WSJ | Ebola outbreaks in several West African
nations forced two heads of state to pull out of a historic Africa
summit with President
Barack Obama,
in a reminder of how crises on the continent can undermine efforts to change U.S. perceptions of it.
Ellen Johnson Sirleaf,
the Nobel Peace Prize-winning president of Liberia, will stay
home to deal with an Ebola epidemic that has killed more than 729
people, her office said. So will
Ernest Bai Koroma,
president of Sierra Leone.
Their
decisions show what this week's U.S.-Africa summit is up against in its
aim to reshape how big American companies view Africa. The meeting aims
to bring business leaders into contact with leaders of the continent,
home to six of the world's 10 fastest-growing economies. Yet weak
government, military and public-health institutions leave even some of
the most hopeful economies looking vulnerable.
Sierra Leone, a country recovering from war
on the back of rich iron deposits, is a prime example. Its economy had
been growing at 13.8 % this year. But then Ebola prompted the government
to put workers on forced leave and ban public gatherings, moves that
will likely curtail growth while showing how fragile Africa's gains
remain.
Some in Washington worry that
the threats the continent continues to face will overshadow the message
that Africa is open for business.
"If that happens—and I hope it doesn't—it will be a tremendous lost opportunity," wrote
J. Peter Pham,
Africa Director at the Washington-based think tank the Atlantic Council.
Several countries are fighting Islamic insurgencies. There is only one session in the summit devoted to terrorism.
And
yet some presidents want to use the summit to talk up the dangers of
these insurgencies, in the hope the U.S. will boost aid to their
outgunned and undertrained militaries.
President
Paul Biya
of Cameroon will spend his visit requesting assistance in
quelling the Boko Haram Islamist militant group, he said in a speech
Saturday. His economy is expanding at a 4.8% clip, the International
Monetary Fund says, and several U.S. firms have invested in sizable
agricultural projects there.
But the
country is also becoming a front for Boko Haram, a sect born in Nigeria
that has killed thousands of civilians. Growing numbers of its victims
are in northern Cameroon. Last week, the group kidnapped the wife of
Cameroon's deputy prime minister, the latest in a string of attacks on
political figures.
