- As China steps up its engagement with Africa, including a meeting this month in Senegal, the Us has also announced its plans to hold a summit with African leaders.
- Announcing this at the headquarters of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Secretary of State Antony Blinken also revealed the Biden administration’s policy plans for the continent.
As China steps up its engagement with Africa, including a meeting this month in Senegal, the Us has also announced its plans to hold a summit with African leaders. Announcing this at the headquarters of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), Secretary of State Antony Blinken also revealed the Biden administration’s policy plans for the continent.
Blinken expressed concerns about the rising authoritarianism across the world and noted that governments in Africa had been toppled at least four times this year. He lamented that many African leaders are ignoring term limits, rigging or postponing elections, exploiting social grievances to gain and maintain power, arresting opposition figures, cracking down on the media, and allowing security services to enforce pandemic restrictions brutally. Blinken assured that the United States considered Africa a “major geopolitical power.
Blinken’s Africa trip started in Kenya. He called for an unconditional ceasefire in the conflict in the Ethiopian region of Tigray and also urged for a return to civilian democracy in Sudan. During his meetings with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja, several issues were discussed including domestic and regional security, democratic backsliding in West Africa and Nigeria’s handling of anti-police brutality protests last year.
