President Joe Biden sought to make Africa a cornerstone of his foreign policy legacy. Inviting leaders to the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit in December 2022, Biden spoke about “the United States’s enduring commitment to Africa [and] the importance of U.S.-Africa relations.”

While Biden’s team can claim credit for tamping down the Ethiopian civil war, it did so only at the expense of allowing Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to get away with genocide. Even the follow-up to the leaders’ summit fell flat. Biden appointed former Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Johnnie Carson to be his special presidential representative to implement the promises and commitments Biden made at the summit. Carson apparently traveled to Africa only once subsequently, as current Assistant Secretary Molly Phee refused to facilitate or release any budget to a man she saw as competition.