This past week, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was on a tour of Africa, specifically visiting Ethiopia and Niger. The below article from the Niger news outlet, Actuniger details the financial aid that is involved with Blinken's visit to Niger. The article is translated from French by Fousesquawk.
There is only a brief mention of the (Islamic) terrorist problems that plague Niger and its neighbors. In truth, Africa has become a major battleground in the fight against terrorism on the part of groups affiliated with ISIS and Al Qaeda.
Niger-USA: American Secretary of State Anthony J Blinken visits Niger Thursday, March 16, 2023
Tuesday, March 14, 2023 at 15:34
As part of the new African tour that he will conduct in Ethiopia and Niger March 14-17, 2023, the American secretary of State, Anthony J Blinken will be in Niamey, Thursday, March 16, 2023. On the menu for this visit, the first of IRS kind for an American secretary of State, are meetings with the President of the Republic, Bazoum Mohamed, and with the diplomatic chief Hassoumi Massouadou, as well as exchanges with young citizens from the conflict zones.
In a statement published as a prelude to this visit, the spokesperson for the American State Department stated that in this first-ever visit to Niger of an American secretary of State, on March 16, Secretary Blinken will meet with President Mohamed Bazoum and the minister for Foreign Affairs, Hassoumi Massaoudou in Niamey. He will discuss with the highest authorities of the nation, "modalities for the promotion of the American-Nigerien partnership in the areas of diplomacy, democracy, development, and defense."
According to the same source, Secretary Blinken will also dialogue with young people from the conflict zones in Niger who have participated in the program of disarmament, demobilization, reintegration, and reconciliation (DDRR) to be informed about their contributions to peace in Niger. "The Secretary will also deepen the progress of collaboration of the US-African Leaders' Summit concerning global and regional peace, security and governance, as well as the climate crisis," added the press release of the American State Department, equivalent to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the USA.
Reinforce the Niger-USA strategic partnership
The visit of the head of American diplomacy to Niger will permit the reinforcement of the partnership between the two countries. For several years, Niamey has been a strategic ally of Washington in the Sahel, particularly in the domain of the fight against terrorism. The US also uses a drone base at Agadez, in the northern part of the country, along with American special forces that train several elite units of the Nigerien armed forces (FAN) in the struggle against the armed terrorist groups (GAT), particularly in the tri-border zone. Niger also benefits from strategic support from the American army in terms of reinforcing the operational capacities of the army, principally the air forces.
The US is also a leading partner in economics and development for NIger through support from USAID with an annual aid package of 200 million dollars a year in humanitarian aid programs, support for health, food security, agriculture, and education, as well as the promotion of democracy, good governance, and conflict prevention.
Niger also benefits from the support of the Millenium Challenge Corporation (MCC) through the Millenium Challenge Account-Niger (MCA-Niger), since August 2018, responsible for the implementation of Compact Niger, and which covers an agreement for the donation of 435 million dollars over 5 years and signed by the government of Niger and the government of the United States to implement various large scale projects in the regions of Dosso, Tahous, Tillabery, and Maradi. Over 5 years, these funds have served to finance various projects aimed at increasing rural revenues and improving the productive and durable natural resources for agricultural production and improving commercialization as well as access to the agricultural product market. The objective is to directly respond to the underlying causes of two major constraints hindering the economic and investment growth of Niger, that is, weak access to water for agricultural-pastoral production, which hinders agricultural productivity and food security, and the obstacles to commerce due to problems of physical and institutional access, which lead elevated transaction costs and reduce the volume of sales.
In the same context, last December during the US-Africa Leaders' Summit, the governments of the US, Benin, and Niger signed the very first regional scale aid agreement of the MCC and which leads to a donation of 504 million US dollars for the financing of the Regional Transport Program of Benin-Niger.
Ikali Dan Hadiza (Actuniger.com)
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