US ‘all in’ for Africa

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said yesterday the United States was committed to deeper relations with Africa despite global crises as he opened a trip in the shadow of coups and the rising influence of Russia and China on the continent.

Blinken is touring four democracies on the Atlantic Coast — Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola — as security deteriorates in the Sahel and doubts grow about a key US base in coup-hit Niger.

President Joe Biden welcomed African leaders in 2022 in a show of newfound US attention to the continent.

But Biden failed to live up to a promise to visit last year and Blinken’s trip is his first to sub-Saharan Africa in 10 months as he has been consumed since October with the Israel-Hamas war.

Blinken nonetheless quoted Biden as he vowed “We are all in when it comes to Africa.”

“Our futures are linked, our prosperity is linked, and African voices increasingly are shaping, animating and leading the global conversation,” Blinken said as he opened talks in Cape Verde.

“The United States is committed to deepening, strengthening and broadening partnerships across Africa,” Blinken said.

He called Cape Verde, a Portuguese-speaking archipelago of some half million people that has cooperated with the United States on law enforcement and naval stops, a “beacon of stability” and a “strong, principled voice”.