Critical minerals put East Africa back on Washington’s map

The United States is preparing to dispatch its Deputy Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, on a tour of East Africa in late January, a trip expected to include Kenya, Ethiopia, and Djibouti. The visit is being read as a signal of the return of economic diplomacy to the forefront of international engagement in the Horn of Africa, where competition over “critical” minerals intersects with rivalries surrounding ports and maritime corridors.

According to reports, the tour is likely to begin in Nairobi, with mining talks taking center stage on the agenda. This comes at a time of heightened sensitivity surrounding global supply chains linked to the energy transition and high-tech industries, as Africa increasingly becomes an open negotiating arena among major powers over investment, financing, and extraction rights.

The prominence of mining in a diplomatic visit of this level does not appear to be a technical detail so much as a reflection of a broader shift in international policy. Minerals used in batteries, renewable energy technologies, defense industries, and electronics have become part of the geopolitical influence equation, rather than merely a commercial activity. In this context, diplomacy is being deployed to secure investment opportunities, facilitate access to resources, and build partnerships that ensure supply stability and reduce risk.

This logic helps explain why attention is focused in particular on Kenya, where the issue of rare earth elements has taken up increasing space in economic discussions, amid competition among international companies and alliances for sites believed to be promising.

The anticipated visit coincides with growing debate over the Mrima Hill site in Kenya’s coastal Kwale County, which has attracted rising interest as a potentially rich source of rare earth elements and other minerals. In recent months, foreign companies and mining consortia have made moves to enter the project, alongside repeated references to the site’s strategic importance and its proximity to major ports and infrastructure that facilitate logistics.

However, the issue is not unfolding on a purely economic basis. It is accompanied by discussions on governance, transparency, and the rights of local communities, reviving memories of past licensing disputes and concerns that heightened international appetite could translate into political and economic pressure on the state, or into deals lacking sufficient public oversight.

While the Kenyan government views mining as an opportunity to boost revenues, create jobs, and develop downstream industries, critics warn that African experiences with natural resources show that revenues alone are insufficient in the absence of clear contracting rules, transparent benefit-sharing mechanisms, and safeguards for the environment and local communities.

Potential stops in Ethiopia and Djibouti carry implications that go beyond mining alone. Ethiopia represents a large market and a major political weight in the Horn of Africa, as well as a hub for infrastructure plans and regional connectivity projects reshaping trade flows toward the Red Sea. Djibouti, meanwhile, remains a strategic node at the entrance to the Bab al-Mandab Strait, where maritime security interests overlap with calculations related to port investment and logistics services.

These U.S. moves come as other international powers intensify their activity in the region. China, for example, has for years pushed to strengthen access to trade routes and resource supplies in Africa, recreating a scene of “quiet competition” for influence through investments, infrastructure, and financing.

At the level of messaging, the tour appears to be an attempt to link politics with economics, with Washington seeking to present itself as a partner capable of investing, not merely a donor, and as an actor pursuing long-term “resource partnerships” rather than short-term arrangements. If carried out as expected, the visit would also signal that the United States views the Horn of Africa as a vital space for global supply chains and trade routes, rather than simply a peripheral arena of political crises.

The practical question, however, remains whether the visit will be accompanied by a clear package of initiatives—financing, investments, framework agreements—or whether it will remain a matter of sounding out positions and opening channels. Past experience suggests that African partners have become more sensitive to promises not translated into projects, and more inclined to balance among major powers rather than rely on a single one.

Ultimately, the anticipated tour presents a dual test: of Washington’s ability to turn the rhetoric of “economic partnership” into tangible tools in a highly competitive market, and of East African states’ ability to manage resources and corridors within transparent frameworks that protect sovereignty and ensure a fair share of added value.