Tory foreign affairs spokesman lost in Africa: Can you help him?

by | Apr 24, 2008


The Conservative foreign affairs spokesman William Hague issued a press release on Tuesday calling on David Miliband, foreign secretary “to take urgent action with regard to the Chinese ship, currently heading to Uganda carrying arms bound for Zimbabwe”.

From the FT blog:

Hague’s intervention sent the Foreign Office into a spin, as officials pored over atlases trying to work out how the Chinese vessel might achieve the unlikely task of offloading its weapons in a land-locked country in the heart of Africa. Perhaps he envisaged the ship heading up to the Mediterranean, taking a right turn down the River Nile and then making the tortuous journey through sub-Saharan Africa to Lake Victoria. Not sure whether the river is up to taking ocean-going ships though. “What is he talking about?” asked one government official. So far there has been no explanation from Mr Hague’s team about this strange Ugandan affair

Aware that readers of Global Dashboard are an imaginative, thoughtful and pragmatic bunch we want to know how you would best transport the shipment of arms onboard the Chinese ship An Yue Jiang from is current position (off the South Western coast of Africa via Uganda to Zimbabwe). A small prize will be awarded for the best post.*

* Very small…

Author

  • Charlie Edwards is Director of National Security and Resilience Studies at the Royal United Services Institute. Prior to RUSI he was a Research Leader at the RAND Corporation focusing on Defence and Security where he conducted research and analysis on a broad range of subject areas including: the evaluation and implementation of counter-violent extremism programmes in Europe and Africa, UK cyber strategy, European emergency management, and the role of the internet in the process of radicalisation. He has undertaken fieldwork in Iraq, Somalia, and the wider Horn of Africa region.


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