The Struggle for Africa: Between the Present and the Future
(Translated)

Al-Rayah Newspaper - Issue 576 - 03/12/2025
By: Ustadh Nabil Abdel Karim

Recently, we have observed high-level and multiple tensions; civil wars, military coups, famines, and migration.

Will Africa become an arena for international power struggles and conflicts, especially after America succeeded in expelling most other colonialist powers from the Middle East, seizing control of its key regions, and beginning to implement its plans? Today, it is fragmenting large countries and redrawing borders, replacing the Sykes-Picot lines with those based on sectarianism, tribalism, and ethnicity—borders of bloodshed. We are witnessing suspicious movements in Africa that foreshadow an international conflict to seize everything Europe once possessed, from the east to the west and from the north to the center of the continent. The complete expulsion of Europe from Africa would pave the way for the downfall, or significant weakening, of major European powers, as they thrive on the wealth of this African continent.

America’s attempts to penetrate deep into Africa, change the political map, and also change borders and divide major countries to make them unable to unite- especially at the present time when the West fears the fall of its hegemony, especially during the major crises to come, which are the great financial collapse and the risk of a third world war or the intensification of the Cold War to bring down American hegemony- are ongoing.

Conflict on this continent takes many overlapping forms; the most significant is international conflict in some countries, along with power struggles in certain regions and resource conflicts across the continent. We will examine these conflicts to understand the realities on this continent.

International conflict is a reality that has existed previously on this continent, but in the form of a new Cold War on Africa, as most of Africa before the First World War had been subjected to division among the European powers at the Berlin Conference of 1884-1885, where European countries occupied African lands. However, after the First World War, a new division of colonies took place according to the decisions of the League of Nations at that time under the name of the mandate system, and the actual division after the First World War became as follows:

Britain: Egypt, Sudan, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Tanzania
France: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Mali, Niger, Chad, Senegal, Mauritania, Cameroon, Togo, and Madagascar
Belgium: Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi
Italy: Libya, Eritrea, and Italian Somalia
Portugal: Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, and São Tomé and Príncipe
Spain: Western Sahara, Equatorial Guinea, and northern Morocco

However, after World War II and the emergence of two powers, the Soviet Union and the United States, America raised the slogan of liberating peoples, and of course the goal was to extend its influence over these countries instead of Europe, which prompted the European countries to give these countries their independence and install their agents as rulers over them to manage their interests. The largest share was for Britain, which had power and political cunning, and it took care of the agents and created a middle ground for them, so it obtained the largest dependent countries, and France maintained what it could maintain.

Here the traditional mandate system ended and the era of indirect control began. Since then, America has been seeking to penetrate Africa, where Egypt was a strategic follower and a point of departure. After several attempts, it was able to buy influence through military bases and aid under the guise of humanitarianism, military training, and similar malicious methods. It obtained the largest base in Djibouti and bases in Kenya and Somalia.

Today, following the outbreak of what was termed the Arab Spring, the continent has witnessed profound transformations. Numerous coups have occurred, including in Mali, Burkina Faso, Guinea, Sudan, and most recently, Niger. Subsequently, demonstrations erupted in Senegal, and movements in Ethiopia, particularly by the Fano militias in the Amhara region, also took place. Most of these events are part of the international struggle, some resolved and others still unresolved, as was the case in Libya before it achieved a semblance of stability that benefited the United States, and as is currently happening in Sudan after the military takeover. To thwart Britain's ambitions, the United States orchestrated a clash between the military factions, thereby undermining the British presence in Sudan and paving the way for the partition it desires. Nigeria will also face similar challenges following direct threats from US President Trump, ostensibly to protect Christians there.

All of this leads to the continuation of this conflict, which will eventually extend to North Africa, Algeria, Tunisia and Morocco, the Horn of Africa, and the Sahel, until European influence is completely ousted. The conflict will then transform from an international struggle into a struggle for influence and resources.

In other words, after gaining control of the region, America was able to create different power centers among regional powers or local populations, instigating conflicts that it then manages. For example, Ethiopia’s conflict with Sudan is a conflict over borders, identity, influence, and water. Similarly, Egypt’s conflict with Ethiopia is a strategic one, also related to water. In Sudan, the conflict is one of tribal influence, and in Libya, it is a struggle for influence between the east and west of the country.

The struggle for influence differs from the struggle between states. America, after gaining control, may allow weak players from outside to enter the arena to do what it wants, as is happening in Sudan with the intervention of the UAE, but in a limited way and within the framework of utilitarian interests, not strategic ones.

The conflict over resources revolves around natural wealth and control of vital resources and important waterways that America seeks to fully control, such as the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, the Gulf of Guinea, and the Red Sea. It is well known that the African continent is very rich in these resources, particularly in relatively untouched areas. Other countries, such as China, Russia, and smaller nations, enter the scene, but the conflict centers on acquiring material gains without interfering in the state's affairs or policies. In this context, the state remains subject to what America deems appropriate or permits. This is all accompanied by the presence of movements and militias that serve as instruments of conflict in all its forms, such as the armed groups currently active, Boko Haram, Al-Shabaab, M23, the Janjaweed, and the Wagner Group.

These conflicts will never stop, even if the continent falls into the hands of America alone. The continuation of these conflicts perpetuates America’s existence, the state of plunder, the marginalization and enslavement of the peoples of the country, and distracting them with crumbs, so that they can carry out systematic and organized plunder, which may reach the level of false, quasi-legitimate international rights that allow them to continue.

This means that the conflict in the African continent will intensify, and we may see massacres, betrayals, continuous coups, regional wars, and civil wars fueled by the people of the region and the destruction of their lands and infrastructure.

Therefore, we urge the people of the continent to spare themselves the destruction that will be poured upon them, and we offer them the compass for the radical solution to all their problems, which is the Khilafah Rashidah (Rightly Guided Caliphate) that protects and cares for their rights, preserves their blood, achieves justice and equality among them, stops colonialism in all its forms, restores to this continent its strength and its plundered resources, and rids it of the greedy capitalist order.

O Muslims: The continuation of Western hegemony will only bring us weakness and humiliation. Therefore, we must, as we possess the solution for the people, bring them out of the worship of capitalism, which plunders their wealth, kills their children, and occupies their countries, and into the justice and light of Islam.

Therefore, we call upon you to join us in resuming the Islamic way of life as Allah (swt) and His Messenger (saw) commanded us, so that you may earn the glory of this world and the hereafter. We draw the attention of the armies of this great continent to the fact that your blood will be shed, but your killer and your killed will be in Hell if your fighting is not to raise the Word of Allah (swt) as the Highest. So be aware of what you are doing and to whom you are doing it, for the Day of Reckoning is coming and everyone is responsible for what his hands have committed.