Biden to make first Africa visit with Angola trip in coming weeks, sources say

He will be the first US head of state to visit to sub-Saharan Africa in nearly 10 years

US President Joe Biden disembarks from Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews, Maryland. The White House is planning a visit to Africa for the President. Reuters

President Joe Biden is planning a trip to Angola in the coming weeks, fulfilling a promise that would make him the first US head of state to visit sub-Saharan Africa since Barack Obama in 2015, three sources told Reuters.

The trip, which is being finalised, is likely to occur after the UN General Assembly meeting in September and before the November 5 presidential election, one source said.

The White House declined to comment to Reuters on the trip plans.

Mr Biden had hoped to visit Angola late last year but the trip was postponed after the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war in October.

Mr Biden has pledged closer US partnership with democracies on the African continent, as China invests heavily in the region.

The Democratic President hosted Angolan President Joao Lourenco at the White House last November and raised the prospect of a visit during their Oval Office meeting. In May, he said he planned to make an official visit to Africa in February if he won the US presidential election.

Mr Biden would be the first US president to visit the oil- and resource-rich African country, one of the sources said, following a first visit by a US Defence Secretary, Lloyd Austin, in September 2023.

Keen to counter China's investments in Africa, the US has been supporting a project that links resource-rich Democratic Republic of Congo to Angola's Lobito port by rail to bypass road congestion on the copper and cobalt route.

Mr Biden, who took office in 2021, has faced some criticism for not visiting the African continent earlier in his term after hosting a US-African leaders summit in Washington in December 2022. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Vice President Kamala Harris visited Africa in 2023, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken did this year.

Mr Biden's trip would come weeks before a US presidential election that remains tight, with recent polls showing Democratic candidate Ms Harris tied with her Republican rival, former president Donald Trump, whose derogatory reference to African nations continues to reverberate in African diplomatic circles.