China and Russia surpass the U.S. in approval ratings in Africa.
U.S. approval ratings in Africa at 56%, lagging behind China (58%) and Russia (64%).
Russia’s increasing popularity is attributed to arms sales, military training, and economic initiatives in Africa.
The survey which involved 130 countries globally saw a global increase in America’s disapproval ratings from 33% in 2022 to 36% in 2023. However, the US’s approval ratings between the same period remained the same at 41%.
In Africa however, the US’s approval rating stands at 56%, with China and Russia having 2% and 8% more respectively. ⠀
In Uganda, Gambia, and Kenya the approval rating of the US dropped by 29, 21 and 14 percentage points, respectively. With 23% and 25%, respectively, Libya and Somalia had the lowest scores. ⠀
As the US media recently claimed, citing an anonymous US source, Moscow may be able to address the continent’s urgent security demands through arms sales that exceed Washington’s capacity, which might account for Russia’s increasing popularity in Africa. ⠀
Russia has been on a mission to increase its influence in Africa. In addition to military ties, Russia has initiated a number of economic initiatives with the continent, including the building of a House of Africa in several of its states, shipments of free grains to the continent, nuclear deals, and more.
Russia forgave €20BN of African debt (90%) 2 years ago with the stroke of a pen and the debt to China has levelled off to around €90BN (which is roughly 10% of the total debt), while African countries are getting workforce training, education, healthcare, heavy industrial equipment and infrastructure, an economic base allowing for trade and growing control of a nation’s own resources, most of which was not a possibility just a decade ago.
Several countries on the continent (especially Namibia and South Africa in the past 2 years) have dismissed this anti-China drivel as a bunch of nonsensical
from the saltine-cracker-sphere.