Hearings to examine East Africa and the horn, focusing on a turning point or breaking point.

Committee on Foreign Relations

2025-05-13

Source: Congress.gov

Summary

The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee held a hearing on U.S. engagement in East and East Africa, emphasizing the region’s strategic importance for national security and economic interests. Witnesses highlighted the growing influence of China and other external powers, including Iran and the UAE, in the region. They noted that conflicts in Sudan, Ethiopia, and Somalia are enabling violent extremist groups like al-Shabaab and ISIS, while also undermining U.S. credibility and allowing adversaries to portray the United States as disinterested. Key topics included the impact of abrupt foreign aid cuts—such as those to PEPFAR, USAID, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation—on public health and stability, the need to strengthen institutional partnerships rather than relying on personal relationships, and the urgent need for a coordinated Red Sea strategy. Testimonies also stressed that China’s investments in infrastructure, training programs, and security cooperation, including its military base in Djibouti, pose significant challenges to U.S. influence. The hearing concluded with calls to reinvigorate long-standing, effective programs, strengthen diplomacy, and prioritize African stability as both a national security imperative and a moral obligation.

Participants

Transcript

United States Senate Foreign Relations Committee will come to order. Good morning, everyone. We welcome you all here this morning for what we believe will be an important and informative hearing. We welcome all of you who are here in the audience. The rules are pretty clear here. We're glad to have you here. There'll be no protesting in here and we'll be subject to the usual rules and met with zero tolerance, arrest and banning from the committee. There are people suffering from this right now who made that mistake early on, but haven't been back since. And we, like I said, enjoy having everybody here. But this is business in the United States that needs to be conducted uninterrupted. So today, what we bring... to you. The distinguished ranking member and I have worked hard to identify areas that really need to be probed and today we're going to probe arguably one of the most difficult and frustrating places on the planet and that is Africa and specifically Eastern Africa. All of us here know that the United States has a clear national security and economic interest in the East and and East Africa and the Horn of Africa region. The region borders key maritime trade routes through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden and hosts a significant U.S. military presence at our base in Djibouti. The U.S. also conducts robust counterterrorism operations, largely focused on Somalia, in partnership with Kenya and others in the region. But in recent years, violent conflicts in Ethiopia, Sudan, and Somalia have destabilized the region. These conflicts provide fertile ground for violent extremist groups like al-Shabaab, ISIS, and the Houthis. They enable malign actors like China, Iran, and Russia, and devastate local populations and U.S. national security alike.

Sudan in particular is a crisis too few Americans recognize as the world's deadliest ongoing conflict. The Sudanese people are enduring atrocities on a staggering scale. Genocide in Darfur, mass displacement, and famine across multiple regions. Sudan is a hotbed of instability and a direct threat to U.S. national security interests. There are no good options or easy outcomes, but That only heightens the need for U.S. attention and leadership. Over the last four years, the U.S. reactions to this crisis and many others on the continent were fragmented, reactive, and ineffective. President Trump and this administration have already acted to better protect U.S. national security in the region. In President Trump's first term, his administration engaged in talks with Kenya over a potential free trade agreement, a first for sub-Saharan Africa. And now, Secretary Rubio and other senior officials have ramped up engagement and confronted threats from al-Shabaab and the Islamic State head-on. But these efforts cannot be siloed. They must be part of a broad, strategic effort to protect American interests in Africa while also protecting the U.S. taxpayer's pocketbook. That means being clear-eyed about our potential and existing partners in the region. In many cases, these governments are not wholly legitimate, which raises the question of whether engagement is worth the cost. Take, for example, South Sudan. Its government exists based on a peace agreement that its signatories routinely violate. The US played a central role in the country's creation, a legacy that has carried a financial cost well above $10 billion in assistance since independence in 2011. Yet the returns on this investment in terms of securing a sustainable peace and a functional state are marginal at best and arguably diminishing. Additionally, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Uganda each face serious domestic challenges that severely limit what U.S. investment can do.

This fact, unfortunately, demands our restraint. Many African nations maintain troubling ties with China, including key national security partners. Just last month, President Rudo declared that Kenya, a major non-NATO ally, and China are co-architects of a new world order. That's not just alignment to China. It's allegiance. I submit for the record the text of that speech. I'm going to enter it in the record at the conclusion of the hearing that describes this. Relying on leaders who embrace Beijing so openly is an error. It's time to reassess our relationship with Kenya and others who forge tight bonds with China.

Sign up for free to see the full transcript

Accounts help us prevent bots from abusing our site. Accounts are free and will allow you to access the full transcript.