Washington, DC, 6 August 2014
On the last of the US Africa Summit, over fifty leaders held an interactive discussion on the future of investment in Africa, peace and security on the continent as well as governance.
President Obama announced a new initiative over the next three to five years to build capacity of African militaries to rapidly deploy peacekeepers as well as strengthen security institutions. The United States will partner with several African nations including Rwanda.
President Kagame described this initiative as an additional means to ensure Africans remain at the forefront of solving their challenges:
“We are a country shaped and informed by our own history, where peace and security was lacking and resulted in what happened 20 years ago. This is about enabling African to stand on its own feet and deal with issue of development and growth. We are very happy to work with our colleagues across the continent and deal with different challenges including trying to keep and maintain peace in our continent.”
The two day summit ended with a renewed commitment to strengthen mutually beneficial partnership between the US and Africa with an emphasis on expanding trade between Africa and the US, partnering to ensure peace and security and working together to ensure sustainable development. The US-Africa Business Forum resulted in over $14 billion in new private sector deals while President Obama pledged $7 billion for the Doing Business in Africa Campaign aimed at enhancing US-Africa trade.