The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Blinken in Africa to show American commitment to the continent

2021-11-17T00:45:02.927Z


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa on Wednesday (November 17th) in Nairobi since taking ...


US Secretary of State Antony Blinken began his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa since taking office in Nairobi on Wednesday (November 17th), focusing on democracy and climate change, but the crises in Ethiopia and Sudan should put security back on the menu .

Read also Biden receives Kenyatta, first African head of state invited to the White House

The head of US diplomacy arrived in Kenya at dawn on Wednesday. He aims to set the Biden administration apart from that of his predecessor Donald Trump, who made no secret of his lack of interest in Africa and was the only president in several decades not to visit the continent. Antony Blinken will visit until Saturday three countries considered key in the African strategy of President Joe Biden: first Kenya, one of Washington's oldest allies, where China is gaining ground, then Nigeria, the most populous country of the continent and, finally, Senegal, model of democratic stability.

Sub-Saharan Africa is the last region of the world to be visited by Antony Blinken, whose movements during the first months in office were hampered by the Covid-19 pandemic and the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

His visit takes place less than a month from a virtual summit

"for democracy"

organized by Joe Biden and in the wake of that of the COP26 on the climate, during which Washington joined the calls to give up energies fossils.

Read also In Kenya, the presidential election rekindles fears of ethnic clashes

With regard to Africa,

“the current approach emphasizes the objective of revitalizing democracies as well as climate change and sustainable development,”

explains Ervin Massinga, a senior official at the State Department. According to him, Antony Blinken will also discuss the development of production capacities in Africa for vaccines against Covid-19, an initiative thanks to which Joe Biden hopes to distinguish himself from China which offensively puts forward its own vaccines.

In the background will nevertheless appear the crises in which Washington is diplomatically active, affecting two countries in which the United States for a time placed great hope: Ethiopia and Sudan.

Addis Ababa was for a long time a close ally of Washington, now dismayed by the obstacles to the delivery of food aid in the northern region of Tigray, the scene of a conflict between the federal army and the rebels, where famine threatens hundreds of people. thousands of people.

Read alsoConfit du Tigray: will Ethiopia be the next Yugoslavia?

The Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), against which the government of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed launched the federal army a little over a year ago, has reconquered Tigray, advanced in neighboring regions and is now threatening to march on Addis Ababa.

“This is not Ethiopia that we thought we were seeing two years ago, when we applauded it as the most dynamic economy in Africa,”

US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda said recently. Thomas-Greenfield.

Joe Biden recently said he was prepared to deprive Ethiopia of the benefits of the U.S. Africa Growth and Opportunities Act (Agoa Act), which exempts many African countries from tariffs.

He has so far ruled out sanctions on the Ethiopian government or the rebels in the hope of encouraging a political settlement.

At the same time, the United States suspended some $ 700 million in aid to Sudan, the scene at the end of October of a military coup that put an end to the democratic transition started with the overthrow in 2019 of the autocrat Omar al-Bashir, after 30 years in power.

Read also In Sudan, the street opposes the coup

Former top diplomat in charge of Africa under former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Johnnie Carson believes Antony Blinken's visit to Kenya should not be

"a missed opportunity"

to invite country leaders around to seek a regional solution to the Sudanese and Ethiopian crises.

"The Horn of Africa is extremely fragile and the democratic transitions that we thought to be going forward in Ethiopia and Sudan have derailed," said

Johnnie Carson, now at the American Institute for Peace (Usip).

“In reality, if these countries collapse in the coming year, we will see a larger regional collapse

,

he warns.

Antony Blinken is expected to have sensitive talks in Nigeria, to which the United States has suspended delivery of helicopters due to concerns over human rights.

Another subject that should be addressed during his trip: trade.

The Agoa expires in 2025 and, like Donald Trump, Joe Biden does not seem in a hurry to replace it, faced with an American opinion less and less favorable to trade agreements, at the risk of promoting trade relations between Africa and the United States. China.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2021-11-17

You may like

Trends 24h

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.