2023-09-05 04:21:36
Beijing wants to play its diplomatic card in Niamey. The Chinese government indeed intends to play a “role of mediator” in the political crisis in Niger, declared the Chinese ambassador in this country, in an interview Monday on Nigerien national television.
“The Chinese government intends to play a role of good offices, of mediator, on the total respect of regional countries to find a political solution to this crisis in Niger”, declared the ambassador in this interview, after a meeting with the Prime Minister Nigerien Ali Mahaman Lamine Zeine, appointed by the military who took power. “China always pursues a principle of non-interference in other countries’ internal affairs” and encourages African countries “to solve their problems in African ways”, added Jiang Feng.
Large Chinese investments in oil
China is a major economic partner of Niger, mainly in the energy sector. The two countries are notably building a 2,000 km pipeline, the longest in Africa, intended to export crude oil from the Agadem fields (south-eastern Niger) to the port of Sèmè in Benin.
The Agadem deposits are operated by the oil group China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), which has also built a refinery in Zinder, in southern Niger, with a capacity of 20,000 barrels per day and in which the Chinese company owns a majority of the capital.
Chinese companies are also carrying out construction work on the Kandadji dam on the Niger River, a pharaonic project worth 740 billion CFA francs (1.1 billion euros) located in the far west of the country, which should generate annually 629 GWh to enable Niger to free itself from its energy dependence on neighboring Nigeria. In the wake of the coup, Nigeria cut its electricity supply to Niger, in line with the sanctions decided by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).
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