The United States could considerably reduce its diplomatic presence in Africa as part of a ‘total structural reorganisation’ of the State Department, according to a draft presidential decree consulted today by AFP.
The document provides for an overhaul of the department, which is the heart of US diplomacy, by 1 October, with the aim of ‘streamlining mission execution, promoting US power abroad, reducing waste, fraud and abuse’ and ‘aligning the State Department with America First strategic doctrine’.
The current office for Africa will be abolished and replaced by an ‘Office of the Special Envoy for African Affairs’, which will report to the White House National Security Council and not to the State Department.
‘All non-essential embassies and consulates in sub-Saharan Africa will be closed,’ reads the draft decree, and all remaining missions will fall under the authority of a special envoy.
The plan includes the abolition of the State Department offices responsible for climate change, democracy and human rights.
The biggest change is the reorganisation of the US diplomatic presence in four different regions: Eurasia, the Middle East, Latin America and Asia-Pacific.
The US embassy in the Canadian capital, Ottawa, will also be ‘substantially reduced’, as Donald Trump continues to harbour expansionist ambitions towards Canada, which he describes as the ‘51st American state’.
This draft decree is part of a series of measures taken by President Donald Trump to reduce US soft power initiatives and its questioning of long-standing alliances, including with NATO.
Last week, several US media outlets reported potential drastic cuts to the State Department’s budget, which would result in the end of funding for international organisations such as the UN and NATO.
The plan was first revealed by the New York Times and denied today by the head of US diplomacy, Marco Rubio.
‘This is false information,’ he wrote on the social network X, insisting that the newspaper had been “the victim of yet another hoax”.
Lusa
