As part of the Biden-Harris administration’s “sustained commitment to high-level U.S. engagement with Africa,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken is traveling to four African countries beginning Monday in Cape Verde. During his stopvoers – which also include Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Angola – Blinken will “demonstrate and assess” follow-though on commitments made during the December 2022 U.S. Africa Leaders Summit in Washington, DC, Assistant Secretary for African Affairs Molly Phee told a media briefing.
On January 20, a U.S. delegation that includes Phee attended the Inauguration in Kinshasa Felix Tshisekedi, who was reelected last month as president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. The delegation is headed by Scott Nathan, CEO of the U.S. International Development Finance Corporation.
A U.S. delegation led b UN Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield in in Monrovia for the Inauguration on of the Joseph Boakai.
Blinken’s agenda will focus heavily on security issues affecting the Sahel and coastal West Africa and Nigeria and ongoing efforts “to reduce the tensions in eastern Congo,” which will be a topic of discussion in Angola. Those tensions were also discussed during a meeting Blinken held earlier this week in Davos with Rwanda President Paul Kagame.
