Briefing on U.S. Efforts to Promote Peace and Security in Sub-Saharan Africa

September 19, 2012

The U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa, which is derived from the June 14th Presidential Policy Directive, builds on numerous accomplishments of U.S.-Africa policy to strengthen democratic institutions, promote regional peace and security, engage with young African leaders, and promote development, trade, and investment.

In this telephonic press conference with Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dr. Reuben Brigety – the first in a series of briefings on the U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa - the Deputy Assistant Secretary discusses U.S efforts to promote peace and security in sub-Saharan Africa, and answers questions from the press.

TRANSCRIPT

MODERATOR:  Good afternoon to everyone from the Africa Regional Media Hub with the United States Department of State.  Today, we are joined by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Dr. Reuben Brigety, who will be discussing U.S. efforts to promote peace and security in Sub-Saharan Africa.  And, a warm welcome to all of our callers who are joining us from across the continent.  We will begin today's call with remarks from our speaker and then we will open it up for your questions.  To ask a question, press "star-one" on your phone to join the queue.  Please note that you can press "star-one" at any time during the call.  Today's call is one the record and will last approximately 45 minutes.  And with that I’ll open it up to remarks from Deputy Assistant Secretary Reuben Brigety. 

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Ladies and gentlemen, good morning.  Thank you very much.  Or good afternoon, I should say, probably where you are.  I am very grateful for all of you for joining us for this hub call today.  Let me talk about two things broadly.  The first is the President's new policy directive on Sub-Saharan Africa, and the second is the most recent developments on regional security issues in Africa.  Then, as your host, I will be more than happy to take your questions thereafter. 

On June 14^th, President Obama issued a new Presidential Policy Directive, or PPD, for Sub-Saharan Africa which bases our foreign policy towards the continent on four key pillars.  The first is strengthening democratic institutions, the second is spurring economic growth, trade and investment, the third is advancing peace and security and the fourth is promoting opportunity and development.  This Presidential Policy Directive is innovative in the sense that it not only articulates what the policy of the State Department is with regard to our foreign policy towards Sub-Saharan Africa, but it lays the template for the totality, or the entirety, of the U.S. Government in terms of how we ought to be working together to advance these four objectives across the breadth of our relationships on the continent.

To that end, I had the great pleasure of traveling to the continent in July with the President's Deputy National Security Advisor for Economic Affairs, Mr. Michael Froman.  We visited four countries - Tanzania, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria, for the purpose of advancing pillar two of our strategy, that is the pillar for spurring economic growth, trade and investment.  Mr Froman is the President's principal advisor on international economic issues, and he had the opportunity during his trip to meet with a variety of senior government officials as well as business leaders and civil society leaders to explore ways in which the United States as a government can take additional steps to help create the conditions for strengthened economic investments, as well as trying to understand better what more the United States can do to spur private sector economic growth in Africa.  And this was just one of a variety of initiatives that have been taken by the administration to further advance these four pillars as a basis our foreign policy in Africa. 

Now with that, let me say specifically on the peace and security pillar, that there have been a variety of developments over the last several months, not only of which we should take note, but in which the United States has been deeply involved.  First, let me say that we are very pleased that the African Union has settled its chairmanship election and has elected South African Home Affairs Minister Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as the next chairperson of the African Union.  Not only is Dr. Dlamini-Zuma an incredibly competent and accomplished person for this post, but we also think that having new leadership for the AU chairmanship confirmed and set to assume the full responsibility of the office next month is vital to help address the series of peace and security issues facing the continent. 

We have been very, very encouraged to see, finally, dramatic developments for improving the situation in Somalia, both with the successful end of the Transitional Federal Government, in late August, around August 20th, with the election of Somalia's new President Hassan Sheikh Mahamud, and with the dramatic rollback of al-Shabaab out of Mogadishu, engaging in Kismayo and others.  We think that this all represents the best chance for peace that Somalia has had in a generation.  It is in no small measure due to the heroic efforts of countries that have been troop contributing countries in AMISOM such as the Ugandans, the Burundians, the Djiboutians, the Kenyans, the efforts of Ethiopia, as well as the support of the international community to AMISOM of which the United States was very proud to be able to play a meaningful role. 

