The Scramble for Africa, Rebranded
Al-Monitor reports that an African Union summit is overshadowed by a Saudi-UAE feud in the Horn of Africa, a rivalry said to have spilled over from Yemen into a region already rife with conflict. The framing presents this as an internal Gulf dispute now infecting external territories, with African leaders supposedly navigating this foreign imposition. Strip away the veneer of novelty and you find
a deeply ingrained historical pattern. The 1884 Berlin Conference carved Africa into European colonial holdings, not for African benefit, but for external resource extraction and strategic advantage. Today, the players change, but the game remains strikingly similar. For example, in 2011, Western powers championed intervention in Libya under humanitarian pretexts, ultimately destabilizing the
country and opening the door for new external interference, including arms and mercenary flows from the Gulf, creating a vacuum now exploited by the same actors Al-Monitor cites. This isn't merely a 'feud' between two regional states; it’s an active contest over strategic choke points and resources, reminiscent of 19th-century colonial manoeuvres. The focus on 'diplomats avoiding sides'
conveniently side-steps the historical continuum of external powers turning African nations into battlegrounds for their own geopolitical and economic ambitions. From the Suez Canal's strategic importance to today's Red Sea shipping lanes, control over these regions has always been about power projection and economic leverage, with countries like Djibouti notably hosting multiple foreign military