It has been eight years since the event last took place. The first edition was organised in August 2014 during the Barack-Obama presidency. This year, African heads of state are once again converging for the US-Africa Leaders Summit, which opens on 13 December at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center.
Of the 50 or so leaders who were invited, most have said they will attend the three-day conference. Eritrea – with which the US no longer has diplomatic relations – was ignored by the organisers, who have also been careful to follow African Union criteria: Countries that have recently experienced a military coup and were suspended from the AU have not been invited. They include Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso and Sudan.
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