Welcome to Foreign Policy’s Africa Brief.
The highlights this week: Zambia agrees to a debt-for-energy swap, U.S. forces withdraw from Nigeria after a joint offensive against the Islamic State, and Morocco’s Atlas Lions carry the hopes of the continent at the World Cup.
Zambia launched the world’s first debt-for-energy swap last month, offering to buy back $1.36 billion of its outstanding 2053 private bonds using a $600 million concessional loan from the African Development Bank. The Zambian government is covering the remaining cost.
A recent surge in copper prices has strengthened Zambia’s economy. In exchange for clearing the debt, the Zambian government agreed to spend its $275 million in interest savings on power networks over 15 years.
So-called debt-for-development deals are not new. The Seychelles implemented the world’s first swap to fund marine conservation in 2015. In 2023, Ecuador conducted the largest-ever debt-for-nature swap aimed at protecting the Galápagos Islands. Last year, Kenya entered into a $1 billion debt-for-food swap with the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
But most environmental projects don’t tangibly boost an economy. Zambia’s debt swap is the first one targeting grid electricity that drives GDP growth. Grid electricity is the biggest factor holding back African productivity and industrialization. Around half of Zambia’s population lacks electricity.
“Unreliable supply, losses in the distribution network, and limited access in underserved areas are not merely technical problems; they undermine growth, they deter investment, and, most critically, they diminish the quality of life of Zambian citizens,” said Zambian Treasury Secretary Felix Nkulukusa in a June 24 announcement outlining the debt swap.
It’s significant that Zambia’s energy swap has been backed by an African bank, said Trevor Lwere, an economist at Development Reimagined, a consultancy based in China, Kenya, and the United Kingdom. “It signals that these African finance institutions understand the development needs of African countries.”
But Lwere cautioned that the swap is not enough to significantly reduce Zambia’s overall debt-servicing burden. “Debt-for-development swaps are not silver bullets,” he said.
In 2021, Zambia became the second country to enter the G-20’s Common Framework, which is designed to help developing nations unify debt negotiations among traditional Western creditors, non-Paris Club creditors such as China, and private lenders. Zambia was the first country on the continent to default on its foreign debt during the COVID-19 pandemic a year earlier.
But the framework has been hampered by divisions among creditors, as we covered last week in a report on Ethiopia. Only a handful of nations have applied: Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia. China is Zambia’s single biggest creditor, holding around 30 percent of the country’s debt. As with Ethiopia, however, debt negotiation delays have centered on private bondholders.
Under the Common Framework, Zambia’s bond restructuring deal stipulated that the country’s future interest payments on loans would increase “if certain indicators were met,” said Tim Jones, the policy director of U.K.-based Debt Justice.
Those conditions included Zambia’s exports revenue exceeding International Monetary Fund (IMF) projections, as well as the IMF and World Bank moving Zambia’s capacity to service its debt from weak to medium. Ratings agency Fitch predicted that Zambia would meet those conditions this year or by 2028.
The recent copper rally meant that “Zambia suddenly had a huge amount in increased debt payments coming due,” Jones said.
As part of the swap, Zambia had to offer an extra $65 million bonus to entice bondholders resisting the buyback. “All of this could have been avoided if Zambia had got the debt relief that it needed in the first place through the Common Framework … rather than now having to do these convoluted deals to buy back debt,” Jones said.
Regardless, scarce Zambian government funds can now go toward turning the lights on in hospitals and homes rather than to mounting debt payments.
Thursday, July 9, to Friday, July 10: Global chief justices and heads of court gather at an inaugural International Bar Association Judges’ Forum in Abuja, Nigeria.
Tuesday, July 14: The United Nations Office for West Africa and the Sahel briefs the U.N. Security Council.
Tuesday, July 14, to Friday, July 17: Energy and water ministers from the Southern African Development Community meet in Pretoria, South Africa.
Nigeria’s security ties. Last week, the United States said it has withdrawn most of the 200 troops it deployed to Nigeria after completing successful strikes against the Islamic State earlier this year. The two countries are expected to continue intelligence sharing.
Gen. Dagvin Anderson, the commander of U.S. Africa Command, said the joint operation had disrupted the Islamic State’s local command structures and global network. Although Nigeria has conducted drone strikes on its own against jihadis for years, armed groups in the weak state have easily replenished their ranks—and may soon do so again, security experts say.
Meanwhile, Nigeria’s defense minister said last Thursday that the country will partner with Benin and Niger on counterterrorism operations. “We’re opening another sector to cover the border between Nigeria, Benin Republic and Niger,” he told AFP. All three countries are battling Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), an al Qaeda affiliate.
