On the occasion of the visit of the German Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs to Senegal, Mrs. Annalena Baerbock, on July 15 and 16, 2024, a panel discussion was organized in her honor at the Goethe Institut Dakar. With relations between Europe and Africa high on the agenda, the Country Director of the Timbuktu Institute, Ms. Yague Samb, highlighted three major challenges that Europe and Africa can meet together.

The first challenge, according to the Timbuktu Institute expert, concerns Africa's position in the energy transition. For her, “we realize that there is a paradox, in that Africa is the continent that pollutes the least but suffers the most from the effects of climate change. So there's a kind of energy double whammy. In the meantime, Africa is being called upon to take its cue from the current energy transition to move towards clean energy, solar power, etc.”, she argues. Hence, in her view, “the question of whether we are taking into account the specificity of a continent where over 600 million people have no access to basic electricity. How, in this context, when we have countries like Senegal and Côte d'Ivoire producing energy, can we forbid them to use fossil fuels and move towards clean energy, without accompanying measures and even some compensation?” asks the Senegal Director of the Timbuktu Institute. For her, “this is a real problem that can be remedied by climate justice in the face of this energy double whammy, by rethinking the conditions for financing renewable energy, but also by transferring technology to avoid any dependence on this transition”.

The second challenge is linked to the geopolitical dimension of the new energy war in the context of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.  “Today, we know that European countries are experiencing difficulties in accessing energy. As a result, many of them are increasingly approaching African countries in search of alternatives. Today, energy production in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire and the Gulf of Guinea is a major issue for the supply of Western powers. But the fear is that in this new context, Africa will become an adjustment variable where Europe, unsure of its access to Russian gas, will fall back on African countries,” adds Yague Samb. For her, “such a situation could confer another geopolitical status on Africa vis-à-vis Russia, which will begin to view Africa as likely to attenuate its ability to exert pressure on Western powers”. So, she reminds us, it seems important not to focus on cyclical emergencies, but to focus on an Africa of solutions to the energy question. 

The third challenge that the Country Director of the Timbuktu Institute identifies is that of collective security, which includes both security cooperation, in terms of tacit equality in the face of vulnerability (terrorism no longer has borders), and the question of migration, where there is an inequality of mobility that is often reduced to the expression “illegal immigration”. On this last point, she wonders how difficult it is for young Africans to accept the mobility of natural resources from the South to the North, while at the same time drastically reducing the opportunities for Africans to travel to Europe. “In the name of what principle can some people move and others not, while their natural resources move and can leave the continent without great constraint”, she wonders, calling for a paradigm shift and a much-needed renewal of the Africa-Europe relationship.

For this reason, she finds “the concept of clandestine migration subjective and one-sided, and instead suggests inequality in mobility, which needs to be redressed if we are to avoid perpetuating a conflictual vision of the Europe-Africa relationship, especially among young people who are connected and highly informed about international dynamics”. For the Senegal director of the Timbuktu Institute, “this situation does not facilitate relations between African youth and Europe. Young Africans who once fought for democracy are now applauding juntas after coups d'état. This is not because they reject democracy, but rather because they doubt the credibility of political discourse, and especially that of the West, on democracy, given the inconsistencies in the appreciation and variable-geometry application of the principle of human rights in the contemporary world”. But for Yague Samb, “it is still possible to renew the thread of dialogue, and even move forward together, within the framework of renewed relations that take into account the evolution of African societies, and above all of a youth that is more demanding of both African governments and their international partners”.