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Presidents Samia Suluhu Hassan and Yoweri Museveni. [File Courtesy]
Earlier this month in Dar es Salaam, Presidents Samia Suluhu Hassan and Yoweri Museveni witnessed the signing of an agreement to develop a regional energy hub at the Port of Tanga. To understand why it matters, we need to go back to February 28.
When the US-Iran war broke out, Africa’s fuel supply was under immediate threat. Within days, major oil actors were declaring force majeure, freight and insurance costs on tanker routes spiked dramatically, and countries thousands of kilometres from the Strait of Hormuz faced the prospect of empty forecourts.
The lesson is blunt. If Africa’s energy security depends on geographies it cannot influence, its hospitals, transport networks and economies will be held hostage to conflicts and events it is not involved in.
