{"id":70803,"date":"2025-07-10T01:29:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-10T01:29:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=70803"},"modified":"2025-07-10T01:29:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-10T01:29:16","slug":"why-trump-has-invited-five-african-leaders-to-the-white-house","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=70803","title":{"rendered":"Why Trump has invited five African leaders to the White House"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\n \t<\/i> Read Time:<\/span>6 Minute, 39 Second <\/div>\n\n <\/div>
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US President Donald Trump began a three-day summit in Washington D.C. with the leaders of five African states, an event the White House sees as an \u201cincredible\u201d commercial opportunity.<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s guests include the leaders of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal \u2013 none of whom represent the major economies of the continent.<\/p>\n

The meetings are expected to concentrate on Trump\u2019s \u201ctrade, not aid\u201d policy, and with all of them facing 10% tariffs on goods exported to the US, they may be hoping to do deals to negotiate this rate down.<\/p>\n

During a televised lunch at the White House on Wednesday, the African leaders lavished Trump with praise while encouraging US economic partnership.<\/p>\n

Seated diagonally from Trump across a long wooden table, Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani was the first African leader to speak.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the short time you\u2019ve been back in office, the last few months you came to the rescue for peace,\u201d Ghazouani said.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou rushed to Africa to resolve a longstanding problem,\u201d he continued, referring to\u00a0a peace deal between DR Congo and Rwanda<\/a>\u00a0facilitated by the White House.<\/p>\n

His remarks were echoed by the other African state leaders, most of whom made direct comments in support of Trump being nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

Senegal President Bassirou Diomaye Faye complimented his golf skills, inviting him to build a golf course in Senegal.<\/p>\n

\u201cThank you very much. Very nice. Thank you. I didn\u2019t know I\u2019d be treated this nicely. This is great,\u201d Trump responded. \u201cWe could do this all day long.\u201d<\/p>\n

The African state heads also used the platform to talk about their respective natural resources and raw materials, including rare earth minerals. Some made direct appeals to US investors and the president.<\/p>\n

Faye spoke about the prospect of building a \u201ctech city\u201d in Dakar with \u201cviews of the sea\u201d, and said: \u201cI would like to invite American investors to take part in this\u201d.<\/p>\n

Gabon President Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema said his country has \u201ca great deal of resources\u201d, including rare earth minerals.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou are welcome to come and invest; otherwise, other countries might come instead of you,\u201d Nguema said.<\/p>\n

Senegal\u2019s former ambassador to Washington, Babacar Diagne, said the invitations to the African leaders reflected the recent \u201cparadigm shift\u201d in US policy towards the continent.<\/p>\n

After taking office in January for his second term, Trump cut US aid to the continent, saying it was wasteful and incompatible with his \u201cAmerica First\u201d policy.<\/p>\n

With Trump and the Republican Party at the helm, there is also doubt about whether the US will renew later this year its African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA), which guarantees duty-free access for certain goods from Africa.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like before with the Democrats. There were two strong points with them: poverty reduction and development issues, through AGOA and other initiatives. All that is over,\u201d Mr Diagne told the BBC.<\/p>\n

According to the former diplomat, the Trump administration\u2019s position will mirror how it has dealt with Ukraine wartime leader Volodymyr Zelensky.<\/p>\n

\u201cPure trade. It\u2019s give and take, win and win. We saw it with Ukraine. You sign the agreement on minerals and you\u2019ll have us on your side; otherwise, you forget everything,\u201d Mr Diagne said.<\/p>\n

Last month\u2019s peace deal signed in Washington between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic is a case in point<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 trade diplomacy that will potentially see the US gain lucrative mineral access.<\/p>\n

Indeed, Nicaise Mouloumbi, head of a leading non-governmental organisation in oil-rich Gabon, said the Trump administration\u2019s focus on Africa was down to increasing competition from rival powers \u2013 including China and Russia \u2013 for its prized resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these [invited] countries have important minerals: gold, oil, manganese, gas, wood and zircon \u2013 Senegal, Mauritania and Gabon, in particular,\u201d he told the BBC.<\/p>\n

