Gambiaj.com – (DAKAR, Senegal) – President Donald Trump has postponed the U.S.-Africa summit originally scheduled for next month in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, in a move seen by observers as further evidence of Washington’s declining engagement with Africa as China deepens its economic and diplomatic footprint on the continent.

The White House attributed the decision to insufficient time and staffing to properly organize an event of such scale. Citing administration and congressional sources, Jeune Afrique reported that “this date is no longer viable because the White House lacks the time to adequately host dozens of heads of state on such short notice.”

The summit is now tentatively expected to take place between March and April 2026 in Washington rather than New York.

The reversal comes despite assurances in May from Troy Fitrell, then head of the State Department’s Africa Bureau, who announced at the Africa CEO Forum in Abidjan that the summit would “without a doubt” be held this year and focus on trade and investment rather than purely political or security matters.

Fitrell’s retirement last month, coupled with the Trump administration’s heavy focus on the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, appears to have pushed Africa further down Washington’s list of priorities.

U.S. diplomatic capacity on African affairs has also been stretched thin, with a small and overburdened team managing multiple crises, including in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sudan.

Judd Devermont, former Africa director at the White House under Joe Biden, cautioned against hasty judgment, noting that “a successful U.S.-Africa summit requires significant planning and groundwork. The postponement will likely fuel cynicism about the administration’s priorities, but rushing an ill-prepared event would have been disastrous.”

However, the delay may put Trump in technical violation of U.S. law. The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act mandates that a U.S.-Africa leaders’ summit be convened every two years to strengthen ties and promote cooperation.

The law stipulates that the president must convene such a summit no later than one year after the law takes effect and biennially thereafter.

While the administration might argue that the July 9 working lunch with the presidents of Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mauritania, and Senegal meets the requirement, such a narrow interpretation falls short of the law’s intent to institutionalize high-level engagement with the entire continent.