By Suleiman Umaru
Capt. Ibrahim Traore, interim President of Burkina Faso, appears to have forced President Donald Trump of the North American country of the United States, US, who never reckons with African countries to have a rethink.
In spite of the fact that the US, and France gets much of its gold, lithium, uranium and basic other raw materials supplies from the African Continent, particular, the Sahel states of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, the two countries Leaders, have never seen anything good in the Africa but a Continent ravaged by poverty but that requires handout from the West to survive.
It would be recalled that that the US, and France, which had colonized 22 African countries had had seen the Sahel states raw materials deposits as their own which it could mine and export. Indeed, the way the US and France had seen the Sahel states was the same way the two countries had seen Ukraine, a neighbouring country to Russian Federation.
Note that Presidents Trump and Macron, had encouraged Volodymyr Zelensky, to ensure that Ukraine joins the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, NATO. He was said to have agreed and got the desired military support to fight Russia in the over two-year old war.
Given that the Sahel States and Ukraine are homes to critical raw materials like titanium, lithium, manganese, uranium, gold and other natural resources used in US and French heavy industries and factories to manufacture vehicles, develop nuclear weapons and power plants may have informed why the dual of Presidents Trump and Emmanuel Macron were not ready to let go of the Sahel states or Ukraine.
Take for instance Ukraine’s critical raw materials like Lithium, coal, and natural gas which are valued at a about US $26 trillion, are currently under the control of President Vladimir Putin led Russian which has taken over 40% of the Ukrainian land space in the ongoing war between the two European countries, may have sent a signal to Presidents Trump and Macron , that is nothing to gain from Ukraine at the end of the war and that they have turned their back on Zelensky . According to the Kyiv School of Economics, Ukraine’s rare earth deposits are mainly concentrated in the central region, which had fallen into the waiting hands of Russian Soldiers.
President Trump appears to have realized that the Russian Leader is not ready to release the 70% of Ukraine’s commercial mineral resources, with highest concentration located in the Donestk, Dniroppetrovsk and Luhansk regions, valued at about US $15, that he is no longer ready to give any financial Aid or supply military equipment to the country but Israel, which is at war with Iran.
President Trump major worries were that Russian forces takeover of control of the valuable Lithium deposits in the Donesk region of eastern Ukraine, which was said to have deprived the country of a critical mineral asset that could have helped support a new economic partnership with the US was a big blow to it.
Already, the US, had come to the understanding that it had lost out in the Sahel States of Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, alongside France, that he would want the Russia Federation forces to stop advancing further in taking over control of entire Ukraine to ensure that the North American country which are mining, uranium which essential for both nuclear energy and defense applications and lithium, remains in business. as He has given his words that Ukraine will never join NATO. He did not stop there. He was said to have also promised to lift sanctions on Russian to calm Putin to stop bombing Ukraine but was turned down.
President Putin who was said to have almost taken over full control of Ukraine, and has entered the Sahel States, which have abundant mineral resources mined by the US and French companies, would not take it. He was said to have sent a message to Trump that the era of ‘’Western domination of the global economy using other countries mineral resources is over’’.
It was not surprising why the US President who is not ready to see the US, fall from the Olympia height has changed his attitude towards the African countries and to ensure that the country’s economy was not brought to its knees that he has invited five African Leaders, which countries have vital mineral resources like gold, uranium, manganese, phosphate, for the US, upcoming economic summit.
The invited African countries Leaders for the US economic summit includes Brice Oligui Nguema of Gabon, Gen. Umaro Sisoco, Guinea Bissau, Joseph Okai, Liberia, Mohamed Ghazuni of Mauritanian and Bassirou Diomaye Faye of Senegal. President Trump may have invited these African Leaders for discussions on how to improve trade between the US and the African countries which have huge deposits of gold, uranium, lithium, phosphate and Zinc, among others.
Despite moves by President Trump to woo the African Leaders to embrace the West, President Putin, who is determined to limit the use of the US dollars, in international transactions had teamed up with some other World Leaders from the Asian countries of China, India, Indonesia and the Middle East countries of United Arab Emirate UAE, and Iran, which is currently at war with the State of Israeli, and the South American country of Brazil including the African countries of South Africa and Egypt, to float the BRICS currency to compete with the US, dollar and the Euro.
President Trump may have seen it as a plot by Russia and China, particular, to stop the use of the US dollar, in international transactions. President Trump, who is not ready to give room to Russia, China and its allies have their way in the anti-American policies of the BRICS, may have given the US President the Audacity to have threatened ‘’to charge an additional 10% tariffs, against the BRICS economic bloc. He had sounded it loud and clear, that there would not be any exception to the US Government policy.
Aware that the US, may be hit hard by the new tariffs policy may have informed why President Trump had provided a soft landing for trading partners with a suite of tariffs to negotiate more favourable trade deals and expect policy concessions.
The BRICS Leaders had described the US President ‘s policy thrust as an afterthought and had expressed concerns about the rise of unilateral tariff and non-tariff measures by the US, which, they believe distorts trade and are inconsistent with World Trade Organization, WTO, under the close watch of Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, who incidentally was a former minister of Finance and Coordinating minister of the Economy during President Goodluck Jonathan’s Administration.
The BRICS Leaders were emphatic that the US Tariff measures could reduce global trade, disrupt global supply chains and introduce uncertainty into international economic and trade activities, that would potentially exacerbate the world existing economic disparities.
