(credit:  Atlantic Council)   U.S. Special Envoy for the Sahel Region Ambassador Dr.  J. Peter Pham

By Gary Raynaldo      DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

U.S. Special Envoy for the Sahel Region Ambassador J. Peter Pham is visiting  Accra, Ghana  this week to attend the inauguration of President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.   Mr.  Akufo-Addo was re-elected president of the West African nation in December  after a tightly contested election.  Akufo-Addo obtained 51.6% of the vote, compared with 47.4% won by his main rival, ex-President John Mahama, official results showed.  Ambassador Pham will lead the Presidential Delegation to attend the inauguration of President Akufo-Addo on January 7. The delegation will include United States Ambassador to Ghana Stephanie S. Sullivan.  In addition to inauguration-related events, Ambassador Pham will participate in bilateral meetings with senior Government of Ghana officials and civil society where he will reaffirm the strong U.S.-Ghana partnership in the areas of regional peace and security, economic development, and democratic governance.

President of The Republic of Ghana  Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

Ambassador Pham Appointed U.S. Special Envoy for Africa Sahel Amid insecurity and spread of violence

Last year,  the U.S. Secretary of State created Dr. Pham’s position as Special Envoy for the Sahel Region to work to advance its goal for the region, “which is that West African governments and African institutions address the drivers of insecurity, contain the spread of violence, and stabilize the region with the help of better coordinated international and U.S. interagency support,”  ambassador Pham said during a press briefing Tuesday ahead of his travels to Ghana.

“I’ll be traveling to Ghana for the inauguration of President Nana Akufo-Addo – again, designated by President Trump to represent the United States.  My trip will once again highlight a successful election as well as the U.S. prioritization of African institutions, especially with Ghana’s leadership as the current chair of ECOWAS.  I intend to underscore U.S. support for West African efforts to prevent the spillover of instability from the Sahel in general and for African efforts to accompany the transition in Mali in particular, noting that Ghana, in its ECOWAS capacity, is the co-chair of the GST-Mali.”

-U.S. Special Envoy for the Sahel Region Ambassador Dr.  J. Peter Pham

Root Cause of Crisis in Sahel is One of State Legitimacy:  Ambassador Pham

“The heart of the crisis in the Sahel, as I’ve repeatedly emphasized, is one of state legitimacy – whether or not citizens perceive that their government is legitimate, equitable, able, and willing to meet their needs.  This includes ensuring justice and accountability for human rights violations and abuses committed by security forces.  Absent Sahelian government actions that demonstrate this commitment, no degree of international engagement is likely to succeed, ambassador Pham stated during his press briefing.

On Allegations Of Burkinabe Security Forces Engage in Extrajudicial killings

During the press briefing,  Nick Turse,  New Times journalist,   asked Ambassador Pham:   “Simon Compaore, the president of the ruling political party in Burkina Faso, acknowledged to me that the security forces there were carrying out extrajudicial killings, and according to ACLED statistics, Burkinabe security forces kill marginally more civilians than they do militants. I’m interested in your take on all this given longstanding U.S. Government support of those very same security forces, and hope you can explain why the United States continues to support a government and security forces implicated in widespread atrocities”

U.S. Ambassador  Pham: 

“We need to, perhaps, disentangle a few different things.  One is, although the United States provides support for the Burkinabe security services, I would emphasize we’ve looked carefully at this and, to the best of our knowledge and what we’ve been able to ascertain, none of the forces that received U.S. training or support have been implicated in the human rights abuses that have occurred.  Other units undeniably have committed abuses.  We are very concerned about those.  I’ve brought that up repeatedly in engagements with Burkinabe authorities, all the way up to the president, including my recent meeting with the president.  But the – although we provide support for U.S. – the U.S. provides support for Burkinabe forces, we hold very – our – we take very seriously our obligations under the Leahy law and other legislation, and we’ve not yet found evidence that the forces we directly trained and assisted.  That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a problem that we have raised repeatedly.  And ultimately, my answer to that is, as I’ve said to Burkinabe authorities and other partners across the Sahel: human rights abuses are not only intolerable because they’re wrong morally and ethically, but they’re a strategic blunder of the first order.  It’s the very thing that alienates citizens from their government.  It facilitates violent extremism.  So it’s utterly counterproductive.  It’s in their own interest to work against this, and where it occurs, to properly investigate and hold those to account.  And as the Secretary of State and others have pointed out, U.S. security assistance to these countries will be conditioned on credible investigations and follow-up.”

Fighting Terrorism in Sahel is Key U.S. Priority : Pham 

“…fighting terrorism in the region is a key priority, obviously, and to spread – to prevent the spread of terrorism from the Sahel into the neighboring coastal areas.  The work against terrorism on a number of levels.  We’re the largest single bilateral security partner for the countries of the G5 Sahel on a bilateral basis and their militaries.  We work very closely with them in providing training, equipment, and other support.  We provide intelligence support as well as logistical support for our European allies, especially France and Operation Barkhane.  We’re proud of that partnership and the French themselves have acknowledged our contribution to that fight.

But I emphasize again that the fight against terrorism is not solely a security issue; it has to include good governance and development, which is why our development assistance, our humanitarian assistance, our health assistance and aid far dwarfs our security sector assistance, even if that is the largest single bilateral contributor in the region.”  – U.S. Ambassador Pham.