We watch with concern, obviously, developments in the Eastern Congo with the flair-up of the M23 rebellion in the Kivus.  We also are deeply concerned about developments in Mali.  While we are pleased that there is a transitional government in Bamako, we are deeply concerned about the continued bifurcation of that country, the inroads of Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb in the north.  And, we are anxious for there to be a political solution between the government in Bamako, with full restoration of democratic rule and political settlement between the south and the north.  And, we also are hopeful for ECOWAS playing a critical supporting role to the resettlement and re-establishment of security throughout the breadth of the country. 

Obviously, as many of you are aware, we have seen in the last week attacks on a variety of western embassies throughout the world, including from 20 protests or attacks to one degree or another at 20 embassies around the world.  We have seen our embassy in Khartoum come under assault, as well as our embassies in Cairo and our consulate in Benghazi, which led to the tragic killing of Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other State Department colleagues with lesser degrees of protests at a few other embassies on the continent.  The United States believes that resort to violence is never appropriate as an expression of popular anger.  Nevertheless, we will continue to work with host countries to ensure the safety of our diplomatic missions.  We look forward a continued dialogue with civil society and others to discuss these issues in greater detail.  So with that roughly broad overview, I look forward to taking your questions, and again, thank you very much for being part of the call. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you so much.  At this time I want to remind callers to press star one if they want to ask a question.  And we’re going to begin the question and answer session with our embassy in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.  For the participants in the room, if you could please state your name and affiliation before you ask your question.

QUESTION:  I am Hugette Yeta, journalist with Tropicana FM/Numerica TV.  You have just stated that [word unclear] in the Eastern part of DRC.  I want to know also why, until now, the United States or the United Nations has not condemned Rwanda [word unclear]?  I want to know why. 

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Thank you for the question.  First of all, I want to say that we have publicly condemned the violence in Eastern DRC.  We have called on the rebels to seize their operations.  Obviously the situation is incredibly fraught, with hundreds of thousands of IDPs being affected and hundreds of thousands of casualties.  Let me assure you that the United States has been aggressive in its diplomacy with all the affected governments in the region.  We have worked around the clock to ensure that the rebels are not being supported by any other parties on the outside, to ensure that the conditions to achieve a credible political settlement are in place.  I can assure you again that those conversations are ongoing, that they have been frank, and that we are doing the very best we can to ensure that all parties are actual contributors to peace and security in the region. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Your line is still open if you have another question. 

QUESTION:  I am Yves Kalikat, journalist with Forum des As newspaper of the DRC.  I would like to know whether AFRICOM will stop the war in the east of our country, especially north of Kivu where the M23 is threatening the civilian population?  Thank you. 

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Thank you for the question.  The United States Africa Command was created in order to ensure that our Defense Department has a focus on Africa like we do with every other region of the world.  AFRICOM works in close cooperation with the sovereign governments of the continent as well as with our U.S. Embassies on the continent.  AFRICOM has been involved in helping to train one light infantry battalion of the FARDC, and AFRICOM is prepared to continue talks with the government of the DRC on this broad issue set of training, of trying to provide mentorship, and trying to understand that the needs of the FARDC is to provide their own security within their own boundaries.  So to the extent that those conversations are ongoing with the Congolese government, that is the principle way in within which we see AFRICOM engaging and assisting, not only with regard to security in the DRC, but also with regard to security elsewhere on the continent. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Next, we’ll be moving to our embassy in Bujumbura, Burundi.  For our colleagues in Kinshasa, if you have another question, please do press star one to join the queue again.  And now we’ll go to Bujumbura.  Please state your name and affiliation before you ask your question.  Your line is open.

QUESTION:  Morning, my name is Pierre Claver Nsengiyumva with Iwacu Press Group.  I have a question.  Burundi is already getting many refugees coming from Congo following the unrest in Eastern DRC.  We would like to know what the U.S. or other countries are prepared to do in order to help Burundi cater for all those people after the attacks?

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Thank you for the question.  Prior to my current position in the Africa Bureau in the State Department, I previously served for two years in the Bureau for Population, Refugees and Migration at the State Department and had responsibility for the Africa portfolio.  So in that sense I am very familiar with the nature of our refugee programs and support to sovereign governments to address humanitarian refugee concerns. 

I know that UNHRC is active in Burundi and is operating in an emergency fashion, as it does elsewhere, when there are new refugee flows, not only in terms of setting up temporary refugee shelters, but also providing a full range of services - food, shelter, healthcare, protection, et cetera.  The United States State Department, through our Bureau for Refugees, has supported emergency appeals to the UNHCR for support to address their refugee population.  I don’t have specifics of the latest numbers that we give them, but I am sure we can get that information to you.  One thing I can assure you of is that we are not only active participants, but indeed leaders of the government in supporting our humanitarian partners in UNHCR to address this issue, and we remain grateful for the government of Burundi and other governments that maintain open borders under their obligations of international humanitarian law, to ensure that people can flee to achieve safety in circumstances where their lives are in danger, such as this one. 

