US diplomats have been encouraged to \u201cunabashedly and aggressively\u201d remind African governments about the \u201cgenerosity\u201d of the American people, according to a leaked email sent to staff in the US state department\u2019s Bureau of African Affairs this January and obtained by the Guardian.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not gauche to remind these countries of the American people\u2019s generosity in containing HIV\/Aids or alleviating famine,\u201d says the email.<\/p>\n
\u201cRather, it\u2019s essential to counter the false narrative that the United States isn\u2019t in many cases the largest donor and to ensure that we can more effectively leverage that assistance to advance our interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
The email was sent by Nick Checker, who became the leader of the bureau earlier this month. Checker previously spent more than a decade with the CIA as a conflict analyst; previous<\/a> appointees<\/a> to the role have generally been career diplomats.<\/p>\n Checker\u2019s appointment comes after the Trump administration released a new US national security strategy<\/a> in November<\/a>. That strategy outlines the administration\u2019s foreign policy priorities: promoting far-right interests in Europe, and taking a more transactional view towards much of the rest of the world. It says the US should \u201ctransition from an aid-focused relationship with Africa to a trade- and investment-focused relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n The US should favour partnerships with \u201ccapable, reliable partners committed to opening their markets to US goods and services,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n Checker\u2019s email elaborates further on what this strategy means, saying that in Africa \u201cthe stakes are often limited, indirect and largely negative (risk management)\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cTo put it bluntly, Africa is a peripheral \u2013 rather than a core \u2013 theater for US interests that demands strategic economy,\u201d it says. \u201cFraming Africa as \u2018strategic\u2019 has often historically served bureaucratic and moral imperatives, not hard interests.\u201d<\/p>\n It identifies several \u201copportunities for engagement\u201d for the US, among them \u201cnegotiating settlements to ongoing conflicts (eg, DRC-Rwanda, Sudan),\u201d and says that promising areas for investment are critical mineral development and the energy sector.<\/p>\n A former senior state foreign service official with two decades of experience in Africa who had seen the email called it \u201coffensive and downright racist\u201d, and said its suggestions were against US national security interests.<\/p>\n Checker is \u201cwildly out of touch with reality\u201d, said Kristofer Harrison, a former senior official at the US state department and president of the Dekleptocracy Project, an anti-corruption NGO.<\/p>\n \u201cHe\u2019s talking about communities where the US withdrew lifesaving drugs that kept people alive. Yet, he\u2019s concerned about messaging to those surviving that America is generous?\u201d<\/p>\n A diplomat from west Africa, who has worked in mediating conflicts across Chad, the DRC and beyond, said: \u201cUS humanitarian aid in the medical and food sectors has greatly alleviated the suffering of many African populations.<\/p>\n \u201cIf aid continues, the US can provide information on its volume and usefulness to inform American and international public opinion. However, the fact that aid has been abruptly reduced or stopped is indeed creating unease. It is therefore no longer appropriate to reiterate that the US has demonstrated generosity.\u201d<\/p>\n Separately, last week the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which was gutted last year<\/a> by Elon Musk\u2019s \u201cdepartment of government efficiency\u201d, circulated an invitation for private companies to bid on a contract to close down the agency. That invitation, also obtained by the Guardian, is for \u201cInstitutional Support for USAID Closeout\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cUSAID is undertaking an agency-wide closeout effort requiring the orderly completion of statutory, regulatory, financial, and personnel obligations,\u201d it says.<\/p>\n The invitation offers an unspecified amount to shut down USAID and suggests the contract will extend, at a maximum, until March 2028. It bars potential bidders from hiring anyone who has previous experience working with USAID.<\/p>\n