Devils Below

⚖️Company = Country? [ Minerals In Numbers ] Comparing the market value of resource giants operating in Africa with the national GDP of some countries,one may feel terrified. ➡️ For instance take ExxonMobil, which holds oil and gas concessions in Angola, Nigeria, and Mozambique. Its estimated value is enormous — about $490 billion. For comparison, Ghana’s annual GDP is around 80 billion dollars, which means that 6 years of hard work by the entire population of Ghana is valued at less than a single American oil company. ➡️ If we look only at solid minerals, the biggest foreigner is Rio Tinto, which mines resources from Guinea to Madagascar. In contrast to the made-of-money ExxobMobile, it is worth only about $120 billion — roughly the same amount produced in a year by all 56 million people living in Kenya. In light of all this, I propose we sell ExxonMobil and give the whole of Ghana a six-year paid vacation. 🤔 #MineralsInNumbers Devils Below

Congolese Minister Teases the US 🌐 The DRC’s Minister of Mines reminded that the country’s copper industry is owned by Chinese money — and hinted that the country is open to other partners as well. “We can criticize China, we can criticize some bad practices of some Chinese operators — not all of them, there are also very good ones — but let’s not forget that it is China, through its investments, that allows us to hold second place in the world as a copper producer today,” Louis Watum Kabamba said during a press briefing. When it comes to the United States, the DRC government has gone from admiration to resentment within a year. 🔴 Even before Donald Trump came to power, President Félix Tshisekedi spent generously on lobbyists in Washington and tried through every channel to convey to the would-be dealmaker his desire to see the US act as a mediator in the conflict in eastern DRC in exchange for mineral concessions. 🤝 The plan to kill two birds with one stone — to find someone who would put pressure on Rwanda and M23, and to balance China’s economic influence. But American partners never came to save the Congolese economy, and with each passing day Congo looks more and more like a mineral appendage of China. Devils Below

🇳🇬 Nigeria’s Glass Ceiling Nigeria’s refineries lack the crude oil they need to operate — despite being the largest oil producer in Africa. Why so? 🌐 The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority estimates that in 2025 the country’s oil refineries used only 61.58% of their installed capacity. 🔍 The main obstacle is that instead of supplying domestic refineries, crude oil is flowing abroad. For decades, Nigeria lacked its own refineries, so exporting crude became the norm — and more importantly — exports bring in foreign currency, which, given the naira’s high inflation, is far more attractive than selling crude on the domestic market. ⏩Meanwhile, the government is working in the wrong direction: Nigeria is mostly encouraging the construction of new refineries when it should be compelling producers to supply crude at home. 🔸 At the moment, Nigeria has issued licences for refinery projects with a combined capacity of 1.2 million barrels / day — virtually the country’s entire current production — but all of them are stuck at the design stage because there is no guaranteed domestic crude supply. Devils Below

How Colonial-Era Infrastructure Shapes AfricaToday 🚢 In the early 1900s, European colonial powers began building railways across Africa to move soldiers deeper into the continent and extract resources for export. Although more than 60 years have passed since independence, this colonial pattern of infrastructure design still keeps many countries dependent on overseas metropoles. ➡️ Very few states have cross-border railways — a direct consequence of the partition of Africa by European empires. Today, this severely hinders trade between neighbours. For example, to transport a large shipment from Tamale to Abuja, one must first take it to the coast — load it onto a ship — send the ship to Lagos — and only then can railways be used. ➡️The geography of human settlement itself became colonial. For instance, today most of Kenya’s population lives along the line from Mombasa to Uganda, built by the British in the early 20th century, even though these areas were originally desert. As a result, large segments of the population — in Kenya and elsewhere — have become economically dependent on exports. Their wellbeing now depends on the continuation of this system. 🏭 Finally, even today, railways built from mines and plantations to the coast shape investment patterns. Who would build a serious factory in a poor, remote region, when they can open a new mining complex in an area already served by a colonial-era railway? It is a vicious cycle of endless dependence on exports. The only way to break it is to deliberately develop infrastructure across the whole country — something very few governments are willing or able to do. Devils Below