MODERATOR:  We’ll take the next question from Christine Holzbauer with the New African. 

QUESTION:  Yes good afternoon.  My question is about information recently published concerning U.S. Navy coming to Elinkine, Casamance in the south of Senegal.  Could you please confirm this information and also to let us know if it has to do with the U.S. government efforts to fight drug trafficking in the region?

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  I can’t comment intelligently about this specific visit of U.S. naval vessels that you cited.  We just don’t know that information.  We can track it for you.  What I can tell you is that the U.S. military and the U.S. Navy have a program called the Africa Partnership Station or APS, which basically sends naval vessels on a series of port visits at regularly scheduled intervals in the Gulf of Guinea, along the Swahili Coast, south eastwards on the South-Western Coast of Africa et cetera, to work with host country navies and maritime forces in order improve their own capacity to safeguard their own maritime areas.  For example, to conduct counter-piracy, counter-poaching activities, counter-illegal fishing activities, et cetera. 

They also will work with host country non-governmental organizations in providing, for example, basic healthcare to populations who live within the coast, where U.S. medical naval personnel work with NGO medical personnel do things like addressing dental care or addressing eye care or sometimes you need to fix cleft palates, things of that nature.  So this is a regularly ongoing program.  The African Partnership Station has existed for I think at least three or four years now.  I suspect, but I cannot confirm, that the deployment that you are talking about is part of regular APS deployment, but if you can give us more specific information offline, we can try to get some more information about that for you. 

MODERATOR:  Ok, thank you.  Next we will move to participants who are gathered at the U.S. Embassy in Lusaka, Zambia.  Please state your name and affiliation before you ask your question.  Go ahead, your line is open.

QUESTION:  I am Clever Mutinta from the Zambian Daily Mail.  I just want to find out why Zambia was put among the high risk countries and how the United States of America, how the situation in Zambia compares to other countries on the continent?

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Sorry, I didn’t understand the question.  Why Zambia was put in which countries?

QUESTION:   Among the risk countries.  And how the United States government rate the security situation in Zambia compared to other countries on the continent?

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Sir, I am afraid I don’t know the specific index that you are talking about.  Is there anybody in Zambia, at the embassy, that can clarify the question? 

MODERATOR:  Is there an embassy officer in the room?

EMBASSY LUSAKA MODERATOR:  In fact, I think the reference was meant to the risk to health issues and not security.  It was related to Yellow Fever. 

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  If you could get some more information about that, we would be more than happy to take the question for the record, but other than that I don’t have any more on that. 

MODERATOR:  Zambia, did you have another question in your room?

QUESTION:  My name is Andile [unclear], from the Post Newspaper.  Are you in any position to categorically tell us which country will host the African Command, or the AFRICOM? 

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Thank you for the question.  This has been a question that has been asked since the very creation of AFRICOM in 2007.  The question being where would AFRICOM be hosted on the continent?  To make a long story short, what I can tell you is that, for the moment, my understanding is that that question has been tabled, which is to say there are no active plans to host AFRICOM anywhere on the continent.  And you probably know there is a U.S. military presence in Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti.  The United States have frequent training exercises with a variety of militaries on the continent, but AFRICOM remains headquartered in Stuttgart ,Germany, and to the best of my knowledge, there are no plans to consider moving the headquarters to the continent in the near future. 

MODERATOR:  And Lusaka, if you have one more, we’ll take one more from you.

QUESTION:  This is Clever Mutinta again from Zambia Daily Mail.  My earlier question was actually based on an online publication where there was a story which was carried in sketching that Zambia was put among the high risk category countries, following what happened in Libya.  So I just wanted to find out how are you rating Zambia's security situation compared to other countries in the region?

