Research Director of African Programmes at Chatham House, says Ghana and other African countries are not shielded from the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran.
Dr Alex Vines cautions that vital sectors like oil, gold, and international travel are at serious risk.
Speaking on Joy News’ PM Express on Tuesday, he told host Evans Mensah that Ghana and other African economies are far from insulated from the shockwaves of the renewed Middle East hostilities.
“It impacts supply chains. It impacts the price of oil… It impacts the price of gold. It disrupts travel,” he said.
His comments came days after Israel launched coordinated military strikes against Iran, killing senior officials and hitting key infrastructure targets in what Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed would continue “as long as necessary.”
Dr. Vines stressed that although Ghana is thousands of miles away, the fallout is immediate and inevitable.
From rising petroleum costs to volatility in gold prices — both critical to Ghana’s economy — the nation will feel the heat.
“So Ghana’s struck. The African continent is not immune by any means to what’s going on in the Middle East.”
The implications go beyond just economics. Ghanaian travellers, especially those connecting through or near the conflict zones, are now at risk.
“If Ghanaians are going through the Middle East on travel, that will be disrupted. Flights that go near Iran at the moment or near Israel are being disrupted,” Dr. Vines added.
He pointed to global entanglements, linking the Israel-Iran conflict to other major crises like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which also triggered global spikes in fuel and commodity prices.
“This overlaps with all the conflicts that we’ve also seen elsewhere. The Ukraine-Russia one is also one that has inflated the price of commodities. It’s impacted the price of fuel.”
The bigger point, Dr. Vines argued, is that in a globalised world, Ghana cannot afford to sit on the sidelines of international security threats.
“We are interconnected… Ghana can’t ignore this. As I can’t in my own country here in the UK.”
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