![A chart showing foreign direct investment flows into Africa over 2 decades.]() The Trump administration is overhauling how it handles aid to Africa with an aim towards dislodging China from “priority” sectors in the region, Semafor’s Shelby Talcott and Yinka Adegoke report. Nick Checker, the State Department’s head of the Bureau of African Affairs, told Semafor they don’t need to compete “dollar to dollar” with China: “If it’s a priority sector, or in the mineral space … that’s an area where we’d actually want to be actively competing,” he said. The State Department is also defending its efforts in Africa: Checker said that he is heading to Mali soon to discuss counter-terrorism cooperation, and that current “focus areas” for Africa include “commercial diplomacy” and making efforts to resolve and prevent conflicts in the continent. “The president’s met with 11 African leaders, so we are very much engaged — it just looks a little bit different,” Checker said. |