Xenophobic attacks in South Africa. The Nigerian government said last Sunday that two of its citizens, Emeka Charles Iroegbu and Musa Yunana Joe, were killed on June 28 during recent xenophobic protests in South Africa.
Nigeria alleges that Iroegbu was killed by police officers using brutal interrogation techniques in Pretoria, while Joe was killed by unidentified assailants outside his business in Mpumalanga province.
South African police denied Nigeria’s claims and said that Iroegbu collapsed during an arrest for drug possession. Authorities said Joe “was accosted by an armed suspect who fired several shots at him” and fled the scene. The South African government said it had deployed more than 3,000 soldiers amid the ongoing protests.
“We wish to place the Government of South Africa on notice that if the situation continues to persist, all options remain on the table,” Nigeria’s foreign ministry said in its Sunday statement.
Nigeria is the second African nation to warn of diplomatic consequences after Ghana said it was prepared to take legal action against the South African government for failing to stop attacks on Ghanaian citizens. On Tuesday, Ghana postponed a long-planned visit by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.
Secret Somaliland base? The United Arab Emirates is covertly building a military base in Somaliland for joint use by Israel, the UAE, and the United States, according to a report in French newspaper Le Monde that cited satellite images and an unnamed military expert.
The images captured between October 2025 and March revealed extensive excavation at a military complex near Berbera Airport. Analysts who spoke to Le Monde noted that at least 18 large pits and underground structures resemble ammunition depots or fuel storage facilities.
The build coincides with Israel’s formal recognition of Somaliland last December. Somaliland has denied that it has a formal military basing agreement with Israel. In January, Somalia severed all agreements with the UAE, including on port operations, accusing the Emiratis of working to “undermine” Somalia’s sovereignty and “political independence.”
Mali attacks. JNIM and a coalition of Tuareg separatists called the Azawad Liberation Front launched coordinated attacks in Mali last Saturday. They mainly targeted Malian and Russian military posts in northern Mali, with separate attacks in the central town of Sévaré and the southern village of Kéniéroba, which houses a major prison complex.
“These attacks are a stark reminder that terrorism and violent extremism continue to pose a serious threat to Mali, the Sahel and the African continent as a whole,” the African Union Commission’s chairperson, Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, warned in a statement on Sunday. The Malian army said that the security situation was “totally under control.”
The two groups’ aims diverge. JNIM’s main goal is to capture Mali’s northern territories and impose sharia law, while the Azawad Liberation Front wants to establish an independent state. “In the long term, the separatists risk being overshadowed in their alliance with the jihadists, whose resources appear greater and whose territorial reach is wider,” the International Crisis Group noted.
Africa’s FIFA World Cup dreams now lie with Morocco, the continent’s last remaining representative at this year’s tournament. Morocco beat co-hosts Canada last Saturday to become the first African nation to reach the quarterfinals for the second time in a row. During the 2022 World Cup, Morocco also became the first African team to reach the semifinals.
Despite a controversial Africa Cup of Nations win this year, Africans have rallied behind Morocco’s Atlas Lions ahead of their upcoming quarterfinal clash against tournament favorite France on Thursday.
Cameroon became the first African team to reach the World Cup quarterfinal in 1990, followed by Senegal in 2002 and Ghana in 2010. The 1990 tournament saw a nine-man Cameroon team—down two players due to red cards—defeat reigning champions Argentina in the opening match. Morocco will need to dig deep to dispatch the French team in a similar fashion.
RSF camps in Libya. A Lighthouse Reports investigation suggests that the UAE is providing logistics and military training in eastern Libya to the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighting in Sudan, allegations that Emirati officials have repeatedly denied.
The reporting, conducted with Evident and Sudan War Monitor, identified four previously unknown RSF camps in Libya, including one near Benghazi. The report alleges that Libyan National Army soldiers controlled by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar and UAE-contracted Colombian mercenaries train alongside the RSF.
“Defectors told us that they were expected to return to Sudan to train their fellow RSF soldiers based on the training they received in Libya,” the authors wrote.
Mauritania’s tourism revival. Tourism in Mauritania peaked in the early 2000s but dwindled after the killing of four French tourists by an Algeria-based al Qaeda affiliate in 2007. A stronger security apparatus around border towns and clampdown on religious extremism have seen visitors return to the country, Shola Lawal reported in Al Jazeera.
“Numbers remain modest compared with the past, but in a country where roughly a third of the population lives in poverty, tourism has become an increasingly important source of income,” Lawal wrote.
