The arrival of the late Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah to power gave Kuwaiti-African relations another turn, as the late Emir was a seasoned diplomat and a man of peace, and this explains the African sympathy with the Kuwaiti people for their deceased. The roots of Kuwaiti-African relations go back to the nineteenth century AD, when Kuwaitis used to sell pearls on African shores and return with African products to Kuwait. These relations were strengthened during the reign of Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad on all levels. • Development level:
On the development level, the State of Kuwait has contributed to financing and granting loans to implement very important projects in sub-Saharan Africa. The total number of these projects since the late Emir took over has reached 135 projects in sub-Saharan Africa. These projects have cost the Kuwait Fund for Development one billion and eight hundred million dollars. I mention here some of the projects that Kuwait has contributed to financing:
The Bamako Airport Development Project in Mali, the Jaben Ass Power Plant Project in Djibouti, the Dr. Idriss Meises Central Hospital Project, the Eastern States Electricity Project in Sudan, and the Ouagadougou Airport Development Project in Burkina Faso. It is worth noting that the State of Kuwait is committed to more than one hundred million dollars annually to development institutions in Africa (the African Development Fund, the African Development Bank, the Arab Bank for Economic Development in Africa (1). At the 2013 Arab-African Summit, the late Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad directed the Kuwait Fund for Arab Economic Development to provide soft loans to African countries in the amount of one billion dollars over a period of five years, as well as to invest and guarantee investments in the amount of one billion dollars in African countries with a focus on infrastructure in cooperation and coordination with the World Bank and other international institutions as well as By allocating an annual financial award of one million dollars in the name of the late Dr. Abdulrahman Al-Sumait, allocated for development research in Africa under the supervision of the Kuwait Foundation for the Advancement of Sciences. (2)
Humanitarian and charitable level:
One may not believe the size of Kuwaiti associations and their influence on the global level despite the small population of Kuwait, but the resident of the State of Kuwait knows that the Kuwaiti people have a great sense of humanity that has made them among the people who donate their money the most, and we see the results on the ground with the multiplicity of humanitarian associations such as: Direct Aid Society, Islamic Heritage Revival Society, International Charitable Organization, Abdullah Al-Nouri Charitable Society, Social Reform Society, and all of these associations have projects worth millions of dollars in Africa, which contribute to the development of the continent in some aspects, although the religious and educational aspect is the most prevalent.
During the global food crisis between 2007 and 2008, the State of Kuwait launched an initiative to establish a decent life fund with a capital of $100 million with the aim of helping countries meet their basic needs and face the difficulties resulting from the global food crisis. It also contributed to many funds established in Africa to combat hunger and poverty with amounts exceeding $300 million. The State of Kuwait pledged to donate $500 million at the donors’ conference for Eastern Sudan (3). It also played a pivotal and prominent role in hosting this conference (4). • The political aspect: The diplomacy of the late Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad strengthened Kuwaiti-African relations, and this important development in relations bore fruit through the opening of Kuwaiti embassies in some sub-Saharan African countries more than ever before. The Kuwaiti embassy was opened in: Ghana, Benin, Tanzania, and many African countries opened their embassies in Kuwait, including, but not limited to: Burkina Faso, Mali, Ghana, Chad. In 2012, the State of Kuwait won a tender to supply Zambia with petroleum products and crude oil at a time when Kuwait was competing with fifty foreign companies (5).
The African-Arab summit held in Kuwait in 2013 directly contributed to giving the African reader and decision-maker an overview of modern Kuwait and its development, so today political leaders can strengthen Kuwait’s relations with the African continent in the field of combating terrorism in cooperation with the Group of Five Sahel countries (G5 SAHEL) as well as continue to support development and sustainable development in Africa.
The late Emir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah has given a lot to Africa and we hope that Kuwaiti-African relations will not be affected by his passing and we aspire for more cooperation with the State of Kuwait, which I see as a model for the cooperation that the African continent needs, because we as African citizens did not see the State of Kuwait having an expansionist project in the African continent or even an attempt to control the continent ideologically, economically or even politically, and this is what strengthened the position of the State of Kuwait and its people in Africa, as the late Emir was a true friend of Africa and Africa does not forget its friends,,,
Abdulrahman Sebi
Student in the Department of Political Science / Kuwait University
Sources and References:
• Kuwait Fund for Development: Geographical and Sectoral Distribution of Loans from 2006 to 2019
• Kuwait’s Contributions to Africa, an Economic Vision Combined with a Humanitarian Approach, Al-Anbaa Newspaper
• Bashar Ali Al-Duwaisan’s Speech at the United Nations, dated 10/18/2012, Al-Watan Newspaper
• Website: Kuwait-Africa Summit/ http://africa.kuwaitsummits.gov.kw
• Kuwait-Africa Relations, Dr. Amina Al-Arimi, Al Bayan Newspaper: January 16, 2020
https://www.albayan.ae/opinions/articles/2020-01-16-1.3753107
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