Gabon holds around a quarter of the global known reserves of manganese, and it provides 22% of China\u2019s of the mineral, which is used in the production of batteries and stainless steel.<\/p>\n

Oil-rich Gabon intends to shift towards deep-water exploration and production in future<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mr Mouloumbi added that the US might be most keen to strengthen ties with Gabon, not only because it had \u201cstrategic\u201d minerals like manganese and uranium, as well as oil, but also because it was strategically located along the Gulf of Guinea, with a coastline of about 800km (500 miles).<\/p>\n

It could host a US military base that America plans to build in the region, Mr Mouloumbi said.<\/p>\n

Mr Diagne made a similar point about piracy, saying that \u201cmaritime terrorism in the Gulf of Guinea has become an extremely important issue\u201d for the US.<\/p>\n

Many tankers carrying oil and gas travel through the Gulf of Guinea, which has been known as a piracy hotspot for several years.<\/p>\n

For Mauritania and Senegal, migration will be central to discussions, according to Ousmane Sene, the head of the West African Research Centre (WARC),<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s not forget that between 2023 and 2025, no fewer than 20,000 young Mauritanians left for the US via Nicaragua, along with hundreds of young Senegalese,\u201d the analyst told the BBC.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll these countries are also departure points for illegal emigration,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s an extremely important point in his [Trump\u2019s] migration policy, and every day people are turned back at the borders.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mauritania is the only one of the five countries that does not have diplomatic ties with US ally Israel, cutting them in 2009 over an offensive in Gaza,\u00a0and sources have told Semafor<\/a>\u00a0that restoring them may be a sticking point for any would-be White House deal.<\/p>\n

Visa overstay rates are another issue to be settled, especially for Gabon and Liberia, which both have higher ones than Burundi,\u00a0which last month became subject to US travel restrictions with visa overstays cited as a key reason<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Liberia\u2019s health system is fragile \u2013 and before Trump, US funding accounted for 48% of its budget<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Liberia may also be considering a US proposal to accept people deported by the US, including criminals. The country, which has close historical links to America, was reportedly included on a proposed list of countries that the US had approached.<\/p>\n

The country, which was brought to its knees by a 14-year civil war and then the devastating Ebola epidemic of a decade ago, is in desperate need of cash as it has been severely affected by US aid cuts.<\/p>\n

In particular, the impact has been felt by its fragile health system, which had relied on US funding for 48% of its budget.<\/p>\n

Guinea-Bissau, which has suffered a series of coups and attempted coups over the years, is reportedly keen for the US embassy to reopen in the capital, Bissau, following its closure after the army mutinied in 1998.<\/p>\n

President Umaro Cissoko Embal\u00f3 was clearly proud of the White House\u2019s invitation for Guinea-Bissau, which several years ago was labelled a \u201cnarco-state\u201d by the US and UN as it was once a major transit hub for cocaine from Latin America to Europe and North America.<\/p>\n

\u201cGuinea-Bissau has now emerged from a state of disorder to become a real state. The Americans do not invite just any state to their country \u2013 only a well-structured state,\u201d he was quoted as saying at the airport before he left for Washington.<\/p>\n

<\/figure>\n

He and his counterparts \u2013 Brice Clotaire Oligui Nguema of Gabon, Joseph Boakai of Liberia, Mohamed Ould Ghazouani of Mauritania and Bassirou Diomaye Faye of Senegal \u2013 will be hoping they hold some cards to do a deal with Trump.<\/p>\n

They certainly do not want a replay of May\u2019s\u00a0infamous high-stakes meeting between South Africa President Cyril Ramaphosa and Trump in the Oval Office<\/a>, which did little to ease relations.<\/p>\n

In fact, it seems to have completely backfired as this week Africa\u2019s biggest economy found out that from next month, its exports to the US are being\u00a0slapped with a 30% tariff.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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