Africa trip is to help Uganda, Ghana, Cape Verde; not to compete with Russia, China: U. S. Ambassador to United Nations Linda

Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the trip is not part of global competition but it is part of a series of high-level U. S. engagements “that aim to affirm and strengthen our partnerships and relationships with African leaders and peoples.”

The U. S. Ambassador to the United Nations headed to Africa on August 4, saying she was going to focus on how the United States can help Uganda, Ghana and Cape Verde deal with the food crisis that has hit the continent particularly hard — not to compete with China and Russia.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the long-planned trip is not part of global competition with either of America’s rivals, but it is part of a series of high-level U. S. engagements “that aim to affirm and strengthen our partnerships and relationships with African leaders and peoples.”

Her trip from August 4-7 will be followed immediately by U. S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s visits to South Africa, Congo and Rwanda from August 7-11. It also comes on the heels of Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s visit last week to Egypt, Ethiopia, Uganda and the Republic of Congo where he accused the U.vS. and European countries of driving up food prices.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi began 2022 with a four-day visit to Eritrea, Kenya and the Comoros, keeping a 32-year tradition that the country’s top diplomat make his first trip of the year to Africa.

“We’re not catching up. They are catching up,” Ms. Thomas-Greenfield said. “We have been engaging with this continent for decades, and even my own career is very much evidence of that.”

Ms. Thomas-Greenfield first went to Africa as a student in the 1970s, and in her career as a U. S. diplomat she rose to be assistant secretary of state for African affairs from 2013 to 2017.

She said high energy prices, climate change, COVID-19 and increasing conflict have pushed millions of Africans “to the brink,” and that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24 has added to the crisis, “especially since some countries in Africa once got up to 75% of their wheat from Russia and Ukraine.”