How can we remain influential on a continent that is extensively diversifying its economic and security partnerships, of which Russia and China appear to be the main beneficiaries? The problem is at the heart of the African trip of the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who must follow a visit to Cape Verde, Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola, countries on the Atlantic Ocean, from Monday January 22 to Friday January 26. During Washington , particularly under the Trump administration, had focused its diplomatic efforts on Sudan and its military actions in the Red Sea.
After a brief stop in Praia, the capital of Cape Verde, an archipelago that Mr. Blinken called a “model of stability” in a West Africa that has faced a series of coups since 2020, the secretary of state landed in Abidjan on Monday afternoon Economic capital of Ivory Coast. “We are betting everything on Africa,” he said, echoing the words of President Joe Biden, who, however, reneged on his promise to visit the continent in 2023.
A few days after his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi's visit to Abidjan on January 17, this Ivorian move can be seen as a reaction to Beijing's growing influence. However, against the backdrop of a shift in the jihadist threat from the Sahel towards the northern Gulf of Guinea states, the challenges of this journey lie largely in security. Mr. Blinken will “ensure that these countries act on all fronts to strengthen their societies and combat the expansion of the terrorist threat we are seeing in the Sahel,” Undersecretary of State for Africa Molly Phee summarized during a press conference January 18th.
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This trip comes at a time when Washington's military presence on the continent has been largely limited since the coup in Niger in July 2023. Although the United States still has a base in Djibouti on the Red Sea, the Niamey and Agadez areas have been the main target for American forces, deploying their drones and aircraft to track down expanding jihadist and criminal networks from southern Libya to the Sahel, about Sudan.
” Dead end “
During his last trip to Africa in March 2023, Mr. Blinken came to Niamey to show his support for President Mohamed Bazoum, with whom security cooperation was in good shape. But since his overthrow and the rise to power of a junta that turned away from its Western allies – above all France – to move closer to Moscow to expand military cooperation, “the United States has found itself at an impasse.” notes the American researcher Michael Shurkin. Military operations from Niger have been reduced to the absolute minimum.
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