Nikki Haley: This is why President Donald Trump is sending me to Africa

“The United States has many interests in these war-torn African countries. Our interests are certainly humanitarian, but they are also economic and strategic,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley writes to CNN.

By Nikki Haley (US Ambassador to the United Nations)

(CNN)–July 9, 2011, was a hopeful day in Africa. It was the day the Republic of South Sudan became an independent country after nearly 100% of its population voted for independence in a referendum six months earlier. The new nation and its citizens looked forward with hope to a peaceful and prosperous future.

Barely two years later, that hope was shattered, as South Sudan descended into one of the most horrific civil conflicts of our time. Now the promise of South Sudan’s hard-fought independence is slipping away.

Just to the southwest, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has been in turmoil since the 1990s. The DRC has never witnessed a democratic, peaceful transfer of power. Instead, this mineral-rich country in the heart of Africa has been plagued by dozens of armed groups vying for power and control, with rape used as a weapon of war, and children recruited as soldiers.

In both cases, mass populations of innocent civilians are bearing the consequences. In South Sudan, 6 million people face life-threatening hunger. Nearly 2 million refugees — two-thirds of whom are children — have fled South Sudan, creating Africa’s largest and fastest-growing refugee crisis.

In the DRC, the government cannot provide basic services to 8 million civilians in need, 5 million of whom are children. Displacement has increased over the last year, and the country now has nearly 4 million internally displaced people — the largest in all of Africa.

The United States has many interests in these war-torn African countries. Our interests are certainly humanitarian, but they are also economic and strategic.