Blindspot 99 -PipelineWars from NordStream bomb 2 African Coups & trans-Sahara gas pipeline

Blindspot 99 - Pipeline Wars: from Nord Stream II bombing to West African Coups & the trans-Sahara gas pipeline

Buiteboer // From Bunker 42
www.buiteboer.co.za
14/2/24

How interconnected are conflicts across the planet? In this delivery we look at Nordstream II bombing, as act of war the USA perpetrated against both Germany and Russia. BUT. As promised in no 98 wherein we bemoaned the utter and total lack of any focus on turbulent geopolitics and conflagrations in President Thuma Mina Buffalo’s SONA, this edition will look at what on earth has been happening in West Africa with Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso (and how, via the shady worlds and blindspots, it is connectable to Nordstream II bombing).

We will see Cold War 2.0 hard at work, and how Africa is not to become, but is already a hot site of major power positioning and rivalry. And proxy war…

rfrFor more background on the topics to be covered in #99, go to Blindspot #82 - France frogmarched out of Africa for more background on the coups, and popular opposition to France, the latter’s eviction from these countries, and support for Russia! But, also look at Blindspot 62 - Dr Strangelove revisited: Africa and a divided world, Monty Python’s lethal joke.

By the end we will find the trans Sahara gas pipeline, from Nigeria, transiting through Niger and Algeria as an interesting site of geopolitical struggle as the French have been evicted, and Russian forces and influence are taking root. This means, perhaps the EU will not get alternative sources of gas piped through the Sahara desert now that Putin once again said the CIA had bombed Nordstream II.

Links

US International Trade Administration. 2022. Market intelligence: Algeria trans saharan gas pipeline. 22/9/22. https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/algeria-trans-saharan-gas-pipeline

Ali Boukhlef. 2022. Algeria: the trans-saharan pipeline, a Nigerian alternative to Russian gas? 10 September, 2022. https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/algeria-trans-saharan-pipeline-nigeria-alternative-russian-gas

Mohammad Nik-Khah. 2023. The future of Wagner group in Africa after Prigogine’s death. 18 Septmber, 2023. https://www.ipis.ir/en/subjectview/730472