🚨 Mad Max in Niger: Is the Army Finally Getting Its Act Together?

🌐Niger’s military press service announced that on February 10 it repelled an attack by MPLJ militants on Chinese oil facilities near Agadem. Reports say the militants crossed into Niger in ten vehicles from Chad.

Unlike similar incidents in 2025, this time Niger’s army claims to have successfully fended off the attack, forcing the militants to retreat. Official government statements, however, make no mention of casualties on either side.

💥 In its response, MPLJ claims to have lost 1 fighter and 1 vehicle, while allegedly inflicting around 24 deaths on the army. The militants then reportedly drove the same vehicles back into Chad.

Even taking MPLJ’s unverified claims at face value, Niger’s army is still making significant progress in protecting the country’s main revenue source—a critical achievement now that the stakes involve not just China’s CNPC, but also new partners eyeing Niger’s oil.

➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

Good morning!

🔴 The footage allegedly shows miners taking away ore from one of the industrial mines in the Congo.

💡 Anytime you've ideas to suggest, interesting topics to share, or feel that some facts are unfairly overlooked — don’t hesitate to drop a comment here or DM the channel.

Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵Another Happy Ending🔵

Mali and Canadian miner's relationship keeps re-entering golden age

🌐 Concluding a two-year row with the Canadian company Barrick, the government of Mali has approved a 10-year extension of its the gold mining license at the country's largest gold deposit, Loulo-Gounkoto, near the Senegalese border.

🔸 Since 2023, Barrick had been in conflict with Mali’s government over the country’s new mining regulations. They generally require that the state’s share of mining profits be increased.

The conflict escalated several times: Mali detained high-ranking executives of the Canadian company and temporarily took control of the Loulo-Gounkoto mine itself.

Last November, the parties resolved the dispute, which involved dropping all charges against the company, its subsidiaries, and employees, as well as returning the mine to the company’s control.

🏷 This once again reflects Mali’s unique strategy: unlike its Sahelian neighbors in Burkina Faso, Bamako avoids nationalization of gold assets or transferring them to new partners, instead aiming to impose its terms on the present Western companies.

➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🌐 Weekly News Digest [ February 9 – February 15 ]

Last week, the mining conference in Cape Town became the first high-level venue to criticize American expansion into Africa - but what else happened?

💡Here are the key highlights:

🇨🇩 DR Congo

— South Africa’s Minister of Resources sharply criticizes his Congolese counterpart
— Washington urged an Australian mining firm AVZ to sell its major lithium project to a US company

🇱🇾 Libya

— Libya’s fails its first oil license auction in 17 years

🇲🇱 Mali

— The Malian government establishes a new state-owned mining company
— Mali approves a 10-year extension of Canadian gold miner's license

🇳🇪 Niger

— Niger’s military repels an attack by MPLJ militants on Chinese oil facilities
— Niger is ready to return the uranium confiscated from the French

🇳🇬 Nigeria

— Nigerian company loses asset in Equatorial Guinea
— Dangote Refinery reaches its design capacity for the first time
— US lawmakers introduce a bill claiming that Chinese illegal miners are paying Fulani militant groups

🇿🇦 South Africa

— Mining Indaba Conference concludes in Cape Town

🌍 Global

— State Department reveals the US strategy for Africa

#NewsDigest

➡️ Follow to stay informed - @devilsbelow

Gift for Macron 2.0: Niger's Position Clarified to Keep Potential Buyers Engaged

Financial Times published a new statement from Niger’s authorities regarding the fate of its uranium

🌐 Yesterday Niger's Minister of Mines Ousmane Abarchi told the FT that Niger’s government is in talks with Russia, China, and the US about selling uranium stockpiled near Niamey’s airport.

The statement comes just days after President Tchiani’s ambiguous remarks about returning uranium to the French.

💬"We can sell the uranium to whoever we want," the minister said, reiterating Niger's basic approach towards its uranium.

Last year, French media was abuzz with reports of some 1,000 tons of uranium yellowcake powder (worth an estimated $240 million) being transported from northern Niger to Niamey’s airport.

At the time, the official position was that France was entitled to its share — but everything mined after France’s exit belonged to Niger.

🔴 Tiani’s recent comments about returning uranium to France may have been misinterpreted potential buyers from Russia, the US and China, risking scaring them off.

For Niger, this apparently prompted the need to reaffirm the official stance in a respected outlet like the Financial Times.

➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵Welcome to Nigeria’s Pre-election Year of 2026!🔵

The first symptoms are already visible

✔️Just a few days ago, Nigeria’s electoral commission announced the 2027 presidential election date — and now, President Tinubu has suddenly demanded that the state oil corporation NNPC hand over to the state some 80% of its revenue, according to Africa Confidential.

💲 If this is true, the president seems determined to boost Nigeria’s budget spending in the pre-election year. And NNPC, which just days ago reported a $4.3 billion profit for 2025, might seem like a perfectly logical piggy bank for such whims.

There’s just one catch: at the very end of December, Tinubu himself wrote off about $1.4 billion of NNPC’s debt to the government—and since then, the corporation has already announced it needs $22 billion to fund future gas infrastructure projects.

Such an opportunistic approach in the run-up for elections is characteristic of any government on Earth. Yet. the wellbeing of millions of citizens still depends on whether the government can efficiently run the country's oil and gas sector. If the December decision to write off NNPC's debts was aimed at giving the corporation a chance for brand new start, then it mustn't be treated now as a source of pocket money.

➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

Trans-Saharan Gas Rush 📈

Why is a long-stalled megaproject in West Africa being revived, and what does Russia have to do with it?

🇩🇿 🌐 🇳🇪 Algeria’s active efforts to restore ties with West African countries are beginning to bear their sweet fruits. During today’s visit to Algeria, Nigerien President and his Algerian counterpart not only agreed to reboot relations but also remembered the famous Trans-Saharan gas pipeline.

Relations between the two countries had cooled earlier when Algerian air defenses shot down a Malian drone? but now they are apparently mending.

⏩ Calling for abandonment of old grievances, at a joint press conference the Algerian president chose to emphasize what unites the two countries: Islam and the stalled Trans-Saharan gas pipeline project from Nigeria to Algeria via Niger:

💬We have agreed to begin construction of the Trans-Saharan gas pipeline, running through the territory of <…> Niger, immediately after Ramadan.

We have written about this 4,000-kilometer megaproject, designed to transport gas from Nigeria to Europe. It has been announced many times but never started. Now, Algeria’s Sonatrach is set to begin laying the pipeline in Niger as early as late March — right after Ramadan.

⁉️ But why is Algeria rushing so much, and why, above all, revive the $13 billion project fraught with high risks due to Niger’s political situation?

🇷🇺 Most likely, gas suppliers from Nigeria and their intermediaries at Sonatrach are counting on Europe’s increased demand for gas. On January 26, the EU approved a bill to completely phase out Russian gas in 2027.

Clearly, Nigerian gas producers and Algerian middlemen are hoping to cash in on the newly vacant market. Niger, of course, will also receive fees for gas transit.

➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵What’s So Good About Tariffs?🔵

The US and China are racing to eliminate trade barriers for African countries. These "goodwill gestures" are framed as a gift for African business — but in reality, they’re a one-way ticket to the "Dutch disease."

🌐 Less than two weeks after Trump extended the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) — a Bush-era law offering duty-free access to the US market for over 30 African countries — Xi Jinping did the same, but for all African nations and with no strings attached, starting May 1.

Both moves are widely touted as a gift from the big to struggling African businesses. But there’s an elephant in the room: complex industrial goods from Africa will never be competitive in the already saturated markets of the U.S. and China.

⏩Here’s a prediction: as soon as China lifts all tariffs on May 1, the first exports to surge will be oil, mineral ores and semi-processed raw materials. The real competition over zero tariffs for Africa is a tug-of-war over primary commodity export flows.

❗️ Why is even this bad? Because lower export costs for raw materials make investors even less interested in building factories — why bother when shipping unprocessed goods to China just became even more profitable?

In the end, governments will face the dilemma of artificially restricting their own exports — through quotas and bans. The sad part is, few authorities seem to realize this.

➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🇳🇬⛏️ Tragedy in Nigeria’s Plateau State

What is Known of Nigeria's Worst Mine Disaster Since Late September

🌐 On Tuesday, February 18, in Nigeria's Plateau State at least 37 people died while working in an underground mine.

🔸According to police reports, early Tuesday morning, the victims were deep in a poorly ventilated tunnel and inhaled a "toxic cocktail" of gases—including carbon monoxide (CO), lead oxide, and sulfur compounds.

🔸Another 26 people were hospitalized. The bodies of the deceased have been released to their families for burial.

💥 The high death toll naturally led many to assume an explosion followed a gas leak. But police specifically noted that no signs of an explosion were found. It’s harder to grasp that dozens could die from a lack of safety equipment and invisible gas rather than a dramatic blast sparked by a stray flame.

Authorities have ordered the immediate shutdown of the site and launched an investigation into the causes and legality of the mining operations. The area has been cordoned off to prevent further entries into the tunnels.

Last time when a comparable mining tragedy (besides those linked to armed attacks) struck Nigeria was in late September, when a pit collapse in Nigeria's Zamfara State claimed 13 lives.

➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵Central Bank Goes for Obscure Schemes🔵

🌐 Bloomberg reports the Central Bank of the Democratic Republic of Congo plans to buy gold from a state‑owned company to bolster official reserves.

DRC Gold Trading SA will be the partner of the Central Bank, providing gold from Congo’s hand-dug — or artisanal — mining sites.

⏩ However, it is not specified whether purchases will be settled in Congolese francs or in dollars — a critical difference for inflation, monetary control and who bears the cost.

🔴If the Central Bank pays in Congolese francs, this may endanger fiscal stability — triggering inflation that could leak into prices. But for the Congolese Central Bank it would almost the cheapest way to build up gold reserves, paying artisanal miners in currency it issues itself.

🔴If paid in dollars, inflation may be avoided — however, at the expense of the DRC's foreign currency reserves.

➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵Ivory Coast's Biggest Gas Discovery in 5 Years🔵

🌐Italian Eni has announced a new discovery named Calao South in Ivory Coast's Block CI-501 — a find reportedly holding up to 5.0 Tcf (trillion cubic feet) of gas and 450 million barrels of condensate.

🔸Eni says the new discovery, situated 3 km under the seabed, is the country’s second largest gas discovery after Baleine project — Eni's own 2021 discovery.

🔸 In both cases the control stays concentrated in the caring Italian hands (Eni 90%, Petroci 10% in the new discovery) while the state watches the cash flow.

More gas production by Eni centralizes leverage in hands of a single multinational — at the time when Ivory Coast is actively trying to bring its neighbours into its gas energy fold.

➡️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow