Blinken trip to West Africa brings Sahel and fallout from coups into focus

US Secretary of state to visit Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria and Angola on week-long trip

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken attends the 54th annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, January 17, 2024. Reuters

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken will travel to West Africa next week, the State Department has confirmed, as the region grapples with the threat of terrorism and the fallout from last year’s coup in Niger.

“When we're in Cote d'Ivoire, we'll talk about the situation in the Sahel and coastal West Africa,” Molly Phee, assistant secretary of state for African Affairs said in a call previewing Mr Blinken's travels.

This will be Mr Blinken’s fourth trip to the continent as Secretary of State and his first to sub-Saharan Africa since visiting Niger in March of 2023.

“Nigeria is dealing with a lot of internal security challenges and Angola has played a really important role in trying to address and reduce the tensions in the eastern Congo. So those will also be topics I expect we'll discuss,” Ms Phee said.

Mr Blinken's trip to Niger last year, the first ever by any US secretary of state, came as he sought to help counter the influence of armed groups in the region.

Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), a group affiliated with Al Qaeda and the Islamic State of Greater Sahara have wreaked havoc in parts of the Sahel for years

Just four months after Mr Blinken visited Niger, which was a crucial partner in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel, the military overthrew and imprisoned the democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

It took more than three months for Washington to officially acknowledge the coup.

The US still has a small military presence in Niger but all counter-terrorism training has been paused since the military takeover.

Nigeria, the largest country on the continent, is facing a multitude of security threats from Boko Haram and Isis, especially along its northern border with Niger.

“We have long been concerned about coastal West Africa as well as Nigeria, because if the terrorist threat in the Sahel were to disrupt life in those countries it would be really problematic for a huge portion of Africa,” Ms Phee said.

Both Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria have expressed disappointment and frustration over the coup in Niger, and at one point, as members of the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas), threatened military action and imposed harsh sanctions, including cutting electricity supply to the country.

Mr Blinken’s visit to the region will come just days after his Chinese counterpart Wang Yi visited several countries on the continent, including Cote d’Ivoire.

Washington has struggled to counter Chinese and Russian influence in the region.

Ms Phee rebuffed the idea that Mr Blinken was travelling to West Africa to compete with China or any other country.

“Africa is important for its own sake, and it's important for American interests,” she told reporters.

In Angola, Mr Blinken is expected to highlight the Lobito project, a joint effort with the European Union and regional partners to develop a rail corridor connecting Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The trip follows a whirlwind few weeks for Mr Blinken, who spent seven days criss-crossing the Middle East as he sought to rein in Israel's military operations in Gaza and build a consensus on what Gaza needs post-conflict, neither of which he appears to have achieved.

Mr Blinken followed up his trip to the Middle East with several days at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.