You laugh, but Africa is pretty much 10% ROI.
Thus it has always been. Ridiculously abundant in mineral and natural resources and no messy laws or regulations, just pay off the local tinpot dictator and good to go. Everybody plays that game, even US corps.
Back in the early 90's, the brother of the woman I was dating got trapped in Angola when some rebels took the town in which he was working. He was in his apartment, but couldn't leave and the bad guys were closing in. Sadly, his fucking phone did work, so we'd get panicked calls complete with automatic weapons fire in the background. The US State Department was useless. They didn't know anything and couldn't do anything. Mike was fucked. Then came Texaco. It seemed that 30 Texaco engineers were in the same town and needed out, so the Texaco corporation fucking rented the Angolan army for a few days and had them fight in and out. Texaco also graciously called other folks and asked if they "needed a ride" (presumably in a Texas drawl). Mike woke up one morning to an APC outside his door. He left everything, they wouldn't even allow his laptop. But he was home in 48 hours.
Fucking Africa.
