Israel builds up its networks in Africa to ensure Red Sea outlet, African Union status

For several years, Benyamin Netanyahu has hammered the theme: “Israel is back in Africa”.

The former Israeli Prime Minister announced it for the first time during his historic tour of July 2016 in the east of the continent (Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia), then repeated it a year later at the 51st summit of ECOWAS held in Monrovia. He then completed the hat trick in November 2018, following visits by Rwandan President Paul Kagame, his Togolese counterpart Faure Gnassingbé and former Chadian head of state Idriss Déby Itno.

Netanyahu has spared no effort to see his country regain at minimum the influence it had in Africa before its military exploits in 1973 during the Yom Kippur War. The very young Jewish state enjoyed then a certain amount of sympathy with the newly independent African countries.