WORLD NEWS | Visit Ethiopia, Niger as US pushes for African development

WASHINGTON, March 11 (AP) — Secretary of State Anthony Blinken will visit Ethiopia and Niger next week as the Biden administration accelerates its push to engage with Africa to counter growing Chinese influence on the continent, the State Department said. said Friday.

Blinken will start visiting Addis Ababa and Niamey on Tuesday to discuss a peace deal to end hostilities in Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region and broader counterterrorism efforts against Islamic extremists in Niger and the Sahel.

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His trip will be the third high-profile visit to Africa by a senior member of the Biden administration this year. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield and first lady Jill Biden have already been there.

Blinken is scheduled to meet with Ethiopian and Tigrayan officials in Addis Ababa and will be the first ever secretary of state to visit Niger, which has hosted a U.S. military operation targeting Islamic State affiliates in the region.

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In discussions with Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and Tigrayan officials, the State Department said Blinken would focus on “enforcing the cessation of hostilities agreement to promote peace and transitional justice in northern Ethiopia.”

The Tigray conflict led the United States to suspend some preferential trade agreements with Ethiopia, which the country is eager to restore. But the top U.S. diplomat for Africa said on Friday that full normalization of relations between the two countries would depend on more action from Addis Ababa, especially after the “earth-shattering” Tigray conflict.

“What we want to do is redesign our engagement with Ethiopia,” said Molly Phee, assistant secretary of state for African affairs. “We hope to be able to forge partnerships commensurate with their size and reach and our interest and commitment to Africa.”

“But to get this relationship on track, we will continue to need Ethiopia to take steps to help break the cycle of ethnic/political violence that has set the country back for decades,” she said.

The Tigray conflict comes a year after Abiy was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for making peace with longtime rival Eritrea. The governments of Ethiopia and Eritrea see the leader of the Tigray region, who long controlled the Ethiopian government before Abiy took office, as a common threat.

An estimated 500,000 civilians have been killed in the two-year conflict, which ended with a peace deal signed in South Africa in November. U.S. officials mediated in the deal.

The conflict has cut off the Tigray region of more than five million people, and humanitarian aid has often been blocked, with essential services disrupted while health workers plead for the simplest of medical supplies.

In a meeting with Moussa Faki Mohammed, head of the Addis Ababa-based African Union Commission, Blinken will also try to undercut Chinese and Russian attempts to win support for African nations in Russia’s war with Ukraine; The topic has aroused great interest in former colonial countries. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)