Central Africa (Vol 15, 2018)
in Africa Yearbook OnlineSearch for other papers by Andreas Mehler in
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(4,608 words)
The dramatic downturn in global crude oil prices in 2014 was seemingly reversed during the year (without prices reaching pre-2014 levels), but the oil-exporting economies of the region, all of them autocracies, were only to a limited degree able to absorb the shock even after four years. This had repercussions on the scope of action of underfunded sub-regional organisations, but also on the leverage of individual countries in foreign affairs: the presidents of Equatorial Guinea, Congo, and Gabon clearly were not as powerful as they were before; Chad’s president, Idriss Déby, unpopular at home and facing street protests against austerity measures, managed to remain in position only with a military geo-strategy that maintained the position of main Western allies in the entire Sahel. Cameroon, though able to weather the economic storm better based on a relatively diversified economy, was increasingly embroiled in an armed confrontation between official security forces and Anglophone secessionists, while the car and the drc barely managed to keep decentralised violence at bay. In the latter case, outgoing president Joseph Kabila even fueled some conflicts. Only the tiny island republic of São Tomé and Príncipe, although economically far from successful and increasingly indebted, was ruled differently and once again was labelled a democracy.
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Central Africa (Vol 15, 2018)
in Africa Yearbook OnlineSearch for other papers by Andreas Mehler in
Current site
Google Scholar
(4,608 words)