Japan Pledges $30 billion in Aid to Africa at TICAD Summit

The summit between Japan and Africa finished on Sunday with a promise of $30 billion in investment in African aid.

Speaking via video link, Japanese Prime-Minister, Fumio Kishida, also promised to pressure for an African seat at the UN Security Council.

The summit held in Tunis also served as a platform for business between Japan and the Continent.

“TICAD (Tokyo International Conference on African Development, ed.) 8 is an opportunity to show Tunisia’s true image and skills in the field of technology and science. The geographical location of Tunisia is an important location in Africa and Europe also helps in the tripartite partnership between Tunisia, Japan and the rest of Africa”, said Mohamed Frikha, owner of Telnet.

The Japanese prime-minister also announced that Japan would appoint a special envoy to the Horn of Africa, where a long drought has prompted the UN’s weather agency to warn this week of an “unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe”.

Kishida said Japan would also pump $8.3 million into the troubled but gold-rich Liptako-Gourma tri-borders area between Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso that has been ravaged by extremist attacks in recent years.

The UN Security Council is made up of 15 members, five of whom are permanent and have veto-wielding power: the United States, Russia, China, France, and Britain.

The other ten positions are filled by other countries for two-year stints, five of which are announced each year.