WASHINGTON — President Biden warned African leaders Wednesday that “there will be” another global pandemic, announcing thousands and thousands of dollars in U.S. aid to the continent.
“Whilst we work to eradicate COVID-19, we proceed to construct stronger healthcare systems and institutions and speed up efforts to achieve universal health coverage to ensure we’re higher equipped to face health challenges, including the following pandemic – and positively there will be one,” said the president through the inaugural speeches of the US-Africa Business Forum in Washington.
The White House has been giving mixed signals in regards to the state of the COVID outbreak, with Biden telling 60 Minutes in September that the pandemic is over – citing it to push the controversial write-off of federally backed student loans.
Biden didn’t specifically mention “China” to his assembled guests, despite rarely calling rallies because the US seeks to counter China’s growing influence in Africa.
Coincidentally, COVID-19 appeared in China at the top of 2019. US spy agencies assessed last 12 months that the virus could have leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology, which was conducting dangerous coronavirus research with US funding.
Biden announced numerous US aid initiatives during his speech ahead of a night dinner on the White House for visiting heads of state whose stays in luxury hotels have paralyzed traffic within the nation’s capital.
Biden said the US government’s Millennium Challenge Corporation would speed up payments to African countries by specializing in different sectors.
“For the reason that start of my administration, MCC has announced latest investments in Africa price nearly $1.2 billion. We expect the MCC to commit an extra $2.5 billion across Africa over the following three years, supporting all the pieces from agriculture to transportation to access to renewable energy,” he said.
“Actually, the MCC has just announced partnership talks with 4 African countries. … [with] The Gambia [and] Togo to boost economic development, and the Senegal Accord to strengthen regional ties and the Mauritania Threshold Program to help strengthen democratic governance and political reform to unlock economic growth.”
Biden has also said he will seek congressional funding for an ambitious project that will give all Africans access to the web – though the concept may face resistance from fiscal conservatives.
“Today I’m announcing a latest initiative, Digital Transformation with Africa, working with Congress to invest $350 billion to facilitate funding for over half a billion dollars to make sure that people across Africa can take part in the digital economy,” Biden said.
“Today I’m announcing that the US International Development Finance Corporation will invest nearly $370 million in latest projects,” continued Biden, “[including] $100 million to increase reliable clean energy for thousands and thousands of individuals in sub-Saharan Africa, $20 million to fund fertilizers to help smallholder farmers, especially women, increase their crop yields, and $10 million to support small and medium businesses to help provide clean water drinking water for communities across the continent.
At a conference against global warming in Egypt last month, Biden pledged $150 million to help African countries cope with severe weather incidents and touted the previously announced $2 billion The US pledges to construct solar energy in oil-rich Angola, despite the notoriously corrupt country entering OPEC+ early elections by rejecting Biden by production cut.
African leaders gathered in Washington although lots of them were notoriously corrupt chief embezzlers or perpetrators of heinous human rights violations.
Only five African countries weren’t invited to the DC Summit. 4 of them – Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali and Sudan – have been suspended by the African Union amid recent military coups, and the fifth, Eritrea, has strained relations with the US, including due to its violent intervention on behalf of Ethiopia’s central government in the continuing Tigray War.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed, accused of overseeing crimes within the Tigray region, has reached Washington for the summit.
The president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, who had been in office since 1979, also attended the summit. Nguema’s family amassed a fortune during his presidency despite a 70% local poverty rate, and US authorities attempted to confiscate $70 million in assets allegedly plundered by the president’s son.
Cameroonian President Paul Biya, in office since 1982, can also be attending the Washington summit despite overseeing a bloody civil war against the country’s English-speaking regions.
Recognizing that a wicked group of leaders is being solicited, the State Department this week published discussion points on its website regarding the guests of honor.
“Why are you inviting [XYZ leader] considering all of the bad things he’s done?” – says the official guidelines of the American press. “Aren’t their crimes as terrible as what is occurring in Cuba or Venezuela? But you didn’t specifically invite them to the Summit of the Americas. Was it just politics?
The proposed response was, partially, “This summit is a chance to address a few of our most pressing global issues … Our approach was also intended to create opportunities for the president to advance U.S.-Africa policy through engagement.” It is thru this commitment that we will make progress.”