exchange is also done in U.S. dollars. The consequence is that the U.S. gains inordinate financial and geopolitical power. Since all reserves are in U.S. dollars, it gives America the ability to punish at will.

Any country that does not do U.S. bidding—like Russia, Iran, Afghanistan or Cuba—is sanctioned by confiscating the reserves in U.S. dollars or by blocking those countries from accessing the ability to transmit money globally.

These monetary transactions are conducted via the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT. SWIFT is a vast messaging network used by financial institutions to send and receive information, such as money transfers, quickly, accurately, and securely.

In 2023, Nkosi presented at the BRICS Summit in South Africa. “De-dollarization and the construction of a new global financial monetary architecture” was the substance of his talk.

“The Global South countries are sick and tired of the hegemony and the abuse of the hegemony led by the U.S. and Europe,” he said. “And we’re determined to ensure that institutions like the IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank become as obsolete as they are destined to become.”

China’s response to U.S. sanctions—including zero-tariff policies for African goods (covering 53 nations through 2028), retaliatory tariffs on U.S. goods, and increased investments in tech—offers Africa a mix of new trade opportunities and potential economic risks. While enhanced access to China’s market helps boost African exports and income, heightened U.S.-China tensions can cause overall commodity price drops and currency volatility, explained Dr. Lauren Johnston, a Consultant Senior Researcher in SAIIA’s Foreign Policy Program, at SAIIA 90 (the 90th anniversary of the South African Institute of International Affairs). Dr. Johnston, who holds a PhD in economics from Peking University, wrote about her observation in an article published in The Conversation.

According to Dr. Johnston, “Substitute African products and potential exports will enjoy a price boost, and elevated Chinese support. China’s newly elevated interest in African development and market potential will bring major prospects. The question will be whether African countries are ready to grasp them, and to use that potential to foster an independent development path of their own.”

China’s challenge to U.S. sanctions comes right before the long-awaited meeting later in May between President Donald Trump and his counterpart Xi Jinping and signals a far more aggressive stance between the world’s largest economies.

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Just as the revitalized southern cotton barons and their northern affiliates trapped Black people under a new form of slave labor, the World Bank, along with the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has trapped countries in Africa and other regions in the Global South with unpayable debt, according to the Geopolitical Economy Report by Ben Norton.

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, National Representative of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, teaches that debt is slavery. In a message delivered to Haitians in downtown Port-au-Prince near the National Palace on December 14, 2011, during his tour of various Caribbean islands to deliver the Teachings of the Most Honorable Elijah Muhammad, Minister Farrakhan explained that while some of the anger from citizens in the Caribbean is directed toward people in power, there are other forces at play.

“But what we don’t see is that Haiti, Jamaica, Barbados, Trinidad—all of the islands of the Caribbean have borrowed money from the International Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund. So, when we borrow their money to help develop our land, they put conditions on the loan that are destined to rob the people of their wealth; so Haiti is in debt, Jamaica is in debt, Trinidad is in debt—Africa is in debt! And debt is another form of slavery!” Minister Farrakhan said.

In David Graeber’s 2011 book, “Debt: The First 5,000 Years,” he explains that debt as a form of imperialism went global. Graeber frames the IMF as the world’s debt enforcer or “The high-finance equivalent of the guys who come to break your legs.” He also explained how modern-day capitalism encourages debt that saddles underdeveloped countries in the Global South, including nations in Africa.

“Unlike advanced (Western) economies, which have highly developed local-currency bond markets (financial market where participants can issue new debt), African countries are subject to prohibitively high interest rates and often cannot borrow from international investors in their own currency (the ‘original sin’ of sovereign-debt markets).”

Enter the United States and Israel’s unprovoked, denounced military assaults on Iran and Lebanon as flagrant violations of international law.

Recently initiated again in February of this year, the unprovoked and illegal war has had the devastating consequences of severely compounding Africa’s debt crisis by driving up inflation, surging oil prices by over 30%, and inflating fertilizer costs. As shipping disruptions continue in the Strait of Hormuz to increase import costs, many African nations face higher borrowing costs, weakening currencies, and increased default risks.

In 2024, Mark Spitznagel, co-founder and CIO (chief investment officer) of the private hedge fund Universa Investments, told Fortune magazine that “when that rising debt combines with decades of loose monetary policy that lifted asset prices ever higher, growing piles of consumer debt, and businesses’ penchant for leaning on credit during times of stress, it creates a ‘tinderbox economy’ that could go up in flames in a moment’s notice. It’s the ‘greatest credit bubble’ in human history.” He warned, “it will have its consequences.”

Though Spitznagel’s focus was the immorality of America’s reliance on debt and the fact that future generations “will bear the burden,” no mention was made of Africa’s history of dependence on those same Western foreign markets. As the saying goes, “When Western capitalism gets a cold, Africa comes down with the flu.”

One may ask, is the Strait of Hormuz the tinderbox economy set to go up in a moment’s notice?

