His First Trip
Assistant Secretary Garcia visits Africa
When a new diplomat makes their first official trip overseas, the locations of the visit may often reveal what the priorities are for their office.
The Honorable Frank Garcia who was recently confirmed as Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs by the U.S. Senate has made his first trip to Africa. His weeklong trip from July 11th through the 18th took him to three countries. They were Nigeria, Cote D’Ivoire and Mali.
Nigeria has been a hot button issue for the Republicans during the second Trump Administration after the President designated Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern over the attacks against Christians and specifically since the Christmas Day eve missile strikes. Over the first half of the year there has been a concerted effort by the White House to improve the struggling security sector in Nigeria while ensuring that the plights of the Christians Nigeria while ensuring that the plights of the Christians are not ignored.
Assistant Secretary Garcia was briefed by the Nigerian Military about how there have been improvements ever since the U.S. started providing and sharing Intelligence and new tactics.
However shortly after the Assistant Secretary left Nigeria the U.S. House of Representatives entered the chat as the youth would say. On July 15th, the House passed the National Security, Department of State and Related Programs Appropriations Act by a vote of 217-209. The bill has to be passed by the Senate and signed by President Trump before becoming law. This measure contains specific language regarding Nigeria.
The bill mentions “holding foreign governments and bad actors accountable for persecuting people of faith”. Furthermore, the bill calls for “restricting assistance to Nigeria until measurable actions are taken to protect Christian communities suffering from religious violence.” There is also additional language that will provide “support for religious freedom programs abroad and religious freedom protections for faith-based organizations delivering foreign aid.” If some of this language seems familiar the same syntax was used in the report that Congressman Riley Moore delivered to the White House earlier this year regarding the Nigerian Christians.
The Nigerian Government and their lobbyists here in Washington are surprised that this bill passed the House. They shouldn’t be. Although the Government of Bola Tinubu is in power and has been abysmal in their response to these killings the previous Administrations of Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari failed to address the killings from when they first emerged in Borno State and then exploded across the Middle Belt. Yes, that means this has been a problem for more than a decade.
Congress or more specifically the House controls the purse strings and has the ability not only to allocate funds but to also require reports on how these funds are used and sometimes under what conditions they are used and even request reports from the Executive Branch regarding if benchmarks are being met or ignored. There will be more to this story, and we should expect some major lobbying on the Senate side to restore funding to Nigeria.
The second stop on this trip was in Cote D’Ivoire. This is a strategically important country in West Africa bordered on the North by the Sahel States and the insurgencies that continue to ravage them and on the Gulf of Guinea an often-overlooked water way by most security analysts.
The country has been a host to some recent exercises organized by AFRICOM and besides the hope for improved Commercial Ties there was a major security pact signed. Officially, Cote D’Ivoire has joined the State Partnership Program by formally signing a deal with the Pennsylvania National Guard. This will allow the country to receive specialized military training from the Guard units.
The final stop was Bamako. Mali is a country in crisis. Earlier this spring a surprise raid by both Islamic Militants and Azawad Separatists morphed into a decapacitation strike which killed the defense minister. Afrika Corps a Russian Private Military Company has been scaling back its presence in Northern Mali.
The White House sees an opportunity here to have a quick victory over Russia, however the junta in Bamako is hostile towards the West including the United States. There is not a sense of survival mode currently in Bamako, but that day is getting closer.
This is just another trip for a Diplomat.