VOA — African leaders were very close to officially demanding President Donald Trump publicly apologize for reportedly crude remarks about the continent and immigration, but backed off, reports say.

The African Union drafted its response to the president at a summit this week.

The draft warned that Trump’s “racist and xenophobic behavior” puts the strategic partnership between the United States and Africa at risk.

It says African heads of state are “appalled” by the presidents’ apparent remarks and “dismayed and shocked by the increasingly consistent trend from the Trump administration to denigrate people of African descent and other people of color.”

But the African Union decided not to release the draft. It pointed to a Jan. 25th letter from Trump in which he pledged his “deep respect” for Africa and announced that Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will make an “extended visit” to Africa in March.

Trump also met with Rwandan President Paul Kagame on the sidelines of the Davos economic forum last week.

Kagame is the current chair of the African Union. He says the AU will have to find a way to get along with Trump.

“When the United States decided to give us Trump as their president, we will deal with that president,” Kagame said.

Trump reportedly called Africa, Haiti, and El Salvador “s—hole countries” during a White House meeting on immigration earlier this month, and wanted to exclude Haiti from any immigration reform deal.

He denied using such crude language.

African governments still face pressing need to enact counter-terrorism and counter-insurgency measures to protect their homelands.

Leaders attending the 30th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union agreed they have made some progress in dismantling terrorist networks, but the war is far from over.

Kenya is one of the countries that has been hit hard by terrorist group Al-Shabaab, with many people killed.

DE-RADICALISATION

During the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) meeting, President Uhuru Kenyatta highlighted the major shift in how his administration deals with counter-terrorism.

Key among them is the establishment of the National Counter-Terrorism Centre, which is the focal point for the coordination of processes managing returnees in the country.

“Other measures include rehabilitation programmes and initiatives that enhance de-radicalisation processes through amnesty for all returnees from Somalia who wish to abandon criminal affiliations to rejoin the society,” the Head of State told the council meeting.

AMISOM

The President said African countries should step up their support to the continental Peace and Security Council to ensure continuous progress in countering terrorism and violent extremism.
The continent, he added, must stand ready to provide the required backing, be it administrative, military or financial, to enable the council to carry out its mandate effectively.

Kenya Defence Forces are part of the AU mission forces in Somalia (Amisom) who have started exiting the country.

But President Kenyatta said the “unfortunate timing” of the troop withdrawal is still a major challenge as there is no prospect of Somali forces taking effective charge of national security any time soon.

UN

Already, the first batch of 1,000 troops under Amisom have left Mogadishu but the country still faces challenges in transitioning from the multinational force to the local one.

The new Somali Government has been ensuring its national security forces are trained to protect the country as another 1,000 troops get ready to leave next year.

Said President Kenyatta: “Indeed, I would like to call on the UN and the AU to ensure practical and realistic Amisom exit timelines that should be subjected to regular reviews.”

COOPERATION

But more focus, he noted, should be made on returnees, especially those in Africa.

“On return to Africa, those foreign fighters then link up with other extremist armed groups across our continent, which have affiliation to either Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State,” President Kenyatta said.

UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, AU PSC chairman, who is also Egypt’s President, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi and AU Commission chairman Moussa Faki called for a comprehensive approach to combat terrorism in Africa.

President El-Sisi said a comprehensive approach to curb terrorism remained a priority for Africa if the scourge was to be eliminated.

Mr Guterres welcomed the African leaders’ efforts to fight terrorism, expressing the need to build cooperation between AU and UN to ensure a sustained and coordinated approach to combat the vice.

Former international footballer George Weah will be sworn in as Liberia’s new president on Monday, a landmark moment that marks the troubled country’s first peaceful democratic transition since 1944.

Weah will become the 25th president of the West African nation, taking power from President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf after 12 years, with expectations running sky-high among Liberians that he will deliver on his promises of jobs and better schools.

The inauguration is due to begin at 9.45 am (0945 GMT) in Samuel Kanyon Doe stadium near the capital, Monrovia, with heads of state from Ghana, Mali, Nigeria and Togo expected to attend along with friends and former colleagues from his football years.

Weah played for a string of top-flight European teams in the 1990s and was crowned the world’s best player by FIFA and won the coveted Ballon d’Or prize, the only African to have achieved this.

After losing his first run at the presidency to Sirleaf in 2005, he has spent the last 13 years attempting to gain the political credibility to match his wild popularity at home, becoming a senator in 2014.

Volunteers were putting the final touches to decorations and giving the streets a final lick of paint on Sunday, and many expressed hope the everyday difficulty of their lives would change.

“It’s my very first time to see Liberia transferring power peacefully. People expect real democracy,” said Samuel Harmon, 30, a street trader.

“The expectation of the people and the country is all up to him (Weah). Everybody believes that if he fails us, the majority will be disappointed with politics,” he added.

– Under pressure –

Sirleaf will be remembered for maintaining peace after the harrowing 1989-2003 civil war left an estimated 250,000 dead. But extreme poverty remains pervasive and Liberia ranks near bottom in international rankings for health, education and development.

At a church service attended by Sirleaf and Weah on Sunday, the pair presented a united front following a bruising election campaign in which Sirleaf’s longtime vice-president Joseph Boakai failed to convince as her successor while alleging fraud had marred the ballot.

Legal proceedings lodged by Boakai delayed a run-off vote and the transition period, meaning Weah has had less than a month to prepare for government rather than the three months initially scheduled.

Sirleaf told AFP the inauguration “implies continuity; it implies meeting the challenges,” as she left the event.

Weah faces the challenges of a depressed export economy highly reliant on rubber and iron ore, and outsized expectations he can turn the country around within months and provide jobs for the overwhelmingly young population.

More than 60 percent of Liberia’s 4.6-million citizens are under 25, and many voted for Weah in the expectation he would quickly boost employment.

He told journalists on Saturday at a football game — a friendly with the army — that his first priority was keeping the peace, and hit out at critics who say he is unqualified for the position.

“I am a human being, I strive to be excellent, and I can be successful,” Weah said.

“When I work hard I believe what I believe in and I showed I could persevere,” he added, referring to early disbelief amongst his countrymen that he could make it in the top European leagues.

Experts are concerned however that hopes of tackling rampant corruption and bringing technocratic expertise into his cabinet are at risk from the need to repay favours.

“He is under pressure from various constituencies and unlikely to nominate a cabinet of experts as he claimed he would do shortly after his electoral success,” said Malte Liewerscheidt, Senior Africa Analyst at global risk consultancy Verisk Maplecroft.

The rumoured names were “clearly tilted towards re-paying political and personal debts of gratitude, suggesting continuity rather than a new dawn in Liberian politics,” he wrote in a briefing note.