Across Africa, the approaching presidency of Donald Trump has provoked deep uncertainty over how the United States will pursue policies ranging from counter-terrorism and trade, to aid and climate change. Many African countries had high hopes that Barack Obama would bring transformative benefits to the continent and were left disappointed as he winds down his time in office. But Trump’s rise to power poses fresh questions that reveal the lack of concrete detail on his foreign policy plans — while the president-elect himself has seldom addressed African issues directly. One possible pointer is Trump’s often repeated vow to kill "terrorists", which may lead to more aggressive US intervention against Islamist forces such as Nigeria’s Boko Haram, linked to the Islamic State group, and Shabaab militants in Kenya, Somalia and elsewhere. "Donald Trump can be described as a strongman leader, and strongman leaders tend to only see military solutions," Ryan Cummings, director of the intellige...
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