By Julian Pecquet
Posted on Thursday, 10 February 2022 11:04, updated on Monday, 21 March 2022 17:12
Having declared its independence from Somalia three decades ago, the de facto sovereign state of Somaliland is leveraging a perfect storm of developments to press its case for US recognition.
With the White House imposing visa restrictions over Somalia’s stalled elections, Ethiopia at war with itself, and China consolidating its military and commercial presence in Djibouti, the former British colony has been earning bipartisan plaudits as a US-friendly island of stability in the Horn of Africa.
Next month, President Muse Bihi Abdi is expected to make his first visit to the US since his 2017 election, building on a November visit by Foreign Minister Essa Kayd and special envoy Edna Adan Ismail.
READ MORE Somaliland : Growing ties with the US could be key to its recognition
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To kick off our series on the top 10 lobbying operations by African actors in the United States, we look at the attempt by Egypt to slow the operations of Ethiopia’s GERD dam project on the Nile. Just days after Biden’s victory, Egypt’s Ambassador to DC hired former congressman Ed Royce of US law firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck at $65k a month to lobby congress.
Call it déjà vu all over again. DRC’s last presidential election had sparked a pricey three-way lobbying battle between Félix Tshisekedi, Martin Fayulu and Moise Katumbi as each candidate sought to get the US in his corner. Now all three of them are back at it as next year’s rematch shapes up to be another lucrative opportunity for the influence industry.
In the third instalment of our series on the Top 10 lobbying operations by African actors in the United States, we look at the Ethiopian lobby’s push to preserve duty-free access to the US market.
For all his protectionist tendencies and disparaging remarks about Africa, former President Donald Trump managed to raise hopes through his launch of trade talks with Kenya.
Zimbabwe’s former President Robert Mugabe passed away more than two years ago. The new government thinks it’s high time the human rights sanctions imposed decades ago, during his regime, are removed.
After scoring a major diplomatic victory under President Donald Trump, the Moroccan government is determined to avoid any backpedaling by Congress and the new White House.
The government of Sudan has hired a former member of Congress with a history of opposing former President Omar al-Bashir to help repair relations with Washington and unblock US assistance suspended after the 25 October coup.
Liberia has launched a full-court lobbying effort around its bicentennial anniversary, but the opposition is putting a damper on Monrovia’s US appeal.
In the final chapter of our Top 10 African lobbying campaigns to watch, we look at how the government of Angola is spending around $4m per year on lobbying – more than any other African government by far – to draw US support for President João Lourenço’s financial reforms.
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