WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, delivered an opening statement at a full committee hearing, “East Africa and the Horn: At a Turning Point or Breaking Point?” In her remarks, Ranking Member Shaheen emphasized the critical role that the U.S. must play across the African continent, particularly as conflicts subside and new economic opportunities emerge. She also raised concerns about the consequences of the Trump Administration’s cuts to foreign assistance and highlighted the growing strategic competition between the U.S. and the PRC in the region. Witnesses included Joshua Meservey, Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute and Michelle Gavin, Ralph Bunche Senior Fellow for Africa Policy Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.
“One piece of legislation that has shown its value time and again is the Women, Peace and Security Act,” said Ranking Member Shaheen. “This is legislation that passed with bipartisan support in both Houses. It was signed into law by President Trump during his first term. Our armed forces have made great use of it, especially in AFRICOM. It gives us a real advantage over our Chinese competitors and, sadly, this is a program that Secretary Hegseth has decided to discontinue because he claims it’s a DEI program—which it’s not. But, where WPS authorities allow us to gather intelligence from women and families, we can counter violent extremism and we can advance our interests and deepen economic investment in East Africa and the Horn.”
You can watch her opening remarks HERE.
More information about the hearing is available HERE.
Ranking Member Shaheen also pointed to firsthand accounts that directly contradict the Trump Administration claims that lifesaving assistance remains unaffected. She displayed images from shuttered HIV/AIDS prevention programs and empty shelves at formerly USAID-supported hospitals.
“The United States does have a critical role to play on the continent,” said Ranking Member Shaheen. “Just last month, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a declaration of principles on ending a brutal, 30-year war. It’s not quite ended yet, however, it’s a positive step and it’s the result of deliberate, diplomatic work that’s been carried out over many years on a bipartisan basis. Unfortunately, this administration’s cuts to foreign aid programs have been very damaging.”
The Ranking Member’s opening remarks, as delivered, are below.
Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Like you, I’m delighted that we are able to hold this hearing today and I want to welcome to our witnesses. And I think there’s a lot of agreement on both sides of the aisle about the importance of Africa to the United States and the need to engage more there. The United States does have a critical role to play on the continent. Just last month, Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a declaration of principles on ending a brutal, 30-year war. It’s not quite ended yet, however, it’s a positive step and it’s the result of deliberate, diplomatic work that’s been carried out over many years on a bipartisan basis. Unfortunately, this administration’s cuts to foreign aid programs have been very damaging when we look at what we need to do on the continent of Africa. While reports from the State Department indicate that lifesaving aid continues to flow, what my staff that traveled to Africa three weeks ago saw on the ground was very different and we have some pictures that they took from that trip.
This is a clinic that was for an HIV/AIDS prevention site for girls in South Africa. Sadly, as you can see, it’s been closed because all of the prevention activities around HIV/AIDS on the continent have been shut down. This is a photo also in South Africa of a clinic for vulnerable children, again, around addressing HIV/AIDS. It has also been shut down as a result of the stop in foreign assistance. This final picture is of a hospital in Angola where USAID used to provide Ready-to-Use Therapeutic Foods to address starvation and famine. While there are still cans—those are formula—those are not the Read-to-Use Therapeutic Foods. They are totally out of those.
So, I hope our witnesses today will talk about the impact that cuts to those lifesaving aid programs have on the security not just of the people of Africa, but of the United States because, as we know, what happens there doesn’t stay in Africa. We see the impact here in the United States. Rationing HIV drugs gives the virus a chance to mutate into drug-resistant strains.
And I also hope you will talk about the competition for influence in Africa between the United States and China—the Chairman mentioned that in his remarks. I think it’s something that we’re seeing. And this is a map that was done in 2023 that shows the influence of China in Africa. I wish we had the one that we had in the Armed Services Committee several years ago that compares China’s impact in Africa to the United States’ because they are eating our lunch there. And, you can see, the red is where the PRC has really put a focus on the countries in Africa. You can see the Chinese base in Djibouti there. It shows the 2,000 military troops that are deployed in Africa by the Chinese and 1,775 peacekeepers that support four UN peacekeeping operations, again, Chinese. So, it is significant that we are not competing either militarily or diplomatically in Africa and now on the foreign assistance front.
One stark example of this is the Lobito Corridor project. It’s a U.S.-backed initiative that we’ve spent years developing and investing in. It would create a route for Central Africa’s natural resources to flow [West], out to the Atlantic. Meanwhile, China has a competing railway project in Tanzania that would send these natural resources East, out to the Indian Ocean. [...] It’s in our interest—and those of the people in the region—for the United States to come out on top in these situations. One piece of legislation that has shown its value time and again is the Women, Peace and Security Act. This is legislation that passed with bipartisan support in both Houses. It was signed into law by President Trump during his first term. Our armed forces have made great use of it, especially in AFRICOM. It gives us a real advantage over our Chinese competitors and, sadly, this is a program that Secretary Hegseth has decided to discontinue because he claims it’s a DEI program—which it’s not. But, where WPS authorities allow us to gather intelligence from women and families, we can counter violent extremism and we can advance our interests and deepen economic investment in East Africa and the Horn.
So, as you talk about the opportunities in the region, I hope you will lay out some of the economic and foreign policy tools we can use to achieve success. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.
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