The scene cut back to the live broadcast studio. The beautiful female host continued her report to the camera, but a hint of inadvertent disbelief could be seen in her expression.
"Just a moment ago, all 61 countries in Africa held simultaneous press conferences to announce the official unification of the entire continent. From now on, there is only one country in Africa, and that is the Kingdom of Wakanda. All original African nations have merged into the Kingdom of Wakanda, becoming provinces under its rule. The original national governments have been directly downgraded to provincial government agencies of the Kingdom of Wakanda, no longer exercising powers such as foreign diplomacy or legislation."
"Please see the following live report from our field reporter."
...The people in the living room stopped watching the subsequent reports and instead looked at those around them with utter disbelief.
"Did I hear that right? Africa is unified? By that Wakanda that suddenly popped out of nowhere?"
Tony Stark looked completely incredulous. He looked up at Little Pepper Potts standing in front of him and asked suspiciously,
"Pepper, is today April Fool's Day? Is the TV station playing a prank on us?"
Pepper, who was equally shocked by the news, shook her head gently.
"No, today isn't April Fool's Day. This news should be real! Africa has truly been unified!"
Tony and the others looked at each other and couldn't help but blurt out a curse word.
"Holy! Crap!"
Sitting on the sofa nearby, Chen Mo's lips curled up imperceptibly, revealing a faint smile.
The African unification plan was finally complete. Everything was not as easy as Tony and the others perceived it to be.
After all, the European and American countries that held massive interests on the African continent were no slackers. The unification of Africa would inevitably infringe upon their interests, which was something they were unwilling to see and would absolutely not allow.
That was why the previous Joint Rescue Operation and the African Unification Alliance existed. Using these seemingly normal means to cover their true purpose, they rapidly expanded Wakanda's influence and control over the entire continent. Furthermore, their actions in all aspects were extremely swift; even if the Western powers noticed something was wrong, they simply didn't have time to stop it.
Who could have imagined that the unification of an entire continent and over sixty countries would be completed in less than a month?
This was the astonishing power possessed by HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D. hidden behind the scenes!
Being able to easily overthrow a national regime was partly because the target was a chaotic Africa. If it were Europe or America, it wouldn't have been so easy, and certainly not so simple and crude.
Even with the full support of HYDRA and S.H.I.E.L.D., the process of Wakanda unifying Africa was not easy.
To thoroughly master Africa and achieve unification, besides controlling the various governments and armies and winning over the people, the biggest problem was actually the opposition from Western countries. They couldn't stand by and watch a chaotic Africa achieve unity and move towards stability; otherwise, how could they easily seize massive interests in a resource-rich Africa?
This was also why Chen Mo did not choose to unify Africa by force. Without a legitimate reason, things wouldn't go smoothly. Conquest by force would give Western developed nations an excuse to intervene. At that time, to protect their vested interests in Africa, they would inevitably send troops to interfere, just like what happened in the Middle East back then.
They speak of democracy,
and human rights, yet they wantonly trample on the sovereignty of other nations and interfere in their internal affairs. Therefore, Chen Mo would not give them any excuse or opportunity to intervene.
Not only that, after the Joint Rescue Operation began, while several massive transport planes were rescuing refugees, they used the rescue operation as cover to secretly transport large amounts of production materials from various African countries to Wakanda.
With the resource supply of the entire continent, Wakanda, with its advanced technology, completely unleashed its terrifying production capacity.
The production bases went into full gear for the manufacture of military supplies, and batches of world-class weapons and equipment were rapidly produced.
After the establishment of the African Unification Alliance, the armies of all countries were unified and reorganized. After screening, less than one-tenth of the original elite Soldiers were retained.
But without the infighting between Warlords, and with the goal of only protecting Africa and maintaining stability, there was indeed no need to keep so many troops.
Moreover, those who remained after screening were the most elite warriors. Once equipped with advanced weapons, their combat effectiveness was much stronger than before.
However, the role of these Soldiers was not to deal with the military intervention of Western developed nations, but to maintain stability within Africa. The ones truly dealing with external military threats were Wakanda's elite Soldiers and high-end military power.
After the announcement of African unification, the armed forces of Western countries in Africa were rapidly expelled. Facing African Soldiers who were greater in number and better equipped, these Western Soldiers, who used to be incredibly arrogant in front of native African troops, instantly changed their expressions.
Seeing the African Soldiers who had now 'traded their shotguns for cannons' and possessed equipment even more advanced and powerful than their own, they didn't even have the heart to resist and dejectedly withdrew.
The Western countries, accustomed to running rampant in Africa, were naturally unwilling to let their piece of the cake be taken away so easily. After their troops stationed in Africa were expelled, they quickly formed a joint force, preparing for military intervention in the name of liberating Africa.
Immediately afterward, they discovered that Africa's airspace and territorial waters were completely blockaded. Their fighter jets and warships simply could not get close to the African continent.
Whether it was the most advanced American F-22 'Raptor' fighters and B-2 Stealth Strategic Bombers, or the European 'Typhoon' and French 'Rafale' fighters, none could enter African airspace. Whenever they approached, they would be quickly intercepted by Wakandan fighters. The radar stealth they were so proud of was completely ineffective, and the speed, maneuverability, and other performance aspects displayed by the Wakandan fighters far exceeded theirs.
In aerial combat, they couldn't even catch a shadow of the Wakandan fighters, let alone lock onto them for an attack. Meanwhile, their own planes' radar-lock alarms were constantly ringing. No matter how they maneuvered, evaded, or even accelerated to escape, they couldn't shake off the lock of the Wakandan fighters.
After several fighters were shot down in succession, the other planes eventually had to surrender and were escorted to land within Africa.
All of the joint forces' successive probes ended in failure. After losing a large number of fighter jets, the joint forces had to give up on continuing to use air power.
The naval offensive was similarly blocked. After ignoring Wakanda's warnings and crossing into African territorial waters, Wakandan fighters once again taught them a harsh lesson.
An air ripple approached a Burke-class destroyer at the front at high speed. Following that, the ship was hit as if by a missile, and a huge hole was blown into the side of the hull.
A massive amount of seawater poured frantically into the hull, and this world-class guided-missile destroyer with powerful combat capabilities soon sank to the bottom of the sea.