WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-CA-53), who is Jewish and whose district is in San Diego County, and House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Gregory W. Meeks (D-NY-5) addressed a letter to President Joe Biden urging the Administration to devise a new strategy for the Sahel region and appoint a Special Envoy to the Sahel.
The letter was co-led by Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA-37), Chair of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Global Human Rights; Congresswoman Ilhan Omar (D-MN-5); and Congressman Ami Bera (D-CA-7). The letter was also addressed to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, United States Agency for International Development Administrator Samantha Powell, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan.
“The alarming trend of coups emerging across the Sahel region, including in Mali, Chad, Guinea, and Burkina Faso, some of which were carried out by U.S. and French trained and equipped military personnel, is a symptom of a larger issue surrounding U.S. and international policy toward the region,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter to President Biden. “Prioritizing short-term security and military objectives, including counterterrorism, above longer-term policy priorities in the Sahel, West Africa, and elsewhere on the continent, fails to best promote our stated values of human rights and good governance, and fails to offer durable solutions to the growing security threat.”
“The Biden Administration’s re-engagement with the international community, combined with stated objectives to reposition our core values of human rights and multilateralism, offers an opportunity to devise a new approach to the region,” they continued.
The letter is endorsed by Catholic Relief Services, SaferWorld USA, and Oxfam.
The full text of the letter can be found below, and a pdf copy of the letter can be found here.
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Preceding provided by the office of Congresswoman Sara Jacobs