Mozambican President Daniel Chapo urged stronger cooperation among African nations to protect strategic minerals and natural gas reserves during the 12th Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa, held in Bahir Dar, Ethiopia, while warning that resource discoveries frequently coincide with the arrival of regional terrorism.
Daniel Chapo Links Mineral Discoveries to Regional Security Crises
Speaking at a high-level panel titled Building an African Model for Peace and Sovereignty in an Era of Geopolitical Rivalry
during the annual gathering on Saturday, October 24, 2026, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo highlighted the troubling temporal proximity between major resource findings and armed violence in his country. He pointed directly to the 2016 discovery of major natural gas reserves in Mozambique’s northern province of Cabo Delgado and the subsequent outbreak of insurgency in 2017.
We discovered gas reserves in 2016 in Cabo Delgado, and around the same time, terrorism appeared in 2017. It is too much of a coincidence that wherever resources are discovered, terrorism also appears.
Daniel Chapo, President of the Republic of Mozambique, via Clubofmozambique
Chapo called for coordinated defenses across the continent, arguing that intensifying geopolitical competition and the global energy transition demand unified action. He credited regional military cooperation, bilateral collaboration with Rwanda, coordination with Tanzania, and the SADC regional military mission SAMIM with helping clear insurgents from previously occupied areas in Cabo Delgado, though he acknowledged that sporadic attacks and population displacements continue.
During the same panel session, which was moderated by Getachew Reda, the advisor to Ethiopia’s Prime Minister on East African Affairs, other key continental leaders contributed to the discussions. These included President Évariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi, President Daniel Francisco Chapo of Mozambique, Kenya’s Deputy President Kithure Kindiki, and Ugandan Minister of Defence Kiryowa Kiwanuka, who represented President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Roughly 250 attendees, such as former and current heads of state, diplomats, scholars, civil society figures, and business leaders, take part in the yearly dialogue on security issues organized by Addis Ababa University’s Institute for Peace and Security Studies. The gathering emerged from calls for African-led approaches to peace and security, notably tracing back to the African Union’s 2009 Tripoli Declaration.
Global Powers and the Scramble for Critical Minerals in Africa
The three-day continental gathering, which ran from October 23 to 25, 2026, under the theme Pathways to Peace in Africa: Economic Sovereignty and Geopolitical Transformation,
drew heads of state, ministers, and security experts to Ethiopia’s lakeside city of Bahir Dar. Discussions centered on how external actors from the East, West, and Gulf are actively seeking leverage, access, and client states across the continent.
Ahead of the official kickoff of the 12th Tana Forum in Bahir Dar, H.E. President Taye Atske Selassie welcomed H.E. Daniel Chapo, President of Mozambique. Looking forward to African-led deliberations and insights on peace and security in this key continental summit pic.twitter.com/DwdhcWwij6
Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama warned that competition over resources and foreign interference are fueling conflicts from Sudan to the Democratic Republic of Congo, where fighting remains closely tied to gold, coltan, and cobalt extraction. Mahama serves as the chairperson of the Tana Forum Board. The leadership board also features former presidents Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya, Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, Joyce Banda of Malawi, and Catherine Samba-Panza of the Central African Republic.
Let me be clear: Africa is not an empty chessboard for foreign powers to play their games. We are not spectators. But unless we consciously decide to take up the pen and write our own script, someone else will write it for us, and we will not like how the story ends.
John Dramani Mahama, President of the Republic of Ghana and Chairperson of the Tana Forum Board, via Citinewsroom
Mahama also pointed to the growing lethality of conflicts driven by non-state actors using commercial drones in Sudan, alongside governance challenges in Somalia and regional divisions within West Africa as key destabilizing factors. Delivering a message on behalf of Chairperson of the African Union Commission Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, Deputy Chairperson of the African Union Commission Amb. Selma Malika Haddadi emphasized that translating resource wealth into productive capacity and shared prosperity remains an essential task for durable peace.
Institutional Independence and United Nations Security Council Reform
Beyond immediate security skirmishes, leaders at the forum addressed the structural disconnect between Africa’s resource wealth and its lack of geopolitical decision-making power.
Delegates debated how domestic resource mobilisation, anti-corruption measures, and regional value chains can help build financial and operational autonomy for continental bodies. Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, who welcomed leaders including Kenyan Deputy President Kithure Kindiki prior to the forum’s opening, stressed that African ownership requires predictable funding and rigorous adherence to homegrown peace agreements. Prime Minister Abiy also highlighted Ethiopia’s own models for regional cooperation, pointing to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, electricity exports to neighboring nations, the development of a domestic precious metal refinery to halt value flight, digital infrastructure pushes, and environmental security efforts such as the Green Legacy Initiative.
🇪🇹🤝🇲🇿 Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed Welcomes Mozambique’s President Daniel Chapo Ahead of the 12th Tana High-Level Forum on Security in Africa.Watch the Moment!#Ethiopia #Mozambique #TanaForum2026 #AfricanDiplomacy #RegionalCooperation pic.twitter.com/nysJBwThc7
Adding to the economic discussions, Uganda’s Minister of Defence Kiryowa Kiwanuka called for greater investment in local industries and the retention of wealth within the continent during a high-level panel on October 24. Kiwanuka urged African countries to prioritize domestic processing rather than exporting raw materials only to re-import finished products at higher costs, citing challenges in Uganda’s copper industry as an example.