Dr. Zainab Usman, a senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, responded to the London-based The Guardian regarding how the war on Iran and its blockades are affecting some African countries.

“It’s very important,” Dr. Usman stresses, “to understand that while the obstruction of shipping has affected the entire world, that particular choke point” in the Middle East, “accounts for 20% of the world’s shipment of crude oil, and a good chunk of that goes to Asia and parts of east Africa.”

And so, it is countries closer to the Strait of Hormuz and the Indian Ocean that have been most affected. Ethiopia, Kenya, Egypt, and some parts of southern Africa are already experiencing fuel shortages. Countries on the West Coast of Africa facing the Atlantic Ocean have not suffered from similar supply disruptions. However, a hike in fuel prices is landing across the continent. Costs have risen, Dr. Usman told The Guardian, stating that between 30 and 70%, and at the most extreme end, up to 150% in Somalia.

Africa’s inability to achieve sustainable development goals amid rising debt levels requires financial resources that the current Global Financial Architecture (GFA), by design, doesn’t allow the continent to access.

In the 2024 United Nations: Office of Special Adviser on Africa report, “Unpacking Africa’s Debt: Towards a lasting and durable solution,” it states, “Newly independent African nations inherited economies that were ill-equipped for diversified growth and socioeconomic development.”

The report continued, “As a result, they resorted to external borrowing to facilitate broad-based economic development and nation‑building. This marked the genesis of a cycle of public debt and arguably a continuation of the extraction characteristic of the colonial era. The perpetuation of this debt cycle also served to anchor the extraction-based economic model in African countries. Therefore, the issue of colonial and post-colonial debt remains a contentious and complex issue for many African countries, highlighting the need for fair and just solutions that consider the historical context of debt accumulation.”

Tendai Mbanje is a governance and elections scholar and is widely recognized for his expertise in African electoral processes. In his recent op-ed titled, “When Superpowers Clash, Africa Pays the Price: The Israel–USA–Iran Conflict,” he suggests that as Africa seeks “stronger alliances to mitigate shocks,” it must at the same time discover guarantees that prove their “effectiveness.”

“The continent may seek stronger alliances to mitigate external shocks, but these structures must prove their effectiveness. The erosion of trust in global institutions could drive Africa to advocate for reforms in global governance. The challenge lies in building resilience, asserting diplomatic agency, and demanding accountability in a world where the rules of war and peace are being rewritten,” he notes.

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In my commentary, I wrote about Jamaican columnist Betty Ann Blaine, who, in an article she wrote at the time, focused on the challenges of Caribbean politics that troubled the social, economic, and political conditions of both the West Indies and the African continent. The lack of willingness, including neocolonial impediments, prevented the building of coalitions that could have expanded Blaine’s critique to include Africa and the entire North American African diaspora. In her 2012 treatise, Blaine, a columnist for the Jamaican Observer, expressed particular concern for religious leaders and their roles.

Quoting Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his critique of the Black church, she wrote, “In spite of the noble affirmations of Christianity, the church has often lagged in its concern for social justice and too often has been content to mouth pious irrelevances and sanctimonious trivialities.”

She continued, writing, “Any religion that professes to be concerned with the souls of men and is not concerned with the economic and social conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is the kind the Marxist describes as ‘an opiate of the people.’”

As I wrote in my 2012 article, Blaine’s ruminations were a direct response to Minister Farrakhan’s first leg of his Caribbean tour and his past tours of Africa, including his highly anticipated address to African heads of state and delegates at the Second African/ African-American Summit in Libreville, Gabon, in May 1993.

During his 1993 message, Minister Farrakhan highlighted the need for unity between Africans in the diaspora. His weighty words focused on bridging the gap between Africa and Black Americans, fostering a “strong united hand,” and making Africa into a 21st-century superpower.

Minister Farrakhan, whose parents hailed from the West Indies, delivered a similar message in the Caribbean, calling for regional unity as the only way for Caribbean peoples to withstand the onslaught of Western economic and cultural imperialism. His message, especially geared toward the entire Black world, is to galvanize economic and political resources and synthesize ideological bents as the only way to survive.

However, Minister Farrakhan has also explained the importance of not being beholden to outside influences, something that our people in America, Africa and the Caribbean should take heed to.

The continuing “absence of moral capital” and the manifested “poverty of ideas,” as declared by Blaine in her description of the Caribbean region’s ruling class, which is being replicated in Africa, can be summed up in Minister Farrakhan’s July 10, 2010, open letter to Black leaders.

In it, he describes the inability of the wealthy and influential to effect positive changes among the masses if they are beholden to outside forces.

“However, have you ever noticed that no matter how rich and powerful some of us have become, we have never been shown how to network with the wealthy and learned of our people, pooling our resources that we may produce for our people that which would grow us from a begging position as little children to become masters of our own destiny?”

