President Joe Biden set aside a massive sum of $55 billion for the purpose of distributing it out to Africa over the course of the coming three years this week as he claimed that the U.S. would start to become far more involved throughout the continent.
The comments from Biden started during a dinner between a number of leaders from both Africa and the U.S. in Washington, D.C., the first summit of its kind in the past eight years.
The choice of the U.S. to become much more involved in Africa takes place after falling behind intense and expansive efforts by China and Russia as means to try and expand and strengthen their influence on the continent, as explained by The New York Times.
Biden made mention of slavery throughout the dinner, trying to state, “We remember the stolen men and women and children who were brought to our shores in chains, subjected to unimaginable cruelty.”
“My nation’s original sin was that period,” he went on. “We honor their descendants, who our generations have — for generations have helped build this country and propel it to higher heights, leading the charge, blazing new trails, and forging a better future for everyone in America.”
Paul Kagame, the President of Rwanda, was pressed on if the 2014 summit with former President Barack Obama resulted in concrete results for the entire continent.
“‘Well, at least we had a good meeting,” he answered as everyone around them reportedly started laughing.
When questions were brought up about Paul Rusesabagina, who was known to have protected a large number of refugees throughout the 1994 genocide that took place in Rwanda and has since been in jail as of 2020, Kagame stated that he would not make any efforts to relent to any kind of overt pressure from anyone within the United States.
“We’ve made it clear there isn’t anyone going to come from anywhere to bully us into something to do with our lives,” he stated in an openly mocking tone. “Maybe make an invasion and overrun the country — you can do that.”
It was reported by a release from The New York Times that Kagame first lured Rusesabagina out of his home out in Texas, where he was known to be a permanent resident, to Rwanda by using false pretenses where the person quickly wound up being arrested on what are thought to be entirely fabricated charges in relation to terrorism.
