(Ecofin Agency) – Security contracts, arms sales, exploitation of natural resources and even infrastructure projects… The continent is at the heart of a little-publicized competition between Beijing and Ankara. Deciphering the aspects and issues of the growing rivalries between the two powers.
While the struggle between the United States and China in Africa attracts all the attention, Turkey is more discreetly playing side by side with the Asian giant on the continent in areas as varied as the construction of infrastructure, the extraction of natural resources, military equipment and security agreements, underlines a report published on December 19, 2024 by the Institute of International and Strategic Relations (IRIS).
Entitled “Sino-Turkish presences and rivalries on the African continent”, the report indicates that China and Turkey are taking advantage of the desire of many African countries to free themselves from the political, economic and commercial monopoly from which Western actors have been able to benefit through the past. The two countries, which play on the anti-colonialist register, can however see their discourses and their interests come into conflict or be put into competition by African leaders or populations.
In the field of Soft Power, the two powers mobilize the memory of a soft and ancient imperiality on the African continent, which they present as being clearly distinct from Western colonization. Regardless of the fact that Chinese maritime explorer Zheng He's expedition to Africa was highly militarized and that the Ottoman Empire was also involved in the African slave trade, these narratives are put at the service of a competition to defend the “voice of Africa” and its representation at the multilateral level. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, however, does not hesitate to contest this role for China, to provide a “third way” promoting individual enterprise and conservatism, between Western progressive liberalism and the Chinese model of development controlled by the State, with particular emphasis on Muslim populations and the 26 African states members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC). This positioning notably allowed Turkey to be elected non-permanent member of the Security Council in 2008 thanks to the vote of 51 African states, a mandate during which it also denounced “a quasi-genocide” carried out by China against the Muslims in Xinjiang.
The renovation of Ottoman heritage or the presence of Turkish media in Africa are also assets in this war of public opinion. Turkish newspaper TRT publishes content in 41 languages, including Swahili, Portuguese, Hausa and French, while Anadolu Agency publishes in 13 languages, including French, for French-speaking African audiences.
China, for its part, has deployed considerable resources in the field, through its state media Xinhua and CGTN or the authorizations granted to the private media StarTimes. Xinhua, which has major offices in Nairobi, uses African collaborators to refine its stories and adapt them to local cultures, while more than 1,000 African journalists have participated in training programs in China since 2014.
Several construction contracts won under the noses of the Chinese
On the economic front, the construction sector constitutes the first area of rivalry between the two emerging powers. The Turkish group Summa, for example, has obtained and successfully completed numerous public contracts, particularly in the sumptuary construction sector, by building stadiums, hotels or shopping centers, in Rwanda, Senegal and Equatorial Guinea. This group has stood out against Chinese competitors for prestigious projects, such as the Parliament of Equatorial Guinea, convention centers in Rwanda and shopping centers in Ethiopia. Summa and other large Turkish groups such as Albayrak, Limak TAV, or Yapı Merkezi, also obtain public contracts ensuring these companies the construction and management of strategic infrastructures, such as roads, railways, ports and airports, and in several instances, to the detriment of Chinese state-owned companies. The most publicized case is Uganda's awarding of the construction of the Malaba-Kampala railway section to Yapı Merkezi, after initially entrusting the project to China Harbor Engineering Company, which had failed to honor its commitment. Between 2017 and 2021, Yapı Merkezi had already outstripped Chinese construction giants CRCC and CCECC in Tanzania, by successively winning construction contracts for four sections of the Dar es-Salaam-Mwanza line, after a similar success in Ethiopia .
The Turkish port operator Albayrak, already manager of the port of Mogadishu (Somalia), has expanded its activities in West Africa to the detriment of China Harbor Engineering, after obtaining the contract in 2018 for the extension of the port of Conakry.
In most of these cases, the Middle Kingdom's growing aversion to taking risks often converges with the desire of African partners to limit their level of indebtedness to China. But the quality of Turkish work is also considered superior to that of their Chinese competitors, at equivalent cost, and the former also use local labor.
The report also indicates that Turkish companies are also increasingly engaged in the sector of exploitation of natural resources. Groups such as Lydia Madencilik and Miller Holding exploit gold and copper in the DRC, while Avesoro, a subsidiary of the MAPA group, has controlled the important gold deposit of Youga, in Burkina Faso, since 2017.
In Niger, Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar signed an agreement last July to increase oil and gas prospecting by Turkish companies, followed in October by another protocol aimed at extending “cooperation in the mining field to new dimensions”. This could relate to the extraction of uranium from the country. The two Chinese energy giants CNPC for oil and CNNC for uranium, which claim more than 6 billion dollars of cumulative investments in Niger, could suffer from this Turkish competition.
Popular combat drones and armored vehicles
In the security area, the strong demand exerted by African states, and in particular Sahelian states, converges with the need for stability and protection of foreign interests in these countries.
When it comes to arms exports, China clearly stands out, with a 19% share of the total arms sold in sub-Saharan Africa. But the value of Turkish arms exports to the continent has increased dramatically in recent years, from $82 million in 2020 to $460 million in 2021. Many countries, including Niger, Chad, Ethiopia and Burkina Faso, have already purchased the formidable Bayraktar TB2 combat drones, while the Cobras armored vehicles from Otokar or the Hızır from Katmerciler are in high demand on the continent.
Drones Bayraktar
Following a recent wave of military coups, the former French colonies have also become the subject of a real race for defense contracts between Chinese and Turkish companies. The Chinese Norinco thus opened an office in Senegal in August 2023, while the Turkish private military company SADAT, already present according to its manager in “around ten African OIC states” would recruit French-speaking agents to establish itself in West Africa from 2025. Although they claim another model, SADAT and its compatriot EKOL can take advantage of the recent setbacks suffered by Wagner/Africa Corps against the Tuaregs of Mali, while Chinese security and defense services companies (ESSD), such as DeWe or COSG, historically more established in East Africa, now follow Chinese interests across the continent.
French think tank specializing in geopolitical and strategic issues, IRIS also notes that Ankara's position seems increasingly solid in Libya, access to Niger and other Sahel countries. Especially since the two rival Libyan factions (the Libyan National Army of Marshal Khalifa Haftar and the Government of National Unity) signed, last October, a memorandum of understanding laying the foundations for national reconciliation, following Turkish mediation.
Regarding military establishments in Africa, Ankara is well on its way to overtaking Beijing, which only has one naval base on the continent, in Djibouti. In addition to its military base installed in 2017 in Mogadishu, Turkey recently concluded agreements with Somalia authorizing the Turkish navy to deploy warships in Somali territorial waters. Sudan also granted it Suakin Island in the Red Sea for 99 years so that it could set up a military base there.
Overall, Turkey has a unique asset in its multidimensional offensive in Africa, in this case its ability to play on the fiber of Muslim brotherhood, which still seems to find a wide echo on the continent.
Walid Kefi
Also read:
02/11/2022 – Turkey expands its influence in Africa thanks to arms sales and security agreements (report)
10/29/2024 – Djibouti Summit: Turkey intends to strengthen its cooperation with Africa
09/20/2023 – Türkiye-Africa: trade increased eightfold between 2003 and 2022, to $40.7 billion
06/12/2023 – Security: to replace France, Burkina Faso turned to Russia, but also China and Turkey
05/14/2019 – Audiovisual Africa: after India and China, Turkey wants to conquer the continent with its content
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