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Pompeo to Discuss Trade, Security on Senegal Visit

Annika Hammerschlag

   DAKAR, SENEGAL - U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is scheduled to
   visit three African countries, beginning in Senegal this weekend. The
   West African nation has remained secure during a time of major unrest
   in the region and Pompeo is expected to celebrate the country's legacy
   of stability and democracy.

   The United States and West Africa have enjoyed a long relationship
   based on trade, migration and democracy. But increasingly, security has
   become a major factor in the partnership.

   The number of violent attacks perpetrated by Islamist extremist groups
   in the Sahel has doubled each year since 2016, according to U.S.
   Department of Defense research group the Africa Center for Strategic
   Studies.

   Deaths linked to these attacks have also doubled each year and
   intercommunal violence has risen dramatically.

   Senegal, meanwhile, has managed to maintain peace within its borders.
   In his visit, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is expected to praise the
   country as an example for the continent, according to a senior State
   Department official.

   But reports about U.S. plans to withdraw troops from the region have
   invited criticism.

   Hannah Akuiyibo, a program associate with the Wilson Center, a
   Washington policy group, says she hopes the visit will bring more
   clarity to the United States' position.

   "I think there's been some mixed messaging given statements about the
   reduction in military presence in Africa while at the same time, an
   announcement from Secretary Pompeo about the focus of an anti-ISIS
   coalition shifting to West Africa and the Sahel," she said. " So those
   two messages don't quite align."

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