Dakar: US President Donald Trump is hosting five West African leaders for “multilateral lunch” at the White House on Wednesday as the region reels with the impact of American aid cuts. According to a statement by the Liberian Presidency, leaders of Liberia, Senegal, Gabon, Mauritania and Guinea-Bissau are expected to discuss major areas of cooperation including economic development, security, infrastructure and democracy. The White House has not given further details. A surprising meeting comes when the Trump administration has taken radical steps to reopen American relations with Africa. Earlier this month, American officials dissolved the American agency for international development, and said that it is now called “a charity-based foreign aid model” and instead will focus on partnership with nations that “show both the ability to help themselves and desire.” Earlier this year, a senior bureau official of US African Affairs, Troy Fitrell, said the Trump administration wants to focus on ending the trade deficit with Africa. “The aid consists of a donor and a recipient, but commerce is an exchanges between equal,” he said. Critics say that sudden change will cause millions of deaths. A study published in the Lancet Medical Journal later last month estimated that USAID disintegration and deep funding cuts would lead to more than 14 million deaths globally by 2030, including 4.5 million children. West African countries are the most difficult hits from the disintegration of USAID. According to the Center for Global Development, American support in Liberia is 2.6 percent of the country’s gross national income, which is the highest percentage of the world anywhere in the world. The five nations whose leaders are meeting Trump represent a small fraction of the US-Africa trade, but they have unused natural resources. Senegal and Mauritania are important transit and original countries when it comes to migration, and drug smuggling with Guinea Bissau, struggling to include both issues of concern for Trump administration. Liberia President Joseph Nyama Bokai in a statement “expressed optimism of the results of the summit, confirming Liberia’s regional stability, democratic rule and commitment to inclusive economic development.” Gabon, Liberia, Mauritania and Senegal are among the 36 countries, which can be included in the possible expansion of Trump’s travel ban
