Africa

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.

The House Foreign Affairs panel on Thursday will hold the first public hearing on the crisis in Mali since French troops intervened in the West African nation last month.

The hearing comes as France this week began discussions at the United Nations on the creation of a U.N. peacekeeping force. French forces intervened at the central government's urging on Jan. 11 to combat Islamist militants who have taken over the northern part of the vast desert country.

Separately, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairwoman Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) has said that Tuesday's closed portion of her panel's confirmation hearing for CIA director nominee John Brennan will focus on Mali and the region.

The president is urging Kenyans to “come together” and conduct a “free and fair” election next month. 

President Obama on Monday renewed sanctions on Ivory Coast for a year despite the inauguration of the U.S.-backed President Alassane Ouattara following a months-long military crisis.

Ouattara, the incumbent, lost the disputed 2010 election to another former president, Laurent Gbagbo. Gbagbo was arrested in April 2011 in the wake of international condemnation and an intervention by French special forces.

“The situation in or in relation to Côte d'Ivoire … has resulted in the massacre of large numbers of civilians, widespread human rights abuses, significant political violence and unrest, and fatal attacks against international peacekeeping forces,” Obama wrote to Congress. “Since the inauguration of President Alassane Ouattara in May 2011, the Government of Côte d'Ivoire has made progress in advancing democratic freedoms and economic development. 

“While the Government of Côte d'Ivoire and its people continue to make progress towards peace and prosperity, the situation in or in relation to Côte d'Ivoire continues to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States. For these reasons, I have determined that it is necessary to continue the national emergency and related measures blocking the property of certain persons contributing to the conflict in Côte d'Ivoire.”

The sanctions were first put in place by President George W. Bush in 2006.