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

🌐 Weekly News Digest [ February 16 – February 22 ]

That was a week when Algeria and Niger suddenly revived the long-stalled giant Trans-Saharan gas pipeline.

💡 ...And here are more key highlights:

🇩🇿 Algeria

— Algeria and Niger agree to launch the 4,000-km Trans-Saharan gas pipeline after Ramadan

🇨🇩 DR Congo

— Central Bank plans to buy gold from a state‑owned company
— Belgium blocks US firm from accessing colonial‑era geological archives

🇨🇮 Ivory Coast

— Eni discovers Ivory Coast's second largest gas field

🇳🇪 Niger

— Mines Minister Abarchi sheds light on uranium sale talks with Russia, China, US

🇳🇬 Nigeria

— President Tinubu demands NNPC transfer its revenue after $4.3bn profit
— 37 people dead and 26 injured in a mine disaster in Plateau State

🌍 Global

— Trump extends AGOA; Xi grants zero tariffs to all African imports from May 1

✈️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

Not Big Enough to Mention: Malawi Sidelined in Malawi-US Resource Deal

🌐 Australian company Sovereign Metals, which works at Malawi's Kasiya rutile-graphite mine, and US trading firm Traxys have signed a memorandum of understanding, naming the American firm as the future trader of Malawian graphite.

🇺🇸 Traxys is one of the three trading houses designated to procure minerals for the US Project Vault supply‑chain initiative, which means that Malawian graphite will be shipped to the US as soon as the Australian begin production.

However, the deal avoids mentioning one small, but quite significant detail — the role of Malawi's government, which was not present at the signing ceremony.

❗️ This is a meaningful detail, since in most cases such agreements, bound to have geopolitical implications, are usually preceded by intergovernmental handshakes — only afterwards comes B2B.

Although the Kasiya mine is the largest rutile (a form of titanium) deposit on Earth, the US apparently sees Malawi itself as too small to consult with. Probably Trump has never even heard of it.

✈️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

🔵Dream Deal: Everything for Recognition🔵

🌐 Somaliland says it will give the United States access to its minerals and offer military bases — trading territory and deposits for the one thing it has lacked for 35 years — recognition.

💬We are willing to give exclusive (access to our minerals) to the United States. Also, we are open to offer military bases to the United States, Khadar Hussein Abdi, minister of the presidency said on Saturday.

🔸 Somaliland president Abdirahman Mohamed Abdullahi already suggested in recent weeks granting Israel privileged access to its mineral resources.

🔸 Somaliland declared independence in 1991 but remained unrecognised by UN members until Israel’s recognition in December 2025.

Beyond the issue of Somalia's long non-existent territorial integrity, the situation is risking spilling into a rift between US and its allies: with Israel betting on Somaliland, the original Somalia is moving towards gas partnership with Turkey.

✈️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow

Nosebleeds in French Media: Foreign Outlets Fuel the Anti-China Crusade in Africa

🌐 Four nosebleed cases, including three children, in Kolwezi, DRC, became the topic of an article by the French radio station RFI, which blames them on emissions from a nearby plant owned by Ruashi Mining.

As if by surprise, the pollution issue comes up in the French media exactly at the moment when this Chinese firm is quarrelling with the local authorities over land rights.

💬He bleeds a lot at night, we stay standing to watch him,” the children’s father reportedly told RFI's reporters.

🔸The nosebleed report is part of a coordinated campaign against Chinese firms in the DRC. Since early February, Ruashi Mining and other firms featuring Chinese investments have already been accused of "churches disappearing" and "plants not growing".

🔸 Ruashi’s concession is commercially significant and politically sensitive: the operation sits on a large copper‑cobalt deposit, and local tensions are already reported. Since February 18 the firm has been openly at odds with the authorities over land rights.

Have the Chinese violated environmental regulations in the past and are they doing so now? Certainly, yes. But the truth is that the invocation of the environmental issues today — and especially in this part of Africa — is always a propaganda tool. What matters is what purposes it serves.

✈️ Stay informed - @devilsbelow