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The Trump administration has floated abolishing the US state department agency in charge of policy in Africa and closing many embassies on the continent in a draft executive order that has been decried as a “hoax” by secretary of state Marco Rubio.
The document, seen by the Financial Times, also proposes cutting the US president’s envoy for climate, along with bureaus responsible for human rights, refugees and US policy at the UN and other international organisations. US diplomatic operations in Canada, including the embassy in Ottawa, would also “significantly downscale”.
Rubio said the draft order, which was first reported by the New York Times, was “fake news”. In a statement the state department said: “The NYT article is entirely based on a fake document.”
The White House referred reporters to Rubio’s response.
“The draft is legit but still a draft,” a former US official said. “I see it as more of a trial balloon.”
The draft order, which has not yet been finalised, calls for Rubio to make the changes by October 1. Were it to go into force, it would mark a dramatic change to how the US government engages with the world for the next four years and beyond.
It calls for a “disciplined reorganisation” of the department to “streamline mission delivery, project American strength abroad, cut waste, fraud, abuse” and align the department with the White House’s “America First Strategic Doctrine”.
The document describes the doctrine as being based on the principle: “Does it make America safer, stronger and more prosperous?”
The proposed order would close the Bureau of African Affairs, an agency that has overseen US policy across the continent since it opened in 1958. Sub-Saharan African operations would be headed by a special envoy for African affairs.
The document also calls for all “non-essential embassies and consulates” in sub-Saharan Africa to be closed, with all “diplomatic and development operations” in the region to be moved under the supervision of the special envoy.
The proposed order said the special envoy for Africa would focus on four US priorities on the continent. These would be: counterterrorism; diplomacy advancing US interests for “particular temporary matters”; health surveillance and epidemic co-ordination; and the strategic extraction and trade of critical minerals.
Massad Boulos, the state department’s senior adviser for Africa, and father-in-law of Trump’s daughter Tiffany, said on a recent visit to the continent that the US was negotiating with the Democratic Republic of Congo to allow American companies to take control of mineral assets in exchange for helping mediate a conflict with Rwanda-backed rebels.
The US Agency for International Development was significantly gutted in the first week of the second Trump administration in January, halting nearly all of its aid and development work, with Africa the hardest hit.
The Office of the US Global Aids Co-ordinator, which leads implementation of the President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (Pepfar), would also be eliminated under the draft proposal.
Most of the work of Pepfar, which was launched by former president George W Bush in 2003, is focused on Africa and has been credited with saving around 20mn lives.
As part of the proposed restructuring of the state department, several other regional bureaus would be eliminated and replaced by four new “corps” — for Eurasia, the Middle East, Latin America and the Indo-Pacific — to manage global affairs.
The proposal would offer buyouts until September 30 to current foreign service officers and eligible civil service staffers who “do not wish to participate” in the reorganisation.
Additional reporting by Claire Jones in Washington
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