After decades of foreign powers plundering its natural resources, Africa is seeking to create a coalition of nations exploiting critical minerals essential to the energy transition, according to a draft declaration released after a regional climate summit.

Africa has immense mineral wealth, particularly in "critical metals," over which China exercises strong domination, and from which other countries, particularly Western ones, are seeking to free themselves by prospecting on the African continent.

"The African Union Commission will explore and support the establishment of a coalition of African countries producing key minerals to promote strategic and sustainable regional cooperation, support value addition and beneficiation," said a draft declaration by continental leaders and representatives of the African Union (AU) released Wednesday.

Calling the initiative an "African Green Minerals Strategy," the AU said it would provide a "vehicle to harness Africa's vast mineral wealth for climate-resilient development," without giving details.

The move comes as Washington, in particular, seeks to source strategic minerals from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in an effort to challenge China's current near-monopoly on this lucrative sector.

The DRC, facing a new outbreak of violence, has some of the richest land on the planet, particularly in copper, cobalt, coltan and lithium, materials essential for the manufacture of components for weapons, mobile phones and electric cars.

The AU, in the same statement, also calls for "stronger international commitments and partnerships to close the financing gap and support adaptation, resilience and sustainable development."