Africa-Press – South-Africa. US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Molly Phee is on a three-nation Africa tour that will end in Ethiopia for the African Union (AU) Summit. Phee arrived in South Africa on Sunday.
She is the second US diplomat in South Africa this week after Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment JoseĢ Fernandez arrived in Cape Town.
Fernandez is expected to give a keynote address at the Investing in Africa Mining Indaba – Africa’s largest mining investment conference.
Phee will also visit Nigeria and end her trip to Ethiopia.
Her two-week visit to Africa will also centre on politics, engaging civil society, the youth, the private sector, religious leaders, and government representatives, just like other American envoys who have been to the continent since the start of the year.
In South Africa, she will participate in the University Partnerships Initiative Summit at the Future Africa Campus of the University of Pretoria (UP) ” to show US support for advancing higher education across the continent”.
According to UP, the first-of-its-kind summit themed Equitable and Sustainable Partnerships for Impact, will “explore approaches to strengthen, leverage and expand these partnerships to create a more sustainable impact on society in the post-Covid era”.
In Nigeria, she will arrive a few days before the general elections to choose a president, vice-president, and members of the senate and house of representatives.
The European Union (EU) already has the largest observer mission of 40 long-term election observers across Nigeria who joined 11 election experts already in Abuja.
But the US’ biggest interest in seeing democracy prevail in Nigeria so far, is restricting entry to people “believed to be responsible for, or complicit in, undermining democracy in Nigeria”.
Phee will meet several stakeholders in Nigeria ahead of the upcoming elections.
“In Lagos and Abuja, Assistant Secretary Phee will engage civil society, youth, the private sector, religious leaders, election officials, political party leaders, and government representatives.
The US state department said:
On the last leg of her tour, she will head to Ethiopia as African heads of state convene for the AU Summit.
On that trip, she will be joined by Johnnie Carson, the special presidential representative for the US-Africa Leaders Summit implementation.
“They will meet with heads of state and ministers attending the summit. This visit is an example of US action to deepen and expand our partnership with African governments, businesses, and the public to meet the shared challenges and opportunities of our era,” the US state department said.
At the AU summit, the brief for the US diplomats is simple – to affirm the importance of a powerful AU aligned with America and the West.
In recent weeks, senior US and Russian officials have visited African countries in an attempt to deepen ties with nations on the continent.
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