RT-Engels: 08-03-2026,
While the continent is legally committed to being a nuclear-free zone, its security is challenged by the lack of clarity in global nuclear politics
Did you know there was a time when Africa actually possessed nuclear weapons? Why, then, does the continent no longer have them? Looking back, we can see this was a historic turning point – a moment when the region’s security trajectory took a decisive shift.
In a world of great power dynamics where the possession of nuclear weapons shapes strategic deterrence from adversaries, Africa, endowed with vast natural resources and an estimated 1.6 billion people, once opted to become a nuclear-weapon-free zone. Amid geopolitical tensions and repeated threats of the use of force against sovereign states, Africa’s restraint now faces a critical test: is it a peace dividend – or simply a strategic vulnerability in a fractured world?
Africa’s only nuclear bomb
Africa’s restraint is justified on the grounds of moral and legal obligations enshrined in international treaties. Historically, South Africa under the apartheid regime is the only country in Africa to have ever possessed nuclear weapons.
Six air-deliverable nuclear weapons were developed between 1970 and 1980 by the apartheid regime to counter African revolutionary movements backed by Cuban troops and the Soviet Union that sought independence and freedom from colonial rule, particularly in Mozambique and Angola.
Amid heightened calls for freedom and reduced tensions among Cold War powers in the late 1980s,