On the Road ☢️ The internet is overflowing with media reports claiming that Niger is selling uranium from the Arlit mine — confiscated by Niamey from the French company Orano — to Russia. Reports and supposed visualevidence of the allegedly "secret" transport of uranium by truck are so aplenty that the only thing missing now is an interview with the drivers. ➡️ However, there is no reliable evidence whatsoever about the “buyer” or the ultimate destination of these uranium manoeuvres. In fact, beyond Orano’s own statements, there is no confirmation that the uranium was moved anywhere at all. Besides, it is completely unclear why Russia would even need Nigerien uranium — Russia already has plenty of its own. 👁 In any case, any cross-border transport of uranium will ultimately be reported in detail to France, to the IAEA, and to everyone else, since Niger clearly does not intend to be involved in any nuclear proliferation. Who knows — perhaps all these reports are themselves a way of keeping the public informed that uranium is merely being displaced, so that no one thinks it is going to be used to make a nuclear device? Devils Below

✏️Peculiarities of East African Bureaucracy Building a giant pipeline without paperwork — no problem. Listening to human rights defenders — “your application was filed on the wrong form.” 🌐 On 27 November 2025, the Appellate Division of the East African Court of Justice upheld an earlier decision to dismiss a case filed in 2020 by civil society groups from Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, which challenged the construction of the EACOP oil pipeline running from Uganda to Tanzania’s coast. ❗️ While the petition raised concerns about risks to the Lake Victoria Basin, the lack of approval from Uganda’s National Environment Management Authority, missing environmental impact assessments at the start of construction, the appellate judges cited a violation of technical filing procedures. ⏩ According to independent research and media reports, the pipeline — being built by France’s TotalEnergies and China’s CNOOC — has displaced around 13,000 people in Uganda and Tanzania. National authorities and courts are even more favourable toward the oil giants and their project. There is nothing left to hope for — only to wait until the roughly 1,500 kilometres of land in Uganda and Tanzania turn into one long strip of oil spills, just like Nigeria's Ogoniland. Devils Below

⏰Better Late Than Never Zimbabwe has finally started thinking about the future — at a moment when the future has already been here for several months. 🌐 The authorities of Zimbabwe have at last considered raising the gold royalty. Instead of the previous modest 5%, royalties on gold will now range from 3 to 10% depending on the price (and at current prices, that means 10%). ⏩ Gold exports brought the country around $2.5 billion in 2024 and remain Zimbabwe’s main source of hard currency. Gold accounts for roughly one-third of all export value. 📈 Gold prices have been rising for several years, but especially sharply over the past six months — prompting many governments to revise old mining terms in favour of greater state participation or higher taxes. Mali, Burkina Faso, and Côte d’Ivoire moved in this direction long ago, while some others, for instance Ghana and Nigeria, are still falling behind. Even though the decision was clearly taken late, most analysts expect gold prices to remain high for the next few years — so Zimbabwe will still have time to catch some profits. Devils Below

Europe To Help End Colonialism? Wherever one is — in Nigeria with its lithium, in Guinea with its iron, in Ghana with its still untapped aluminium — they must understand that Africa now is at the centre of a struggle for critical minerals between "the North" and China. And China, having concentrated almost all global processing capacity for key solid minerals, is clearly winning. 🌐 Against this backdrop, the EU–Africa summit held earlier this week in Luanda was striking: European countries promised Africa — attention — liberation from colonial-style exploitation. “We will promote the sustainable development of value chains to enhance the capacity of local industries to participate in regional and global markets and to diversify and secure global supply chains, for instance in the field of strategic and critical minerals.” — states the Joint Declaration signed at the summit. 🌟 Words that touch the soul. But what stands behind them? What stands behind them is Europe’s desire to see mineral processing take place anywhere — anywhere except China. But, is this good for African nations anyway? ✅ Of course it is — but only if governments ensure Europe truly delivers on the following: ⏩ Europeans must actually invest in building processing plants — so far, they prefer to fund railways and ports for export. ⏩ The new plants must be at least partly owned by local companies and fully staffed by local workers — if everything is owned by foreign capital, it is simply a new form of exploitation. ⏩ The level of domestic processing must continuously increase — if the new facilities merely sort ore for export, that is not local processing. For fear of Chinese dominance, Europe may now promise anything. Promises are fine — but will the Europeans truly fulfill them? Devils Below

