U.S., Canada and Africa

[AIM] Maputo -- The US Embassy in Maputo has pledged that the US will continue "to support Mozambique in taking concrete actions to fight the tuberculosis epidemic'.

[Ghanaian Times] The Vice President of the United States of America (USA), Ms Kamala Harris, arrived in Accra yesterday to a rousing welcome as she commences with her three-day state visit to Ghana.

[Ghanaian Times] The Ghana Police Service has embarked on intermittent roadblocks in some parts of Accra and Cape Coast to allow free movement of the conveyors of the Vice President of the United States of America, Mrs Harris Kamala and her husband who are on a four day visit to the country.

[Ghanaian Times] The Vice President of the United States (US), Kamala Harris, was yesterday welcomed to Ghana to begin a week-long visit to Africa. After spending three days in the country, she will spend two days in Tanzania before another day in Zambia.

[GhanaToday] The US Vice President, Kamala Harris and Second Gentleman Douglas Emhoff have arrived in Accra, Ghana to begin a three-day working visit to the country.

[State Department] Summary: The U.S. government (USG) is committed to expanding partnerships in West Africa to prevent violent conflicts from emerging or further spreading across the region. The central Sahel region of Africa experienced more terrorist attacks than any other part of the world in 2021, with terrorist activity increasingly expanding across borders in neighboring Coastal West Africa (CWA) countries. Violent extremist activity is exacerbating distrust among civilians and security and government actors in bo

[RFI] US Vice President Kamala Harris starts a three-country tour of Africa this weekend, visiting Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia to promote the White House's positive vision of the continent as the "future of the world".

[DW] Vice President Kamala Harris arrived to cheers in the Ghanaian capital on Sunday, the first leg in her weeklong trip to the continent aimed at deepening US ties.

[New Times] The US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has welcomed the release of Paul Rusesabagina by the Government of Rwanda.

[allAfrica] Cape Town -- The activities in Africa of Russia's Wagner Group, the private paramilitary group which deploys mercenaries to support the Kremlin's foreign policy objectives, are coming under increased American scrutiny as the United States, Russia and China compete for strategic advantage on the continent.

[FrontPageAfrica] Washington -- Liberians were on edge Wednesday awaiting the outcome of a highly touted meeting between President George Weah, and a handful of his officials, who sat down for a highly-touted security meeting with top brass of the US Central Intelligence Agency at Langley, the CIA headquarters in McClean, Virginia.

[FrontPageAfrica] The Editor,

[New Republic] As the Liberian Leader, President George M. Weah has left the Country for international engagements both in the United States of America and the United Arab Emirates , the State Department of Liberia's longtime-ally, America, has published its 2022 Human Rights Report highlighting several human rights' abuses, including "politically motivated killing."

[Daily News] THE maiden visit of US Vice-President Kamala Harris to Tanzania is expected to bolster bilateral ties between the two countries and promote a number of areas for cooperation, pundits have forecasted.

[Addis Standard] Addis Abeba -- The Ethiopian government has dismissed a report by the US State Department determining atrocities committed in Ethiopia's two years war that started in the Tigray region and spread to Amhara and Afar regions as "untimely", "selective", and "inflammatory"; it also rejected it saying the report "unfairly apportions blame".

[State Department] On behalf of the Government and the people of the United States of America, I extend heartfelt congratulations to the Namibian people as you celebrate 32 years of independence on March 21.

[Shabait] In a Press Statement yesterday (20th March), US Secretary of State yet again raised unsubstantiated and defamatory accusations against the Eritrean Defense Forces in relation to the two-year conflict in north Ethiopia triggered by the TPLF's deplorable War of Insurrection and choice.

[VOA] Adis Ababa -- Ethiopia's government has rejected a U.S. assertion that all sides in the two-year Tigray war committed war crimes, calling the statement "inflammatory."

[VOA] Dakar -- The government of Niger says it negotiated the release of a U.S. aid worker and a French journalist who were held captive by Islamist militants in the Sahel region. Aid worker and missionary Jeffery Woodke was held for more than six years, while reporter Olivier Dubois spent nearly two years in captivity.

[Horn of Africa Joint Task Force] Djibouti, Djibouti -- U.S. Soldiers assigned to the Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) communications directorate, CJ-6, conducted a knowledge exchange on radio equipment with the Armed Forces of Djibouti (FAD) signal communications section at a FAD operating location in Djibouti, Feb. 20 - Mar. 2.

[Seychelles News Agency] Seychelles and the United States will continue collaboration in maritime security, social and economic development as well as providing more flexibility for the US visa process as a top agenda, the newly accredited American ambassador to Seychelles said.

[FrontPageAfrica] The reported invitation to President Weah and his Minister of Justice by Langley (CIA Headquarters) and not the State Department or the White House is a strange one. I have been around diplomatic circles for some time now (including 4 years of active duty as head of the largest Bureau within Foreign Affairs). I am finding it difficult to see a precedent in recent years. Even during the days of Mobutu Sese Sekou of Zaire (a loyal asset of Langley), no invite came directly from the CIA.

[FrontPageAfrica] Monrovia -- The U.S. State Department in its 2022 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices says there were several reports that the government of Liberia or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings.

[AI] In reaction to the release of the State Department's annual human rights reports today, Amnesty International USA Executive Director Paul O'Brien said, "when Secretary of State Blinken announced the US foreign policy strategy, he said it would be one centered in human rights, yet the annual human rights report demonstrates that the Biden Administration continues a policy of double standards when it comes to failing to call out the human rights abuses of key security partners."

[MAP] Washington D.C. -- Minister of Foreign Affairs, African Cooperation and Moroccan Expatriates, Nasser Bourita, is currently on a working visit to Washington D.C. on Monday.

[New Dawn] BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND LABOR

[State Department] Assistant Secretary of State for International Organization Affairs Michele Sison will travel to Madagascar, South Africa, Mauritius, Azerbaijan, Mongolia, Vietnam, Thailand, and Laos, March 22-April 7, for meetings with counterparts and UN officials to reinforce U.S. commitment to collaborative multilateral engagement in addressing collective global challenges.

[State Department] Ethiopia is now emerging from two years of a brutal conflict in the north, during which all parties committed atrocities. With the November 2, 2022 cessation of hostilities agreement (COHA) in place, the fighting has stopped, human rights abuses in northern Ethiopia are significantly down, Eritrean forces are leaving, and the Ethiopian government is taking the first step towards transitional justice. However, the suffering that was wrought upon civilians in northern Ethiopia must be acknowledged.

[State Department] The below is attributable to Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel:

[New Republic] A judge in Atlanta Georgia has ordered the incarceration of former Liberia AirPort Director General Ellen Corkrum to more than three years in federal state prison for fraudulently obtaining more than US$6 million in Covid relief funds. A US media has reported.