An opinion piece in Capital Ethiopia warns that Western powers are pursuing a new scramble for Africa through debt, trade, and technology. It describes this as recolonization disguised as development. The article calls for pan-African unity to counter these influences.
An opinion article published on February 10, 2026, in Capital Ethiopia argues that the United States, European Union, IMF, and World Bank are imposing financial and political controls on Africa under the guise of development. It likens this to the 1884 Berlin Conference but updated with modern tools like debt and digital oversight.
The piece highlights IMF and World Bank structural adjustment programs, which it says have impacted economies in Ethiopia, Zambia, and Ghana. These programs require cuts to public services, privatization of state assets to Western companies, and currency devaluation to favor exports. Resources such as Zambia's copper, DRC's cobalt, and Nigeria's oil are said to flow to the West while locals face hardships.
On trade, the article criticizes the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) and EU Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) for flooding African markets with subsidized Western goods, harming local industries. The EU's Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM), effective from 2026, is described as imposing tariffs on African carbon-intensive imports like cement and steel. In technology, it notes that services like Starlink collect data, acting as Africa's 'new oil.'
The article points out Africa's strategic assets: 30% of global minerals for energy transition, 60% of uncultivated arable land, and a projected youth population of 1.2 billion by 2050. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) is said to create a $3.4 trillion market. It urges pan-African unity through debt audits, trade enforcement, tech independence, resource nationalism, and cultural preservation to achieve sovereignty.