Trump hails Africa's mineral wealth
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump hailed West Africa's rich natural resources as he hosted five of its leaders Wednesday for a White House summit aimed at fostering trade to counter the growing influence of Russia and China. Trump's administration is seeking to strengthen economic ties with the mineral-rich region as it simultaneously curbs foreign aid to Africa and hits nations with 10 percent import tariffs. Talks with the presidents of Senegal, Liberia, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania and Gabon were expected to focus on commercial opportunities and security.
'We're working tirelessly to forge new economic opportunities involving both the United States and many African nations,' Trump told the assembled leaders and reporters ahead of the meeting.
'There's great economic potential in Africa, like few other places, in many ways.'
He gushed about the continent's 'vibrant places, very valuable lands, great minerals, great oil deposits' — and was rewarded with personal praise in return as each leader offered their approval when asked by an African media outlet if Trump should win a Nobel Peace Prize.
The talks — held over a lunch in the State Dining Room — came with Washington seeking to ensure a stable supply of critical minerals. All five of the countries invited enjoy rich natural resources, including manganese — a key mineral in the production of stainless steel and batteries — iron ore, gold, diamonds, lithium and cobalt.
But overshadowing the talks will be radical steps by Trump and his officials to recalibrate US relations with African nations. Earlier this month, the administration shuttered the US Agency for International Development (USAID), and said it was moving away from a 'charity based-model' to focus instead on trade-based partnerships.
West Africa is expected to be among the regions hardest hit by the aid cuts, which are likely to lead to more than 14 million additional deaths globally by 2030, according to a study published in the Lancet medical journal.
US financial help played a crucial role in rebuilding Liberia after its civil wars, and it was still receiving an annual $160 million — about three percent of its GDP — as recently as last year. 'Liberia is a long time friend of the United States, and we believe in your policy of making America great again,' President Joseph Boakai told Trump.
'And we also go a long way with you and your in your diplomacy that has to do with economic development and commercial friendship.' US arch-rival China has made substantial investments in several of the nations attending, with Gabon providing 22 percent of the manganese it uses in batteries.
Russia has meanwhile supported the nascent Alliance of Sahel States, which shares borders with several of the countries at Wednesday's lunch. Security is expected to loom large at the meeting, with international drug trafficking and immigration top concerns for Washington.
West Africa's Sahel countries have been dogged by attacks from terrorist groups, while a series of coups have deepened political instability. Entries from the region make up a significant portion of the Black immigrant population in the United States, which rose by almost a quarter between 2012 and 2022, reaching 4.3 million individuals. Guinea-Bissau — a transit zone for cocaine shipments from Latin America to Europe and beyond — has struggled to contain drug trafficking.
A potential US travel ban impacting Gabon, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal was reported in June, as part of a larger list of 36 countries facing scrutiny by the Trump administration. But all four were effusive in their praise for Trump, with several noting his role in a peace deal negotiated in Washington between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda, and in the end of hostilities between Iran and Zionist entity. 'As you've seen, you can only do business when there is peace and security and you build peace everywhere in the world,' Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye said. — AFP
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arab Times
34 minutes ago
- Arab Times
Trump says he's considering 'taking away' Rosie O'Donnell's US citizenship
WASHINGTON, July 13, (AP): President Donald Trump says he is considering "taking away' the U.S. citizenship of a longtime rival, actress and comedian Rosie O'Donnell, despite a decades-old Supreme Court ruling that expressly prohibits such an action by the government. "Because of the fact that Rosie O'Donnell is not in the best interests of our Great Country, I am giving serious consideration to taking away her Citizenship,' Trump wrote in a social media post on Saturday. He added that O'Donnell, who moved to Ireland in January, should stay in Ireland "if they want her.' The two have criticized each other publicly for years, an often bitter back-and-forth that predates Trump's involvement in politics. In recent days, O'Donnell on social media denounced Trump and recent moves by his administration, including the signing of a massive GOP-backed tax breaks and spending cuts plan. It's just the latest threat by Trump to revoke the citizenship of people with whom he has publicly disagreed, most recently his former adviser and one-time ally, Elon Musk. But O'Donnell's situation is notably different from Musk, who was born in South Africa. O'Donnell was born in the United States and has a constitutional right to U.S. citizenship. The U.S. State Department notes on its website that U.S. citizens by birth or naturalization may relinquish U.S. nationality by taking certain steps - but only if the act is performed voluntary and with the intention of relinquishing U.S. citizenship. Amanda Frost, a law professor at the University of Virginia School of Law, noted the Supreme Court ruled in a 1967 case that the Fourteen Amendment of the Constitution prevents the government from taking away citizenship. "The president has no authority to take away the citizenship of a native-born U.S. citizen," Frost said in an email Saturday. "In short, we are nation founded on the principle that the people choose the government; the government cannot choose the people.' O'Donnell moved to Ireland after Trump defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to win his second term. She has said she's in the process of obtaining Irish citizenship based on family lineage.
