ABUJA, Jan 30 (IPS) – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s week-long tour throughout 4 African nations was geared toward strengthening the US-Africa relationship—a relationship, based on some commentators, already waning as China and Russia are growing their affect.
Blinken made his first stop in Cape Verde, a small island in West Africa, the place he engaged Prime Minister Ulisses Correia e Silva in discussions and reiterated the US dedication to deepening and increasing its collaborations with Africa. Persevering with his diplomatic journey, he then proceeded to Ivory Coast, Nigeria, and concluded his tour in Angola.
Whereas Blicken, on his tour, touted the US as a vital financial and safety ally for Africa, significantly throughout instances of regional and international challenges, analysts say that US international coverage in direction of Africa has instructed that the continent might have been “pushed to the back burner.” Their assertions will not be baseless.
On the US-Africa Leaders Summit in Washington in November 2022, President Joe Biden made commitments to assist democracy in Africa and introduced his endorsement for a everlasting seat for the African Union on the Group of 20. Biden additionally promised to visit the continent however that dream by no means materialised as Washington was preoccupied with a number of world challenges, such because the struggle in Gaza and the Russia-Ukraine struggle.
Addressing questions on Biden’s unsuccessful go to throughout an interview in Nigeria, Blinken defended the president by saying, “It’s simply the other. The President very a lot desires to come back to Africa. We’ve got 17 cabinet-level or department-level officers come for the reason that Africa Leaders Summit.”
US Counterproductive Counter-terrorism Battle
In Abidjan, the capital of Ivory Coast, Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged USD 45 million to bolster safety alongside the West African coast. This dedication extends the funding for an ongoing program within the area, bringing the entire to USD 300 million. Blinken counseled the Ivorian army for his or her counterinsurgency efforts in combating armed teams, acknowledging the issue of the area’s location between Mali and Burkina Faso and recognizing hotspots for violence within the Sahel.
For over twenty years, the US has made constant efforts to reinforce safety and promote democracy, significantly within the Sahel. Nonetheless, regardless of these investments, terrorism persists, resulting in frequent coups that pose a steady menace to the soundness of the continent.
Final yr noticed President Mohamed Bazoum of the Niger Republic—a vital US ally—forcibly ousted from power by disgruntled US–trained army officers. This coup dealt a big blow to Niger’s sprouting democracy, as President Bazoum had ascended to energy by means of the nation’s first democratic elections. Furthermore, it marked a setback to the longstanding US endeavours to foster democracy within the Sahel.
Going through worldwide stress, the coup plotters justified their actions by pointing to President Bazoum’s perceived incapability to successfully deal with the threat of insurgency within the nation, regardless of substantial investments by the US in regional safety.
Since 2012, the US has allocated greater than USD 500 million in safety help to Niger, positioning it because the leading recipient of US army help in West Africa and the second-highest in sub-Saharan Africa.
Along with having troops on the bottom, the US at present operates a drone base in sub-Saharan Africa, a USD 100 million facility primarily based in Agadez. Nonetheless, regardless of these developments, counterinsurgency operations funded by taxpayers have given rise to splinter groups related to jihadist militancy, inflicting misery in villages and cities.
Specialists attribute the insurgency in Sub-Saharan Africa to the US-led invasion of Libya, which didn’t convey stability to the nation and resulted within the proliferation of arms and violent teams throughout the area when international fighters, particularly the Turareg rebels loyal to Libya’s dictator, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, fled the nation after his loss of life.
A recent report by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, a US protection division analysis establishment, signifies that the Sahel skilled the most important improve in violent occasions linked to militant Islamists previously yr in comparison with another area in Africa, with 2,737 violent occasions. The report notes that assaults linked to militant Islamist teams within the Sahel have surged by 3,500% since 2016.
“If the US had not destabilised Libya, there isn’t any manner Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Chad, and Burkina Faso would have been in chaos,” argues Zainab Dabo, a Nigerian-based political analyst.
“With army takeovers in , together with a common mistrust for the West, Blinken is right here to supply an irresistible package deal of guarantees in a bid to stay related, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, the place Russia is gaining affect,’’ she added.
For the US, Russia’s expanding influence in Africa is a trigger for fear. The rivalry between the 2 nations intensified considerably following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Russia justified its actions by citing the US-led NATO growth in Ukraine, which it deemed a menace. Though the US has kept away from direct involvement within the battle, it has supplied substantial monetary and army help to Ukraine.
In the meantime, tensions between the US and Russia are escalating in Africa. That is evident as coup plotters, a lot of whom have undergone military training in the US, at the moment are ditching the West to seek military support from the Russian-backed personal army Wagner group of their efforts to fight terrorism. Russia can also be actively in search of to gain influence in Africa and problem the dominance of the greenback by means of the BRICS.
Nonetheless, whereas the Biden administration is contemplating designating the Wagner Group, a Russian group, as a terrorist organisation for its human rights violations, the US has all the time shied away from its personal misdeeds in Africa.
US army partnerships on the continent have been marred by a record of human rights abuses, fostering mistrust of Western affect.
In Nigeria, the place Blicken promised support for improved safety, a US-Nigerian airstrike in 2017 hit a refugee camp in Raan, close to the Cameroon border, killing at the least 115. Till as we speak, nobody has been held accountable for the bloodbath, and the victims haven’t gotten justice.
In Somalia, the place the US army has performed quite a few airstrikes in opposition to the Islamic Jihad group Al-Shabaab for greater than a decade, civilian casualties have develop into inevitable, many leaving members of the family in agony and with no hope of justice.
In 2020, Amnesty International slammed the US Africa Command (AFRICOM) for killing a girl and a younger little one in an airstrike in Somalia. Regardless of the households of the victims of this strike contacting the US Mission to Somalia, Amnesty Worldwide reported that neither US diplomatic employees nor AFRICOM had reached out to them to supply reparation.
US, China, Russia and the Scramble for Africa
In response to Frank Tietie, a lawyer and human rights activist in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital, Blinken’s go to coincides with a interval when America’s affect is perceived to be at a low level within the latest scramble for Africa. Tietie maintains that the US must transcend merely advocating for democracy and may actively match China and Russia’s efforts by deploying each monetary and developmental sources.
Since 2003, Chinese language international direct funding (FDI) in Africa has experienced a substantial increase, rising from a modest USD 74.8 million in 2003 to USD 5.4 billion in 2018. Though it noticed a decline to USD 2.7 billion in 2019, the development reversed, regardless of the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a resurgence to USD 4.2 billion in 2020. Nonetheless, considerations come up concerning China’s infrastructural investments and over USD 170 billion worth of loans in Africa, that are perceived as exploitative, given the expectation of pure sources in change.
Throughout a gathering with President João Lourenço of Angola, Blinken praised the developments in one of many US’s most vital investments in Africa: the development of the Lobito Hall, a vital rail hyperlink for metals exports from the central African Copper Belt. Nonetheless, for Tietie, who holds that the US is bent on containing the affect of Russia and China in Africa, such developments are inadequate.
“The gospel of democracy by the Individuals has not been capable of match the alluring and tantalising presence of the Chinese language with their loans and provide to take advantage of pure sources in change for money. The Individuals should do greater than bizarre guarantees, a lot of which now we have had previously that haven’t translated to development and improvement for African nations,” Tietie instructed IPS.
For Dabo, Africa, which she described as “the land of alternatives,” will preserve being exploited for its pure sources by the US and China if the US doesn’t put its capacities to good use.
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© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
