NAIROBI – Russia has termed recent visits to former colonies by King Charles III and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier as driven by the need to exploit resources.
Through a post on X, formerly Twitter, the Russian Embassy in Kenya said after decades, some EU and UK politicians have recently flooded African countries to apologize for colonial crimes, while others still can’t gather the courage to say sorry.
“EU and UK politicians have recently flooded the countries of Africa. Some finally (after decades) found some courage to apologize for the colonial crimes, some (being pathological racists) still cannot pronounce direct apologies. Reason? They just need resources,” the Russian embassy said.
President Steinmeier, Germany’s Head of State, was in Tanzania from October 30 for a three-day visit, during which he apologized for colonial crimes in the East African country.
“I would like to ask for forgiveness for what Germans did to your ancestors here… What happened here is our shared history — the history of your ancestors and the history of our ancestors in Germany,” President Steinmeier said at the Maji Maji Museum in Songea.
The President added that jointly with Tanzania, the Germans will search for answers to the unanswered questions “that give you no peace”.
On completion of his visit to Tanzania, the President proceeded to Zambia to “strengthen diplomatic and economic ties”.
King Charles was in Kenya between October 31 and November 3, during which he made visits to Nairobi and Mombasa.
On Tuesday, during a state banquet held in his honour at State House Nairobi, the King acknowledged there were abhorrent and unjustifiable acts of violence committed against Kenyans during the British colonization, saying “the wrongdoings of the past are a cause of the greatest sorrow and the deepest regret”.
Once again failing to apologize for the atrocities committed during the brutal colonial rule, especially during the state of emergency, King Charles said in returning to Kenya, it matters greatly to him that he should deepen his understanding of those wrongs, and that he meets some of those whose lives and communities were grievously affected.
“None of this can change the past. But by addressing our history with honesty and openness we can, perhaps, demonstrate the strength of our friendship today. And, in so doing, we can, I hope, continue to build an ever-closer bond for the years ahead,” he said at a State Banquet at State House, Nairobi.
Ahead of the visit, UK High Commissioner Neil Wigan had said the King wouldn’t apologize for the colonial atrocities as “an apology starts to take you to a difficult legal territory”.
On his part, President William Ruto said enough has not been done on suffering inflicted on Kenyans.
While Steinmeier was in Tanzania, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who is the head of government, was on a tour of Nigeria and Ghana that week.
In Nigeria, Scholz met President Bola Tinubu, and at a joint press briefing expressed willingness to invest in critical minerals and gas.
“There are a lot of chances not just from gas and oil for better use of capacities of your country, but also for going into investments for the future, which is about hydrogen,” Scholz said.
In Ghana, Scholz’s discussions with President Nana Akufo Addo focused on expanding economic relations in energy, agriculture and digitalization.
He added that Germany and the European Union are committed to boosting security in West Africa and could provide training and equipment to support operations against the insurgency spreading through the region.
Scholz said the coups in the region had stalled cooperation between countries and could play into the hands of militants, even as he stressed the importance of restoring “democratic order”.
Chancellor Scholz had earlier visited Kenya this year and held talks with President Ruto, while President Steinmeier was in Nairobi in February 2020.
But even as Russia accuses others of seeking to exploit Africa’s resources, it also stands accused, particularly in Central African Republic, Mali and Sudan, among other countries, through the Wagner Group.
According to Sorcha MacLeod, a member of the UN working group on the use of mercenaries, in exchange for its “security support”, the group has gained direct access to CAR’s natural resources.
“We received information in Central African Republic that the Wagner group was being paid in mining concessions,” she said.
In October last year, US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the Wagner Group is exploiting natural resources and “these ill-gotten gains are used to fund Moscow’s war machine in Africa, the Middle East, and Ukraine.”
