EUROPEAN NATIONS are increasingly turning to Africa for energy resources as they attempt to wean their reliance off of Russian gas and oil amid the war with Ukraine.

Algeria, Congo and Nigeria are already just some of the countries to have reportedly signed new deals across the continent.

Earlier this month, the President of Senegal, Macky Sall, announced to the German Chancellor Olaf Scholz that the west-African country was “ready to work” on supplying liquid natural gas (LNG) throughout European nations.

Along the border of Mauritius, it is understood that Senegal is in possession of the largest deposits of natural gas.

It comes after African leaders and European oil giants met at the African Energy Summit in London last month to strike new oil trade deals which is expected to leave many African countries in debt.

Rashid Rose, a political commentator, told The Voice that despite the move by the West, the blame for Africa’s dwindling resources lies with African leaders themselves.

“Since the Berlin conference in 1884 [which discussed divided African resources among Western countries] Europe has decided that the resources of the world are in Africa, and who controls Africa controls the world.”

Mr Rose, a co-founder of the African Caribbean Muslim Federation and mental health professional, added: “The Europeans have believed in that for a long time. So, they’ll make a concerted effort to control the resources of Africa to make them rich and by doing so preserve the wealth trend in the world which is making Africa poor. 

“And that is something they will do until the day of judgement, because African leaders don’t have the courage, they don’t have the tenacity, they don’t have the political will to change things.”

African leaders and global energy giants continue to welcome new trade with European countries, after suffering through a drop in prices amid the pandemic.

Nigeria, Egypt, and Libya are considered some of the continent’s biggest gas exporters, according to Statista.

Algeria tops the list among the various African countries with a surplus of energy resources.

However, despite being rich in resources, many African nations deal with capacity problems and are expected to struggle in meeting the growing European demand for energy.

Angola, Equatorial Guinea, and Congo are all gas-producing countries that are understood to be held back from meeting the increasing demand.

Mr Rose went on to call for more Pan-African pride in leaders across the Africa and even the Caribbean to go against the new trade deals, and see other as trading partners.

“We need a new generation of political leaders like in the sixties with very Pan-Africanism consciousness, but these leaders are very colonised, very westernised, most of them educated in the West who believe that Oxford and Cambridge is where it’s at and look up to the Royal family over here [in the UK] as though we need to be like these people,” he said.

“In other words, stop being Africanised names and become Westernised – that’s how they measure progress. Once you have this kind of mindset, it’s difficult to change anything in Africa, so the wealth of the continent will be drained. In the Caribbean, it’s the same thing.

“Europe has made Africa so dependent upon its survival. African leaders are now turning to China as an alternative, which is even worse with a new kind of colonisation taking place because the Chinese are merciless.

“African nations are so impoverished in terms of energy, in terms of ideas, independence, on every conceivable outside force to help them in whatever happens.”

He added: “Mia Amor Mottley [PM of Barbados] has been named on the Time magazine as one of the most influential people in the world.

“She’s just started trading links with Ghana and I think she’d have a serious role in playing, in reversing in that trend..she is hell bent on making Africa great again and making the links between Africa and the Caribbean one of significance in terms of economics, in terms of trade and that’s what needs to happen.

“Africa needs to find new trading partners and the Caribbean and Central America have to be that source, instead of Europe and America. We need we need a change in mindset.“