Trump’s Surprise Africa Summit

Nosmot Gbadamosi/ Africa Brief

United State President Donald Trump is hosting leaders from Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal for lunch at the White House today. Analysts expect the surprise mini summit to focus on trade, security, migration, and critical minerals.

Although the Trump administration has withdrawn from Africa, cutting aid and issuing visa bans on several countries, it’s clear that the United States is still prioritizing ties with some African nations, particularly as it seeks to compete with China on critical minerals.

“Trade, not aid, a slogan we’ve seen thrown around for years, is now truly our policy for Africa,” Troy Fitrell, Trump’s outgoing top Africa diplomat, said in May.

The administration’s strategy on the continent has been influenced by Massad Boulos, Trump’s senior Africa advisor, who is the father-in-law to one of the president’s daughters. Boulos is credited with negotiating the terms of a recent peace deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which could bring about more U.S. investments in the latter’s critical minerals sector.

The Central and West African nations attending Trump’s summit may have relatively small GDPs, but they are rich in untapped rare earths and critical minerals, including manganese, bauxite, and copper. These reserves provide fresh opportunities for U.S. businesses in African nations where China does not already have a monopoly on the mining sector.

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In theory, focusing on these smaller nations is a smart move for the Trump administration. In practice, the success of these talks depends on how much private U.S. companies are prepared to invest in mining in these countries.

So far, Western companies have shied away from operations in the Sahel—where several of the summit’s countries are located—due to ongoing Islamist insurgencies. Instead, these companies have invested in established minerals industries in countries such as Zambia and South Africa with better security guarantees.

Meanwhile, the U.S. military has been forced to withdraw from the Sahel, where it had supported counterterrorism operations for around two decades. Since 2020, the military juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have ejected Western troops, including those from the United States, and partnered with Russia instead.

But the Sahel is becoming increasingly important to U.S. counterterrorism interests, particularly as al Qaeda-affiliated group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin has ramped up attacks in the region.

In May, Gen. Michael Langley, the head of the U.S. Africa Command, warned that the Sahel is now a “flash point of prolonged conflict” and the “epicenter of terrorism on the globe.”

The United States is especially concerned about terrorist activity spreading into coastal West African nations, which may explain the country’s push to bolster diplomatic ties in the region. Washington, Langley added, is “keeping a good eye on this because they [terrorists] could have the capacity to attack the homeland.”

Trump may also be looking to some of these nations as potential new partners in his effort to deport migrants from the United States—including to places other than their home countries, as it recently did with South Sudan. African migration via the U.S.-Mexico border, especially from Mauritania and Senegal, has increased in recent years as Europe has cracked down on migration.

Already, the Trump administration issued a travel ban on seven African nations in June and gave 36 countries—including Gabon, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal—60 days to fix vetting concerns and high visa overstay rates or face a travel ban. Last month, the Senegalese women’s basketball team cancelled a training camp in the United States after some members of the squad were denied U.S. visas.