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Sure.  Well, as you say, the United States has been, as we have said from the outset, we have had an almost unprecedented situation in which some 20 embassies around the world last week were met with protests with varying degrees of violence.  Some of those protests were in places that where one might have expected.  Others, for example, against our consulate in Sydney, Australia, were ones that, frankly, one would not have, that one would not have anticipated.  So out of an abundance of caution, we are reviewing our security posture at a variety of embassies all around the world to ensure that our people are safe, as all our facilities.  In the particular case of Zambia, all I can say is that we maintain very good relations with Zambia.  I myself have been there at a number of times just in the last year.  As you know, because you are sitting there, we have a brand new embassy compound there, which not only is great for additional meeting space, but also provides our personnel additional security.  We are simply taking exceptionally prudent measures at a variety of locations around the world to ensure the safety of our personnel in the face of this unprecedented wave of violence that has been directed at a number of our embassies in various other parts of the planet. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  Our next question comes from Jeune Afrique.

QUESTION:  Good morning, Doctor.  My question comes from Mali/Sahel Region.  There is a meeting on the Sahel next week at the UN General Assembly.  I would like to know the position of the United States.  Are you ready to support military action in north Mali, and what kind of support can United States bring to the Malian army or ECOWAS? 

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Sure.  Thank you for the question.  Our response is multi-faceted.  The first point, as I have said earlier, is that there must be a political solution to the crisis that’s facing Mali.  Not only a full restoration of democratically elected governance based in Bamako, but also a political dialogue between the government in Bamako and the variety of populations, not least of which includes the Tuareg population in the North, whose grievances basically form the basis out of which the current unrest originated.  So that is our first point.  There must be political solution and political dialogue amongst all parties. 

Secondly, we would also say that to the extent that ECOWAS is assuming its responsibilities to achieve regional peace and security in Mali, we remain in very close dialogue with ECOWAS to determine the best way in which we might be supportive of their engagement.  We have sent a planner from AFRICOM to help ECOWAS think through, or actually to observe, I should say, some of their planning scenarios.  We note that a military intervention into the North of Mali would be very difficult from a tactical perspective, even if ultimately it may, I stress may, may prove necessary.  But again, our view is that regardless of whatever military engagement ultimately may take place, that the critical aspect of this engagement must be a diplomatic one, a political settlement.

Then finally, let me say that we remain deeply concerned about the engagement of Al Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, AQIM, which appears to be trying to take advantage of the unrest in the North.  Al Qaida has proven itself to be an implacable foe, that is opportunistically trying to take advantage of unrest in various places on the continent, not only in the Sahel, but also Al Qaida elements trying to take advantage of the unrest that had been in place in Somalia. 

And in accordance with our global efforts to counter-terrorism -- [distortion on the phone line].  Again, let me just sort of summarize by saying that we support a political process to restore democratic governance to address the grievances of the affected populations of the north.  We continue our engagement with ECOWAS, to help them think through ways in which they might be a supportive player to the restoration of stability in Mali.  We will continue our engagements with them to determine the most appropriate ways in which we might be supportive in that regard.  And we continue to seek the defeat of Al Qaida in Northern Mali and elsewhere, deny them safe haven and deny them an opportunity to take advantage of this sort of unrest. 

MODERATOR:  Just a reminder to callers to press star one to join the question queue.  The next question comes from Andrew Selsky with Associated Press.

QUESTION:  My question was exactly what the preceding person was going to ask, so I will just follow up on that.  It is evident that armed Islamists with links to Al-Qaida do have control over the North.  They have been imposing Sharia law, carrying out amputations.  Their fighters from outside of Mali who have come there.  It reminds one sort of Afghanistan in the late 90s, when the Taliban ran it and allowed Al Qaida training camps to take root there.  So first of all, I think you said a planner form AFRICOM will be helping ECOWAS in planning scenarios?  Who is coming from AFRICOM to do that?

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  What I said was that a planner from AFRICOM has been invited by ECOWAS to observe their planning efforts. 

QUESTION:  Okay.  Now the way I understand it, is that ECOWAS, who has been speaking about intervention, but even in the last meeting in the last couple of days, nothing has come to fruition about actually sending our ground troops over there.  And meanwhile, the Islamist groups are gaining greater control over north and Northern Mali.  So would the U.S. be content to just sitting back and observing while ECOWAS try to deal with the situation, or might the US take a more active role considering that the situation with Mali might eventually become a security threat directly to the United States? 

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:   Well, let me say the United States is not content with the situation in Northern Mali.  I don’t think anyone is content with the situation. 

QUESTION:  No I am sorry, I meant would the U.S. be content with allowing ECOWAS to take the main role and the United States just kind of sit back and let ECOWAS try deal with it?

