World War III fears rise as US aligns with Rwanda for strategic resource access in Africa, sidelining AU and escalating tensions in Congo and the Middle East

World War III fears are rising as the United States appears to deepen strategic alliances in Africa, particularly with Rwanda, to secure access to vital resources and outmanoeuvre rivals such as China, Russia, and France.

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This realignment comes amid escalating conflicts in Eastern Europe and the Middle East, with many experts warning that Africa is now firmly on the radar of global superpowers.

The African Union and the United Nations remain conspicuously indecisive in the face of these developments.

While the world watches the Iran–Israel war and the Russia–Ukraine conflict intensify, the fragile peace between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo is becoming another front of strategic interest, especially for Western powers eager to secure mineral-rich territories.

Rwanda, a country of 14 million people, finds itself surrounded by neighbours totalling over 200 million. Despite this, President Paul Kagame has played a calculated diplomatic game, aligning his government closely with the United Kingdom and the United States.

His support for the UK’s controversial migrant deportation plan and his stance on M23 rebels in eastern Congo have raised concerns across the continent.

Kagame’s ambition to lead the Economic Community of Central African States was recently blocked, with member states citing Rwanda’s belligerent posture and regional interference.

This rejection came as Rwanda informally pivoted back to French in a diplomatic attempt to curry favour with its Francophone neighbours. However, the move did little to convince them, particularly in light of Rwanda’s perceived role in fuelling unrest in eastern Congo.

The United States, in what appears to be a move reminiscent of Cold War realpolitik, is now brokering peace between Rwanda and Congo not necessarily to uphold regional stability, but to secure unimpeded resource exploitation in its favour.

Analysts suggest that America’s overtures mirror the same strategy used in the Middle East—align with a small but strategically placed ally and project influence over a region by proxy.

Historical precedent looms large. Just as the US once aligned with communists to fight fascists in World War II, then supported fascists to check communists during the Cold War, its current alliances reflect a flexible but unsettling pattern.

Africa, as during the Cold War, risks becoming the staging ground of great power rivalry once more.

Adding to these World War III fears is the silence of the African Union, which has yet to act decisively. The AU’s failure to mediate the Rwanda–Congo dispute or address growing US hostility toward African nations—evident in visa bans targeting several countries except Rwanda—speaks to its growing irrelevance in global geopolitics.

In the Middle East, Israel faces what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls an “existential threat,” citing intelligence reports that Iran has over 20,000 ballistic missiles capable of overwhelming Israel’s defence systems.

He claims that if just 2,000 missiles reach their targets, the resulting radiation could render Israel uninhabitable for a century. With such existential calculations, the conflict risks drawing in NATO, Russia, and China.

Russia and China are, meanwhile, moving swiftly to replace France in its former African strongholds, securing military bases and economic agreements.

The US, however, appears focused solely on securing raw materials, evidenced by its intense engagement with both Ukraine and the DRC.

Observers have likened the current moment to the lead-up to World War II, when the League of Nations failed to act decisively. If the United Nations cannot broker peace in these overlapping crises, it risks going the same way.

Calls for a UN-brokered truce between Israel and Iran, mediated by global powers, have so far fallen on deaf ears, even during the recent G7 meeting in Canada.

The so-called “Evil Axis”—a Western term grouping Middle Eastern and African adversaries—is now geographically and politically intertwined. Africa will not be spared if conflict erupts on a global scale.

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Yet, many African leaders remain unaware or unprepared, as global powers carve up the continent once more, this time in the shadow of a looming global war.