The State Department had billed Secretary Rex Tillerson's first diplomatic trip to Africa as a mission to reaffirm U.S. collaboration with the continent on counterterrorism, development and good governance. Trump's sacking of the top U.S. diplomat could be interpreted as "another example of the administration disrespecting Africa," Campbell said. Tour of five countriesNigeria was one of the stops on Tillerson's Africa tour, which also took him to Chad, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Kenya. The founding president and CEO of the Constituency for Africa, a Washington-based organization that promotes public-private partnerships with the continent, said that with Tillerson's firing, "I don't see a way forward. VOA French to Africa correspondent Andre Kodmajingar contributed from Chad; Hausa Service's Mahmud Lalo contributed from Washington.

Source: Ethiopian News March 13, 2018 20:37 UTC