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Well, I think that, to be frank, we are still very much in discussions at this point.  As I said, militarily speaking, engaging on the ground in Northern Mali would be a difficult proposition for anybody, for ECOWAS, for the United States, for anyone.  So I think we are in the process now of having ongoing discussions with ECOWAS, as well as with the government in Bamako, to understand the best way to address the situation.  This is also where it is important to think through the situation in the north, not only in military terms, but also in political and diplomatic terms. 

As you said, there is evidence of the imposition of Sharia law in many towns across the north, as well as a variety of human rights abuses, as you noted.  And we should also note that many of these sorts of actions, which appear to be taken at the behest of AQIM, are not consistent with the cultural norms of the Tuareg.  As we have seen in other places where Al-Qaida has tried to engage the local populations in a much harsher form of Islam, one of the best ways to engage is to try to convince the local populations that the path offered by Al-Qaida is not one that they want to follow.  So that, we believe, must be a critical component in any intervention. 

And then, with regard to potential military operations, again, I think that we are watching the situation very closely, understanding what is happening on the ground, understanding options, working very closely with our ECOWAS colleagues as we work together to try to understand the best way collectively for us to deal with the situation.  Frankly I think it is just premature for us to determine yet what the United States, final posture with regard to any intervention will look like.  

MODERATOR:  The next question is from Senator Iroegbu in Abuja, Nigeria with ThisDay Newspaper.  Senator, your line is open.

QUESTION:  I want to ask the secretary, if the past experiences of the U.S. and Africa military intervention, particularly the recent ugly event in Libya, the unfortunate incident that took the life of the Ambassador Smith helped to remove that option.  Also, the U.S. experience in Somalia in 1992.  I want to ask about your strategy in Africa and question the military intervention in Mali, will Mali become a second Somalia in Africa in terms of security challenges?  Thank you. 

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Sure, thank you.  Let me say this.  Every country learns from its experiences in any endeavor over time.  And one of the most important aspects that I think we have learned with regard to our engagement in Africa, and we learned it in conjunction with African partners, is that to the maximum extent possible, the United States wants to be partners with African countries to help develop African solutions for African problems.  And, that is true in every area of endeavor, whether it be countering the spread of HIV, or helping to spur economic growth, or helping to re-establish peace and security. 

So, for example, in the case of Somalia, in the last ten years, we are in a much better situation with regard to security in Somalia today, as I said earlier, because of the heroic efforts of AMISOM troop contributing countries and also because of the stalwart diplomacy put forward by the African Union.   And, whether it is in Somalia, or potentially if it should develop in Mali, where possible, our desire is to be helpful to African militaries and African governments assume responsibility for their own security concerns.  I should say as well, another thing with regard to the Lord's Resistance Army in predominantly in eastern Congo and also southern Central African Republic, south-eastern and South Sudan et cetera, one of the things that we are doing is helping other militaries track down the scourge which has preyed upon defenseless African citizens. 

So the issue is less that the United States has been adverse, or may have had adverse experiences elsewhere.  The real issue is how do we work with our African partners to enable them to address problems from their perspective in a way that addresses our mutual security.  I think that is the basic framework, the starting framework, I should say, from which we are looking at our potential support for operations in Mali. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  We have time for one more question and that question will come from our participants who are in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo.  Please state your name and affiliation before you ask your question.  Go ahead, your line is open.

QUESTION:  I’m Philemon Longonia, Radio Television Groupe L’Avenir-RTGA.  My question is people die every day in DRC because of the war.  What can the U.S. do now to stop the war and to help the people in Kivu? 

DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY REUBEN BRIGETY:  Sure.  Thank you for your question.  As I noted earlier, the United States is gravely concerned about violence in the Eastern DRC.  We are concerned from a humanitarian perspective; we are concerned from the perspective of regional security.  We have been deeply engaged with all the governments in the region to ensure that all of them are playing a productive role in addressing the rebellion of the M23, and we have called publicly for the M23 to cease activities which are destabilizing and which are harming civilians in the region.  I can assure you that in our private discussions with governments, we are working tirelessly and strongly to help governments come together to address this tragedy.  We note that it will be addressed at the UN General Assembly next week, and we are hopeful that in the near future we will see an improvement to the conditions on the ground there which are leading to so much human suffering. 

MODERATOR:  Thank you.  And that concludes today’s call.  I would like to thank all of our callers who participated in today’s hub call, and many thanks to Deputy Assistant Secretary Brigety for joining us.  If you have any questions about today’s call, please contact the media hub at afmediahub@state.gov.  Thank you so much.