Critical minerals: Dr Badié Hima warns of the "new face of global geopolitics" in Africa

In Accra, a high-level conference brought together experts and decision-makers to discuss a sensitive issue: the governance of critical minerals and the conflicts they fuel in Africa. On the sidelines of the event, Dr Badié Hima, founding director of the MAT laboratory and former resident director of the National Democratic Institute (NDI) in Togo and then Mali, shared his analysis of the power struggles at play on the continent. A renowned specialist in democratic governance, Dr Hima asserts that critical minerals have become "the new face of global geopolitics," highlighting the now central place of these resources in the international tensions sweeping across Africa. For African states rich in strategic resources, this analysis raises a crucial question: how to transform coveted mineral wealth into a lever for development rather than a factor of conflict and external interference? Dr Hima's background, spanning democratic governance and mining issues, invites us to view these tensions through a dual lens: the strength of local institutions against external appetites, and the capacity of African countries to collectively negotiate their position in the global value chains of strategic minerals.