Aliko Dangote, the richest man in Africa, has been repeating the same idea for years at economic forums where he is invited: the continent will continue to be dependent as long as it limits itself to exporting raw materials without processing them. That's why he launched a refinery in his country, Nigeria, a project that aims to transform a large part of the African energy market. The total cost approached 20 billion dollars, paid mainly by his company, and it has been operational since January 2024.Few debates spark as much tension in Africa as the price of gasoline. With states that often offer few public services and very limited social protection systems, fuel subsidies have become one of the few visible forms of state support. When the price of gasoline rises, the cost of transport, food, and daily life immediately increases. This is why many governments maintain costly subsidies even if they end up unbalancing public finances. As in so many places, subsidies are the most elegant way to avoid confronting a difficult structural problem to solve. Nigeria, one of the continent's major oil producers, has gone decades without sufficient capacity to refine its own crude. The lack of functional infrastructure forced the import of fuel at high prices while the state assumed part of the cost to prevent social unrest. The business primarily benefited gasoline importers, many of them linked to the country's elites. A cement giant

Dangote is part of these elites. He made his fortune in the cement market in the early 2000s, partly thanks to a protected market and his good relations with the government. He then diversified his income by investing in the food sector, and in recent years has focused on energy and fertilizers. In May 2024, the president of Nigeria, Bola Tinubu, announced the withdrawal of gasoline subsidies and the devaluation of the Nigerian currency. The prices of energy and food soared, and the poorest Nigerians are still recovering from the blow; the new infrastructure has allowed the country to start consuming gasoline refined locally. While in other African countries prices are soaring and there is a gasoline shortage due to the conflict in the Middle East, in Nigeria –for now– there are no supply problems. Dangote has already announced his next goal: that his refinery double its capacity and be the largest in the world. With its industrial activity, it aims to replace imports that have turned Africa into a territory that lives consuming what is manufactured abroad. Facing him will be the local elites who live off distributing these imports. “I never imagined that the oil mafia is worse than the drug mafia”, he said on one occasion, given the difficulties he had encountered in starting up his refinery. For his critics, Dangote represents the risk that a single private fortune accumulates excessive power over strategic sectors. For his followers, it is the opportunity to launch projects that states have neglected for decades. For the moment, the war in Iran has generated more markets for him in Europe, where airlines buy fuel from him, and it is opening more doors for him across the continent: Kenya and Tanzania; in East Africa they are already fighting to be the country where Dangote builds the next refinery. 

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The President of the United States, Donald Trump, stated this Friday that the number two of the Islamic State and the "most active terrorist on the planet" Abu-Bilal al-Minuki has been eliminated in Nigeria. According to Trump, his death occurred during a "very complex and meticulously planned mission" between the Armed Forces of the United States and those of Nigeria. Trump made the announcement on his social network, Truth Social: "Under my direction, brave American forces and the Nigerian Armed Forces have impeccably executed a meticulously planned and very complex mission to eliminate from the battlefield the world's most active terrorist, Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, second in command of ISIS (Islamic State)." "He will no longer terrorize the African people nor help plan operations against Americans," the leader added in his publication.

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"It's not a mistake; Donald Trump has bombarded Christmas Day because it's an important date for Christians and because it's a way to get people talking about him," explains Silas Jonathan, a disinformation expert at the Center for Journalism, Innovation and Development (CJID). US President Donald Trump, announced this Thursday in a statement Published on Truth, his social network, the United States launched a "powerful and deadly" attack against Islamic State camps in Nigeria on Christmas Eve.

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