Trump asks why US is bothering to fight B'Haram when Chibok girls haven't be rescued
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.
But she also noted that “the framing of some of their questions suggests a narrower definition of U.S. interests in Africa, and a more transactional and short-term approach to policy and engagement with African countries.”
In other questions, the Trump transition team challenges the benefits of a trade pact known as the African Growth and Opportunity Act. “Most of AGOA imports are petroleum products, with the benefits going to national oil companies, why do we support that massive benefit to corrupt regimes?” the questionnaire asks.
“How,” the questionnaire also asks, “do we prevent the next Ebola outbreak from hitting the U.S.?”
Many believe the questions accurately reflect what Trump has said publicly about Africa in the few times that he has mentioned the continent.
For instance, during the Ebola crisis in 2014, Trump took to Twitter to argue that Americans infected with Ebola should not be allowed back into the United States. As two American health workers became critically ill and were airlifted to Atlanta for treatment, Mr. Trump had this to say via Twitter: “Stop the EBOLA patients from entering the U.S. Treat them, at the highest level, over there. THE UNITED STATES HAS ENOUGH PROBLEMS!”
The Ebola epidemic, which killed almost 10,000 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia (but no Americans), comes up once in the document.
Recall that Trump also reportedly called out on Africans with a threat to send those in the United States away if he wins the upcoming election.
He made the disclosure during a rally at Wichita, Kansas where he re-emphasized the need to rid America of Muslims.
Trump laid an extra emphasis on the Nigerians who he referred to as ‘corrupt’ and further promised to send away because they have taken all the jobs meant for honest hard working Americans.
Source: Legit.ng
