This focus of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s five-nation Africa tour this week, is squarely on security and counter-terrorism, with human rights, democracy and aid taking a back seat.
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s five-nation itinerary told African leaders everything they needed to know about the Trump administration’s approach to the continent — counter-terrorism is in. Human rights and democracy, not so much.
His tour of the African countries focuses squarely on counter-terrorism and security, visiting nations engaged in battling Islamist terrorism, including Djibouti, home to Camp Lemonnier, America’s largest and most important African military base. Democracy, human rights and development take a back seat under the Trump administration, with sharp cuts in foreign aid.
Previous U. S. administrations have tended to woo African nations with good records on governance, rights and democracy. But with China edging out Western interests, dealing with dictators and democrats alike, the Trump administration appears to be adopting a more pragmatic approach, homing in on what matters most to Washington: containing the threat of terrorism in East Africa and the Sahel.
Tillerson’s visit comes less than two months after President Trump described African nations as “shithole countries” in comments at an Oval Office migration briefing to lawmakers – comments he later denied.
Trump’s remarks, seen by many as racist, outraged African leaders and were condemned by the African Union, the continental leadership body. They also came amid other signs the U. S. had sharply downgraded Africa as a global priority, including Trump’s failure to fill key diplomatic posts, more than a year after taking office.
Tillerson’s visit began Wednesday evening in Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital and headquarters of the African Union, where he was to meet union leaders.
Ethiopia, authoritarian and opaque, is a close U. S. ally in its counter-terrorism operations in East Africa, notably against the Shabab, the extremist group fighting the U. N.-backed Somali government. It declared a state of emergency after the prime minister resigned last month following two years of protests over state repression.
Tillerson will also visit Djibouti, a tiny but strategically important ally in the Horn of Africa where the authoritarian leader, Ismail Omar Guelleh, has been in power since 1999, after taking over from his uncle; and Kenya, which is also fighting the Shabab in Somalia.
He’ll also visit Chad and Nigeria, both fighting Islamic State-linked Nigerian extremist group Boko Haram. Nigeria is Africa’s largest oil producer.
Before arriving in Addis Ababa, Tillerson announced $533 million in additional humanitarian assistance to fight famine and hunger in Ethiopia, Somalia, South Sudan and other countries.
The African tour comes as he U. S. is being outflanked and outspent by China, which has poured billions of dollars into the continent, offering soft loans for infrastructure projects such as ports, roads, railways and airports, which African governments have struggled to fund.
