03 March 2009

Congressman Cites Strong Bipartisan Support for Africa

Representative Wolf calls for special envoy to Darfur, praises Obama team

Representative Frank Wolf and Senator Sam Brownback toured the Mornie refugee camp in Darfur in 2004.

By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Staff Writer

Washington — Africans have a staunch ally in the U.S. Congress, where concern for the political, economic and humanitarian challenges facing the continent remains constant, says Representative Frank Wolf.

In both the House of Representatives and Senate, “interest in Africa remains very strong across party lines,” Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, told America.gov in an interview in his Capitol Hill office February 26.

“I don’t see any partisan bickering on Africa. There is generally a bipartisan consensus here on the Hill [among Democrats and Republicans] about the need to work with Africans on critical issues like conflict resolution and development,” Wolf said.

“For example, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi [a Democrat from California] has an ongoing interest in the continent and has been quite outspoken on the crisis in Darfur,” he added.

As a ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on Sudan, Wolf has been an outspoken promoter of African causes, especially the humanitarian crisis in Darfur. Since 1989, the lawmaker has made five fact-finding trips to Sudan, including a visit to Darfur in 2004.

The government of Sudan has waged a genocidal war against rebel groups in Darfur for six years, causing more than 400,000 deaths, mainly among innocent civilians, and forcing more than 2.5 million refugees into camps in the region and in neighboring Chad.

In response to that crisis, the United States has provided economic and humanitarian assistance worth more than $3 billion to 47 countries in Africa, including more than $1 billion in Sudan alone. Much of it is administered through U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) offices in 23 countries on the continent.

Peacekeeping initiatives like the African Union–United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), which receives 25 percent of its funding from the United States, and the U.N. Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUC), for which the United States is the largest donor, could not have passed without strong support from both political parties in Congress.

A group of refugees welcomes Representative Frank Wolf to a refugee camp during a 2004 fact-finding trip to Darfur.

As a recent example of bipartisanship, Wolf showed a letter he helped draft to Secretary of State Clinton before her recent trip to China, a country that has made diplomatic and business inroads on the continent, especially in Sudan, where it has helped build an oil pipeline and port.

The letter, which asked Clinton to raise Darfur humanitarian concerns with China, was signed by prominent Democrats, including Barney Frank of Massachusetts and Eddie Bernice Johnson of Texas, as well as Republicans Ed Royce of California and Chris Smith of New Jersey.

Even as early as 2004, an atypical coalition of Congressional Black Caucus members — all Democrats — and Republicans united after a surge of killings in Darfur and pushed for resolutions by the full House and Senate condemning the government of Sudan for undertaking a genocidal campaign in the region.

Prominent Democrats who have worked with Republicans on Africa include Donald Payne of New Jersey and Mike Capuano of Massachusetts, Wolf said. Payne, who is chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s Africa subcommittee, is also a prominent member of the Sudan Caucus.

Capuano introduced a resolution in 2008 urging the international community to provide much-needed helicopters to aid UNAMID in its peacekeeping efforts in Darfur.

Looking to the future, Wolf said, “The requirement for this bipartisanship to be effective is for the [Obama] administration to be fully engaged,” and naming a special Africa envoy would go a long way toward achieving that end.

In a February 24 letter to the president, Wolf made the case for a “high-caliber” special envoy to Sudan who would work to bring an “end to a brutal 20-year war between the genocidal government in Khartoum and the South.”

Obama has a great team to work on African issues, Wolf said, adding, “Samantha Power is a great example.” The human rights expert and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist, who has written numerous articles about Africa, was recently appointed by Obama to be an adviser on his National Security Council.

“Her book A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide was one of the most impressive books I’ve ever read,” Wolf said. “I think she will make a very effective adviser because she speaks the truth and understands the underlying causes of genocide in Sudan.”

Obama’s ambassador to the United Nations, Susan Rice, is “also another example of a foreign policy expert who understands Africa,” Wolf said. “She was very good on the issues when she worked as an Africa adviser in President Clinton’s National Security Council and later as assistant secretary of state for Africa. Actually, I think she was the best one [assistant secretary of state for Africa] since I’ve been in Congress.”