U.S. President Joseph R. Biden Jr. announced on Saturday that Ms. Enoh T. Ebong, Acting Director of the United States Trade and Development Agency, will lead a presidential delegation to attend the inauguration of Hakainde Hichilema on August 24, 2021, in Lusaka, Zambia.
Other members of the delegation include Mr. David J. Young, Chargé d’Affaires, ad interim, U.S. Embassy Lusaka; and Ms. Dana L. Banks, Special Assistant to the President and Senior Director for Africa.
President Biden appointed Ms. Ebong to serve as the Acting Director of the U.S. Trade and Development Agency last February, bringing her back to the USTDA where from 2004 to 2019, she had served in a variety of roles, most recently as the Agency’s General Counsel, and Deputy Director and Chief Operating Officer.
“As Acting Director, Ms. Ebong leads an agency that partners with the U.S. private sector to develop sustainable infrastructure and foster economic growth in emerging economies, while supporting U.S. jobs through the export of U.S. goods and services,” USTDA says on its website.
Prior to her return to USTDA, Ms. Ebong served as the Head of Strategic Partnerships at the Milken Center for Advancing the American Dream, where she drove the development of strategic partnerships to expand access to education, health, financial empowerment and entrepreneurship.
Before joining USTDA in 2004, Ms. Ebong practiced law at the Boston office of Mintz, Levin, Cohn, Ferris, Glovsky and Popeo, P.C. representing public and private companies in offerings, financing transactions, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate governance issues.
Ms. Ebong earned her JD from the University of Michigan Law School, a Master of Arts in Communication from the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania, and a Master of Arts in History, with honors, from The University of Edinburgh, Scotland. She is a member of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Bar.
U.S. supports democracy in Zambia
The Biden administration said last Monday that it looks forward to working with Zambia’s President-elect Hakainde Hichilema who unseated President Edgar Lungu, according to election results released on Monday.
“The United States congratulates President-elect Hakainde Hichilema on his victory in the August 12 general elections. We congratulate the people of Zambia for exercising their right to vote in historic numbers and welcome commitments from all parties to a peaceful and orderly transition,” the U.S. State Department said in a statement. “We look forward to working together with the Zambian government to advance our mutual interests and deepen the friendship between our two nations.”
The U.S. government added that “these polls are a tribute to the democratic ideals upon which the country was founded and an inspiration for the democratic aspirations of people around the world.”
“The United States reaffirms its strong partnership with Zambia and the Zambian people,” the statement added.
Hichilema, the leader of Zambia’s main opposition party, captured 2.8 million votes to defeat President Lungu who received 1.8 million votes, according to the election results. Lungu had governed the southern African nation since 2015.
59-year-old Hichilema, a businessman and the candidate of the United Party for National Development, had lost five previous bids for the presidency, but was lucky on his sixth attempt
He benefited from an economy that was in a mess due to Lungu’s bad policies, the devastating impact from the coronavirus pandemic, rising debt, skyrocketing unemployment numbers and increasing food prices.
Opposition and human rights organizations had also warned that human rights abuses were spreading in Zambia under Lungu and democracy was under attack.
Last June, Amnesty International’s campaigner for Southern Africa Vongai Chikwanda told Today News Africa‘s Kristi Pelzel in an interview that human rights violations were intensifying scarily in Zambia under President Edgar Lungu.
Chikwanda said there had been a rise in impunity, including unlawful killings, illegal and prolonged detentions of opposition figures and supporters and a ban on protests and public gatherings since Lungu came to power in 2016.
“For many years we have seen that Zambia was a haven for peace, but in recent times, things have gotten worse,” Chikwanda said. “Opposition parties are not allowed to assemble and protests are not allowed, and people are spending longer times in detention.”