United States Africa Command arrived in 2007 promising “peace through strength,” yet from the Sahel to the Horn its footprint has widened just as China’s Belt and Road and Russia’s new Africa Corps press inward. On dusty parade grounds in Niamey recruits mimic American drills while commanders price Russian drones and Chinese harbor dredges. Every handshake hides clauses—immunity for foreign troops, gold‑for‑guns swaps, 30‑year port leases payable in cobalt. When captains schooled in Fort Moore depose presidents who question terms, Washington disavows intent even as new juntas salute the old contracts. Beijing promises a rail line but invoices in lithium; Moscow clears jihadists in exchange for uranium. Villages still wait for clean water. Yet in Ouagadougou Captain Ibrahim Traoré flips the script, steering royalty revenues into local schools and a Russian‑led modular reactor, daring donors to match transparent terms. Across the continent students, miners and young officers watch, screens glowing under corrugated roofs, and ask whose uniform truly shields their future. Africa’s minerals may electrify the next century, but its people will decide whether that power is measured in kilowatts—or in sovereignty.
