January, 19 2020, 11:00pm EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Joe Karp-Sawey, media manager,Tel: +44 (0)7711 875 345,Email:,joe.karpsawey@globaljustice.org.uk
Reaction to UK-Africa Investment Summit
Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said:
"The supposedly transformative PS6.5bn British investment in Africa announced today includes investment in oil, gas, gold mining and airlines. In fact, the second largest investment is in oil production.(1) So much for fostering 'climate friendly' development. Over half the investment is in one single country - Egypt, run by a repressive and authoritarian government.
WASHINGTON
Nick Dearden, director of Global Justice Now, said:
"The supposedly transformative PS6.5bn British investment in Africa announced today includes investment in oil, gas, gold mining and airlines. In fact, the second largest investment is in oil production.(1) So much for fostering 'climate friendly' development. Over half the investment is in one single country - Egypt, run by a repressive and authoritarian government.
In the nineteenth century, the 'scramble for Africa' was carefully disguised as a humanitarian project. 150 years later, what we saw at the UK-Africa summit today was a desperate and unseemly grab for markets, dressed up as 'development'."
(1) https://www.gov.uk/government/news/uk-ais-commercial-deals
Global Justice Now is a democratic social justice organisation working as part of a global movement to challenge the powerful and create a more just and equal world. We mobilise people in the UK for change, and act in solidarity with those fighting injustice, particularly in the global south.
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