The absence of original or good ideas geared toward self-actualization and self-reliance is evident in the neoliberal directives from which some government leaders derive their marching orders. And at times, as the popularity of many Black government officials or heads of state increases, their connection to their constituents’ needs can decrease. Likewise, as their relationships with those in the past, they were critical of increases—including multinational interest groups—addressing the needs of their community, becomes co-opted. It becomes compromised by approaches that take into account the newfound support they receive from those with whom they were once in opposition.

During his address at the summit in Gabon, Minister Farrakhan referenced both the Bible and the Holy Qur’an to encourage the Black American and African leaders to seek a higher power than the neocolonialism that continues to deny Africa its ability to unify and realize its full potential.

“We are here at a summit because each one of us is losing power, authority, wealth, self-esteem, and the dignity of our own humanity because we’re in a new form of slavery called debt. Surely, man is in loss. Why, because we are not aware of the time,” Minister Farrakhan said.

“It is not the time by our watch, but the time by Allah’s (God’s) measurement of time. What time is it? We are at the time of the end of White supremacy. We are at the time of the end of White domination of the darker peoples of the world. We are at the time of the end of racism, sexism and materialism,” he said.

Today, in 2026, for the African continent, watching from afar, the destabilization of the Western world’s economic system is not enough. Africa and Africans and Blacks in the diaspora must prepare for the possibility of a prolonged war in the Middle East and its impact. For Africa, unity would have global implications that, in turn, would impact the world.

As economist Jeffrey Sachs noted in the April 16 edition of the International Affairs Forum, on their own, 55 individual African nations are too small to achieve the kind of global role and competitiveness the continent needs.

“However, if Africa truly creates a political, economic, financial, and eventually monetary union, then it will be able to emulate the great successes of China and India. With a single market, a unified financial system, and increasing monetary integration, Africa will be well positioned to create a truly unified economic space, also deeply interconnected by transboundary infrastructure (for power, fiber, roads, rail, shipping, and ecosystem management). Moreover, with a strong union, Africa will be positioned to play a global diplomatic role as well, helping to lead global decision-making in key international forums.”

This unity also applies to the Caribbean nations and Black America, all of which should heed Minister Farrakhan’s guidance, benefiting the entire diaspora.

Follow Jehron Muhammad @africawatchfcn on X

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Sudanese Foreign Minister Mohieddin Salem met with the delegation, headed by AU Special Envoy Mohamed Belaiche. The visit aims “to determine the situation in preparation for the reopening of the African Union office in Khartoum as soon as possible,” Belaiche said as quoted by Sudan Tribune. 

The return follows recent moves by UN agencies to shift their operations back to the capital after years of working out of the city of Port Sudan, on the Red Sea. 

Sudan’s transitional government returned to the Khartoum in January after nearly three years of operating from Port Sudan amid a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). 

In March of last year, Sudan’s de facto leader and head of the armed forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, proclaimed Khartoum “free” after government troops recaptured the international airport along with key infrastructure facilities. 

According to Salem, the security and living conditions in Khartoum are improving, and residents now have access to essential services. 

The return is not happening in isolation. The International Organization for Migration (IOM) reopened its office in Khartoum in September, while in January the Central Bank of Sudan resumed operations in the city. 

At the peak of the conflict, over 15 million people were displaced, according to data from the International Organization for Migration. Since then, an estimated three million have made their way back to their home areas. Of those, more than 1.3 million have returned specifically to Khartoum, according to figures released by the UN migration agency on January 29. 

“Overall, 83 percent of returnees came from internal displacement, while 17 percent returned from neighboring countries, including Egypt, South Sudan, and Libya, as well as from the Gulf States,” the IOM stated. (RT.com)

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The festival, usually celebrated during Eastertide in recent years, is one of West Africa’s most prominent cultural celebrations, similar to Brazil’s Rio Carnival, the world’s biggest party.

After reaching West Africa, many of the returnees settled in Lagos, building a life among the city’s Yoruba ethnic group. They retained some of the Brazilian and Portuguese cultures and infused them into music, food, architecture, religion and lifestyle, giving life to the Fanti Carnival.

“If you know the history of Lagos, you will understand how this carnival is important to the city and its history,” said Ademola Oduyebo, one of the carnival revelers, on April 6. “It is important that we preserve this so for our children.”

This year’s theme, “A Homecoming of Heritage,” saw processions from across Lagos converging at the Tafawa Balewa Square, featuring communities of descendants of formerly enslaved people of different age groups.

Many wore colorful costumes, including the attendees, as they danced their way to the city center, while others rode horses. All displayed elements of their Brazilian history and identity.

Artists and performers from across Africa wore elaborate outfits, with beads and feathers, while others had their bodies covered in colorful paint, swaying along Indigenous Yoruba rhythms.

One of the revelers, Glamour Sandra, said she always looked forward to being at both the Fanti festival and Brazil’s Rio Carnival.

“I love the energy, the artistic splendor that they create,” she said of the Fanti festival.

Various community associations that represent the original Aguda settlements are heavily featured in the annual festival and help organize it. (AP)

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