{"id":3012,"date":"2022-05-22T12:10:07","date_gmt":"2022-05-22T12:10:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.qiraatafrican.com\/?p=3012"},"modified":"2022-05-22T12:10:07","modified_gmt":"2022-05-22T12:10:07","slug":"difficult-trip-to-africa-for-german-chancellor-olaf-scholz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/3012\/difficult-trip-to-africa-for-german-chancellor-olaf-scholz\/","title":{"rendered":"Difficult trip to Africa for German Chancellor Olaf Scholz"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Russia\u2019s impact on energy and food prices and security will provide the backdrop to Olaf Scholz\u2019s first trip to Africa as German Chancellor, a three-day tour of Senegal, Niger and South Africa kicking off on Sunday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">The first stop on Scholz\u2019s trip is Senegal, which has billions of cubic metres of gas reserves and is expected to become a major gas producer in the region.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">Germany is seeking to reduce its heavy reliance on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.qiraatafrican.com\/topic\/mali\/\">Russia<\/a> for gas following the Kremlin\u2019s invasion of Ukraine. It could help explore a gas field in Senegal, a government official said on Friday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">The source said Scholz also wanted to discuss possible cooperation on the development of renewable energy. In Senegal, he will visit a solar power plant after meeting and holding a joint news conference with the country\u2019s President Macky Sall.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">Germany has invited both Senegal, which currently holds the rotating chairmanship of the African Union, and South Africa to attend the G7 summit it is hosting in June as guest countries.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">Both countries abstained from voting on a United Nations resolution against Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow calls a special military operation to demilitarize a neighbor it says threatened its security.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">Ukraine and Western allies say the war is an unprovoked act of aggression.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">The conflict has triggered supply disruptions that have pushed up food and energy prices in Africa. Russia\u2019s military has blocked exports from ports in Ukraine, a major grains and food supplier to the region. The Kremlin blames Western sanctions for the rising prices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Headline-headline-2FXIq Headline-black-OogpV ArticleBody-heading-3h695\"><strong>SECURITY IN THE SAHEL<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">Scholz will travel later on Sunday to Niger. The country has taken on a bigger role hosting European special forces to stem a jihadist insurgency across the Sahel since European relations with the military junta ruling neighboring Mali have deteriorated.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">The European Union suspended its military training mission in Mali due to a lack of guarantees from Malian authorities that military contractors from Russia\u2019s Wagner Group would not interfere in the work. The group is under EU sanctions accused of human rights abuses.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">Russia denies any wrongdoing in Mali or in any other country where Wagner operates. Both Mali and Russia have previously said Wagner Group is not made up of mercenaries but trainers helping local troops with equipment bought from Russia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">Scholz will visit German troops in Niger and discuss the lengthy battle against insurgents linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State that have killed thousands and made swathes of territory ungovernable in the Sahel, south of the Sahara.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph-paragraph-2Bgue ArticleBody-para-TD_9x\">On Monday evening Scholz is set to travel to Johannesburg for the final leg of his tour.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Russia\u2019s impact on energy and food prices and security will provide the backdrop to Olaf Scholz\u2019s first trip to Africa as German Chancellor, a three-day tour of Senegal, Niger and South Africa kicking off on Sunday. The first stop on Scholz\u2019s trip is Senegal, which has billions of cubic metres of gas reserves and is [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3013,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":1,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"Reuters","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"1","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"0","show_view_counter":"0","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"0","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"0","show_popup_post":"0","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"1"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":""},"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,32,30],"tags":[337,383,1210,283,122],"class_list":["post-3012","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-west-africa","category-economy","category-southern-africa","tag-germany","tag-niger","tag-olaf-scholz","tag-senegal","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3012\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3013"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qiraatafrican.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}