🔅 How Coca-Cola is Fueling Chaos
A Dairy Revolution: The AI That’s Actually About Cows
Good morning from… Can you guess where in Africa this is? (Answer at the bottom!)
How Coca-Cola’s Favorite “Secret Sauce” Is Fueling Chaos
Ever wonder how your soda stays so delightfully fizzy and your candy shell stays perfectly shiny? Meet gum arabic, the superhero stabilizer gleaned from acacia trees across Africa. Turns out it’s increasingly arriving at your local sweet shop by way of rebel-held corners of war-torn Sudan. Yup, the very same gum that makes M&Ms oh-so-satisfying is now carried across borders in the back of rickety trucks under the watchful (and profiteering) eye of the Rapid Support Forces (RSF).
Sudan churns out about 80% of the world’s gum arabic, which big brands like Coca-Cola can’t live without. And so the RSF—a paramilitary group locked in a civil war—who’ve seized gum-rich regions in Darfur and Kordofan. Local producers pay them fees or face losing the entire harvest. So next time you see “partially produced with genetic engineering” on your candy wrapper, imagine paramilitary checkpoints and shady border runs.
Traditionally, raw gum would head to Khartoum, then ship out of Port Sudan. Now, it’s skipping checkpoints by crossing into places like South Sudan and Chad in clandestine convoys. Traders in Egypt and Senegal—places known for not producing that much gum—are suddenly offering cut-rate deals with zero “conflict-free” credentials.
It is a nightmare for big brands, because Western companies love to trumpet their squeaky-clean supply chains. But the new normal has turned gum arabic into a buyer-beware free-for-all. Some major ingredients suppliers are doubling down on alternative African sources like Cameroon or spinning up “conflict-free” labeling, but controlling which batch might have financed a paramilitary group is as sticky as the gum itself.
Will Eastern Congo Suck Neighbours into a Region-Wide War?
If you’ve been following all the upheaval in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), here’s the gist: the paramilitary group M23 — which apparently has major backing by Rwanda (though Kigali denies it) — is back, bigger, and more audacious than ever. This brewing conflict is sending shock waves across multiple African nations that are nervously eyeing their own borders, worried about a potential continent-wide conflagration.
In a storyline that feels on repeat, Rwanda has now been accused of invading the DRC five times since the mid-1990s. The first two times turned into multi-country wars. The next two were more local skirmishes in the mountainous east. The latest one, though, looks increasingly like a rerun of “1998: The Mega-War.” And given all the new weaponry on the scene, it’s not good news for all involved.
M23 (the rebel group with Rwandan support, according to Congolese and U.N. reports) has seized large swaths of eastern Congo.
But why would Rwanda risk blowing up its carefully curated “Brand Rwanda”? Security is a big factor. The memory of the 1994 genocide drives the Rwandan regime to adopt a sledgehammer approach to any cross-border threat (like the FDLR). There’s also a question of resources: gold and other minerals are major Rwandan exports — and it’s widely believed (though not proven in a court of law) that a lot of that might be streaming in from Congolese mines. M23 itself seems to have ambitious goals, like marching all the way to the capital, Kinshasa.
Meanwhile, Congolese President Félix Tshisekedi looks increasingly vulnerable, fending off rumors of plots and coups even in his own capital.
Checkers, Chess, and Neighbors
Turns out that this situation is roping in plenty of outside players:
Burundi: Possibly sending thousands of troops to back up the Congolese army. Its president is on record hurling less-than-friendly words at Rwanda’s Paul Kagame and telling his own citizens to brace for war.
Uganda: An awkward straddle. On the one hand, top Ugandan brass have been cozy with Kagame and M23. On the other, Uganda’s army is actively cooperating with the Congolese government against other rebels that threaten their own security and that have found refuge in DRC (the Allied Democratic Forces). It’s basically a complicated “frenemy” situation.
Kabila & Co.: Former Congolese President Joseph Kabila looms in the background. Some suspect he’s either quietly cheering M23 on or at least looking for a chance to reinsert himself into presidential power.
The Deafeningly Tepid International Response
For a crisis that might destabilize an entire region, you’d think foreign governments would do more than wag a finger. So far, there’s been a mild ramp-up in condemnation, plus a few half-hearted aid suspensions or sanctions from various countries. But overall, donors and diplomats aren’t exactly leaping to slam the brakes on Rwanda’s ambitions. Possibly because Rwanda is oh-so-helpful to them in other areas, from peacekeeping to fending off rebels in Mozambique’s gas regions to certain “migrant hosting” deals in the works.
All told, the renewed conflict in the DRC might be creating a powder keg that could blow up well beyond the Virunga volcanoes. And with multiple neighboring countries adopting contradictory or double-crossing stances, it’s a messy, tangled chessboard.
Nigeria’s Dairy Revolution: The AI That’s Actually About Cows
Artificial intelligence might be taking over the world, but in Nigeria, it’s the other AI—artificial insemination—that’s making waves.
Introducing the Girolando, a Brazilian super-cow designed to withstand Africa’s brutal heat while pumping out an impressive 20 liters of milk a day—compared to the 1-liter struggle of Nigeria’s local cows.
Farmers like Moyosore Rafiu are on board. His European-bred cows can’t handle the heat, and the local breeds, while tough, aren’t exactly dairy powerhouses. So, he’s teamed up with FrieslandCampina, Nigeria’s largest dairy producer, to inseminate his herd with premium bull genetics from Brazil. If all goes well, his farm’s milk production could more than double—turning a trickle into a flood.
This is about far more than one farmer’s profits: Nigeria imports a staggering 60% of its dairy, spending $1.5 billion a year on milk. Meanwhile, food insecurity is skyrocketing, with 33 million people expected to face acute hunger in 2025. A steady supply of local dairy could be a game-changer, especially considering that a third of Nigerian children are malnourished.
And Nigeria isn’t alone in its cow upgrade program. Ethiopia and Kenya are also riding the artificial insemination wave, with genetics companies like ABS Global delivering thousands of heat-resistant dairy cows to the region.
The goal? Again, more milk, healthier livestock, and, ultimately, a more food-secure continent.
But revolutionizing dairy in Nigeria isn’t as simple as simply swapping out cows. The process is slow—two years from insemination to milk-ready cow—and only about 60% of inseminations take. Plus, Nigeria’s cattle industry is still dominated by nomadic Fulani herders, who own most of the country’s 20 million cows and might not be keen on test-tube bulls.
Still, optimism is high. The government has created a Ministry of Livestock Development, signed a $2.5 billion deal with meat giant JBS SA, and even caught the attention of Bill Gates, who’s been warning about child malnutrition and recently visited Nigeria.
For Rafiu, the bet on Girolando cows is personal. With his first batch of calves growing strong, he’s already planning for expansion. “Imagine if I had 30 of these animals?” he says. “Bye-bye, bad economy.”
For Nigeria, that’s the kind of transformation that might just be worth the wait.
Food for Thought
“For every rose there is a thorn.”
— Nigeria Proverb
And the Answer is…
The photo is from Djibouti! Did you guess right?