Senators warn U.S. risks losing ground to China in East Africa amid rising extremism

Yahoo

13-05-2025

WASHINGTON, May 13 (UPI) -- As the United States nears a critical crossroads in East Africa and the Horn of Africa that could either cement long-term regional stability or deepen global insecurity, Republican and Democrat lawmakers and foreign policy experts sounded an alarm during Tuesday's Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
"We must stop building U.S. policy around individual leaders and instead focus on strengthening institutions, expanding private sector ties and empowering the region's young, dynamic populations," said Chairman Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho.
Due to a lack of meaningful U.S. messaging, East African countries have increasingly turned to adversaries like China, according to former ambassador to Botswana Michelle Gavin, and a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.
She added that many in the region believe China better understands the paradox of resource-rich nations grappling with poverty and unemployment, where wealth often fails to circulate back to local communities.
Committee members spotlighted the need for a growing U.S. presence in East Africa as it relates to national security and economic interests. East Africa and the Horn are at the intersection of key maritime trade routes, and the U.S. holds a large military presence in Djibouti.
China has increased its military presence throughout East Africa. It built a base in Djibouti in 2017, developed a training school in Tanzania and then just last weekend invited African leaders to Beijing for the African Defense Chiefs meeting.
Extremist insurgency groups like Al- Shabaab and Houthis, as well as violence from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, have created instability in Ethiopia, Sudan and Somalia. Risch claimed these groups were weakening the countries' institutions, making them susceptible to adversarial influence, notably from China, Iran and Russia.
President Donald Trump has put pressure on the Houthis. Since March, the U.S. military has bombed the Houthis due to the insurgent group's attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea.
According to Joshua Meservey, a Hudson Institute senior fellow, Kenyan officials cautioned that Al-Shabaab presents the biggest threat to the Red Sea. They warned of the possibility of the two extremist groups collaborating and creating a larger issue in the area, even given their opposing sides.
Meservey laid out a four-tiered approach to "ensure Americans benefit from the opportunities in East Africa while protecting against the threats."
He stressed America's need for creating an East African strategy that takes into account broader African and global strategy. To do this, he suggested commercial engagement be at the core of the U.S. approach.
He further said that forging a better strategy would benefit the United States because he sees East Africa as an "investment destination for American goods and for potential technological breakthroughs."
But Meservey suggested lawmakers assess how Washington can "positively influence democratic growth," given the United States' failed state-building experiment in Somalia. Yet, for more than a decade the United States' approach remained the same.
By supporting government and civic institutions, Merservey suggested that the United States develop a country-focused framework.
"Washington should concentrate its finite resources in countries that have a baseline level of competence, strategic importance and willingness to work with the U.S.," he said.
One suggested way is to bring more African students to the United States to study and expose them to U.S. points of views. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., shared wanting to work with Risch to bring back funding for the Young African Leaders Initiative. The initiative was an exchange program with various participating colleges, one of them the University of Delaware in Coons' home state.
Ranking member Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., pointed to the stark contradictions between the Trump administration's rhetoric and the reality of its policies.
"This administration's cuts to foreign aid programs have been very damaging to what we need to do on the continent of Africa," Shaheen said. "While reports from the State Department indicate that life-saving aid continues to flow, what my staff, who traveled to Africa three weeks ago, saw on the ground was very different."
Shaheen showed the committee photos from the trip that pictured the real-time effects of foreign assistance cuts made by the Trump administration.
In South Africa, two HIV/AIDS clinics dedicated to women and vulnerable children had been shut, both linked to State Department funding cuts. In Angola, a hospital used to receive ready-to-eat foods, such as canned food and baby formula, from USAID to address starvation and famine. The hospital was out of supplies during her staff's visit.
Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., similarly showed concern for aid being cut by the Trump administration, highlighting that "research has shown that violent extremism surges during humanitarian crises." In questioning former ambassador Gavin, Rosen maintained that Islamic insurgents in Somalia take advantage of crises.
"It does feed right into the messaging about who the enemy is, but it also creates the kind of resource scarcity that leads to desperation, people seizing, who might not really be ideologically aligned, but are looking to survive," Gavin responded.
Shaheen also shared concerns about messaging of U.S. foreign policy and the impact of misinformation by China and Russia.
Gavin responded that supporting independent media and investigative journalism would be crucial in a region like East Africa. Funding cuts to USAID included millions in grants provided to support and train independent and non-state news outlets, particularly in repressive regimes.
One of the suggested approaches to improve messaging would be more active U.S. embassies. Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., criticized the Trump administration for being slow to nominate ambassadors throughout Africa, warning that this could undermine the hopes moving forward in increasing U.S. presence in East Africa.