NAIROBI, March 18 (Xinhua) -- The unfolding crisis in the Middle East, triggered by military strikes on Iran by the United States and Israel, should serve as a wake-up call for African countries to prioritize energy independence, a Kenyan scholar has said.
Patrick Lumumba, a legal scholar and former director of Kenya's anti-graft agency, told Xinhua in an interview that the crisis underscores the need for African countries to tap into their abundant oil and gas reserves, thereby reducing overreliance on imports.
With fuel prices soaring due to disruptions in major shipping routes, ordinary consumers in Africa are likely to feel the pinch, Lumumba said.
He noted that prices of basic commodities, such as food, could rise sharply in African countries that rely heavily on imported fuel, thereby hampering efforts to control inflation and spur economic growth.
"In the short to medium term, instability in the Middle East is going to impact us negatively in the sense that the cost of oil and the cost of goods that we import are going to become more expensive," the scholar said.
The joint U.S.-Israeli military strikes on Iran, which began on Feb. 28 and triggered countermeasures from Tehran, have disrupted the flow of energy resources through the Strait of Hormuz.
Noting the ongoing crisis as a wake-up call, Lumumba stressed that Africa should capitalize on harnessing its vast but untapped oil and gas reserves to power local economies. ■
