Credit: U.S. Department of State /  Dr. J. Peter Pham is the United States Special Envoy for the Sahel Region of Africa.

By Gary Raynaldo         DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

Secretary of State Michael Pompeo appointed Dr. J. Peter Pham as the first-ever U.S. Special Envoy for the Sahel region of Africa to maximize American diplomatic efforts in support of stability amid an unprecedented surge in terror attacks.  Special Envoy Pham is responsible for coordinating America’s engagement with international and regional partners, including the G5 Sahel and ECOWAS member states, to address the threat from Violent Extremist Organizations (VEOs) and prevent the VEO threat from impacting additional areas, as well as supporting the implementation of the Algiers Accord and regional efforts to stabilize the tri-border region of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger.     The U.S. top diplomat for Africa Tibor Nagy said the administration will remain very engaged in the Sahel. “We are not cutting back,” said Nagy, who serves as the Department of State’s Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs.  Nagy made the announcement while speaking at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. last Tuesday on a panel discussion on : “The Trump Administration and U.S. Africa Policy: What has been accomplished and what lies ahead?”    While Ambassador Nagy acknowledged he is not really a fan of  special envoys, the current bloody crisis in the Sahel  warrants more diplomatic engagement on the  part of the  U.S.  Earlier this year, the top UN official in West Africa and the Sahel  described a devastating, “unprecedented” surge in terrorist violence across the region. The UNOWAS chief elaborated on terrorist-attack casualties in Burkina Faso Mali and Niger, which have leapt five-fold since 2016 – with more than 4,000 deaths reported in 2019 alone as compared to some 770 three years earlier.  Ambassador Nagy said the situation in the Sahel is getting worse by the day.

“There are certain situations that are so complicated and require so much coordination that a special envoy makes sense.  The activities of Violent Extremist Organizations, or VEOs, are spreading from the Sahel, to Burkina Faso.  They are threatening coastal states such as Togo, Guinea, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Benin, and Senegal”.

-Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy 

Credit:  Gary Raynaldo / ©Diplomatic Times  /  U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Tibor Nagy  at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington D.C. March 3, 2020 speaks on progress in  U.S. – Africa Policy.

Special Envoy Pham previously served from 2018 to 2020 as U.S. Special Envoy for the Great Lakes Region of Africa. Prior to his appointment to the State Department, Dr. Pham was Vice President and Director of the Africa Center at the Atlantic Council. He was previously Senior Vice President of the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, and Editor of its bimonthly journal, American Foreign Policy Interests. He was also a tenured Associate Professor of justice studies, political science, and Africana studies at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he was also Director of the Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs. Dr. Pham is the author of more than 300 essays and reviews and the author, editor, or translator of over a dozen books, primarily on African history, politics, and economics. Dr. Pham holds a B.A. in economics from the University of Chicago and a doctorate from the Gregorian University, as well as postgraduate degrees in history, law, international relations, and theology.