Sameera Casmod | sameerac@radioislam.co.za
6 May 2025 | 12:30 CAT
3-minute read

“Almost anything could explode”: Africa expert warns of deepening conflict and unchecked slavery

A sharp warning has been issued on the state of the African continent, with renowned journalist and researcher Martin Plaut painting a bleak picture of intensifying conflict, entrenched modern slavery, and Africa’s waning diplomatic clout on the world stage.

Speaking to Radio Islam International during this week’s Africa Report, Plaut highlighted the alarming scale of crises unfolding across the Horn of Africa, Sudan, and Libya — regions where instability is now stretching beyond borders and decades.

“There is so much tension in the region. And we just don’t know where it’s going. Almost anything could explode,” Plaut cautioned, referring to ongoing violence in Sudan, the unresolved state of Somalia, and growing hostilities between Ethiopia and Eritrea.

He described a layered crisis in Sudan, where a brutal power struggle between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has displaced millions, with the last operational port recently struck by drones. In South Sudan, ethnic rivalries are again boiling over, while Somalia remains fractured since the collapse of Siad Barre’s regime in the early 1990s.

But it’s not only war zones that are in crisis — it’s also the persistence of slavery in five African countries that, Plaut insists, is being dangerously overlooked.

“If you want to, you can go out and own, purchase, sell or inherit somebody in five African countries,” he said, naming Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Sudan, and Libya as nations where slavery of the “old-fashioned kind” is still practiced.

In Libya, migrants fleeing from the Horn of Africa are often detained and sold in open markets. The scale of this trade is staggering: in Mali alone, the UN estimates at least 800 000 people are enslaved — 200 000 of them under direct control of their so-called masters.

“Why are we doing nothing about it? Why are we not hearing about this? It is an absolute tragedy,” Plaut asked, referring to a 2023 UN report exposing the widespread nature of hereditary slavery in West Africa.

In addition to humanitarian concerns, Plaut addressed South Africa’s tense diplomatic standoff with former US President Donald Trump, which has had economic and public health implications. US aid cuts, particularly to HIV/AIDS programmes, have already begun to impact the country’s most vulnerable.

“You can’t confront somebody who has so much power… People are going to be dying because of what President Trump has done,” he said, urging South Africa to find a realistic path forward in the face of geopolitical pressure.

Despite the scale of Africa’s crises, Plaut was sceptical about continental unity. Apart from the anti-apartheid struggle, he argued, Africa has rarely rallied together with a shared purpose. Even the long-standing African Union goal of abolishing visa restrictions within the continent has made little progress.

“There is no unity amongst Africans, I’m afraid, on practically anything,” he observed.

Martin Plaut is a Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London. A former BBC Africa Editor and Labour Party Secretary for Africa and the Middle East, Plaut has reported extensively across the continent and continues to monitor its shifting political landscape.

Listen to the Africa Report on Sabaahul Muslim with Moulana Sulaimaan Ravat.