Kuwait Times
7 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
Worker critical after US immigration raid on California farm
CAMARILLO, US: A farm worker was in critical condition on Friday, his family said, after being injured during a raid by US immigration agents on a legal cannabis farm in California that resulted in the arrests of 200 undocumented migrants and clashes with protesters. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, called demonstrators involved in attacks on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents 'slimeballs' and said they should be arrested. In another development, a district judge ordered a halt to 'roving patrols' in Los Angeles by federal agents who were detaining suspected undocumented migrants without probable cause and denying them due process. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong ordered an end to the arrests, which she said were being made 'based upon race alone,' on whether a person was speaking Spanish or English with an accent or because of their place of work. Trump's remarks and the court order come a day after a chaotic raid on a cannabis plantation in Ventura County some 56 miles (90 kilometers) from Los Angeles left one farm worker critically injured. The United Farm Workers labor union had said in an X post on Friday that the worker had 'died of injuries they sustained as a result of yesterday's immigration enforcement action.' But the family on a GoFundMe page said he was in critical condition and unlikely to survive. 'He was chased by ICE agents, and we were told he fell 30ft (9 meters). My uncle's life is in critical condition; doctors have told us he won't make it. His injuries are catastrophic. His heart is still beating.' The Ventura County Medical Center, which told ABC News that he was in critical condition, did not respond to AFP calls for more details. Tricia McLaughlin, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) spokeswoman, said he was never in custody. 'Although he was not being pursued by law enforcement, this individual climbed up to the roof of a green house and fell 30 feet,' McLaughlin said. '(Customs and Border Patrol) immediately called a medivac to the scene to get him care as quickly as possible.' The DHS said 200 undocumented migrants were arrested during raids on marijuana growing sites in Carpinteria and Camarillo on Thursday and 10 children were rescued 'from potential exploitation, forced labor, and human trafficking.' 'I am giving Total Authorization for ICE to protect itself, just like they protect the Public,' he said. Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to deport millions of migrants, has been involved in a showdown over immigration enforcement with Democratic-ruled California for weeks. The Republican president sent thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles last month to quell protests against roundups of undocumented migrants by federal agents. California Governor Gavin Newsom has said the troops were not necessary to address the mostly peaceful protests, but his legal efforts to have them removed have failed so far. The cannabis farm in Camarillo was calm during a visit by an AFP reporter on Friday as workers waited in line to collect their belongings and paychecks. 'We've been here since six this morning asking questions but they're not giving us any information,' said Saul Munoz, a 43-year-old Colombian whose son was detained on Thursday. 'I just want to know how he's doing,' Munoz said. 'Bring him back to me and if it's time for us to leave, we'll leave. 'The truth is the American dream is no longer really the American dream.' — AFP
Kuwait Times
7 hours ago
- Kuwait Times
US State Department begins mass layoffs
WASHINGTON: US State Department employees who were recently laid off hug one another outside the Harry S Truman Federal Building on July 11, 2025 in Washington, DC. – AFP WASHINGTON: More than 1,300 State Department employees have been fired in a downsizing ordered by President Donald Trump and touted as cutting bloated government - but which critics predict will hamstring US influence around the world. Diplomats and other staff clapped out departing colleagues in emotional scenes at the Washington headquarters of the department, which runs US foreign policy and the global network of embassies. Some were crying as they walked out with boxes of belongings. A State Department official said 1,107 members of the civil service and 246 Foreign Service diplomatic employees were terminated. The layoffs at the department came three days after the Supreme Court cleared the way for the Trump administration to begin carrying out its plan to gut entire government departments. The conservative-dominated top court lifted a temporary block imposed by a lower court on Trump's plans to lay off potentially tens of thousands of employees. The 79-year-old Republican says he wants to dismantle what he calls the 'deep state.' Since taking office in January, he has worked quickly to install fierce personal loyalists and to fire swaths of veteran government workers. His secretary of state, Marco Rubio, says the foreign policy department is too cumbersome and requires thinning out of some 15 percent. The American Foreign Service Association (AFSA) - the union representing State Department employees - condemned the 'catastrophic blow to our national interests.' 'At a moment of great global instability - with war raging in Ukraine, conflict between Israel and Iran, and authoritarian regimes testing the boundaries of international order - the United States has chosen to gut its frontline diplomatic workforce,' AFSA said in a statement. 'We oppose this decision in the strongest terms.' The State Department employed over 80,000 people worldwide last year, according to a fact sheet, with around 17,700 in domestic roles. The US Agency for International Development, long the primary vehicle to provide US humanitarian assistance around the world, has already been mostly dismantled. According to The Washington Post, State Department employees were informed of their firings by email. Foreign Service officers will lose their jobs 120 days after receiving the notice and will be immediately placed on administrative leave, while civil service employees will be separated after 60 days, the newspaper said. Ned Price, who served as State Department spokesman under Democratic former president Joe Biden, condemned what he called haphazard firings. 'For all the talk about 'merit-based,' they're firing officers based on where they happen to be assigned on this arbitrary day,' Price said on X. 'It's the laziest, most inefficient, and most damaging way to lean the workforce.' Former ambassador Barbara Leaf, Biden's top Middle East diplomat, said the move 'will have terrible consequences for our ability to protect American citizens abroad, pursue and defend the national interest and our national security.' 'This is not a re-org. This is a purge,' Leaf said in a post on LinkedIn.- AFP
