Blinken builds US ties with Africa west coast as Sahel concerns grow

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday opens a week-long tour of Africa's west coast as he seeks to bolster U.S.-friendly democracies with security deteriorating in the Sahel.

The top U.S. diplomat will start in Cape Verde before visiting Ivory Coast, Nigeria and Angola, his first trip to sub-Saharan Africa in 10 months as he takes a break from a time-consuming focus on the Israel-Hamas war.

With many Africans uneasy about the U.S. attention to the Middle East and Ukraine, and U.S. President Joe Biden failing to live up to a promise to visit the continent in 2023, Blinken will seek to show a softer side of the United States on the trip.

The football-loving, French-speaking American is expected Monday evening at an African Cup of Nations match in Abidjan, days after a visit to Ivory Coast by the foreign minister of China, which Washington sees as its top long-term rival and has ramped up influence in Africa over the past two decades.

On his last trip to the region in March 2023, Blinken became the top U.S. official ever to visit Niger, hoping to show support for elected president Mohamed Bazoum.

Four months later, Niger's military toppled Bazoum, and last week the coup-installed prime minister was visiting Moscow to seek greater cooperation.

Russia's powerful Wagner mercenary group, known for ruthless tactics and widely accused of rights abuses, already works with Mali, the Central African Republic and allegedly Burkina Faso. The United States has warned Niger against following suit.

Niger had been the linchpin in U.S. efforts to counter jihadists who have ravaged the Sahel, with the United States building a $100 million base in the Nigerien desert city of Agadez to fly a fleet of drones.

The base,...