With five days left for him to take over as the 45th president of the United States of America, the transition team of US President-elect, Donald Trump, has asked the State Department series of mind-blowing Africa-related questions.
The questions have also suggested Trump’s views of Africa, with the impression that he may retreat from development and humanitarian assistance to Africa.
In a four-page list of Africa-related questions from the transition staff and obtained by New York Times, questions relating to terrorism and corruption in Africa were raised by the transition team of Donald Trump.
First the transition team asked: “How does U.S. business compete with other nations in Africa? Are we losing out to the Chinese?”
That is quickly followed with queries about humanitarian assistance money. “With so much corruption in Africa, how much of our funding is stolen? Why should we spend these funds on Africa when we are suffering here in the U.S.?”
On terrorism, the document asks why the United States is even bothering to fight the Boko Haram insurgency in Nigeria, why all of the schoolgirls kidnapped by the group have not been rescued and whether Qaeda operatives from Africa are living in the United States. And it questions the effectiveness of one of the more significant counterterrorism efforts on the continent.
“We’ve been fighting al-Shabaab for a decade, why haven’t we won?” poses one question, referring to the terrorist group based in Somalia that was behind the Westgate mall attacks in Kenya in 2013.
However, Monde Muyangwa, the Director of the Africa program at the Woodrow Wilson Institute, stated that the questions were necessary for an incoming government.
“Many of the questions that they are asking are the right questions that any incoming administration should ask,” she said.
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