Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

top

Kenya

Trade to dominate as Obama welcomes African leaders

– Fight against Boko Haram –

Security discussions are expected to focus on the threat posed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), the repeated attacks by Boko Haram militants in Nigeria, the civil war in South Sudan and terror attacks in Kenya by Shabaab militants.

For Obama, a central topic of the summit will be “finding ways to strengthen peacekeeping and conflict-resolution efforts by Africans.”

Before heading to Washington, Cameroon’s Biya said he hoped the meeting would be an opportunity to discuss a regional strategy with Chad, Niger and Nigeria to combat the rise of Boko Haram.

“An international terrorist movement requires an international strategy,” Biya said.

Yet it is the public health crisis caused by the Ebola outbreak – which has left more than 700 people dead in west Africa – that could take center stage.

Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and her Sierra Leone counterpart Ernest Bai Koroma both scrapped plans to head to Washington as the two nations battle the worst outbreak of the disease in history.

Obama has said delegations from African nations affected by the outbreak will be subjected to precautionary health screenings upon arrival in the US, even if there is only an “a marginal risk, or an infinitesimal risk” of exposure to the disease.

While no bilateral meetings are planned, with US officials citing logistical and diplomatic headaches, a lavish banquet will be held at the White House on Tuesday evening.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Egypt’s new president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, who declined an invitation to Washington, will be one of the notable absentees.

Peter Pham, Africa director at the Atlantic Council think tank, said the summit could provide an opportunity for Obama, the son of an American mother and African father, to reshape American attitudes toward the continent.

“There is a historic opportunity if the summit can begin to change perception of Africa in the United States,” Pham said.

“Much of the attention given to Africa in the United States is attention given to conflict, poverty, disease.”

About The Author

Pages: 1 2

Comments
Advertisement

More on Capital News