U.S. diplomats have been instructed to emphasize the “generosity” of the American people to African governments, according to a leaked email from the State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs. The email, sent in January, outlines a shift in U.S. foreign policy toward a more transactional relationship with the continent.
New Strategy for U.S.-Africa Relations
The email, sent by Nick Checker, the bureau’s leader, encourages staff to “unabashedly and aggressively” remind African governments of American aid, particularly in areas like HIV/AIDS containment and famine relief. The intention is to counter perceptions that the U.S. is not the largest donor and to leverage that assistance to further U.S. interests.
Checker previously spent more than a decade with the CIA as a conflict analyst. Previous appointees to the role have typically been career diplomats.
The guidance comes after the Trump administration released its new national security strategy in November, which prioritizes promoting interests in Europe and adopting a more transactional approach to Africa. The strategy calls for a “transition from an aid-focused relationship with Africa to a trade- and investment-focused relationship,” favoring partnerships with countries that open their markets to U.S. goods and services.
According to the leaked email, Africa is considered a “peripheral – rather than a core – theater for US interests that demands strategic economy.” It states that framing Africa as “strategic” has historically served bureaucratic and moral imperatives, rather than concrete interests.
The email identifies opportunities for U.S. engagement, including negotiating settlements to conflicts in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, and Sudan, as well as investment in critical mineral development and the energy sector.
Criticism of the New Approach
A former senior State Department official with two decades of experience in Africa described the email as “offensive and downright racist,” arguing its suggestions are detrimental to U.S. national security interests. Kristofer Harrison, a former senior official at the State Department and president of the Dekleptocracy Project, called Checker “wildly out of touch with reality.”
A diplomat from West Africa, with experience mediating conflicts in Chad and the DRC, noted that U.S. humanitarian aid has alleviated suffering across the continent. However, the diplomat added that recent reductions in aid create unease, making it inappropriate to emphasize past generosity.
USAID Closure
Separately, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) circulated an invitation last week for private companies to bid on a contract to close down the agency. The invitation, also obtained by the Guardian, is for “Institutional Support for USAID Closeout.”
The contract, of an unspecified amount, would extend until March 2028 and prohibits bidders from hiring former USAID employees. The closure of USAID has been challenged as potentially illegal, as it was established by an act of Congress and is being dismantled without congressional approval. A funding bill passed by the US House last week attempts to codify the agency’s final shutdown.
Critics have called the closure illegal and detrimental, arguing it will benefit corruption and authoritarianism. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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