The security situation in West Africa is “a very high concern” for Washington, a US official told AFP on Sunday at a conference in the Ivory Coast.
But the administration’s main concern was trade rather than development assistance, said Jacob Helberg, Under Secretary of State for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment.
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“Ultimately, from our vantage point in the economic policy side of the State Department, we’re very focused on the impact that has on the economic security of the region,” said Helberg.
In recent weeks, several high-ranking US officials have visited Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, three Sahelian countries where juntas are in power, to promote American private investment.
All three countries are fighting jihadists insurgencies.
“The security needs of the region are obviously a very high concern for the administration,” said Helberg.
“If Americans are expected to take risks to deploy investment, that investment has to be reliably secure.”
Helberg was in Abidjan to represent the United States at Monday’s inauguration of President Alassane Ouattara.
He spoke to AFP as the first reports emerged of the attempted coup in Benin, but given the situation was still fluid, declined to comment on developments there.
The number of jihadist attacks in the Sahel has exploded in six years, according to an AFP analysis based on data from the organization ACLED (Armed Conflict Location & Event Data).
It has risen from 1,900 in 2019, mainly concentrated on the border between Mali and Burkina Faso, to more than 5,500 in 2024 and 3,800 before October 10, 2025, now spread across an area twice the size of Spain.
The violence has claimed some 76,900 lives.
Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, suspended a large portion of its development aid following the successive coups that brought military leaders to power in the three countries between 2020 and 2023.
“The diplomatic negotiations between the US government and Mali, Niger, Burkina are obviously still ongoing, and so it would be premature for me to comment on potential outcomes of those discussions,” Helberg said.
AFP