Africa

A demilitarized zone along the contested border is viewed as key to resuming landlocked South Sudan’s oil exports.

Secretary of State John Kerry calls on Kenyans to address grievances through the "legal system, rather than on the streets."

The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations panel on Africa unveiled an 18-page report Thursday urging greater U.S. economic engagement with fast-growing Africa.

The United States is losing the economic competition against China, Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) said, despite its billions of dollars of public health and other forms of aid. To remedy the situation, Coons urged Congress and the Obama administration to focus on increased trade and investment in a region that is home to six of the 10 fastest-growing economies in the world over the past decade.

“America is losing ground and ceding economic opportunities in Africa to competitors,” Coons said. “China, which has made dramatic inroads across the continent in recent years, may undermine or even counter value-driven U.S. goals in the region, and should serve as a wake-up call for enhanced American trade and investment. This is truly a critical moment, as our Chinese competitors are securing long-term contracts that could lock American companies and interests out of fast-growing African markets for decades to come.”

The United States must maintain its investments in global health despite the threat of sequestration and calls for deficit reduction, advocates said Tuesday.

A coalition of global health nonprofit organizations said U.S. funding has spurred a marked increase in the number of global health products over the last ten years.

These developments place the movement at a critical point, particularly as U.S. policymakers face a variety of fiscal deadlines, the advocates said in a new report.

The head of the U.S. Agency for International Development visited Somalia on Thursday, the highest-ranking American official to visit the war-plagued country in more than 20 years.

Rajiv Shah was in Somalia to reaffirm America's commitment to the country's long-term development, according to USAID. The visit is part of a wider-ranging trip that will also include stops in Tanzania and Kenya.

Shah met with Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud and announced an extra $20 million in U.S. aid. Last month, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton officially recognized the country's new government during a meeting with Mohamud in Washington.

The U.S. initiative to fight AIDS around the world should scale up its programs, better target resources and direct more focus toward prevention, according to a new assessment.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) directed high praise Wednesday at the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), citing the "millions of lives worldwide" that have been saved and improved by U.S. investments against AIDS.

The congressionally mandated report described a path for PEPFAR that would build on its progress and increase its effectiveness as countries seek to "sustainably manage the response to HIV."

President Obama is close to tapping former White House political director and Democratic National Committee executive director Patrick Gaspard as the next U.S. ambassador to South Africa, The Washington Post is reporting.

Democrats and Republicans slammed the administration's response to French intervention against Islamist militants in northern Mali.

The Obama administration on Valentine's Day reaffirmed its sanctions on diamonds from the African nation of Zimbabwe amid ramped-up lobbying by the jewel industry.

“The United States will continue to implement its sanctions and to update the list of blocked persons to ensure that it addresses the undermining of democratic processes or institutions in Zimbabwe,” State Department spokeswoman Hilary Fuller Renner said.

Diamond-sellers in Antwerp have been pushing the European Union for an “immediate” lifting of the sanctions on the state Zimbabwe Mining Development Corporation, The Associated Press reported.

The State Department released the statement on one of the most lucrative days for the jewel industry. Almost 1 in 5 shoppers will buy jewelry this Valentine's Day, according to the 2013 Valentine's Day spending survey conducted by BIGinsight for the National Retail Federation, spending more than $4.4 billion on diamonds, gold and silver.

Your morning global affairs speed-read

Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson will unveil proposals for resolving the violence that has plagued the Democratic Republic of Congo for years and call on the international community – and the United States – to redouble its efforts. Watch his remarks at the Brookings Institution here.

Today is the deadline for the State Department to turn over to the House oversight panel any documents linking Hillary Clinton and her direct subordinates to security lapses in Benghazi, Libya.