FOREIGN POLICY/REX TILLERSON/STATE/TERRORISM/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Secretary of State Rex Tillerson heads to Africa this week for a five-nation trip focusing on counterterrorism, China’s influence and fence-mending, a visit that comes as the Trump administration tries to set out its priorities there.
The one-week tour by the most senior Trump administration official to visit the continent comes two months after President Donald Trump’s alleged coarse comments on immigration from Africa sparked a diplomatic firestorm.
The Trump administration has yet to nominate a chief U.S. diplomat for Africa, while eight embassies, including South Africa, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Somalia, remain without ambassadors.
The State Department has said its working with the White House to put officials in place and that career staffers are capable of the work in the interim…
Mr. Tillerson will have to navigate complex diplomatic terrain in Africa. Ethiopia, a counterterrorism ally against al Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab in Somalia, has been locked in a political crisis since February amid swelling unrest and the resignation of its prime minister.”
-Matina Stevis-Gridneff and Felicia Schwartz, “Tillerson to Stress Security, Trade on Africa Trip, as U.S. Seeks to Set Priorities,” The Wall Street Journal online, Mar. 6, 2018 05:30am