More Chinese Weapons Appearing on Battlefields in Sudan and Ethiopia
Ghanaian aviation investigators are looking into whether a technical malfunction onboard the Chinese-made Z-9 helicopter led to last Wednesday's crash in the central Ashanti region that killed eight people. Recent gains by Ethiopian government troops in pushing back Tigrayan opposition forces may have been helped by the use of sophisticated unmanned aerial vehicles from Turkey, Iran and China. A military blogger, Defense News Nigeria, explained why Abuja felt it necessary to negotiate a series of covert military procurement deals with Beijing.
Why it matters: Chinese arms exports run through three separate African security episodes reported here, from a fatal helicopter crash in Ghana to battlefield UAV use in Ethiopia and covert procurement by Nigeria.