Four African nations barred from attending US-Africa Summit in Washington

  • Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan and Guinea are the only African countries not invited to the summit.
  • Zimbabwe has been invited for the first time, but its president can’t attend because of travel restrictions.
  • The US says it is seeking to engage in a mutually respectful manner.
President Cyril Ramaphosa and President Joe Biden, US President, Friday (US time) in the White House in Washington DC.

The United States will host 49 African heads of state, and the African Union envoy, in Washington for a three-day US-Africa Summit between 13-15 December.

The US views this as an opportunity to strengthen ties with Africa.

However, four countries have not been invited – Mali, Burkina Faso, Sudan, and Guinea.

There will be side events and meetings for civil society and business leaders from Africa to engage with the Americans.

It is the second such summit under US President Joe Biden’s administration, with the inaugural one hosted around the same time last year.

The summit gets underway with an advantage after the Russia-Africa version didn’t materialise.

The US and Russia view each other as rivals in their approach to Africa and the war in Ukraine made matters tense.

The US Department of State’s Bureau of African Affairs’ deputy assistant secretary, Robert Scott, and the special assistant to the president and National Security Council senior advisor for the US-Africa Leaders Summit, Dana Banks, spoke to a group of African journalists about the upcoming summit.

Banks said:

Read more of this report

Visited 140 times, 1 visit(s) today

Comments are closed.