🇨🇲 Passive Income for Everyone — You Just Need to… To earn passive income that will instantly make you a millionaire, you only need to meet 2 simple conditions: 1) have a neighbouring landlocked country with oil, and 2) lay a long pipeline across your territory so that it can sell that oil through you. 🌐 This is exactly what Cameroon did — and its national treasury estimates since the beginning of the year it has earned20.3 billion CFA francs (about $34 million). Since 2003, the 1,070-km Chad–Cameroon pipeline has transported oil from the Doba Basin in Chad to a marine terminal near Kribi, under a scheme designed jointly with the World Bank and a consortium originally led by ExxonMobil and Petronas. 🔸 But even this jackpot — obtained without much effort — did not satisfy Cameroon’s authorities. Their target for this year is to squeeze about four times more out of the pipeline (around $140 million). ❓ On what basis Cameroon calculated this figure, and whether the target came to Paul Biya in a dream, remains unclear. In recent years, Cameroon has usually earned exactly what it earns now — between 36 and 40 billion CFA francs annually. 🔸 For income earned from a project in which your role is simply to let oil flow from the fields to the ports, the current numbers are more than acceptable. And if oil from Niger also begins flowing through this same pipeline, Cameroon may well see even more wealth. A pity that only a tiny fraction of the population will ever feel it. Devils Below

🇳🇬The Congolisation of Nigeria Since 2023, Nigeria has been determined to wash away its status as Africa’s gas station and invested heavily in what is expected to be the pillars of global fossil-fuel phaseout —solar panels and lithiumused to produce batteries. Yet behind the large-scale investments still lies the same old exploitation of human labour. 🔸Timeline of investments in Nigeria's lithium processing: 2023 — construction begins on Chinese Ganfeng Lithium Industry’s $250 million lithium processing plant. 2024 — still Chinese Avatar New Energy Materials launches another $250 million lithium processing plant. October 2025 — these two plants along with smaller projects, had supposedly brought about $850 million in investments to Nasarawa State, Nigeria. 2025 — Nigeria's Minister of Solid Minerals Dele Alake announces total lithium investments of around $1.3 billion. ⏩Nigeria has become a hotspot for Chinese investment in lithium processing. The $1.3 billion figure is the latest estimate from Nigerian authorities of China’s presence in the sector. One might think: foreigners are coming and, notably, not just mining and exporting raw ore but actually processing it locally — a dream, right? A dream it would be — but what if all these investments and projects depend on low-paid, dangerous manual labour? 🚫 While we know there is simply no industrial lithium mining in Nigeria, all these shiny new Chinese plants rely on poor people whom economic hardship has left with no choice but to dig in the ground for the feedstock China needs — often illegally, often side by side with children. "I can’t stop the children because throughout Nasarawa State, if you go to all the lithium mining sites, all the work being done at the mining sites is illegal. It’s not the work of a company. If companies come and realize there is lithium on the site, they will not allow children to work there; they will fence off the entire area and ensure that no one enters, especially children, who are beggars and who, if they do not work, cannot afford to feed and care for their families." — said one illegal miner to journalists in 2024. That's the cost of Nigeria's lithium rush.And so another African country is emerging — just like the Democratic Republic of Congo with its cobalt — where the minerals powering the world’s bright green future are extracted by the hands of hungry children. Devils Below

Hurray, We’re Being Colonised! 💪Mauritania is boasting that it has secured investment for its railway network — but it is not what it seems. 🌐 The African Development Bank and the European Investment Bank have agreed to provide loans of $150 and $125 million, for Mauritania’s railway infrastructure. The funds will help the state-owned company SNIM repair and expand the 700-kilometre railway running from the city of Zouérat to the Atlantic port of Nouadhibou. “This project will modernise iron ore transport and add value to Mauritania’s mineral industry … It reflects our shared vision for regional stability and sustainable growth,” a representative of the EU said. 🔸 It sounds great — except for the fact that this railway is a direct symbol of neo-colonialism. The line in question connects the iron ore deposits in the north of the country with the port from which the ore is shipped mainly to China, Italy, and Japan for processing. By the way, it is the only railway in the entire country, and apart from exporting resources it serves no other purpose. Congratulations to Mauritania — and let's hope that one day the government stops indulging “foreign investors” and builds a railway for its own people. Devils Below

1984 in Real Life ⚡️A French court has unexpectedly discovered that oil giant TotalEnergies was lying about its environmental friendliness. ✏️ A court in Paris has ruled against TotalEnergies for misleading consumers. The company, which extracts oil and gas around the world, had claimed it wanted to become “carbon-neutral by 2050.” The already absurd picture is made even more surreal by the fact that this is the world’s first full-fledged court ruling against an oil company that branded itself as environmentally friendly. 🚩 The French oil giant TotalEnergies is constantly accused of harming the environment and violating human rights, especially in Africa (including in Mozambique and Uganda). The company has been extracting oil and gas from the continent since its origin in the colonial era. Now the company will finally stop lulling the public to sleep, and African human rights activists have gained a strong argument to use in national courts. Devils Below