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eNCA
06-05-2025
- Business
- eNCA
Gabon's new president faces tough economic challenges
LIBREVILLE - Big challenges await Gabon's new president Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema as he takes the reins of a country rich in oil but struggling with debt. The general was sworn in on Saturday after winning 94.85 percent in the April 12 vote in which international observers signalled no major irregularities. His victory followed a 19-month transition after he took power in a coup in August 2023 that ended the 55-year rule of the Bongo dynasty. Following his inauguration in front of around 40,000 people at a stadium near the capital Libreville, Oligui enjoys strong popularity as he begins his term but faces high expectations of economic and social reform. The new 50-year-old president said he measured "with gravity, the immensity of the burden that falls upon him". He campaigned on six "pillars": reform of the water and electricity sector, youth employment through business promotion, housing and transport, social justice and human capital, sustainable development and governance reform. Among the pressing issues is the electrical grid, managed by the public company SEEG, which suffers regular failures due to a lack of investment. Gabon suffers a glaring lack of infrastructure: it has a "highway directorate" but no highways. Despite successive building plans, only 2,000 of its 10,000 kilometres of roads are usable, according to official data. The new head of state has cast himself as a "builder", proudly launching or relaunching numerous construction projects, particularly in Libreville. Campaign posters pictured him wearing a builder's hard hat and public television regularly broadcasts images of buildings under construction. Among the major projects promised during the campaign was a new north-south railway line linking the deep-water port of Mayumba and the Booue hydroelectric dam. Faced with the depletion of its oil resources, Gabon needs to diversify its economy. "There is still dependence on oil," said Francois Gaulme, an associate researcher at the French Institute of International Relations (IFRI). "The economy needs to be diversified, and this has never been done on a large scale." Although oil extraction, the bedrock of the economy, has generated billions of annual profits since the first drilling in the 1950s, Gabon's debt has swelled. From 72 percent of GDP in 2023, it rose to 73 percent in 2024 and is projected to hit 80 percent this year. Oligui pledged in his speech to work with the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank "to better repay our external debt".
The Hindu
30-04-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
The clock is ticking for Europe amid doubts about U.S. support for Ukraine
President Donald Trump is pushing Ukraine to cede territory to Russia to end the war, threatening to walk away if a deal becomes too difficult — and causing alarm bells in Europe about how to fill the gap. Ukraine's European allies view the war as fundamental to the continent's security, and pressure is now mounting to find ways to support Kyiv militarily — regardless of whether Mr. Trump pulls out. Mr. Trump has repeatedly lashed out at Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accusing him of prolonging the 'killing field' by pushing back on his demand that Ukraine hand over occupied Crimea to Moscow. Mr. Trump's land-for-peace plan would mark a significant shift in the post-Second World War order, ripping up conventions that have long held that borders should not be redrawn by force. 'It took a World War to roll back de jure annexations and 60 million people died,' said François Heisbourg, special adviser at the Foundation for Strategic Research in Paris, referring to the pre-war annexation of Austria by Nazi Germany. 'Europeans will not accept it' and Ukraine will not either, he said. Diplomats and experts described various scenarios if the U.S. decides to walk. They range from the U.S. ceasing direct aid to Ukraine — but allowing European nations to pass on critical American intelligence and weapons to Kyiv — to Mr. Trump banning transfers of any American technology, including components or software in European weapons. Money and weapons Any withdrawal of U.S. military aid to Ukraine could create serious difficulties for Europe, analysts and diplomats say. Kyiv's ability to keep fighting would depend on European political will to muster money and weapons — and how quickly the gaps left by Washington can be filled. If it were easy, Europe would 'already be doing things without America,' said a European diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter. No new U.S. aid package for Ukraine has been approved since Mr. Trump came into office, even as European nations have collectively provided Ukraine with more aid than Washington, according to the Keil Institute. Europe has contributed around $157 billion, some $26 billion more than the U.S., although Washington slightly outpaces Europe when it comes to military aid, the Germany-based institute said. It will be hard, but there are ways Europe can find cash to fund Ukraine — including seizing frozen Russian assets — but 'money isn't what you shoot bullets with,' Mr. Heisbourg said. Europe's 'big mistake' was undertaking major military downsizing following the Cold War and thinking 'this war started in February 2022 and not in February 2014,' when Moscow invaded and then annexed Crimea, said Thomas Gomart, director of IFRI, a French international affairs think tank. Europeans are scrambling to acquire weapons for themselves and for Ukraine, while confronting constraints on production capacity, a fragmented defence industry and a decades-long reliance on the U.S. Some extra production capacity could come from Ukraine, which has ramped up manufacturing of ammunition and drones since Russia's invasion. Much harder to replace, experts said, are advanced American weapons, including air defences. Russia has attacked Ukraine almost nightly since Mr. Putin's forces invaded in February 2022, flooding the skies with missiles and drones, including dummy attack drones to exhaust Ukraine's limited air defences. In April, at least 57 people were killed in multiple strikes. The death toll from the Russian attacks would 'inevitably' be higher without the American Patriot air-defence missile systems protecting Ukraine's skies, said Douglas Barrie, senior fellow for military aerospace at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. The Patriots can track and intercept Russian missiles, including the hypersonic Kinzhal. Kyiv uses them to protect critical infrastructure, including the country's energy grid. Earlier this month, Mr. Zelenskyy asked to buy 10 Patriots, a request Mr. Trump dismissed. 'You don't start a war against someone 20 times your size and then hope that people give you some missiles,' he said, a day after a Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy killed 35 people. France and Italy have given Ukraine their Aster SAMP/T air-defence system but the issue is not 'quality, it's quantity,' Mr. Barrie said, pointing to the larger U.S. defense industrial base and greater U.S. stockpiles. Wait-and-see game Although Mr. Trump criticised Mr. Putin over the weekend for his missile strikes and suggested imposing more sanctions on Russia, for Europe it remains a wait-and-see game. A worst-case scenario could see a ban on American weapons exports and transfers to Ukraine, which would bar European nations from buying U.S. weapons to give to Kyiv or transferring weapons with American components or software, Mr. Barrie said. That could mean countries, including Germany, that have already given American Patriots to Ukraine would be prohibited from doing so. 'It's one thing for the U.S. to cease to be an ally, it is another for the U.S. to be an enemy,' Mr. Heisbourg said, noting that such a step could also damage the U.S. defence sector if weapons purchases were perceived to be unusable on Mr. Trump's political order.
