A week-long tour of the continent comes as the US tries to counter the influence of Russia and China.
Vice President Kamala Harris has said the United States will increase investment in Africa and boost economic growth as she embarked on a week-long tour of the continent to counter the influence of rivals Russia and China.
China has invested heavily in Africa in recent decades, including in infrastructure and resource development, while Russian influence has also grown, including through the deployment of troops from the private military contractor Wagner Group in several countries.
“On this trip, I intend to do work aimed at increasing investment here on the continent and facilitating economic growth and opportunity,” Harris said Sunday shortly after arriving in Ghana, the first destination of a trip. who visits Tanzania and Zambia.
“We look forward to this journey as a further statement of the long and lasting, very important relationship and friendship between the people of the United States and those who live on this continent,” said Harris.
President Joe Biden’s administration has sought to strengthen ties with Africa, in part to provide an alternative to rival powers amid global competition over the continent’s future.
African countries are aware that there are ulterior motives to this push for a closer alliance, observers say.
“African nations are not naive… The US has a long history of meddling in African affairs, supporting dictators versus liberation movements, pushing hard for US multinationals to access African markets and resources, while leaving countries with nothing,” said Shihab Rattansi from Al Jazeera. , reporting from Washington, DC.
“So the US is saying, ‘That’s all in the past now, we’re partners, we can all be successful’, while we hear from Africa, ‘We don’t want to choose between China, Russia and the US, but we’ll do what we think’ is in our best interest.’”
In December, ahead of the US-Africa summit, Washington pledged $55 billion to the continent over the next three years.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $150 million in new humanitarian aid for Africa’s Sahel region during a visit to Niger this month, less than a year after he ordered South Africa, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Morocco, Algeria and Rwanda visited.
This flurry of diplomacy is “about the geopolitical battle going on, and the fear in Washington that it is losing ground, especially now in Africa where there is a battle for resources, where there are rarer minerals to help fuel the Green Revolution.” to drive, and therefore on,” said Rattansi.
Harris will meet Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo this week and visit a castle from which people were forcibly sent to the US during the slave trade.
Harris will be in Ghana from March 26 to 29 and in Tanzania from March 29 to 31. Her last stop is Zambia, on March 31 and April 1. She will meet with the presidents of the three countries and make plans to announce public and private investments.
