ABD-Afrika Gündemi: Tanzanya'dan Washington'a Ziyaret, Sudan Yaptırımları ve Nijerya Gösterisi

Tanzania’s foreign minister Mahmoud Thabit Kombo is expected back in Washington this week in a bid to improve ties just as the US Senate takes up legislation to reassess the bilateral relationship. This is Kombo’s second trip to the US capital since deadly violence broke out around the disputed October elections that saw President Samia Suluhu Hassan elected with more than 97% of the vote. The foreign minister notably met with House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast, Republican of Florida, in December. In addition to meeting with US officials, Kombo is scheduled to headline a business roundtable at the US Chamber of Commerce’s US-Africa Business Centre on Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the Tanzanian foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. The visit comes as the US has been ramping up the pressure on Dar es Salaam to reverse its democratic backsliding. On 21 May, the State Department announced a visa ban on police chief Faustine Jackson Mafwele over the alleged torture of two democracy activists, Boniface Mwangi of Kenya and Agather Atuhaire of Uganda. Meanwhile, Trump’s pending nominee to serve as ambassador to Tanzania, William Trachman, pledged at his April nomination hearing that the country’s human rights abuses “won’t be swept under the rug”. Trachman is expected to be confirmed by the US Senate imminently after he cleared the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on 4 June. The US Senate wants to go further. On Wednesday, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to take up the “reassessing the United States-Tanzania Bilateral Relationship Act”. The bill, co-sponsored by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire and Republican Ted Cruz of Texas: Calls on the Donald Trump administration to support an international independent investigation into pre- and-post-election violence; Conditions most non-humanitarian aid to electoral reforms, accountability for perpetrators of violence, the release of opposition leaders, and an end to “political intimidation and censorship” of journalists and activists; and Targets senior government officials and leaders of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi (CCM) party, the Tanzania Police Force, the Tanzanian People’s Defence Force, and the Tanzanian Intelligence and Security Service for potential sanctions. “Tanzania’s reliability as a partner to the United States is increasingly in question due to ongoing political repression, violations of religious freedom and freedom of expression, and persistent barriers to United States investment,” the bill says. Shaheen has described the measure as a message to the continent ahead of elections in Kenya and Nigeria in 2027. Kombo, for his part, has invited her and Cruz to Tanzania to see conditions there for themselves. Tanzania’s global outreach campaign amid western backlash could further complicate matters. While the Senate bill frets about Tanzania’s military and economic ties to US rival China , President Samia recently returned from a trip to Moscow to discuss nuclear cooperation with President Vladimir Putin . Growing pressure for Sudan sanctions Also included among the two dozen bills in Wednesday’s mark-up is bipartisan legislation from Chairman James Risch (R-Idaho), that seeks to turn up the pressure on the foreign governments and actors fuelling Sudan’s civil war. While it doesn’t directly name and shame specific actors such as the United Arab Emirates and Ethiopia , which both back the genocidal Rapid Support Forces (RSF), the ‘Preventing External Aggression and Conflict Escalation (PEACE) in Sudan Act’ targets supporters of the warring Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the rival RSF by mandating that the Trump administration report back to Congress on foreign involvement within 90 days. The bill specifically authorises sanctions against supporters of the SAF and RSF.