Africa’s resource boom and strain
Africa is fast becoming central to the global energy transition — greenfield exploration and investment in critical minerals are surging as countries vie for capital and markets reported. That economic opportunity sits alongside acute climate stress — droughts in Somalia, floods in Kenya and a worsening hunger crisis in West and Central Africa mean investors and donors are also racing to fund resilience and renewables reported.
South Africa issued 358 new exploration licences last year, Ghana is advancing more than 90 active projects, and Namibia logged over 800 new exploration applications — figures that industry trackers say mark an unusually heavy greenfield push. (african-miningweek.com) Ghana attracted roughly $20 billion in mining and exploration investment across the past two years, a country-level figure cited by regional press summarising recent deal flows. (zawya.com) The UK’s Growth Gateway report names seven priority critical minerals — cobalt, graphite, lithium, nickel, copper, manganese and rare earths — as targets for processing and investment on the continent. (gov.uk) The World Economic Forum’s Securing Minerals initiative and other multilateral analyses flagged a financing gap for downstream processing even as projects such as the Lobito Corridor receive increased attention from investors. (weforum.org) Somalia’s 2026 humanitarian needs plan records about 7.5 million people affected across 64 of 90 districts following prolonged drought, while UNHCR reported c.180,000 recent internally displaced people tied to the same dry-season shock. (unocha.org) Kenya’s government and police updated the official flood toll as the crisis unfolded: initial reports of 25–42 dead were later revised to an official tally of 62 fatalities, with Nairobi accounting for 33 deaths and more than 2,000 families displaced. (apnews.com) The World Food Programme and UN briefings warn that funding shortfalls could leave about 55 million people in West and Central Africa facing “crisis or worse” hunger levels during the June–August 2026 lean season, with more than 13 million children at heightened risk of malnutrition. (wfp.org)
